The day had arrived; we were about to ride the infamous Road of Bones from Yakutsk to Magadan. The Road of Bones actually starts after we cross the Aldan River by ferry at a place called Khandyga.

Riding out of Yakutsk we were yet again greeted by superb sunny weather. The Lena River ferry took one and a half hours before we reached the eastern bank of the river 14ks down stream from where we started, and so began the final push for Magadan.

Our first day on the Road of Bones was of course eventful, we broke the 5th set of trailer springs and with no more spares it was decided to hire a Russian version of the Kombi Van, commonly called a “Buhonka”, which literally means “square loaf of bread” as this is what this vehicle looks like. We had to reduce the weight on the trailer or it was not going to make Magadan.

We camped at an outdoor museum surrounded by lakes and forests and again we were treated to a spectacular sunset; we were also joined by Alex and Mila who had ridden from the Ukraine and were to camp with us nearly all the way to Magadan. Their fluency in Russian proved invaluable over and over again.

Dmitry, our Bohonka driver arrived early next morning and we loaded him up leaving our trailer virtually empty and me vowing to push the heap of %^&!! over a cliff if it gave us anymore trouble. We made the Aldan River Ferry by lunchtime but had to “Hurry up and wait” for a number of hours until the ferry filled with vehicles.

The Road of Bones had been reasonable condition thus far however some sections had a lot of gravel on it which some riders hated. We sailed downstream for 2 hours as the endless Taiga silently slipped by under an endless blue sky, it was magical and we all agreed the riding could wait this was great!

Back on Terra Firma we rode through more deep gravel to the God forsaken village of Khandyga, winding our way through potholed muddy back streets we found the one and only fuel station and quickly left town. We found a wonderful camp beside the mighty Aldan River; a great camp meal was cooked up, a campfire enjoyed as were a display of the Northern Lights early the following morning.

We had heard of a great little museum on the Road of Bones at the tiny village of Teply Klyuch. After some searching we found it located inside the local kindergarten, whose teachers happily gave up their duties to give us a private tour of this amazing museum.

It gave us an accurate picture of the tragic history of the Road of Bones. We must have looked an amazing sight to the kids as a group of filthy bikers paraded through their rooms, I am not sure who was more excited the kids or the teachers!

We climbed into the mountains as we rode amongst larch and fir tree covered valleys and ascended and descended pass after pass dissected by wild rivers. It was absolutely stunning riding and not what you would expect of a place with such a tragic history.

Our progress was brought to a halt at Kyubume as the only fuel stop, an above ground tank and tiny attendant hut, was unable to pump fuel due to their solitary generator  breaking down. We decided to make a camp on the old summer road made famous in the Long Way Round series with Charley Boorman and Ewan McGregor that evening.

Fuelled up the next morning we rode through to the legendary Road of Bones town of Ust Nera; a more forlorn desperate looking place would be hard to imagine! Our desperation to escape this place was only exasperated after Walt hit a pedestrian in town bringing both Walt and pedestrian crashing to the ground, the pedestrian quickly ran away and Walt limped to the fuel station to repair his bike.

The Road of Bones had now become a wonderful track that allowed us to maintain 100kph in sections. The riding continued north east through more epic scenery however another issue continually kept the pace down, flat tyres. We had more flat tyres in 1 day than what we had experienced on the entire expedition thus far.

The superb sunny weather continued which meant no mud. This also meant higher speeds were able to be maintained. We reached the incredible abandoned city of Kadychan by lunchtime and 4 flat tyres during the morning.

Kadychan is one of many completely abandoned cities that dot this region. These cities housed 1000s of workers during Soviet times and were quickly abandoned post Communism when the cities were deemed “unsustainable” and the power was cut off. Walking amongst these cities is completely surreal not to mention eerie.

A flurry of flat tyres during the afternoon meant we stayed at a very basic hotel in Sussaman. Sussaman is another town that defies description; it is however home to some of the most generous and friendly people we had encountered.

As in 2010 we were helped by the locals this time to fix a flat tyre on the support vehicle. The owner of the local school bus company spent 2 hours fitting a tube into our tubeless tyre and refused to accept any money despite having supplied a new tube, valve and 2 staff to help us, all at 6pm on a Saturday night!

We had lost so much time it had become obvious that we would be a day late into Magadan. We rode all day again under stunning blue skies and in choking dust, passing semi trailers was a complete leap of faith.

Our final nights camp was beside a fast flowing river where we celebrated Scotts birthday, as Scott put it he couldn’t think of a better place to celebrate his birthday than deep in the wilderness of the Kolyma region in Eastern Russia, with great friends.

Early the following afternoon we hit pavement for the first time in 3000ks, we only had 160ks to Magadan, after a staggering 18 flat tyres in 4 days we rode into Magadan 2.30pm after 105 days since leaving the Ace Café in London.

As a lead rider it is a moment I long for each expedition I do, it is a moment of intense relief but also of immense achievement, I am proud of all the riders and I think back of all that has passed in the previous 105 days and I am immediately overwhelmed, it is a surprisingly emotional moment and with that I will say no more, WE MADE IT.

For more information and to sign up for next years London to Magadan tour go to CompassExpeditions.com.