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grammar, progressing in leaps and bounds. In the meantime, we were also getting
ready to leave.
The plan was to start riding again at the very beginning of spring, when there
would still be deep snow in the forest and possibly ice on the roads. We would have
to prepare ourselves, properly this time, against the cold and the wet in order to
avoid another bout of frostbite. And as we were heading east now, away from the
security of Finland and the big Russian cities in the west, we also had to make sure
we were self-sufficient for the rest of the year.
We had ridden barely 600 kilometres the previous autumn and had at least 9000
to go. Every day would take us further towards the vast unknown of Siberia and
further away from the civilisation of the west. In nine months, almost anything
could happen; in fact, I was expecting almost everything to happen, both disasters
and unexpected, spontaneous joys.
Thus, it was with butterflies in the stomach that I set about getting my things
ready for the ride. For me this uncertainty is also central to the addictiveness of this
kind of travel. As always, I was hoping for only the wonderful, but experience had
taught me that on a journey as long as this, it would be almost impossible to avoid
disasters.
I reasoned that a little bit of strategic planning and preparation would help to
make disasters enriching challenges, rather than conclusive and irreversible stuff-
ups. I quietly packed the most versatile and comprehensive travelling tool kit I
could carry before boarding the train for Babushkina.
———
Baba Galya was looking a little pale and her belly laugh was a little more subdued
when we returned to her cottage. She had been in hospital for ten days over winter
with a respiratory problem. Usually a picture of robust and bawdy good health, she
sat subdued at the table chewing on a piece of smoked pork fat and tut-tutting as we
related our experiences of the last months. She was particularly concerned when
we revealed our plans to begin riding again at the end of the week.
'There's still two metres of snow in the forest,' she declared, looking pointedly
at our toes. 'You'll freeze!'
Nevertheless, we set about preparing our bikes and dropping in on our old
friends. Our bikes and gear had spent the past four months huddled in a draughty
shed and now the frozen components needed to be stripped, cleaned and reas-
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