Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The duty sergeant at district HQ was a harassed and busy man. A few vagrants
who'd rolled drunkenly out of the van before me were processed first, then I was
prodded toward the counter and told to hold out my hands. The sergeant skimmed
quickly over my arrest report as he removed my handcuffs.
'You know how to get to where you're staying?' he barked. I nodded. 'But you
don't know the address?'
'No.'
'Could you show an officer the way if he was to drive you there?'
I replied eagerly in the affirmative.
'Right, we'll do that then,' he decided. 'But you'll have to wait a while.'
I was put in a large, communal lockup. It was 5 p.m. and I waited till midnight.
I'd been due to meet Tim and Sergei for a party at eight. A few other prisoners
came and went. They stayed an hour or two, pacing and swearing until their friends
came to bail them out, but I sat by myself and avoided talking. Finally, I was col-
lected and put in a van full of officers on their way home from work. They did a
long lap of the city (just to disorientate me!), dropped the officers off first, then
headed in the general direction of Sergei's flat. Halfway there the radio crackled
into life. 'Have you got that Australian?' The driver looked at me and I beamed.
Good old Sergei. He'd managed to track me down.
When we arrived, the policeman took a cursory look at my passport and visa.
He left and Sergei gave me a walloping angry whack on the backside. Then, at 3
a.m., after briefly explaining my story, I collapsed into bed.
We left the next morning. I was feeling tired, drained and subdued. Sergei and
one of his friends drove ahead of us with their hazard lights flashing, leading us out
through the suburbs and back onto the highway. We said goodbye and promised to
keep in touch. Then we pushed off and pedalled, without looking back, away from
Ekaterinburg.
———
I slept long into the next morning and awoke feeling uninspired. It was 300 kilo-
metres to the next city of Tyumen, and we'd decided the night before that it would
be a good idea to split up and ride most of that distance alone.
We rode together for half a day until I spotted a nice camp site in the forest
among a copse of old pines. We had lunch together then Tim packed up to leave.
We divided our equipment without saying much, then we shook hands and
wished each other well. I'd be only half a day behind with the tool kit if he were
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