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Published: September 11th 2006
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Sept 12th 2001 - Reporters...
A reporter quizzes Scott about the WTC attacks outside our hotel in Krasnojarsk. 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 to be another one of those days. We spent over an hour at the roadside adjusting the spokes to get it about right to cycle on again. Scott helped with the weight and took my tent again and I transferred a lot of the weight to my front panniers. This, hopefully, will get me to Krasnojarsk where I may have to get a new wheel and a new saddle, cos, to be honest, I don’t think my cracked Brookes saddle will hold up for the rest of the trip.
At another café stop the owner gave
Krasnojarsk skyline
An industrial city, set between hills on the Yenisy River half way across Siberia. Ironically, this city in the middle of the former USSR was to be the safest place for an American to be at this time in history! us a 1 litre carton of wine as a gift. There seems no way of escaping alcohol in Russia! The weather on the road was good and the headwind had gone. Just before camping and wine-tasting, it spotted with rain a little, and then…. Wwwooow! I spotted the best cannabis plants yet, fully matured, and covered in the most sweet-smelling sticky buds. Obviously, I took some cuttings and we had a nice evening supping wine and tripping off to exotic places - all within the confines of our tents!
Total Miles: 5741.28 Todays Miles: 66.83 Average speed: 11.9 Time on bike: 5:37
Day 101, 9th September
Bogotol - Ačinsk - Kozulka
It was very misty to start off with and were on the road at ten. I think about how far I’m getting from home every day … or, should that read - how far to home? Directly south of here is Bangladesh, a tiny land with a population greater than the Russian Federation! We are also on a latitude equal to that of Scotland.
The day was overcast, but the going was good on a perfect road too. The city of Acinsk was
Rainy roads
Trans-Siberian road eastwards between Novosibirsk and Krasnojarsk. an industrial dump with potato fields either side of the road. It was ironic to see old babushkas in the fields filling buckets with potatoes which they could perhaps sell for a few roubles, and next to then, fully mature cannabis plants which, if they could get to Europe, would make them rich beyond their wildest dreams!
Out of Acinsk, the road and the environment got better again, there were lots of people by the roadside selling pots of pine nuts. At on place we saw a disused airfield full of old Aeroflot bi-planes. We camped shortly afterwards in a birch forest. Scott got a big fire going whilst I made a rice special with a few buds thrown in for effect. The effect was fun, with a bit of paranoia that made us think the forest was alive, or coming to life at least!!!! We had the most crazy thoughts and hallucinations that night, not caring if there were wolves or bears or mad-Russians nearby……
Total Miles: 5816.99 Todays Miles: 75.71 Average speed: 12.9 Time on bike: 75.71
Day 102, 10th September
Kozulka - Krasnojarsk
It was an extremely difficult task waking Scott
Out with the FSB
While Scott and I were on the way to Krasnojarsk, Rory and Toby had met up with some former KGB guys and had gone out on a mad evenings shooting! up this morning - he was completely zombiefied. We were eventually on the road, looking like the living dead, by midday. It was an uneventful 60 mile ride into Krasnojarsk with a big rainstorm to greet us as we passed the big city sign on the top of the hill. The city seems to be surrounded by hills on all sides with a huge river through the centre.
Our target was the River Yenisy - and we sped full speed downhill to it. Whilst negotiating the streets we were stopped by a smiling policeman who poited at us saying, “Singapore, Singapore!” Obviously Rory and Tobes are here, and they have been warning the locals of our arrival.
We got to the riverbank and checked in at the Hotel Mark which doubled as a brothel. A couple helped us to check-in and to show us where we could park our bikes for the night - in a dodgy car compound! The couple turned out to be a pro and her pimp and gave us generous offers we politely declined. We were a day early to meet the guys, so we drank some beer and checked our emails, some from
The Kalashnakov Kid!
Tobes, fuelled up with vodka and weed, with a Kalashnikov in his hands! I was glad to be a few hundred miles away... the guys who are in the city somewhere.
Total Miles: 5888.45 Todays Miles: 71.45 Average speed: 12.1 Time on bike: 5:52
Day 103, 11th September 2001
Krasnojarsk
We did the essential stuff today, like getting warm wooly socks for the months ahead, going to the post office, and checking the internet where we met up with Rory and Tobes who had been having a great time in the city so far. We went to a café and they told Scott and I that they were staying in a groovey hotel on the other side of town, and had also been camping with the police and shooting off Kalashnikovs. So we decided that we should all stay at that hotel from tomorrow night.
Later on, as the sun went down, we wandered along the quayside and came across a group of old Russian men sitting around a oil-drum full of bits of burning wood. One was playing a balalaika and the others were singing old Russian folk songs. We joined then, swapped smiles, drank together, and felt at peace with the world. To think that just over ten years ago this would have been impossible to fraternize with the ‘enemy’.
Some time around midnight Scott and I said goodbye to Rory and Tobes and headed back to our boat hotel. As we entered the reception we saw that a number of the staff were glued to a Russian news programme on the TV. We couldn’t understand a word but it looked like one of those big twin-tower buildings in New York was on fire. I think the guys on the boat were trying to say there was some kind of explosion or something? We didn’t stay up to watch the TV and went off to bed, I suppose if it’s big news we’ll hear something about it in the morning.
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