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past seven years, walking most of the way around the world! His stories of Russia
captured me in particular.
'It's a beautiful country, Chris, totally wild and free. The people are so down-to-
earth and friendly. I spent over two years walking there and I stayed both winters
with locals in these tiny Siberian villages. If you ever go, think of me, and always
remember the bum!'
I thought that he'd been describing himself as a 'bum', but later I realised that
I'd simply misheard his strong American accent. He'd actually been telling me to
remember the highlight of his journey: the BAM railway through Northern Siberia,
one of the longest and most remote working railway lines in the world.
I remembered the university in Canberra where I'd first met Tim. We'd spent a
crazy few months poring over maps and dreaming of adventures, until he won the
scholarship to train as a wilderness guide in Finland. I spent the rest of the year ser-
iously doubting my reasons for studying until, finally, goaded into action by Tim's
e-mails from the Arctic, I dropped out of my course and set about organising an
adventure of my own. After a few half-baked ideas, several themes finally merged
and I set my mind on Russia. I let Tim in on the idea and it turned out that he was
keen on coming too! And so the adventure was born.
We had very little information and no real idea what would be in store for us.
But then, we were teenagers and we just knew that we could do anything. What
we lacked in knowledge and experience we could always make up with enthusi-
asm. All that remained was to organise the details and the logistics and the not-so-
straightforward matter of finding AU$30 000 in sponsorship to cover equipment
and other expenses. In the last months of 1998 I set to work and quickly realised
that most companies were reluctant to hand out cash. I made little progress and
procrastinated heavily. And then Nat came along.
Nat decided to defer her studies in psychology for a year and come travelling
too. She worked in Sydney as a taxi telephonist while I worked the evening shift at
a frozen foods factory in Bathurst, packing icy-cold fish-fingers and counting down
the hours till knock-off time in dollars and cents. I spent my days on the phone,
calling hundreds of media outlets and thousands of potential sponsors, and trying
to crack the vicious circle of needing publicity to attract sponsors while needing
the credibility of sponsors to interest the media.
On the weekends, Nat and I would meet at Katoomba - halfway between our
homes - and explore the deep river gorges and the soaring, wild ridges of the beau-
tiful southern Blue Mountains.
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