Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The next day we were ready to depart. Our bikes were as ready as they'd ever
be. All of our extra gear was strapped on, and the machines stood heavy and over-
loaded before us. The road was icy, and it took a couple of practice runs and slip-
pery crashes before we were able to start trundling away.
We waved goodbye to Baba Galya and some of our other friends then turned
onto the main street, which was thankfully clear of snow. We headed at snail's pace
towards the other side of town and the open highway. We rolled down the hill to-
wards the river and stopped for a crowd that, like most in the village, had heard of
us but whom we hadn't yet met. A couple of policemen emerged from the throng,
too. They pulled us aside on the pretext of checking our passports, but they were
really just itching with curiosity and keen to get a look at our bikes.
We crossed the river and pedalled back up the hill. It was a relatively gentle
slope, but such was our podgy condition after the motionless months of winter that
it felt like a major mountain range!
I shifted down to my easiest gear then pedalled, heaved and blew. My legs filled
with liquid fire and my lungs strained to bursting point. My gulping breaths were
threatening to tear apart my chest and my heart pounded crazily inside me. It was
below zero, but I was sweating a fountain. Red spots prickled the backs of my eyes
and I bit my lip hard, struggling to stay upright.
A toddler from the village watched, fascinated as I veered from one side of the
road to the other. She scurried over for a closer look and I gave her a quick grin
as she walked beside me. The look on her face seemed to say that she was unsure
whether to burst out laughing or to run ahead and tell her friends to come and watch
too!
Gasping for breath, I reached the top and let out a cheer. Tim pulled up beside
me and we surveyed the open and mercifully flat road ahead. Sure, we'd only come
a few hundred metres, and sure we had over 9000 kilometres to go, but at the top
of this slope I felt on top of the world.
We pushed off again and crawled away from the village. Hour by hour, day by
day, month by month, we'd make it. Road or no road, come snow or mud. We were
finally moving again and it felt great! We were inching our way to China!
———
An hour or so later, after we'd decided that our pudding bellies had had enough ex-
ercise for the day, we realised that the cycling over the next few weeks was going
to be the easy part of the journey. The road we were on had been kept clear of snow
