This is what happens next.We have to make up our own route across frostymuddy fields and rivers [I don’t know why I let Jon take my bike across this bridge when he had just dropped his in ] , to get back to what might be the right road.
The Tatra mtns in Poland look fantastic now. There’s a bit of fresh snow…..they are really good fun with a proper rugged ridge line to follow [highly recommended !!!]
Extra Wheel.As we had popped into the factory that makes our trailor on the way out, so we popped by to show them how well it had done on the way back. Instead of a mere refurbishment, they gave us a new one ! Howkind is that. This is Pavelinspecting our old one.
At last. Our Krakow tour guide [Clare } finally meets up with us. !After borrowing Nic’s glasses [ none of us ,Jon included ,can read much without them any more …sad!!!] she plans our fun for the day.[Note the private balcony at our hostel….stylish living or what ?]
Krakow by night. Last night there was a multi media music and lighting extravaganza in the very impressive main square.Now we have done some “culture” we can concentrate on icecreams and idle wanderings.
Tomorrow as our tour guide is deserting us ,we are heading off too…..west towards heidelberg in germany via Czech . Our ferry home is booked …..by ourtour end agents gary and jane,.!
Another coffee dear?After leaving Kharkov we pedaled west across rural Ukraine, helping ourselves to apples and walnuts which line the roads, getting water from village wells ,and kilos of peppers from roadside sellers[everything is sold by the bucket load so we had peppers with everything for 3 days ]until we begun to have a proper appreciation of just how big the Ukraine is. Every day we indulged in a civilized “real”coffee break mid morning….using our Kelly kettle which is good fun [as well as ultra efficient at boiling water].
See if you can find Jon? After looking so wonderful the sunflowers all go through a dismal period of morbid introspection; fields of brown drooping heads.You can’t blame them as they will shortly have their heads cut off, and you truly do not want the J .Bargettlecture on sunflower harvesting techniques.[ which I suspect is not as factually correct as it sounds ].
Just a normal morning. Jon is up making coffee and Nic is still sensiblyfeigning deep sleep in her snug sleeping bag, in the tent pitched right next to the very meanderingDnister river.
Just normal Pyrotechnics. No wonder we never see any wolves or bears. Every morning and every evening there’s a bit of a “wooooomphf”,andeverything is lit up .This is the only bit of stove procedure that Jon enjoys. I suspect him of being over generous with the priming petrol.
Poland. Lots of mountain bike trails in the hilly Polish countryside. Of course we can’t resist them, even when they are a bit technical for panniers, and we don’t know where they are going either.
Lake Baikal is HUGE.We spent 3 days cycling along it,and finding muddy tracks down to deserted beaches,and thats only a tiny bit of it ! Just the best camping ..... the only problem is believing that the water is not salty!
Crossing the Trans Siberian... .For the usual reasons [an almost manic tendancy to explore unlikely looking tracks ]we found ourselves having to go both over ,and then later,under ,the railway tracks.The line is very busy....there's a lot of wood and coal on the move.China needs its raw materials. Looks like a train may be on the way according to Nic's face?
This is why we had to cross the tracks! And it was all looking vaguely promising before.....[we never learn !!]
A swim.... in Baikal...Very cold! that's why there is no picture of Jon in the sea.
Russian translation.... but we understand... good roads... not so good drivers.
Where are we now? In Irkutsk.....After complete failure last night [a few Russki yazik /language problems and intimidation by scary railway ladies ] today we have got tickets [we think! ]for a train that leaves for Moscow this evening [we think ! ] We get there on the 30th ....4 days time [we think !],at 4 a.m in the morning [we think ! ],with our bikes in the baggage car [which we think there is !]. Wish us luck !
Jill and Janos….of the famous Silent Green Bubu bus. We first met them enjoying themselves trying to get their Russian visa in Tashkent. Then they left before us on much the same route to Mongolia.We caught up with them when we rode into Olgii, in western Mongolia, but we were too knackered to be very coherent! Then we met them again ,twice ,’on the road ‘ in Mongolia. We almost woke them up for coffee one morning…In Ulaan Bataar we finally caught up properly, so good times with food, beer and laughing,….In their green bus (an old Mercedes 208 diesel van) they have been places you wouldn’t have thought they could have. Now they are in Russia on their way to Vladivostok to ship Bubu to Bangkok. Good travellers!
The boys!!!!Up to no good again.. as you can see from the laughter..Thats Gregoire on Jon’s right,and Arnua is the other one.After cycling with them in Syria/turkey,then meeting them during their “resting”phase in Uzbekistan,we cycled together in northern Mongolia for 9 days.They now feel they know us well enough to take the mick out of our “English”,despite the fact that their pronouciation is as dodgy as ever![Yees,it isss!]They spent hours with jon discussing various bike mechanics,and then when we left them still both of them had put their tyres on the wrong way round.[Ask Jon if you want to know the technical details of mud elimination etc].
We stopped to wash and get water at a stream… We noticed something shining in the river!!! Thinking that we had found GOLD!!!!!.... Nic got her hat out and started to use it as a pan.. I thought it was fool’s gold…. but who knows? May be it was gold and we have just thrown a fortune away?
But we have marked the position on a map…..so….next time we are here we can check it out again.
Last day in Mongolia [til next time]….so I took my chance to ‘borrow’a horse from a group of boys.Whilst Jon amused them by being stupid [wiggling his ears etc…this works with me too !] I gave the horse the Mongolian go fast command [which is ‘tcho’ ,like choo choo train],and it went ! At this point I appreciated the skills of Mongolian horse riders;we’ve seen very young boys staying on their bucking horses bareback at speed. When I applied brakes it was as if my brake blocks were worn out….no initial response at all….then slowly,slowly slower.I did’nt dare gallop back…trotting was fine. The next day I could hardly lift my leg over the crossbar. Neither of us can do anything other than cycling these days.
Clickers, clackers, buzzers and whirrers etc.
What is this? Do you remember eating chewy coloured snakes as a child….here is a live one. We have had a few problems with insects and other small creatures. Jon doesn’t much like “creepy crawlies” and includes ants in this category whereas I like ants…always busy doing something and they NEVER give up, no matter how much too big a bit of bread you have put in their way. We had a night in a ger [Mongolian yurt ]where it literally rained beetles, inside as well as outside [like a locust plague….there were piles of them all over town next morning.].We’ve had moths so desperate to lay their eggs at night that we are still finding eggs in our panniers. We have accidently run over loads of different kinds of grasshoppers; sometimes there have been so many, particularly the ‘clacker’ flying ones, that they’vesmacked us in the face, gone down our necks ,got squashed in between sock and shoe….its their own fault, they have no directional flying /hopping skills.
But of course by far the worst is that pointless invention ‘the mosquito’. Woe betide you if you ignore that lightest of tickling sensations. It is a mosquito tip toeing across your face in search of a new drilling site. If you don’t whack yourself and kill it you will have a huge itching sore lump the next day….to go with all your other ones. Being nice to mosquitoes [incense etc]is for wussies…….we must have killed 100’s by now[each]and made adecent dent in the overall population.
Big mug little mug… Igory and Sveta
Mountain biking in Kharkov(where they first split the atom!!) in the Ukraine is great… 
