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Published: September 21st 2006
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The first heavey frost.
Camping somewhere between Krasnoyarsk and Irkutsk on the tran-siberian gas pipeline. We woke up to a winter scene. 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 Lake Baikal before we start heading south to warmer climes, but we still have the Gobi and Mongolia to cross. We have no idea of the road conditions there, and, it will probably be late October by the time we do it. I think we are all in a state of anticipation over the prospect of whether we will actually be able to do this. Still….
A clear night made for a very frosty morning. My tent and bike were white over with frost. It’s getting to the stage where we can’t really be on the road
Siberian watering-hole
Street water-pumps provide our water. We don't filter it - it's so clear and clean. We just wonder when the pumps freeze up? before ten because we need to wait for our things to dry out a little. The first ten miles cycling was on bone-crunching dirt road, then, as if by magic - we were on a new highway! Smooth and straight. But as usual, no traffic except for lorries and cars from Japan with “TRANSIT” stickers on their windscreens.
‘Bare-foot Truck Driver’ from a few days ago passed us again and stopped to give us a big bag of cakey-things to keep us going. The weather was just wonderful - clear blue skies, wonderful autumnal colours, the snow-capped distant mountains to the south, and clear air.
Just before the town of Nizhneudinsk, ‘Motor-Cycle-Kid’ decided to follow us. Just a young, curious guy who had been watching us eat at a café. He followed us through the town, waited for us outside a shop, outside of a bank and two cafes, and kept on following us for over 15 miles! Then he got bored and turned back, he’d said not a word to us in all this time which we thought was a bit weird…
The road remained good quality with many climbs and downhills. Scott was feeling a
Rough roads
Many sections are un-made gravel with steep inclines. We hope it doesn't rain because we imagine then that these roads would be impassable perhaps? little tired, so we had an early day after doing 60 odd miles. Another one of my spokes had gone which I managed to repair in record time. For dinner we had rice and bread, and saved some rice for breakfast in little pots. We camped facing eastwards again.
Total Miles: 6272.74 Todays Miles: 61.42 Average speed: 10.1 Time on bike: 6:03
Day 111, 19th September
Nineudinsk - Tulun
A wonderful morning, bright blue skies, and a picture-postcard sunrise which dried out our tents nicely. A little frost, but not that much as we had camped on a hillside. It was a late start, eleven, and as soon as I started to pedal, my left knee hurt, and it would so all day. There was a headwind all day too which made the going hard. I also had bad guts which wasn’t helped by the deteriorating conditions of the road; a mixture of great sections punctuated by gravel and dirt roads, some with very steep gradients.
The road went through the usual looking villages with the usual bands of kids gathering around whenever we stopped, it was as if the circus had come to
Autumnal Colours
Autumn in Siberia. Scott reckons that the colours here easily beat the autumn colours in New England! town. However, they all were asking us for cigarettes and there was me trying to explain that it’s impossible to cycle and smoke. Then I thought of Rory with his cheap Russian fags, puffing away but managing to do 80 mile days!
Scott and I discussed Rory and Toby; we don’t think Rory’s leg will be up for the climbs, and we reckon that he and Tobes will have caught the train to Irkutsk to avoid any further injury that could jeopodise the Gobi crossing. It will cost them loads to wait for us in Irkutsk probably, 10 nights in a hotel?
After cycling over flattish farmland and through some forested areas, we arrived in the grotty town of Tulun. Evidence of failed industrial projects and dereliction was all around, such a contrast to the beauty we’d seen earlier today. All the main roads through the town were gravel - not one was paved! We picked up water and left with the sun going down behind us. For miles out of town, the land was being laid bare by the activities of strip-mining. After 100km we eventually found some trees to camp in between the road and a railway marshalling yard. I was knackered but I cooked supper, then we tried to go to sleep - but couldn’t. A funny thing was happening over the tannoy system of the marshalling yard. There were two voices shouting orders, a male and female voice. It didn’t take a great knowledge of the Russian language to eventually work out that these two people were probably involved in an affair and were now arguing with each other, for all to hear! My Russian vocabulary was greatly improved that evening.
Total Miles: 6337.93 Todays Miles: 65.18 Average speed: 9.3 Time on bike: 6:58
Day 112, 20th September
Tulun - Kujtun
Woke up to an overcast day with the wind in our faces, it was hard working cycling and I still had a bad knee. The landscape had changed to cultivated land and silver-birch. There were quite a few hills to climb too.
About 6pm, after doing 50 miles, we stopped at an over-friendly café to rest a while. After coffee, the owner. Roman, offered us a shot of vodka each. It was the type of vodka bottle you open with a bottle-opener, the idea being that once opened it must be finished, soon! Our shot of vodka turned into 2, then 3, then another bottle was opened….
We knew that our day was to end here, and Roman said we could camp in the field behind the café which we did while it was still light and we were still sober enough to do so. Then we went back in the café for more….
Vodkas and beers flowed, Roman gave us free food, we were enjoying the hospitality greatly. Then a truck driver arrived, he looked at me strange, Scott said he was gay and that he had took a fancy to me - I took no notice. Scott staggered back to the tent when it went dark, and left me with the truck driver whose advances became a major problem. I decided to head off to the tent and said ‘Good night’ to Roman. On the way through the dark field I felt a strong arm around my neck, I was taken by surprise…. I tried to yell to Scott for help but he’d obviously crashed-out and was in deep sleep. I was shouting “Nyet! Nyet”! But he wasn’t going to take no for an answer…. What the fuck was this bastard trying to do? He WAS trying to rape me! The iron grip around my neck was getting tighter and tighter, now I couldn’t scream out… in a moment I wouldn’t be able to breath and it would be all over - “Is this it”? I thought. “Is this how it’s going to end”?
“NO”! My left arm was free and I reached into the pocket of my combat trousers. In one pocket I carried a flick-knife, in the other a pepper-spray I’d bought in Germany. Luckily, it was the pepper-spray. What happened next was a blur…. I sprayed the bastard directly in the face, he released me, I elbowed him in the chest, then laid my fist square in the middle of his face - then ran! I waited some time till I heard the truck eventually pull off, then went to my tent.
A few hours later, after midnight, my tent was lit up by headlights - it was men from the local regional militia armed with Kalashnikovs. “What the f***s going to happen now. They demanded our passports but I bluffed it saying that they were in Irkutsk at the Mongolian Embassy getting visas. They saw how drunk we were, Scott was now awake, they had a laugh at us, and went after a while. To think about what could have happened tonight doesn’t really bear thinking about….
Total Miles: 6387.93 Todays Miles: 50.00 Average speed: 10.4 Time on bike: 4:48
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Good Sue
non-member comment
Please beat the cold
So I'm your grandmother's age, I'm sitting in China reading your blog and that photo of you in the tent in heavy frost caught me. I started worrying about you. But then I read on and realized you really are sane and will enjoy the adventure and not be crazy. Good luck and God Bless.