A little like 'Linus' (but dirtier) from the Snoopy cartoons I packed up my tent and bits amid a cloud of mozzies and pointed my bike along with Steve to Tynda. Knowing that we had a mammoth ride ahead along a truly horrendeous road we pressed on. What quickly became clear was exactly how remote we were becoming. Mongolia was supposed to be all that but it had nothing on the Siberian wilderness. Hundreds of miles seemed to pass between fuel stations and food/water places. There weren't even any animals visible on the plains. Eventually we found a roadside cafe and ate at around three, with still a long long way to go. With no tent between us we simply had to make Tynda, which was still bloody miles away! At around 19:00 it became clear that we could be in a bit of trouble, with nowhere to say and darkness setting in, no food/drink, mechanical support or hope of reaching Tynda. In desperation we tried to get to a small village we saw off the TSH. We couldn't do that either as our road didn't service it, only the railway did! Oh dear. This was pointed out to us by some Russian railway workers we found whilst I was noticing that I now had a rear puncture! Clearly seeing how much shit we were about to get into these guys offered to share their acommodation with us. Cosy! Steve didn't seem too keen on the idea with maybe memories of his public school life flodding back to him(!?) Naturally, no verbal communication was possible but after an 'all hands to the deck' with the puncture repair we had no choice but to accept their offer and await the unaviodable (home made) vodka session that of course followed. In truth Steve never quite felt comfortable with the situation, sleeping with one eye open, but I loved it, all in all a great little adventure!
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