Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
take time and patience. I wanted to make the taiga forest, Russia and its people my
focus.
Essentially, I wanted to experience Russia and not just see it.
The last two months of the course were highly intensive with exams and tests,
and I felt guilty about not being able to help Chris with the sponsorship drive. His
e-mails were nothing short of inspiring. Sometimes he would write about an in-
credible number of businesses that he had faxed, and say that there was an inkling
of interest. At other times he sounded dejected and downright convinced that he
was not getting anywhere.
The day before he flew out of Sydney, he surprised me with some news - his
girlfriend Natalie Chan would join him from London to Romania. Interestingly,
Nat also studied in Canberra and had lived a few doors from me and Chris. It
seemed that things were working out in a serendipitous way.
At the end of the wilderness guide course, I moved into a canvas A-frame 'trap-
per's tent' in the nearby forest. The frame was made of branches cut from the
forest. I had twenty-five dollars left and my return ticket to Australia had been for-
feited. Using the tent as my base, I worked eight-hour days for the forestry college,
repairing outdoor equipment. In my spare time, I went about finding sponsors, or-
ganising our twelve-month Russian visas, and trying to nut out a basic plan for our
journey. Integral to our adventure was my desire to inspire young people. To this
end I e-mailed about 2000 schools in Russia, hoping to visit some along the way.
We planned to use our Web-site to post stories for students in Australia, Russia and
Finland so that they could keep up with our progress.
With a month to go before departure, my e-mails and letters to sponsors, media
and schools proliferated. Every time I received an update call from Chris, it was a
reminder that time was running out.
One morning a big package from Australia arrived via courier. Attached to it
was a note from Chris: 'What do you reckon, mate? A pretty good Christmas
present from sponsors!' I tore it open to find 100 rolls of Kodak slide film, Gore-
tex Clothing from Mountain Designs, bundles of thermals from Everwarm and a
whole host of other goodies. For the first time the journey began to feel real. My
bike, however, was yet to arrive. It was still being custom made in Canberra by
Wayne Kotzur. My share of the sponsored funds from
Australian Geographic
was
going to be just enough to pay for the bike and its shipment to Finland. In the end
Wayne waived the courier fee in a gesture of support.
