The ferry from Wakkanai to Korsakov takes just over 5 hours. We travel with a French couple - Fred and Lydia - that we met back in Tokyo. They are riding a BMW F650 Dakar and a Suzuki DR350.
They told us an interesting story of their trip to Iran, during which they spent a week in jail for straying into a prohibited area!!
We plan to follow a similar route to theirs (all the way up to Kazakhstan), so we’ll probably run into each other more than once…

We spent most of the second day in Korsakov retrieving our Africa Twin from the customs storage warehouse. We didn’t use an agent, so its an unusual situation for the customs officials. After some hours of blank looks, shoulder shrugging and running between various offices, the bike is released and we are free to explore Russia!! Also, in all the confusion, we are not asked to pay a single Ruble…

On first impresssion Sakhalin is very poor. It seems tht not much has changed since the end of the war. Statues of Lenin dominate grey, dilapidated towns and villages…

On the other hand, the island is incredibly scenic. Unspoilt forests, lakes and mountains dominate the landscape…

Old babushka’s sell fresh crab (US$2) by the roadside…

Also, the food is fantastic. Something we have missed while living and traveling in south east asia…

Some major towns are joined by asphalt roads, but most other places can only be reached by gravel tracks. The route we decide to take has many interesting ‘detours’ due to overflowing rivers and collapsed bridges. They include tracks through overgrown meadows, rivers and even the beach!!

These places are totally deserted and it makes for a fun adventure…

Returning to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk we pick up a set of fresh tyres - Michelin T63’s.
Delivered through our friends Piotr & Kristof (in Singapore) and Kristof’s work colleague Jose in Sakhalin. Thanks guys!!
Here we are picking up the tyres from Jose’s daughter Regina…

These new tyres are more off-road oriented than our current set and will be better suited to the upcoming trails in eastern Siberia and Mongolia.
Tomorrow we take the ferry from Kholmsk to Vanino, on mainland Russia…

Petrol in Russia is a bit cheaper than in Japan at US$1.25 per litre.