I'm going to spend 3 months riding a pushbike through siberian for

[black_labb]

112

I can't see much reason to try right now. There is no police station for hundreds of km in all directions along roads that are only able to be travelled at 15km/h at best and only in vehicles that make the most fancy modded 4wd look like a toy. Add that to limited Russian that cannot be aided with sign language and it's pretty hopeless. I need someone in town to rally people together and descend on the place with torches and pitchforks.

It is 4.15am and I haven't heard any noises to suggest progress at getting to me. Climbing through a window to get to me is probably pretty daunting. They probably suspect I have evil plans for them. I heard a couple vehicles in the last hour. One of them could have been them getting out of here if they came by car. There is one serviceable road heading south and the road heading east may be drive able.

Right now I'm writing the happenings down to put through google translator as my Russian isn't good enough to properly explain it, especially after no sleep and a billion coffees. I heard them say something like we'll get him on the road and I'm not sure I want to risk riding out of here without some sort of closure to the situation. A bicycle loaded is pretty distinct here.

 

[punkin]

Yes, would be good to be able to hitch a ride on a truck somewhere. Can't envy your situation, but i guess that's why i stay home.

 

[komodo]

Bloody hell!

 

[Mardoo]

Yikes! Good luck!!! And lots of it!!!

 

[black_labb]

Just woke to the owner knocking at the door. She knew that here was trouble and came with the police probably here off the train line. Passed him the description of the events on the tablet to him to read and showed her the damage. They left after 5 minutes and I was told to open the door to noone but her. Back to sleep for me. This was supposed to be a day of rest and some prick turned it to staying up all night with adrenaline pumping. Oh well, it's raining and I'll go back to sleep

 

[angus_grant]

phew, good news on that. Enjoy your sleeping.

Hopefully they'll lose interest after 2 days or perhaps will have forgotten where the hell they were anyways. And I'd even hazard a guess that the police would probably know who it was.

 

[mrTbeer]

Yeah probably a drunk policeman.

 

[black_labb]

Don't believe the stereotypes. There are a lot of very good people here who would give the shirt off their back for a stranger. There is also a lot of freedom giving the few bad people the confidence that they can get way with **** like that.

The guy was from out of town and most likely left on a train early this morning. Haven't heard from the owner or police since 11am but he probably didn't get far and someone from the trains should be able to know where he went if not more.

 

[spog]

all the best. .cheers...spog...

 

[Josh]

Holy crap that is a pretty full on story. The kind of thing you see on Banged Up Abroad.

Good to hear you're okay now. I take it there was no way of googling for the phone number he wanted?

Might be an idea to hitch a ride a few km's up the road though. The cops might even offer a ride?

 

[Mardoo]

Hey black_labb,

Congrats on completing your trip! It's been an awesome read along the way and I'm happy all came good for you. Anyone else who wants to read and check out the photos go here:

http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/?o=1&doc_id=12233&v=2e

 

[Forever Wort]

Well done, looks like a great experience. The best antidote to beer is exercise, and when combined with travel ... perfect!

 

[black_labb]

I've been trying to get the last day riding and a bit of a writeup about the time I spent there before the flight and a few more pages on analysing how well I tackled the trip. Being back home I just can't seem to find enough time. I should be able to this week as things approach normal.

Hey black_labb,

Congrats on completing your trip! It's been an awesome read along the way and I'm happy all came good for you. Anyone else who wants to read and check out the photos go here:

http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/?o=1&doc_id=12233&v=2e

Thanks Mardoo, glad you enjoyed it

Well done, looks like a great experience. The best antidote to beer is exercise, and when combined with travel ... perfect!

Thanks. It was a very good experience. Exercise, beer and travel work very well together but If the beer was better I would still be out there.

 

[black_labb]

I meant to post up here when I finished it but the blog is finished and edited as of a couple months ago.

http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/BAM2013

 

[Forever Wort]

Sensational! A great blog. Cool photos and interesting. I will read the whole thing over the next few days for inspiration.

I am going to do some cycling in Sulawesi soon - just a two week break from work with some mates - getting excited!

 

[black_labb]

Thanks Mr Wort, glad you enjoyed it.

 

[Forever Wort]

Any ideas for your the next trip?

 

[mr_wibble]

Bicycle touring is fricken' capital-A Awesome.

We did some 3-month rides when the kids were little - towed them in a trailer along with camping gear.
Now they're big enough to be self-propelled, I don't know where to go. Was thinking of doing some
Victorian rail-trails, but I prefer places where you can get coffee & cake every 5 km
Are the rail-trails like that?

Of course, they're all full-fare on aircraft too, so to go anywhere interesting OS is thousands before you do ride at all.

 

[Forever Wort]

Yeah, you've gotta weigh it all up. Sometimes I think it is worth buying a bike in-country.

This Sulawesi trip will be my first proper bike tour; I've done a lot of dirt biking trips across Asia but have decided to go pedal-powered from now on. My parents and some of their friends have done the rail trails a lot, I think they are popular with the middle-aged.

 

[black_labb]

Any ideas for your the next trip?

I'm trying to not plan anything serious at the moment otherwise I'll make it happen before I should, I'm 7 years into a 5 year long mechanical engineering degree with over a year to go if I were to commit to full time study; I've taken too much time off and spent too much time on part time to make travel money. I've got some short term local trips planned, I'm thinking I might spend some of july riding along the great dividing range in northern nsw along the national bicentennial trail. It may be a bit chilly in winter but I'll bring plenty of tea.

Bicycle touring is fricken' capital-A Awesome.

We did some 3-month rides when the kids were little - towed them in a trailer along with camping gear.
Now they're big enough to be self-propelled, I don't know where to go. Was thinking of doing some
Victorian rail-trails, but I prefer places where you can get coffee & cake every 5 km
Are the rail-trails like that?

Of course, they're all full-fare on aircraft too, so to go anywhere interesting OS is thousands before you do ride at all.

Coffee and cake every 5 km is hard to manage for any distance. Have you thought about some sort of tandem riding? if you have 2 adults and 2 kids then the kids can be stokers and you can manage a bigger variety of roads where you may not trust the kids riding ability/road sense? It's also good to keep the little ones from lagging behind. Making your own coffee means you can stop anywhere and have a good coffee with a nice view. Can't help with the cake though.

Yeah, you've gotta weigh it all up. Sometimes I think it is worth buying a bike in-country.

This Sulawesi trip will be my first proper bike tour; I've done a lot of dirt biking trips across Asia but have decided to go pedal-powered from now on. My parents and some of their friends have done the rail trails a lot, I think they are popular with the middle-aged.

I've been thinking of getting into some dirtbike touring. Australia is so sparse and I've seen quite a bit of it while growing up it's hard to imagine finding much of it interesting on a pushbike. Some regions are great but I wouldn't ride big sections of Australia on a long trip.