U-turn

Quick post. Shortly before Novosibirsk the Czech guys and I go separate ways. Novosibirsk is the third biggest city in Russia and sits exactly in the middle of the country. The local studies museum has a small section on shamanism with explanations in Russian language only. Coincidentally, in the same venue there's special Marc Chagall exhibition. Chagall is one of my favourite painters.

After one day, I hit the road again in direction to Krasnoyarsk. Camping proves stressful as mosquitoes and small flies are plentiful. In fact there are so many flies that it sounds like it's raining flies under my hoodie. It's time to reassess my situation. I have 2,400 kms from this point to the Mongolian border via Krasnoyarks and Irkutsk. I must enter Mongolia before the 2nd of September. That means I have to do 100 kms a day without any rest and without any time for unpredictable events, such as mechanical problems or heavy rain. And I'm fed up with the insects. It might be like this all the way to lake Baikal. On the other hand, I could return to Novosibirsk and enter Mongolia through the Altay mountains. No mosquitoes in the mountains, but it involves 1,400 kms of unpaved roads in Mongolia. I don't know if my bike can take it but it's worth trying. More time in Mongolia and less time in Russia.

In Ojac I take an 'electrichka' train back to Novosibirsk. While waiting at the train station, I meet a man who loves football and gives me a bag full of cucumbers, tomatoes and peppers from his dacha and helps me get the bike on the train. I sit next to his neighbour, lovely Valentina, from the Ukraine, in her 50s and who, before getting off, makes sure our neighbour passenger agress to help me in Novosibirsk. This time, I stay with Serguey in Academgorod. Academgorod is the 'Sillicon valley' of Siberia and Serguey is a C++ developer from Yakutia and a keen cyclist. He's going to Crime on a cycling tour this September. Serguey finds it amusing that I think mosquitoes are too much. In Yakutia they're much worse. Serguey loves Russia and dislikes people who want to leave their country. He loves the fact that people are self reliant, can fix things themselves and  they fix things themselves. He believes in science and walks everywhere. And he walks fast! Serguey helps me find a dentist (this time is final), a hairdresser and a good bike shop where I buy 20 inch BMX tires.

Greta Garbo and Zinedine Zidane

In Omsk, my host is Pasha, a 42-year old Russian hindu who works as TV producer and also owns a small business that installs alarm systems on cars. Pasha looks much younger than his age, does a lot of work-out and yoga and follows dietary advice from his guru in India. Pasha is very spiritual and finds wisdom and inspiration in different religious traditions from around the world. When he was a child, Pasha's teacher at school told him that the Russian cosmonauts had gone to 'heaven' and had not found God. Pasha reported this to his grandmother, who was a very devout Orthodox, and she replied 'they need to go higher!'. Pasha explains to me a theory by which a new race of people will be born out of Omsk to be stewards of a better and more environmentally friendly world. We go on a very long tour of Omsk on Pasha's four wheel vehicle. I'm afraid it might be rude of me to tell him that I'm (car) sick after five minutes so we get on with our our bouncy expedition, which, Pasha being a big fan of recent architecture, includes many modern buildings, and that makes me even more sick. After four or five hours I suggest that we stop to eat and call it a day but Pasha responds that he doesn't need to eat.

At the local bike shop I meet Alosha and Vova, two members of the cycling club in Omsk who invite me to join them for their daily ride with fellow club members, two of which carry huge home made ghetto blasters attached to their sturdy downhill bikes. I'm in bike heaven! Everyone is very curious about my bicycle and I learn that any kind of cycling is considered an 'extreme' sport in Russia. The next day, Vova, Alosha and Timur escort me out of Omsk!

Two days after Omsk, a man at a cafe tells me that he has seen two cyclists pass by an hour earlier. After a month and a half of not seeing a single long distance cycling tourist (except for the Ukrainian guy with the one pedal bike), I want to say hello to these guys so I set out to catch up with them. After a few hours and asking a few people I can't find them, so I figure they're either hidden in a cafe or they are in Tatarsk. Not long after leaving Tatar behind I see the unmistakable shape of touring cyclists on my mirror! My surprise and joy are double because these are none other than Zinedine Zidane and Greta Garbo!

Zinedine and Greta are in reality 28-year-old married Ondre and Hana and they're cycling from the Czech republic to Mongolia and after that they will fly to South East Asia where they will continue their one year grand tour before returning to their country, settle down and resume their normal lifes, Ondre as an architect and Hana as a translator!

The same day we bump into Markus and Markus, two brothers in law from Corinthia, Austria, who're participating in the Mongolian charity rally and driving a small Daewoo car across central Asia into Mongolia. We decide to all camp together. After many perfect wild camping nights the mosquitoes are very numerous and aggressive. Hordes of mosquitoes while camping will become a permanent feature between Omsk and Novosibirsk. An open fire improves things. The Austrians are complaining that going to the toilet in the forest is very painful but Hana braves the insects and takes a cold shower. The rest of us drink pepper vodka, Russian beer and home-made Austrian schnapps.

These are great days of companionship, laughter, mosquito fighting, quick dips into rivers, ice creams and roasted bread. As we get closer to Novisibirsk days are getting hotter and wetter. The day we reach swampy Barabinsk, it's sweltering, wet and hazy. It all looks unreal.