 Oh All right first stop of the day Petrol station Good money world, welcome back to our circumnavigation around the globe by motorcycle We are here in the small town of Aktaj in the Altai mountain region of Russia Yes, and look at this surrounding. This is a crazy stunning area We've been told whenever we mentioned that we were heading through the Altai region. They were all like, oh Altai It's so beautiful there. It's so nice with the mountains, and you know what? They're completely right. It is absolutely stunning here, and I think today is going to be a spectacular ride And here's a little rib update for those of you who've been following You'll know that we fell off a lot of times towards the end of Mongolia when we were following some crazy sandy and gravelly tracks We fell over So this day is just going from bad to worse That's left me with a bit of an injury, I'm not sure what's going on whether it's a broken rib But man, I can tell you my ribs really hurt and I can only sleep on one side and doing any sort of crazy Movements it really hurts basically. It's not too good, especially because we have to push on for another Yeah, a few days Yeah So we now have only seven days left on our Russian visa that we got over a year ago Literally, we're down to the wire now. So we have seven days to reach the border of Kazakhstan So I don't have a map of this part of Russia to show you guys the route But I can tell you the plan is to head north up this road to the city of Barnaul and there We are going to turn westward towards the border and the Kazakhstan city of Seme So we estimate that it should be two rides from here to Barnaul and then one ride from Barnaul to the border Meaning that we're going to cross the border with about four days to spare. Normally We should be able to reach Barnaul actually in one day, but we're splitting it in two Just to take it a bit easier and also it's going to give us a little bit more time to enjoy this beautiful beautiful mountain roads Also, if we make it in time at the end of today, we are going to be visiting a bison sanctuary and nursery This is the only place in Altai where you can see the rare European bison So if we can make it before it closes, it's going to be awesome. Yes So the closing time is five o'clock and Our navigation says it will take us three hours and 35 minutes to get there. It's already 11.45 So better hit the road. Let's go So as I said before we are heading through a mountain range called the Altai Mountains and Altai means gold and It's actually a shared word between Mongolian languages Russian languages Kazakh languages They all refer to this region as Altai and actually the Altai Mountains are right on the border between Four countries between China Russia Mongolia and Kazakhstan. It stretches for 2,525 kilometers which is 1,569 miles it goes all the way down to the Gobi Desert in Mongolia So pretty much all the mountains that we've been following along have been the Altai Mountains This entire state of Russia is called the Altai Republic and it's a super popular state in this part of Russia where people coming to hike To kayak to whitewater raft to mountain climb to rock climb. It's just an adventure playground here It's a pretty adventurous place for sure. It's like the Alps, but with no people and very little development So it's really a super wild place and it's actually home to a lot of Really super cool animals including snow leopards, wolverines, wolves, bears This is like the real deal wilderness and for those of you guys who have seen the YouTube channel Where these guys are like sitting in a forest and they're throat singing and playing this Traditional guitar that is Altai folk music. It's like That's basically how it sounds and it sounds so cool. I can just really hear that as we're riding through Yeah, it's a really really really special place here. It's barely traffic here on the road and it has a perfect smooth Main tarmac road as well. I'm really really thankful for the road It almost feels at the moment like our shock is not completely broken until we get to like a speed bump and then it's like bouncy bouncy bouncy Anyway, it's really a nice relaxing ride Like this is a dream ride here because it's so funny, you know riding around half of the globe now You think like, ah, maybe there is no surprise anymore and you think like wow, okay This is something different. I'm more than impressed really. This is like wallpaper here wallpaper views So we just stopped here on the side of the road because I saw the word Archaeological and we translated the like info board at the front and apparently here There is a ancient rock carving of a deer, which is two and a half thousand years old There's so many of them when you look in detail You can see so many of them. Oh, wow, it's a whole herd There's actually pictures of animals all across the rocks here on the whole of this cliffside here Absolutely amazing. Yeah, it's just amazing because they say on the sign that they're 2500 years old. I think there were like some new drawings as well in there It didn't look like an old horse. It just didn't fit no No So this is the chewy deer stone a depiction of a warrior figure So that was a nice little surprising stuff on the side of the road a little bit of Altai history Bye-bye, I like the mix of like four-wheel drive with motorbike and then the normal car Well, that's a crazy view. Hey, look at that So here is actually the confluence of two rivers one really big one here called the katun river And one that's going just round that headland there, which is called the Chouya River Well, what a spectacular valley. Hey, wow I don't know how fast we're gonna go today because we just keep stopping at these awesome places Wow amazing Look at the selection of teas that they're selling here. Oh my god. That's a lot of different tea I just love the smell, you know, I thought the English were like the tea connoisseurs But no apparently the Russians and then here there's a ton of different cakes. I