Final figures

Tuesday, 01 July 2008 02:00 Last Updated on Thursday, 12 February 2009 22:31 Written by Claudine du Plessis

St Petersburg

Tuesday, 01 July 2008 02:00 Last Updated on Thursday, 26 March 2009 15:06 Written by Claudine du Plessis

We slept late and I made us a brunch of bacon and eggs.  Vladimir really helped us a lot, he found out about different train tickets to Moscow, went with us to the station to book them, and also organized us new bike boxes for free from a friend of him.

Sightseeing in St Petersburg was really interesting, there’s so much to see, we spent the whole day just looking at cathedrals, statues, canals and everything.  At half past one in the morning, the bridges between the islands lift to let the boats and ferries through and we also watched that.

The next day we just mostly relaxed, walked to the big supermarket to buy packing tape and plastic bags for boxing our bikes and are now busy packing our bikes away.  Tonight, or rather tomorrow morning at 2 o'clock, we will take the train to Moscow and should arrive there at about 7 the morning.  Our host in Moscow, Maria, is the one that introduced us to Vladimir, so when we booked our tickets, Vladimir phoned Maria with the times and she said she will meet us at the station.  All of our last worries, the packing away of our bikes, buying train tickets and boxes, is now gone, thanks to Vladimir.

Begunitsv to St Petersburg

Sunday, 29 June 2008 02:00 Last Updated on Thursday, 26 March 2009 14:37 Written by Claudine du Plessis

Cycling Day: 21
Distance: 130km

Vladimir left early because he had to go to work (yes, he doesn’t mind cycling a quick 70km in 2 hours before work).  He told us about a longer, but more scenic and quiet route we could take to St Petersburg along the coastline.  It was raining in the morning and we quickly unpitched the tent, got attacked by the swarm of mosquitoes and left.  Very close to our campsite is a big castle and when we arrived there it started raining in full force so we decided to hang around until the rain calmed down. There was some concert or show at the castle and they were selling kebabs so we stayed for brunch.

Not too far from the castle, Billy’s pannier fell off and Lance had a puncture.  Our bikes really had enough, it was as if they knew the trip was almost over. Both Lance and Billy only had one working brake left and my rear wheel was so buckled by then, I wobbled the whole way, and because of that my rear brakes also didn’t work.

We cycled through a special military zone along the north coast, where Russia apparantly has a nuclear power station.  It rained about 80% of the time we cycled, but at least the roads were in a bit of a better condition.  There was a lot of open space with forests and coastline before we reached the outskirts of St Petersburg.  If you look at a map with St Petersburg, you will see that it stretches along the northern coastline, with lots of bays and islands connected with bridges. It is a huge city and with a population of about 5 million, it is the norhternmost city with a population of over 1 million people.

From when we entered the outskirts of St Petersburg, it took us another couple of hours to reach Vladimir's place, which is on one of the big islands.  Vladmir had gone diving and we chatted with his flatmate Vaddim, who took us to the 24 hour McDonalds for a quick dinner.  Vladimir arrived later and we celebrated the end of our trip with some beer and Russian vodka which I unfortunately missed because I fell asleep and nobody or nothing could wake me.

Narva to Begunitsv

Saturday, 28 June 2008 02:00 Last Updated on Monday, 10 January 2011 07:39 Written by Claudine du Plessis

Cycling Day: 20
Distance: 105km

This morning our host prepared a breakfast for us of bread, cheese and cold meats. We crossed the bridge which is the border between Estonia and Russia and had to go through the border post. It went smoother than expected, because the woman checking our forms could speak a little English and she didn’t ask any strange questions.

5 km over the border, we reached our total of 3000 kilometers and had a beer we bought at the Estonian supermarket. Lance snapped a spoke, unfortunately we didn’t bring any spares so had to continue with one spoke missing. The main road we followed had a wide enough shoulder, but had so many potholes and bumps, most of the time it felt like cycling on the moon. Billy’s front brakes also didn’t want to work anymore, but we decided rear breaks must do for now.

Our host in St Petersburg, Vladimir, said he will meet us at the small town of Begunitsv (halfway between Narva and St Petersburg) and camp with us for the night. We reached Begunitsv at half past 7 and saw Vladimir (or Vovick as his friends call him) waiting at the Begunitsv sign. This Vovick is a legend among hitchhikers and travellers and has so many interesting stories to tell. He hitchhiked from Russia to Cape Town, cycled off road for 3000 kilometers around Mongolia, climbed Kilimanjaro without a permit and almost went to jail for it, hitched rides on boats, a helicopter and military airplanes and also hitchhiked through Afghanistan while they were at war with America.

We followed Vladimir for about 20 kilometers looking for a campsite and found a spot in the forest where we put up our tents. Before our trip, we’ve heard the mosquitoes near St Petersburg are hectic, but now we know what they meant by it. Mosquito spray didn’t help, they were everywhere, like a black cloud surrounding you. Also millions of small little bugs that got into your hair, ears, nose and mouth. We quickly broke apart a dead tree and made a fire, so the smoke could at least keep the worst away. Then we cooked dinner (pasta of course) and listened to all Vladimir's amazing tales.

Rakvere to Narva

Friday, 27 June 2008 02:00 Last Updated on Monday, 10 January 2011 07:38 Written by Claudine du Plessis

Cycling Day: 19
Distance: 120km

The most of today's cycle was luckily sunny and it went fairly quickly.  We had lunch (hamburgers with pink sauce) halfway and reached Narva at about 7 o'clock.  Our host for tonight in Narva was an interesting and very friendly girl.  She have worked in Germany before and is now trying to find a job in Afghanistan as a building inspector (which is what she is currently doing in Estonia).

Narva is a cool town, because it is so close to the border of Russia, the river that runs through Narva is the border.  We walked with our host along the river, there's a big castle on each side. Lance tried to throw a stone over the river into Russia, but couldn't succeed and we did a little bit of exploring around the castle.