Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
In mid-April of 1999, after months of minimal success, everything finally star-
ted to come together. As the list of sponsors began to grow, others were encour-
aged to join the show. The wagon started to roll and in the weeks before I flew out
to London, couriers were arriving at the door every day, carting a range of boxes
with all the different bits and pieces of gear that Tim and I would need. Together
we were given over AU$20 000 worth of equipment from forty different sponsors.
It felt like a monumental achievement, but I still didn't have enough cash for an
aeroplane ticket. I spent a few days in uncertainty, until my beloved grandmother
stepped in with a loan.
I flew out of Sydney on 14 May 1999. The final week of last-minute prepara-
tions had been so exhausting that I slept for twenty hours straight. I arrived in Lon-
don to meet Nat; she had taken a different flight. Together, we sat at a bus shelter
outside Heathrow airport, rebuilding our bikes and packing our gear under a sky of
heavy grey clouds.
And then we were off. The first pedals of an incredible journey. All the stress
and the months of worry fell away and we lost ourselves in the beginnings of a
beautiful lifestyle of gentle, easy cycling.
We spent the next four months cycling east through the countries of central,
southern and eastern Europe. We stuck to back roads, camped in secluded forests
and generally planned our route day by day. We had many rewarding encounters
with locals and occasionally we'd leave our bikes to canoe down a river or go walk-
ing in the mountains. At other times, when the roads took us through cities, we'd
stop off at an Internet café to contact friends and family.
Throughout, I stayed in regular contact with Tim. He'd solved our biggest prob-
lem and found a way to get year-long Russian visas! The embassy in Canberra had
refused point-blank, saying that it was impossible; people from the various Russia-
focused Internet newsgroups I'd checked out agreed. Tim had come through
though, and now he was well on track for our meeting in mid-September.
Nat and I were less successful when it came to organising visas for the Ukraine.
First, the officials said 'no'. Then, 'Yes, but it will cost you.' They were sticking to
the old Russian system of communist tourism, which stipulated that we needed to
have pre-booked accommodation for every night of our stay. Furthermore, the only
official travel agent authorised to make such bookings gave us starting prices in the
thousands. In the end we gave up and set our sights on Romania instead. There, I
would collect my Russian visa and take a train to meet Tim in Moscow, while Nat
took a bus to Istanbul and continued cycling in Turkey.