think they're cake, right amazing Some kind of valley hey wow Incredible it just doesn't stop, you know It just keeps going and going and going the river just keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger as we go along Look at these cows. Yeah, they don't really mind hey, no, they're pretty content with where they are. Yeah, good job guys They're just like, ah, this seems like a good spot to stop Yeah, I guess the grass verges have some of the best pasture, didn't they? I don't know the word for juice, I'm afraid. Okay, you got some breads. Yep. Oh, what's that? Good. Oh counting everything with an apocas. Is she actually using it or she's using the calculator Yeah, look three hundred forty six. Did you want a bottle of vodka with that? Spaziva, Spaziva Anglais Got a good haul, hey, I think it's gonna be some nice bread for lunch. Oh your gloves Spaziva, thank you So it looks like we are well and truly back in the tiger forest Look at these beautiful trees, and this is the same forest that we were following pretty much all the way from Vladivostok to Ulano Dei and our first Russian leg and now We're back in it. This forest actually makes up the largest forest in the entire world And I think in England they call it the boreal forest, but the Russians they call it the tiger Spelled T-A-I-G-A not like the Siberian tiger But the Siberian tiger does live in the tiger So we decided to push on and postpone lunch because we're really trying to get to this bison nursery Before it closes it's currently four twenty and the place is supposed to close at five But we have made it here and hopefully that means we can see some bison today. So next left turn here Okay, it's coming up in a minute Oh my god, see how the road is. Yeah, look, there's a picture of the bison. Yeah Yeah, they look awesome, but I'm not sure about this way here actually I think as long as we take it nice and easy It's only two kilometers Here it is bison parking Cool. Oh the info board is only in russian. I think we're gonna have to google translate that one Okay, bye bubble bee I think I spot already a bison Bison bison bison. Well, look at those deer antlers Oh, yeah amazing. Look at that They're absolutely huge. They're really really big eyes Wow, he's fetched a bison on the nose. Wow, this is absolutely Massive look at his head. Wow So in 1982 11 of these guys purebred bolovsky bisons were brought here from moscow and this remains the Only herd of this species of bison west of the url mountains So these bison were actually here historically in syberia This herd here is actually an experiment by the federal altai scientific center of agrobio technologies That's a mouthful, isn't it? So basically they were brought here to see how they would do Being reintroduced back into syberia. This herd here, which is now 30 individuals strong is a valuable insurance fund for this ancient species Okay, i'm sorry about earlier. Okay. Here's an apple to make up for it He's like I accept your apology. Are you ready for some lunch now? I'm I'm hungry. Oh, what is it? Angry. You're hungry That's some good bread. Look at that It's like thick It's full. It's like a whole meal and this is mushroom cream cheese. We're absolutely going crazy today If this was like being sold in london This would be gourmet food. Oh don't mind me. I'm just snacking on truffle cheese on soft sourdough rye Bye. Bye. Bye sins. Bye. Bye Oh amazing animal pretty scary actually in the end But yeah, always so nice to see if people like putting an effort into Saving such incredible species. They've tripled their herd since the 80s. So that's a really really positive thing That's really really cool So we're gonna head now to the next town to get some fuel and then we're gonna see where we can find a nice place Maybe a campsite for tonight. We'll see what we can find on the map Yeah, and we have to see how the weather develops Because it looks a little bit rainy over there and we got already a little bit rain on us But I would absolutely love to find a nice spot to camp. There's so much beautiful nature around. Yeah, exactly We have to do isn't it? Exactly three Yeah, okay No four. Yeah, okay. Okay. Svasiva. Svasiva. Thank you Toilet, toilet. There it is. Here. Okay. Okay. Svasiva All right Here we are a little bit down on the side stand in the grass there Okay. All right. Now that's good. So we were just riding past heading to the nearest town And we saw this little camping spot on the side of the road next to the river and we were just like Should we just stop and camp here? It looks absolutely beautiful and peaceful The guy said it was only 800 rubles, which is like eight pounds. That's a cheap night as well, isn't it? And look, we've got our own little Like covered dining area, which is cool We do have a little bit of rain, but it doesn't look That bad. There's a bit of blue sky there. I think we will just pitch up the tent And then we can sit and enjoy the view It's like right on this beautiful river and opposite is just the tiger forest I always love camping Even though it's raining. Let's pitch up our tent then, eh? Cool Yeah We got the tent set up. We got the tent set up. We got the tent set up Half of what it does for my ribs And we made it And how happy and alive Yeah, it was a really, really nice day in the end. The road remained beautiful and smooth Snake in its way through all the valleys. It was just really nice. A little bit of archaeological history Some amazing views and some bison's You can't get better than that. No, you can't really get better than that. It's like more than I imagined It was just a perfect ride, really So that puts us two more rides to the Kazakhstan border, which is absolutely awesome So we're just going to have a good rest tonight and make our way even closer tomorrow Yes, and that's it from us today. We hope you enjoyed the video If so, please give us a thumbs up, subscribe to the channel, share the video with your friends and family Comment below and we will see you next time