Blogs from Siberia, Russia, Europe - page 56

Day 125, 3rd October Ilbinka - Ulan Ude Today, personally for me, I’ve done 100 days cycling, and 25 days resting! That’s a lot of miles from Stoke on Trent, not just a trip to the shops. It was really cold last night and I awoke to a layer of ice on the inside of my tent and a damp sleeping bag. What the hell are we doing camping in the wilds of Siberia, as winter approaches with a vengeance. We took our time getting ready and waited for the rising sun to dary out our tents somewhat. Then set off for Ulan Ude in the bright sunlight. There was a huge uphill where I did something stupid. The others were up ahead, and when a slow truck laboured past me I tried to hold on ... read more

Another day without a shower. The baby wipes are working ok but it is obvious that several of the other people in the train car don’t seem to care. The cabin next to us is a family with 2 young children. They have been great so far but I bet the parents are going crazy. Thankfully we bought several new books before we boarded because we are going through them quickly. Sam reads one a day. We are lucky that Sabrina has a couple of books in English that we can trade. In Moscow, Sam grabbed some peanut butter and Sabrina loves it. Maybe we can use it in the trade talks. The scenery is rather bare with miles of vast open land. Every now and then a small group of houses will pop up around ... read more

Day 123, 1st October 2001 Murino - Tanhoj - Babuškin White Rabbits! Or, so they say in the part of England I come from for good luck on the first day of every month - we need it! Didn’t have too much of a brilliant sleep but was warm, though. Was up early, made a cuppa, and packed up. Rory and Tobes decided to try and make cheese on toast on an old piece of metal they found while I stood around getting cold, and then freezing cold! I told them I had to leave and made a move because I began to shiver uncontrollably. I left as it began to snow on Toby’y tent. The road was and the wind was slightly behind, and I made it to the first café after about 10 miles, ... read more

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 split a few different ways with me doing my own thing for a short while, then Rory and Toby spending a lot of time together, leaving me and Scott to do the last 1800 miles together. We’ve had a lot of adventures ... read more

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 ... read more