| Murmansk, here we come! |
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Apatiti early in the morning. We all are fresh and ready to hit the road again. A young couple wants to become aquainted with us and lets their son model for Eino. |
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Yevgeni has agreed with his friends, that we can look for spare parts in their garages. Usually the garages are concentrated on the outskirts of the town to a "village" of various and well kept "houses" of sheet iron, rusty but cozy. We collect spare parts and try to eat dry perches. Seppo repairs the valves; the tappet seems to be worn. The damage is located around the camshaft. And the welding of the saddle is just about going to break loose. And they say: "Present to a friend!" And we:"Thanks! We´ll meet someday somewhere!" |
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We say goobye to Yevgeni and his friend, who wanted to sit on a BMW for once in his lifetime. And how happy he was - and drunk. Yevgeni promised to take part in The Ural Roikka Rally in the summer of 1999 in Finland. |
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Apatiti farewells us with the sun beating down on us! On the right hand Montsegorsk and Murmansk, our main goal of dreams and fears, wait for the group. | 
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| We climb up the arctic hills, where the icy breeze forces the T-shirt-and-Lewis gang to dress up proper riding gear near Montsegorsk. |
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In Montsegorsk the Hiace is tanked up at a petrol station with no name, and the party has coffee and ginger snaps at Esso. Where have they got that sign from? A Sony -advertising sign and equipment inside gave the name to a grocery store in Kem. |
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The landscape in Montsegorsk is "a memorial park of the devastating mankind". The arctic hills as well as garbage ones around the mining comnunity are bold-headedly polluted by the yellow smoke spouted by the smelting plants. And they have founded Natural Park Lappland close to the town!
Northbound we hurry! |
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Down the Mountains we go to Murmansk, which is surrouded by several smaller towns, mostly built for military purposes. We were about to slip into Poljarnyi town, the main base of the Russian nuclear submarine fleet on the Barents See. But with the help of people and a map given by the manager of a repair workshop, we manage to find our way through the town, built on the banks of the river Kola. |
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We park our bikes 50 meters from the entrance of the
Arktika hotel. In the lobby there were several well dressed young men in good fysical condition walking around seemingly having nothing to do with the tourism. But having seen them we knew our bikes were safely parked in the open air in front of the hotel. So they were! |
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A bunch of children living in the streets washed and polished our bikes for 10 Rubels a bike and sold old newspapers and TV-guides. An old man on the terrace of the hotel collected the Rubels and bought the children ice cream. Business is business where ever you go! |
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We book in and take the elevator up to the 7th floor and have a shover so warm and clean. For 100 Rubels we can spend a night and have two-sorts dinner. Who could dream of it in Finland. Anyway, we wonder how few tourist there are in the hotel. But that´s not our problem!! |
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Lenin guards the town in the relief reminding people and us of the better times that never come back. The older part of Murmansk is beautiful in its Tsarian architecture. And on the way to the elevators we hear the bright and loud laughter of our "old friend" Ronni from Canada. She does not know what to do. Russia ends here, but she is not eager to return to Saint Petersburg on her way back to Canada. We offer her a seat in Eino´s side car or in the van. Norway is our goal, we say. Tomorrow in the lobby at 12 o´clock? Okay? |
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Shotly after our arrival we find "useless cards" in allmost every possible place where we could be expected to appear. Drinking mineral water in the Ural-Disco - only tonight specially for the guests from Finland - our dancing section of the group realized, that free love is but a golden memory of the "flower people". |
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| And the night was robust and prizes high! | 100$-500$ |
