We're back on the Trans-Siberian again but only for a day as we make our way from Ulan Ude to Irkutsk along the shores of Lake Baikal. Its 2 hours before we get our first view of the lake way off in the distance, just a thin, dark blue line beneath the distant mountains. Then, after a few more glimpses from the gaps between the trees, the train emerges from the forested hills and we are right at the lake side. If you really squint you can just about make out the mountains on the other side of the lake 50 miles away. When the Trans-Siberian first opened the stretch of track round the lake didn't exist. The carriages, passengers and goods were ferried the 50 miles across the lake on two icebreakers, the Baikal and ... read more

The biggest challenge when catching a train in Russian is getting to the station on time!! Russia spans 9 time zones but irrespective of where you are the railway runs on Moscow time. So when our ticket says the train departs Vladivostok at 13:20 that means we need to be at the station at 20:20 local time. This is going to make it interesting as we go across the time zones on our way to Moscow - unlike planes there is no little screen telling us what the local time is. At least with 2 of us we can have one watch on Moscow time and the other on local time, although, there's nothing to tells us when we have crossed into a new time zone. Anyway we manage to get to the station on time ... read more

The first stage of the return journey is get to ourselves from China down to Vladivostok, the starting point for the Trans-Siberian Express. Of course most sensible people would catch the Trans-Mongolian direct from Beijing to Moscow but I want to go on the Trans-Siberian so we have 2 overnight journeys on the Chinese railways to get us from Beijing to Harbin, then Harbin to Suifenhe and the China:Russia border. The first challenge is finding the right train. I adopt my usual strategy of making a fool of myself and waving my tickets at everyone and anyone until an official finally escorts me to the right train as they want to make sure you leave their territory ASAP. The trains are quite comfortable, we are in a little 4 birth cabin and bunk beds. We are ... read more

We're on the last 1000 miles with the bike, Beijing is almost in sight. However, the traffic is getting heavier and heavier - I thought they all rode bicycles here but that's obviously not true!! The biggest traffic jams are caused by the coal lorries queuing to get into the power stations, a 5-10 mile queue in each direction is not unusual. Most days we pass at least one coal fired power station. Weaving through one of these queues a local bike keeps pulling up alongside us so the pillion can hand over peaches and apples while we are still on the move - this could be a new Olympic sport: lorry weaving whilst transferring fruit between pillions, well OK maybe not the Olympics but certainly 'Its a Knock-out'. At one point one of the group ... read more

Since we left the Tibetan plateau everything has changed. The scenery is still beautiful but round every bend there seems to be another factory churning out clouds of black smoke and contributing to the thin veil of smog hanging in the air. The fields of barley and oil seed rape have been replaced by acres of fresh green rice paddies. Every inch of land is used for food production - even on the twisty turning mountain roads the grass verge is full of maize plants. It's hot and humid. The towns are bigger, there's more traffic, the road junctions are more complicated - some are more than a match for Spaghetti Junction. We even have motorways now although motorbikes aren't allowed on them. It all has more of an urban feel to it. We're also back ... read more