Overview and Other Practical Things.

In a bleak hour on May 27 2007, Lucy Mills and Dominic Rose left the shores of Palmers Green for for a 4-6 month transcontinental cycling ordeal. The reason, like that of most people found wandering the earth was to escape the ghastly real. London with its dikensian squalor, appalling cuisine, violent crime, traffic chaos, bad-mannered youth and rightly miserable inhabitants were to be replaced with the open and for the most part post-soviet road. Though it was not evident at the time, the bicycle is simply the best way to visit a continent or two.

The first and most depressing ride was to the Essex port town of Harwich from where we caught the ferry to the home of the fresh coffee and the croissant: Mainland Europe. From the Hook of Holland we rode due east through Berlin to Frankfurt/Oder, there slanted south to the little known town of Rawicz to Wroclaw and east to Krakow and Przemysl where we crossed into Ukraine. We were now out of the EU and out of the known land and croissants became scarce. A commendable effort by the riders saw 1000 miles covered in little time through Lvov, Kiev, along the heavily damed Dniper river to Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk which we managed to circumnavigate, then Luhansk and into Russia. Our first portion of Russia to Volgograd (formerly Stalingrad) was a disappointment, the quality of biscuits rapidly diminished and the road was as wide as the trucks which hurtle along it. Fortunately Volgograd (formerly Stalingrad) welcomed us with an austere concrete magnificence beyond our wildest expectations. Aside from a brush with the overzealous police force we spent a wonderful few days in a town which provided us with not unreasonable confectionary and also a traveling companion who answered to the name of Tom. South along the Volga we traveled, the desert to the east and the lush green valley to the west until Astrakhan where we received the warmest of welcomes from the president of the local cycle club who at this time I can only describe as Shrek, his name having escaped my memory. A few days later we were in Kazakhstan, a land of bandits and endless plains of sand and oil refineries. The hospitality of the inhabitants more than made up for the landscape, remarkable only for its total absence of features. At Atirau we crossed into Asia, having cycled almost the entire width of Europe. A partly regrettable decision to use the public transports took us around the Caspian coast to Aqtau and to then to Almaty where we were glad to return to bicycle travel. Before long we were back on the road in the 40 degree heat, then struck down by a plague which destroyed our ability to contain food and Semipalatinsk and the border with Russia could not come soon enough. We counteracted our delayed start and the lack of pace in the early months with a swift train journey to Novosibirsk and then Krasnoyarsk where we joined the trans-Siberian highway. 1000 km of Siberian forest passed swiftly by, except when the road turned to dust and our pace dimished correspondingly. We reached the beautiful city of Irkutsk and then lake Baikal at which we stared in awe for some time. We passed the lake and rode as far as Ulan-Ude before heading south into the pastures of northern Mongolia.
We arrived at the gates of Ulaanbataar on the 14th of September having traveled a distance of roughly 5250 by cycle. Sadly Lucy Mills was forced to turn back for an appointment back in the UK. Mr Rose returned to Russia on the Vodka Train where train number 53 carried him and his now unrideable bicycle to Vladivostok,  a town who's inhabitants display an unrivaled hospitality. From the port of Vladivostok the MV Rus took him to the little known town of Fushiki in Japan from where he started the final chapter in the journey, a further 1200 miles to Tokyo including covering the Japan Alps, Shirakawa, Kyoto, Osaka, Kobe, Ise, Shizuoka  before a relaxed week in Kichijoji. Unable to fund his habit any further he was forced to turn back on the 14th November, regrettably on an airplane, Siberia having frozen over for the winter.



