Irkutsk We are a long, long way from the English villages, French Boulangeries, Belgium chocolate shops, Dutch coffee shops, German Bier Kellers, Czech pancake shops, Austrian bakeries, Hungarian sunflower fields, Romanian orphans, Moldovan street cafés, Ukrainian ice-cream parlours… etc,… In fact - six and a half thousand miles away from my nice warm bed in Staffordshire, England! I look at my bike and think, “Did I really get here under my own power”! I look down at my thin, Mr Bean legs with new respect. Since entering Russia, our group of four has been spl [View Full Entry]

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Day 113, 21st September Kujtun - Zima - Kutulyk Nothing else happened last night after the fight and the militia turning up - it could have turned out much worse actually, our bikes could have been stolen, I could have been killed, we BOTH could have been killed… those guys had Kalashnikovs and who would have found our bodies in the wilds of Siberia. I surveyed the early morning scene. There was blood splattered around the tents, God knows how that got there…. Then, to my horror, I noticed my flick-knife lying on the grass, open! What the f*** had gone [View Full Entry]

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Day 110, 18th September Zamzor - Kamyšet - Nineudinsk I lie in my tent thinking, “What the hell am I doing here”? In the middle of freezing cold Siberia, with only a bike for transport, a friend I only met a few months ago, and a bottle of frozen water. Am I worried? I am - at the prospect of sitting at a desk back home, then, I begin to feel a bit better. Then I start to think of getting to Singapore… will we beat this Siberian winter, we’ve been told by locals that we won’t! We need to reach [View Full Entry]

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Day 106, 14th September Berezovka - Ujar - Borodino [PLEASE NOTE: This travel journal is a “MEMORABLOG”, therefore, it took place 5 years ago exactly to the date. It is being typed word for word from the handwritten journals of Bikepacker, Andy Ganner. So, basically, we can’t be met on the road somewhere as some people have thought, and some of the places we stayed will no longer exist, and the visa beauracracy we went through may have vanished - or, got worse! Still, enjoy the stories - and be inspired]. Cycling today was the hardest yet. There was a headwind, [View Full Entry]

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Day 104, 12th September 2001. Krasnojarsk We awoke late and set off from the boat at noon to find the hotel where Rory and Toby were staying. Yesterday, we couldn’t find a bike shop to get my wheel repaired and ended up being driven around the city by a guy determined to help us. We ended up at a car repair garage where two burly Russians man-handled my back wheel in order to get the spokes in I needed. This required grinding down the edge of the block so that spokes could be popped in. They charged nothing for their time… [View Full Entry]

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Day 100, 8th September Tjainskij - Bogotol I awoke with the mother of all hangovers, with no water to drink. Today is the 100th day on the road since leaving England on 1st June - and nearly every day I’ve had a bloody hangover, will I ever learn? It was lucky that there was a café only a mile down the road. I had to drink three coffees and take four aspirin to feel halfway right again. And after 20 miles cycling there was another “PING”! Another spoke had broken sending my back wheel well out of shape, it was going [View Full Entry]

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Day 97, 5th September Jurga - Kemerovo It was a good start to the day as we set out, sunny with a few clouds. The going was good on the way to Kemerovo, the first city we would have to actually negotiate as the M53 road passes right through it. As we entered the suburbs the heavens opened giving me the chance to see how my new so-called waterproof Russian gear stood up to the rain. The boots were great, the jacket stood up pretty well, and the trousers got soaked. But, only on the areas where sweat had previously come [View Full Entry]

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Day 94, 2nd September Kočenevo - Novosibirsk We woke up to a sunny day, although everything through our eyes was hazy and a little bit ‘groovey’! It wasn’t far into Novosibirsk, the capital of Siberia. And, it wasn’t as sprawling as I’d expected. As we crossed the bridge over the river Ob, the centre of the city was spread before us, and the Trans-Siberian railway tracks raised above the river too. Once at the end of yet another Lenin Street there was Station Square with its grandiose station building and combined underground shopping centre and marke [View Full Entry]

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NEW PHOTOS: Just to let you know that today I managed to add loads of new pics to previous blog entries going all the way back to France in July... Enjoy! Day 92, 31st August Barabinsk - Ubinskoe - Kargat Woke up a bit spaced! It had been another rainy night with a little storm. We were late on the road, about eleven, it was very cloudy, but with no rain today. The first café we stopped at for coffee and gretchka was strange. It was like a hillbilly place with three weird girls lazing about. I wondered about the long [View Full Entry]

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Day 90, 29th August Kalačinsk - Tartarsk - Čany It was a cloudier day but warm and dry. There was no dampness on the tents at all. I made porridge for breakfast for the first time, with halva in it, it was yummy! We were on the road for about nine, there was another time-zone change after leaving Omsk Oblast (region), making us seven hours ahead of GMT and directly north of Delhi! On the brand new M51 road east, there was therefore no old communist stuff, signs and monuments, to be seen. The road is flat, smooth, straight, and fortunately [View Full Entry]

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