Chelyabinsk Chill-Out !

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Day 76, 15th August.

Chelyabinsk

Woke up with a bad hangover and hearing stories of my terrible drunken behaviour. They thought it was quite funny actually. But I vowed to keep off the alcohol for a month! I spent the day doing stuff, washing clothes, putting my new front pannier rack on, and changing the tyres. The bad news was that my back wheel needed replacing at a cost of around 40 pounds, due to the bad buckling I received on a bump in Moldova.

I managed to phone my mum and dad, all at home is well except that my cat ‘Scratchy’ has died. It was to be expected though, she was very old and had lost all her teeth. I called Kathryn and didn’t feel good after the call. She seemed distant, or was it me? I don’t know if I’ll ever understand a womans mind? Viktor made a hearty dinner later. We ate, and just chilled-out for the rest of the day. I went bed with achy legs around midnight.

Day 77, 16th August.


Chelyabinsk

Today we went for a pic-nic in a minibus driven by a friend of the family to a beautiful lake surrounded by silver birch forest. Trouble was, it was raining. But that didn’t stop folks from building a campfire, picking mushrooms, and even going for a swim in the lake. I was too ‘chicken’ to brave what I thought were icy waters, but were in fact warm.

Back on the road, we stopped at a village to pick up milk from a farmhouse and get to see inside a real Russian (can you say peasants) house. It shocked me how well equipped these log cabins are, better equipped than most Scottish homes! Back at the flat, Viktor cooked again and we ate well and talked late into the night with Viktor regaling us with his Russian folk songs and magical guitar playing.


Day 78, 17th August.

Chelyabinsk

This morning I had a nice long bath, ahhhhh!!! Today, Natasha’s daughter took us to find a bank and a post office which wasn’t as easy as it seems, and took up a whole morning. Back at the flat, we were interviewed by her friend, Olga, who wants to be a journalist.

I picked up my new back wheel later and fitted it with the new ‘Armadillo’ tyres Carrick had brought out for me, along with my new front rack, again! Later on, I went to the internet café with Scott to check if Kathryn had wrote, she had, I am finding that she is a complex, but strangely wonderful lady. She feels a lot for me and needs to stand back a bit and not let me take over her life. Ah, well… we will see? Back at the flat there was a reporter from the local Chelyabinsk newspaper who did a thorough interview with us. We also ate another good Viktor meal and drank before crashing out.

Tomorrow, we leave and head across the flatlands of Siberia to make our time-window to enter the northern tip of Kazakhstan. A couple of days transiting the country will allow us to use our second Russian visa to re-enter Russia again. Scott has his visa problem sorted too, thanks to Natasha. However, Rory needs hospital treatment for his foot, so he will stay with Viktor and Natasha until it’s better, then catch us up using the Trans-Sib.

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Photos

Jamming Session!
Viktor entertains us with some sad Russian folk music. I'm the one with the brown face!

Day trip
Heading north west of the city are a collection of lakes which are ideal for pic-nics.

Rain stopped play!
Wel, not really. We put up this makeshift shelter to protect us from the rain storm.

Group Press Photo
Taken in Revolution Square - Chelyabinsk, just before we headed east towards Kazakhstan. It was for the local press.