Situation in Russia, Tours to Morocco, Pamir Highway and Kyrgyzstan...

Hi folks,

Last month was extremely turbulent. The situation around Ukraine and the sanctions against Russia shocked us for some time, it still keeps us in suspense, but we are trying to return to normal life.

We don't want to politicize this newsletter and discuss who is right and who is wrong, why it happened, etc. It's a complicated situation and all parties involved are guilty that they let this turn of events.

Instead of that we prefer to focus on what we like and love to do – on motorcycle tours. Its our love, our passion, and even if now its tough times for us to run motorcycle tours in Russia, we will continue doing that.

Today we want to give you update on situation in Russia, tell you about our plans for the season and will introduce several new destinations.

We received a lot of kind e-mails from you during past weeks. THANK YOU very much for care, we are doing fine, all are safe and healthy. There is big mess with all sanctions, logistic problems, lack of direct flights to Russia from Europe, rescheduling of tours, etc. But after two years with covid we get used to that.

Some of you asked if we have access to global internet? Yes, we have, and we have access to Facebook and Instagram as well. Everything works.

Last week we changed hosting and domain setting of our web site and e-mail server and for a day or two our e-mails were not available. If you sent us mail and received "can't be delivered, such e-mail doesn't exist" don't worry, technical issue. IT guys forgot to change DNS setting. When several customers wrote us in Facebook that e-mails don't reach us, we quickly fixed it. So now all works.

After first shock we now get used to the idea that this season we will do mostly tours in Russia with local customers, like two years during Covid, having limited number of international guests. Technically most international travelers can visit Russia, but there are not many direct flights, many countries advise its citizens to avoid travelling to Russia because of conflict with Ukraine.

If you planned to visit us before but don't feel comfortable to do it now, we understand you and glad to offer several alternatives, first one is Morocco.

It was our long idea to start international expansion and last year's we already started this process with Morocco. We did good scouting, found local partners to rent bikes directly in Marrakesh, and already did 4 tours during February and March 2022 around Morocco.

In October and November 2022, we will do another four tours over this country, dates for autumn are 5-16 October and 17-28 October, 1-12 November, and 14-25 November 2022.

Why ride Morocco? It's a beautiful country in the northwest of the African continent with a predominantly Arab-Berber population and with a small European touch left over from the time of French colonization.

Morocco is very different in its nature and climate. There is an ocean coast here, mountains with cedar forests and snow peaks in the winter, the Sahara Desert with huge dunes and rocky plateaus with canyons and camel caravans walking along the roads.

There are ancient cities with Medinas (old city center), fortresses near the ocean, some of which were pirate cities, cascades of houses creeping along the slopes of high hills, the remains of the once great Roman Empire with mosaics and arches.

Great diversity of landscapes, good road, excellent service. Our tour lasts 12 days, we ride 2500 km. We rent bikes in Marrakesh, where tour starts and finishes. Here is detailed description, please join us this autumn.

Another new destination we were thinking about for last years – Pamir Highway and Kyrgyzstan. We prepared all information for both tours in late 2019 and 2020, and we scouted them few times. But because of covid we didn't publish them on our web site. Itineraries, photos, tracks, all was ready, we just didn't release them.

Now all borders are open, covid step away and we are glad to invite you to the Central Asia / the Stans with our team. Tyan-Shan Mountains, lake Issyk-Kul, Samarkand, Dushanbe, famous Pamir Highway, many other sights of the region.

Kyrgyzstan is 9-day tour and its light-medium in terms difficulty. Good, paved roads, excellent hotels, a little bit of off-road/gravel, but all is easy, picturesque views, mountains, local cuisine and fantastic nature around.

Tour starts and finish place is Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan. We bring our bikes there, so you can rent one of our BMW F750GS, F850GS and R1250GS. Dates are second half of August and first week of September.

Pamir or "Roof of the World" in Persian, is a mountain system in the south of Central Asia and in the north of the Himalayas. Pamir Highway is one of the most beautiful roads in the world, half unpaved, with passes above 4000 meters, which passes through Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan.

This tour has high level of difficulty because we have more gravel roads and we go through high mountain passes, with more than 4000 meters altitude. Highest point of our tour is 4655. This ride takes 16 days and almost 4000 km. For 2022 we have 10-25 September dates.

Tour starts and finish place is Bishkek, capital of Kyrgyzstan. You can rent our F750GS, F850GS or R1250GS for this ride as well. All countries we ride through are open for travelling.

You can read more about this tour here.

Although we introduced several new international tours, our focus will remain on tours in Russia. We already finished 5-7 tours and in the coming months more than 15 tours will take place: Sochi – Elbrus, Sochi – Volgograd – Moscow, Sochi – Vladikavkaz, Enduro Training, Moscow – Vladivostok, North Caucasus Ride, Altay Mountains in Siberia, etc.

In addition to already "Classic" tours we recently introduced several new destinations – Sakhalin Island Tour (Far East ride), Yamal Tour (main oil and gas regions of Russia) and absolutely new and excusive 10-day Road of Bones, Old Summer Road ride (the only tour we do with 250cc bikes, because big BMW can't ride Old Summer Road).

These tours are already published on our web site and if you are interested you can find them at www.rusmototravel.com. In the next newsletter we will tell you more about them.

We understand that not all our plans re summer season will take place because many of you are hesitant now to visit Russia. That is ok, situation is very complicated indeed. We understand your concerns and together with you will wait for better times.

If there are any questions, don't hesitate to contact us. You can also reach us at Facebook, Instagram, by Telegram messenger or by phone, we are at your disposal.

Sincerely yours,
RMT Team

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