Safety

Many people seem to think that traveling beyond the limits of our shores are fraught with danger, that gangs of marauding bandits will rob you at every opportunity. The reality is quite different, the warmth and hospitality shown to us was remarkable, beyond anything you could reasonably expect in the UK. The main difficulty is that you are always torn between being as inconspicuous as possible and wanting to engage with people. Fortunately most people who make the effort are kind hearted individuals who want nothing more than to understand what you are doing and why. Not an easy question to answer. We were frequently given food and shelter for the night and on occasion given gifts to send us on our way. I still have a really big shirt I was given in eastern Kazakhstan. We never felt in danger when we were camping wild though once or twice I was a bit nervous when staying with locals, once due to their drunkenness and once due to having been locked in the flat we were staying in , for some reason.
The only problems we encountered was in Kazakhstan where a number of gentlemen at the station in Atirau were less than accomodating when trying to board the train with our cycles, apparently we were supposed to bribe them all individually, this was unpleasant but not really a safety issue. In Siberia two drunks tried to extort money from us for crossing a bridge, when we refused to pay the 100r one got quite aggressive, made more complicated by the fact we were bathing at the time and so unable to make a quick getaway. The less drunk one eventually restrained the more drunk one as we left. The least pleasant incident came in Ulan Bator when a group of reprobates punched me in the stomach and went for my wallet, fortunately a combination of Lucy's attentiveness and my superior M&S tailoring left them empty handed. This was in broad daylight on the main road in Ulan Bator, by the signs that read "Beware of Pickpockets" be warned.
On the whole we had very little trouble. I think we looked pretty poverty-stricken which may have helped, all our equipment looked old an somewhat battered. A vague understanding of Russian is useful and the fact that there were two of us was obviously helpful, though traveling alone brings other advantages such as increased contact with the people who's country you are traveling through.  It seems that the more pitiful and vulnerable you look, the more hospitable people are.
The roads were on the whole good, with drivers no worse than in London until we reached Almaty, where chaos reigns and later Ulan Bator where chaos also reigns. There are no motorways east of Poland so you find yourself cycling in quite heavy quite fast traffic, though the presence of horses and carts is reassuring. Sometimes you have a choice to take a fast busy road or smaller quieter roads in which you invariably get lost, good if you have the time. Kazakhstan has slightly dubious roads and driving but they are rapidly improving the roads at least. parts of the Trans-Siberian Highway are still unsurfaced which is a pain, after Chita the road is terrible I hear. In Mongolia the road was excellent, quiet, smoothish, beautiful landscape. Britain has by far the worst roads in western Europe. Japan can be a bit hazardous on the main roads which occasionally turn into motorways without warning, but out of towns the quiet roads are a dream, though one full of hills.


Wellbeing

Both of us were in reasonable shape prior to our departure, cycling on average 100miles per week. Neither of us had undertaken anything greater that a 250 mile ride, Neither of us had cycled with any serious luggage. No surprise then that our knees gave out in the first week on the way to Berlin. Dosed up on Ibuprofen things went okay and beyond Berlin everything bar the odd twinge our knees behaved themselves. We assumed, with mixed results that we would adapt to the task while on the road and that any training was unnecessary. Lucy had suffered problems in the hands due in part to the distance we were covering and the setup of the bike. A good pair of gloves helps, as does two layers of bartape apparently. I suffered also but to a lesser extent, possibly due to superior core stability. My hands tended to swell up in the heat which was a bit uncomfortable, but not calamitous. The fit of the bike was not ideal and should have been sorted out beforehand.
Lucy, unaccustomed to clipless pedals kept falling over, this did not inspire confidence but did not do any serious damage, and kept me amused.
Only a cut to the foot in the Caspian sea required the use of our ample first aid kit. We did take vitamin supplements when our diet fell short though I'm not sure this was necessary.
We both suffered a couple of intestinal difficulties, mainly in Kazakhstan, avoid the chicken at the junction in the road avout 50 miles north of Taldy-Korgan. Also, though it did not seem too bad at the time in hindsight cycling in the mid-day sun in Kazakhstan may have been a little foolish, but only once did Lucy really suffer for that.
Siberia can get very cold, even in August. Remember to go to bed wearing all your clothes as bu the time you are woken up by the chattering of your teeth it is far too cold to get out of your sleeping bag to put some more layers on.
We have yet to suffer any adverse effects from Chernobyl or Semipalatinsk.
Though physically tough we rarely got fed up with each other or the routine. The level of exercise is certainly beneficial for the spirit, as is leaving your job and any responsibilities you may have.


