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Published: October 7th 2007
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A break...
...in the woods, before heading on. Day of arrival - if not without problems. It's the classical situation, almost ripe for a movie...you're almost there, but yet so far...anyways, let's start from the beginning.
Waking up a last time, we go through the usual ritual: I make coffee, Hans takes down the tent, we have some breakfast, then get on our way. The road is good, but my rear tyre has lost pressure once again overnight and needs to be pumped up again. Not a good sign, but we're only about 50km from Lepel, surely it will last at least until we're there! Also, we're running pretty low on water, but we'll definitely find a shop sometime soon. With the type of road condition we're on right now, we'll be in Lepel in a few hours.
Spoke too soon: soon, we arrive at a National Park, and tarmac turns to sand, with the usual washboard ripples to it. 15km of this. Not again!. On top of that, we soon realise that the last chance to get water was just before the start of the National Park. Well, we do have some Mineral Water with us.
Let me try to explain "mineral water". Apparently, there
Finally!
Stari Lepel, our destination! is a craze about healthy water in Belarus (or Russia, in general), and children are made to drink this disgusting, sulphur-water. It's the only thing you can get in shops, unless you happen to come across a bottle of imported Evian. And this is what we're left with. Sulphur-tasting water, on a sand road through a National Park. Half a liter each. The sun is burning down. Not exactly how I imagined the last stretch of this tour.
We finally make it through the national park, time to celebrate! Well, almost: my rear tyre has lost air again, I need to pump once again. Something isn't right here...
When we take another break 20km before Lepel, I pump up the tube once again, and it happens: the pumping has moved the valve enough to rip it out of the tube. Rear tube gone. Down to one spare tube. And it will only fit the front - at least I
think it will fit. Ok, the plan is: take front tube out of front tyre, put to back, put spare tube in at front, continue on to Lepel and get there before dinner. No problem, right? Well, except that
First things first
Off for a shower... the tube also doesn't fit the front rim, the hole is too small to fit the valve.
After some thinking, I get out my Swiss army knife, take the file, and start going at the hole at the front. I can't believe I'm sitting in Belarus, 20km from our destination, drilling around on my front rim, which (together with the SON hub dynamo) has cost me over £100. But if this is what's going to get me to Lepel, so be it. Hans is getting a bit impatient, suggests he goes ahead and gets help, but I tell him to stay put, I'll get this worked out in no time. And, alas, after some drilling around and swapping tubes (and 1 1/2 hours later), my bike is back on the road.
After all this work, it's finally smooth riding. Maybe a bit too smooth, as Hans suddenly develops superhuman force in his legs and speeds off like a shooting star, I can barely keep up. Once in Lepel, we reward ourselves with some cakes from the local Magazin, then ask our way through to Stari Lepel. A few hills later along a scenic route by the lakeside, finally
we pass the sign: СТАРЫ ЛЕПЕЛ! We're here!
Once through the small town, we arrive at the camp, and find it deserted. Only a few German students, who seem to be doing their own thing, separate from our project, are wandering around. Off to take a shower, get some food from the local Magazin, and relax. We're a day early, the rest of the brigade will arrive tomorrow afternoon by bus from Germany, and we will make sure they get a proper reception.
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