Butterflies and Flat Tyres

At 80 (now 82, 2012) and still on a bike 🙂 My dad on his adventure biking trip in South Africa back in the 80s, and people wonder where I get it from 🙂     My brother Anthony (ant) when he got his new bike a few years ago. My…

what a day … spoke to the mechanic who said bike is fine he fixed the hole in the radiator and now it is ok. I am VERY worried as I know about the hole and have been toping Dizzys radiator every day and trying to limp him to a…

We finally set off to find a truck to take the Dizzy to Irkutsk to a mechanic. Well again no luck the drivers are just not having any of it, so once again we must tow Dizzy the now last 100km to the city. Uuuggghhh I hate this part but…

Joans cousins live on lake Baikal in a very small village and in a very traditional Russian house. I fall in love with them instantly they are fantastic. We arrive with no prior warning as Joan does not have their telephone number, at 10:30pm Kolya and Valaria are overjoyed to…

It’s fun riding with another bike again and we stop at lake Baikal for a swim and park the bikes right on the pebble stone beach  (DAMN it’s freezing so I wussed out and just got my feet wet) Hope back on the bikes and about 15km later Dizzy just…

Dizzy and I head off and I feel great again, I just love riding this and am once again happy and content but beginning to feel like I am in Groundhog Day and cannot get of Russia as the Km crawl slowly by. I do about 650 or so km…

So much has happened since my last blog I do not even know where to start so I will go back to the hotel that reluctantly let me stay. Since I was so panicked about my visa situation and the hotel not wanting me to stay I could hardly sleep…

This leads (I have no idea how but it does) to my eating habits while on the road. My last 3 dinners have consisted of 1) a tin of sardines and a packet of strawberry biscuits 2) a cup of jasmine tea and an apple 3) a bag of almonds…

There are a few things that kept me interested and wake on the M59 besides truck drivers, the scenery and bumping into the reindeer herders, the chipmunks. These little guys run across the road often stopping half way, turn around and run back. I love seeing them as they are…

As I sit here (on my bed bug infested bed in a dive of a guesthouse) writing this post the stench from my bike boots is almost unbearable (you’d think I’d be used to it by now) I’ve put them in the window but it’s not helping. I’ve also noted…