Food

Eating a sufficient quantity was troublesome, cycling all day requires a ridiculous amount of energy, about 6000-8000Kcal I think and we rarely felt satisfied after a meal. After about a week we found a restaurant that provided a 6 course buffet which did us well, though we were starving again the next morning. It is a fine way to spend a day, cycling and eating but both are time consuming.
German breakfasts are good, in fact German food is excellent when camping and cycling, they invented the Mr Tom bar and have good dense breads and Wurst and the trailmix was one of the best we experienced. Once into Ukraine you may find quantities of salted hog fat a useful and inexpensive source of energy, as are large bags of biscuits. Although we tried to eat sensibly a fair proportion of our calorie count was made up from Coke and chocolate. I'm not sure there is any alternative. Coke is especially good when you are flagging.
Russian truck stops are convenient as you can order as many portions of any dish as you like. You can order several slices of bread, charged at about 3r each (1.5p) which with a bowl of Borsh and a coffee can make a satisfactory meal from about 50p though we usually had a few other dishes and some pancakes with condensed milk bringing the total to about £2.50 each. Other than that we survived mainly on pasta, cheese, bread, soup or a mix of all of them. It is several years since Russia's grocers were consistently empty, you will find well stocked shops regularly though fresh fruit is a little harder to come by. Bananas were readily available and eaten in quantity. Many areas had local foods sold by the road, Volga region is famous for watermelon, East Kazakhstan had apples, tomatoes and cucumbers as well as kefir and dried hard cheese, Siberia provided us with mushrooms, a good place if you know how to differentiate between good and bad. We passed Ukraine in apricot season which was delicious, we often gorged ourselves by the side of the road. Strangely the abundance of apricot trees ceased the instant we got into Russia, but Russian confectionary has it's own unique charm.
We started buying bottled water in Ukraine but after meeting Tom who taught us the word for 'well' we started asking little old ladies for some, it is also a good way to meet people and saves a few tenge. On the odd occasion the water was greener or cloudier than we would have liked but I don't think it ever made us ill. 
Even a small amount of beer or vodka leaves you much less capable the next day, this is regrettable but has to be tolerated, often you do not have a choice.


Money

Do not bring travelers' cheques, nobody takes them anymore.
There are bank machines in all major towns and in between towns where there are none there is nothing to buy. All you need is a few roubles or whatever currency for food. HSBC has a habit of canceling your card when you go abroad, for some reason.
Japan is more awkward than one would think but you can use your card at post offices which are quite high in number.


Trains and Travel

There were few problems traveling with bicycles on trains in Russia, though in Kazakhstan people were much less obliging. On the Trans-Siberian to Vladivostok I was allowed to leave my bike at the end of the carriage with the smokers and before that we had put our bikes one one of the bunks. Traveling Coupe is probably easier than Plakartny, the cheaper class, as there is more space. From Ulan-Bator to the border at Sukebaataar on the Moscow train it went free of charge in the luggage wagon, which stops at the border. at the border I had to collect it and put it in the train. At Ulan-Ude station a coal truck drove over my wheels which were lying on the platform. In Kazakhstan they are no bikes allowed in the carriages I suspect, but they nevertheless let us on, the man made our journey a misery though.
While i'm on the subject of travel it's free and not impractical to take your bike on the ferry from Vladivostok to Fushiki though you do have to carry it up a number of flights of stairs. Also Virgin Atlantic conveniently do not have a policy on bicycles which means you can carry it without surcharge but it does count towards your luggage allowance of 25kg (officially 23kg) they didnt seem to worried about the weight of my hand luggage but they did go through it in a very protracted process, keeping a tin of mackerel and my fuel bottle for themselves.

Please feel free to contact me at dominic @ kazakhwheelers.co.uk (remove spaces) for further information or advice, should you wish to.