Marina is leaving for school so I get up around 8:00 in the morning to say goodbye to her. The truth is that she has grown a lot in the last four years. She’s now almost as tall as I am! As soon as she starts his way to school I start preparing my bag. However, Sergey told me that it was cold and that I should wait until 1:00 p.m. to start.

I take the opportunity to update my diary and, meanwhile, Elena takes Masha to the hospital. Two days ago she already had some fever, but she seemed to be better yesterday. We all ate together and then they accompanied me to the gas station at the town’s entrance.

Sergey rode with me the first ten kilometers, the same way he did last time.

Elena will take Artiëm and Masha to the gas station so they can say goodbye to me. I parked and got ready to fill up with gas as I always did in Russia: going to the counter first. The girl doesn’t understand what I want and Sergey tells me that I don’t need to go to the counter. I can just put gas directly.

As I turn around and head towards the pump, the girl catches our attention. I would later learn from Margaux that this situation may be caused because they have a special fear of male riders leaving without paying.

In her own experience, she has never been asked to pay in advance.

I ended up leaving at 1:30 p.m. As expected, Alexey was waiting for me at the same point he was four years ago, together with Anton and Alexey. As I stopped to greet them, he showed me the schedule he had prepared for the next few days. It includes today, tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow as if I would leave Kasaruk on Thursday afternoon.

I understand why. Originally, I should have only spent two days in Novosibirsk and not three. Furthermore, considering what Margaux told me a few days ago, if I want to get to Bishkek on Saturday I can’t stay here for long. I quickly checked the map and saw that there was nothing for many kilometers. As I had already done that ride in 2018 in just two days, I considered it acceptable to stay two nights in Karasuk.

As the next planned steps seem to fit, we continue.

We stopped by the train station to take a photo before continuing to Alexey’s house. Once there, Alexey won’t let me bring the motorcycle in without cleaning it first. While Anton and Alexey were leaving, he got to work and applied car soap. He even used tire wax to polish the saddlebags and seat on my motorcycle. Inside the garage, I see there is a motorcycle made with balloons.

On October 1, last Sunday, was his birthday.

We ate and went to do some shopping afterward. I was happy to see that the house has improved a lot and that they made good use of their time during COVID-19. While we were shopping, Alexey wanted to show me his printing shop. He had already taken me there four years ago, but I didn’t remember it in detail.

We returned to his house to see that Anton was waiting for us. It was time for the Russian sauna, again. Alexey had it built about two years ago and it is located behind the house. I thought it would be just the three of us but Iván and another friend joined us.

The first sauna session was just between Alexey, Anton, and me.

The second one was with Anton, Ivan, and me. Before leaving, Ivan offers me to perform the sauna ritual. I managed to survive the first round despite suffering from the intense heat of the room. It was 80°C but Ivan poured a lot of water into the cauldron and my calves were raw.

As soon as my body had recovered, he called me in again. Out of hesitation, I accepted. The second session ended faster than I expected because I couldn’t keep my legs on the wood because they were burning like hell. Not even with the two towels Ivan covered me with. Everyone but Anton leaves at midnight.

He stays a little longer as he waits for a taxi.

The next morning, Alexey and Tatiana, his wife, took me to the aerodrome. It is the same one we already visited in 2019. He brought me back there because he wanted to show me the new acquisitions. Among them, was a restored An-2 plane that is being used by the aerodrome members.

We then approached a recently built park in memory of an endangered duck that lives in the area, the Oxyura. It has been discovered that it breeds near the area and they wanted to raise awareness by dedicating this park to it.

Unfortunately, there are none in sight today.

Tatiana bought some bread in a nearby store to feed the ducks and, while we were at the railing, Anton appeared. He was on his way to work and stopped by to say hello. We returned home to have lunch and Alexey suggested we should go fishing in the afternoon.

Despite not being very far, the terrain does not allow us to go by car and we have to do it with small motorcycles. Alexey will go with his nephew, Ivan, on an enduro motorcycle while I’ll drive a scooter. Even though the motorcycle is smaller, I’m much more afraid to ride it than my own.

We settled on the river shore and waited for the fish to bite.

There was hardly any movement on our side of the river for several hours, while distrustfully watching others manage to catch fish. It seems we’re dealing with the playful ones. Ivan manages to catch two in total and I only catch one. All of them are very small. Alexey, on the other hand, catches nothing.

We returned home before sunset and we had dinner together along with one of Alexey’s children. After that, I stayed talking with Tatiana and Alexey until late.