The Curse of the Black Pearl…

When is a rest day not a rest? When Steve’s baby Black Pearl needs more work!

While I sat in the hotel writing the previous blog Sam and Steve headed off to MotoDon Rostov (which we stumbled across after an hour of searching!) to look for a new fan or some way of fixing his rather sick sounding one. The longer they were away the more confident I became, until they arrived back five hours later with great news. The team at Motodon Rostov (Rostov’s Honda/KTM shop) were super helpful and had recently done a warranty replacement on a KTM that had a broken fan and they were able to take out a bearing from that fan to replace the seized one in the Black Pearl. Not only was the fan sorted but they found 12 litres of the oil we needed and an oil filter for the midway service. They also found another spare front tube (which we needed since we’ve already had two failures). We then had enough time to enjoy the success of the day with some dinner and beers in a city that had a good soul about it (we seemed to have landed in a hotel in the red light district which certainly kept things interesting). A successful non-rest rest day!

The next morning we put our riding gear back on and mounted our steads again. It’s starting to feel so natural to get on the bike in the morning and somehow feels restorative. We had a big day planned heading south towards the Caucasian mountains, but it would be a day on the flat lands on smooth straight roads today. The biggest issue was the heat, it was 35 degrees and there was no relief. It was a day for sweating, but in the end the biggest sweaty moment was when Amand got pulled over by the Russian police. He’d been video recorded making an overtaking manoeuvre on a single white line (NZ’s equivalent of a yellow line). The ironic thing was that is was the slowest and safest overtake you’d probably ever see as he tottered past a slow moving truck. The police didn’t speak any English but they were clearly not happy. Sam came back and in the process crossed a double white line (a no-no in Russia) which increased their angst a bit further. They asked for all of Amand’s documents, the only one of which they could read was the International Driver’s Permit which had a Russian page on it.  They were obviously keen to write a ticket but we just kept playing it cool and in the end by being friendly and innocent they got frustrated with the inability to communicate and sent us on our way.

We completed almost 400km in the mind-numbing heat which was a big effort and stopped in a town called Nevinnomyssk for the night.
Day 19 dawned as another stunningly clear and beautiful day, I think we’ve had 19 days in a row that have dawned like this and the long range forecast appears to be for more of the same. We have been blessed with the weather so far, bar the downpour while fixing Amand’s tyre last week. We planned to head up the slopes of Mt Elbrus today, Russia’s highest mountain at something over 5,000m, but the curse of the Black Pearl struck again.

We’d just stopped for some lunch in a little town called Salukokoasche, the most delicious borscht we’d had yet. The ladies in the restaurant were so appreciative of us stopping that they would not accept payment for the food. We were so stunned that this act of generosity, in exchange we could only offer them a Grit and Sprit sticker, but this was only just the start of what we have learned is the Circassian way. We were told that the people in this region are not Russian, they are Circassian – a key difference.

Back to the Curse of the Black Pearl, we set off after lunch and had travelled no more than 500m when Steve pulled to the side of the road, his oil light had stayed on and immediately we could see oil leaking out of his engine – oh shit!!! We managed to roll his bike back to what looked like a deserted petrol station and into the shade. We started to take the bike apart when out popped a guy by the name of Timur, his friends Muhammad and Akmed soon arrived too.

Like the three ladies from lunch, Timur was quick to point out that he’s not Russian, he is Circassian. And Circassians are very hospitable and love to help out. Pulling the bike apart was a tense time eased by the food and tea Timur and his friends pulled out of nowhere. Realising that the leak was coming from a faulty oil pressure switch the next adventure was sourcing a replacement.

Timur races off in his car and comes back half an hour later empty handed. After some Google Translate he disappears again and returns with a switch from a Lada but the thread is too big. Another friend turns up and takes both switches to the lathe in his workshop. An hour later the Lada switch now fits Steve’s KTM! We put the bike back together, test it and works! Wow! The Pearl will sail smoothly again!

By now it’s 6:30pm and we’re exhausted from the stress of the afternoon. Timur takes us to a restaurant, orders us a huge feed, he refuses our money. The generosity is unbelievable. During discussions we learn he is a wrestling and CrossFit trainer. So, at 8pm Steve and Amand join Timur for a CrossFit session at his gym. The other dudes are wrestlers and MMA fighters and built like tanks. It was a privilege to share a CrossFit session with these guys and we felt like it showed them some respect for what they’d done for us by getting involved in a bit of their “normal” life.

Surviving the workout we jumped in a friend’s Lada and are driven down a dusty road for 20 minutes. We have no idea where we are going. Timur has decided to take us to the local natural hotwater bath! The perfect way to release the tension of the day. Bliss.

We return to town and Timur offers his office floor space so we can sleep. Akmed brings us more rose tea and cake to finish the evening off perfectly!

The Curse of the Black Pearl turned out to be an amazing blessing in meeting Timur and his friends.

What a day. People are awesome!