I’m reworking the written material and photos from the trip into Kindle format, so watch this space.

The bike is now almost complete in its rebuild. All I’m waiting for is the new custom Yacugar suspension to arrive from Holland, which should’ve been here this week. I’ll post a photo of it when it’s all done [...]

I’ve returned to Russia in a bid to learn the language. It struck me on the trip that nearly everyone in every country I passed through spoke it and since it’s the 4th most spoken language in the world, it’d be worth learning. So, I’m back out in Irkutsk, close to where the journey turned [...]

It was the sort of morning you know you have to face, but will take little pleasure from. I could hear the incessant rain all night, and there was still no let up by the time I was getting ready to leave. Gesa put on a spectacular breakfast for me, and then they helped me [...]

I awoke at 5am knowing that we had a long ride all the way across Poland to Berlin. It wasn’t long before the others surfaced too. Aga, in her own inimitable style, threw together a plush breakfast to send us on our way. Tytus, who definitely had the biking bug, wanted a little scoot out [...]

Morning came and with it, the ritual sounds of stoves. A communal pot of porridge was prepared, eaten, and we got down to the business of packing up and heading off. Bound for Latvia, we soon made it to the border. This exit from Russia took longer than we had hoped as a coach load [...]

We were relieved to be leaving Moscow. Not that it’s an unpleasant place, because when it’s empty and there’s a nice relaxed vibe in the city, it’s not. But we were on a bike trip, and what with the train ride and the stalling in waiting for the clutch, everything had become more static than [...]

After we checked into Godzilla’s, which was a hostel of impeccable standards, we lay down for an hour or two, and then took off around the centre of Moscow. I was astounded at how empty the place was, as I had heard that it was on a par with London or New York in terms [...]

Sometimes journeys are long. Sometimes journeys are very long. And just occasionally, sometimes journeys are far too long! This was my experience of the trans-sib from Irkutsk to Moscow. Honestly, I didn’t know what to expect. My experience of trains was limited to the Bangor West to Holywood to Belfast Central as a child, the [...]

going places now…

onto the ambulance

landing

the recovery team at work

detaching

in place

Pietro's well worked rear end

securing him down

So as was definitely not in our plans, we headed back to Irkutsk, one bike down and heavily laden with food. I jumped in Tatiana’s car and K&G tailed us to the [...]

3.5 hours after we pulled in with Pietro limping, Tatiana did arrive. Before long she was on the other side of the road trying to flag down a trucker. As you can imagine, it wasn’t long before a few vans, cars, and trucks arrived – the power of the feminine huh?

flagging a truck down…

None [...]