Sakhalin and the road of Terror.

From August 11 to 14, 2012.

After a terrible night on the boat and a very long cruising (The speed was 8 knots), we finally arrive in Kholmsk on the island of Sakhalin. At the port, Oleg, a very nice local guy that was called from  the motorcycle club in Vanino was waiting for us and escorted us to a terrible hotel where we were supposed to spend the night. During dinner we made some plans to visit the north island but Oleg advised us not to drive north as the road conditions were pretty bad. He wanted to come riding with us and suggested we would all drive together to Yuzno-Sakhalin, a bigger city on the south part of the island. To go to Yuzno we opted to drive trough an old Japanese road that was build during the 2nd world war. In fact the Japanese were in Sakhalin at that time and fought against the Russian for the islands. The dispute between the two countries still is strong today regarding the Kuril Islands. The night before there was a big storm in Kholmsk that made the old Japanese road a nightmare to cross. We just had road tires to make things even worse. The road wines through sort of a jungle. I drop the bike several times but Matteo unfortunately has the worse when he lost control of his motorcycle. It turns out that he believes his meniscus was damage. Arriving in Yuzno we are taken to the local bike club when other bikers took care of us and showed us around. It is quite a new experience for us been taking care this way by local bikers. In this part of the world, where the distances are huge,  you feel there is a communication link between people on the road. Especially on motorcycles. We are grateful to all our new friends that helped us during these days. Our boat to Japan is schedule in a couple of days therefore we take the time to rest and do a laundry day which we need badly.