18. South Korea - end of the Asian leg

date: 29 Aug '09
week: 12 of 16
day: 80 of 113
weather: Warm, sunny & humid
country: South Korea (the non-scary one)
nearest town: Seoul
distance traveled: +19,000km, +12,000 miles

An 18 hour trip on the Dong Chun ferry from Vladivostok brought us to South Korea and normality. Perfect tarmac roads signs in English (and Korean), people who smile and who have heard of customer service :), food is good too. (I didn't write much about Russia at the time but the Russian food is often dull and as a customer in shops, cafes and hotels you feel you are an inconvenience to the person serving you).

The Korean countryside is very pleasant and even though there is often a mountain backdrop it seems as if the place is one big, regularly attended to, garden. The country is ordered and despite the language barrier, not at all intimidating. The rides around Korea to Seoul have been more like Sunday afternoon rides back home compared to the previous challenges of Siberia and Mongolia.

Seoul marks the end of our ride from the West of Europe to the East of Asia

Yesterday the bikes, panniers and riding gear were packaged into crates for America, a surprisingly painless 2 hour process. Tomorrow I catch a 10.5 hour Air Korea flight to Seattle to arrive 6 hours before I depart to start the beginning of the final stage of the trip across North America to New York.

17. Trans-Siberian Highway

date: 18 Aug '09
week: 10 of 16
day: 69 of 113
weather: Rain
country: Russia
nearest town: Vladivostok

Perhaps the most demanding part of the trip has been the ride in Siberia from Ulan Ude to Vladivostok, a distance of approx. 4,000km (2,500 miles) much of which is a wilderness of silver birch trees and mosquitoes (unfortunate as it was camping all the way until Vladivostok).

The highway runs over the top of China and then 'round the top right hand corner to Vladivostok. The initial 3 days of the 6 day journey were across mostly unmade roads with plenty of other vehicles, earth moving & road laying equipment and of course lots of dust. Several of the riders had some close calls particularly on the freshly laid wet tarmac, I lost the back wheel at one point but managed to stay upright another wasn't so lucky and slid down the road covering herself and bike in the wet tar.

The hardest part of the trip (these are the parts you are supposed to look back on as the best!!) was dealing with the mosquitoes. As soon as we found a camp site they would descend, wouldn't leave you alone until you got into your tent and at one particularly boggy camp site they just buzzed all night between the tent's inner and flysheet, waiting for you to leave in the morning, or to torment you while trying to answer the call of nature during the night.

Having had enough of the camping two of us decided to combine the last 750km (450 miles), initially planned as two days riding, into one final push to get to Vladivostok and a hotel. The road was mostly good tarmac, but it took 11.5 hours through heavy traffic and constant rain to get to the hotel, well worth it to miss a night of camping with mosquitoes though, plus we got the last available room at the hotel.

16. Over Halfway and Mongolia Completed

date: 12 Aug '09
week: 9 of 16
day: 63 of 113
weather: Hot, sunny
country: Russia (Siberia)
nearest town: Ulan Ude
distance traveled: 15,840km, 9,900 miles

Since Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan where I made the last post we have travelled through Kazakhstan, Russia briefly and then across Mongolia and back into Russia (Siberia). Mongolia was bar far the toughest country of the trip. From entering the gate into Mongolia from the Russian border there were no roads, just dirt tracks, this remained the case for the next 6 days of our trip.

On the 3rd day in Mongolia I was going well with the off road dirt, rocks and shallow sand. Then I hit some deep sand, the front wheel went sharply to the left as I slowed down (wrong thing to do in sand) I corrected to the right and repeated left and right and finally fell off. Bike sliding through the sand and me flat on my back hearing a crack as I landed! Next two days spent in the 4x4 with a painful rib, think it was dislocated, still painful when I laugh, cough and sneeze; but spirits are high and the 4,000km Trans-Siberian highway is next.