Jo Ackroyd’s Big Biking Adventure

The Adventure, Video

Well the time has come to move on from Tallinn.

Move on Monday going to Tartu heading south to Vilnius and then to the Prehistoric Forests in Poland aiming to get into Hungary and look for Dracula eventually.

Then? Who knows…

Going to miss the sillyness but maybe things have been just too soft recently.

There are lots of very well off student types that call themselves travellers, but they also talk about going cruising through the Adriatic and also manage to drink every night.

Students must have changed. They also all wear designer clothes…very different in my day!
If you ask them, mummy sends out bank transfers once a month…
They think they are doing it alone…astoundiing really.

Some thoughts from the walls here:

• When life puts stones in your way, make something nice out of them.
• Buying love is as stupid as loving money
• If money is freedom, why doesnt the wind have pockets?

I’ve bought new boots, they aren’t great but I hope they will do for now.

Enjoy the movies we made and the pictures I’ll send…The quality isn’t great but they are funny…

Don’t have much more to say at the moment, but will do soon I hope.

Love to you all.
xxx

The Adventure

and there is no one there to smell it, is it real?

I’ve just had my third bout of food poisoning, good grief it was a run to the toilet. I broke a sweat.

The first was in Germany somewhere, the second was on the run to Poland thru Czech, this was the one where a tree formed a good backrest…

This time I had to concentrate on anything but pooing.

Try it.
Try and think of anything except poo.

It’s really, really hard!
Made it though and gave birth. Phew.

I’m on nights tonight but luckily there is a party here so I wont be alone, When there is a party it goes on through ’till morning so I’m quite lucky really I might only have to do one or two hours!

Johnny here has found himself a girl. This makes life difficult ‘cos she is running around with her blonde hair, tight bum and fabulous figure barely covered by clothes!
She is 22 and really sweet…but good grief!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It’s nice to chill for a while and in some ways the atmosphere is like a student lounge come frat party, day and night, now I’m staff here I’m expected to start the ball rolling with the other guys…

This is how I would like life at home to be, how our houses should be, how simple and fun and trusting life should really be.

I’ve realised I’m far too uptight at home!

Anyhow, gotta go, it’s my turn to play the guests at Fussball.
speak soon

xxx

The Adventure

The Adventure, Video

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Pictures, The Adventure

No no no no, I just mean I need a re-think, I’m thinking either stay put and work here for a few weeks just for fun, or head up into Finland and see a bit of Lapland, although I’ve been checking on the web and Finland is very expensive to stay in for any duration, but also I could come down through Budapest, heading for the Crotia coast, Turkey and maybe Iran.

I still have open insurance and visas for Africa.

This doesnt mean it’s over, just maybe changing a little.

The Adventure, Visa's

Things have kind of gone wrong. I suppose wrong doesn’t really mean the same as you might think in this situation. I’m having a rethink of which direction I should take next…

I made it out of Tallinn at 8am on Tuesday morning, drove on to Narva, 284 km. I was there at the border just before 12 and queing in the traffic to access border control. I had made a couple of mistakes of getting in to wrong queues but only for a few minutes. The signs are in English but still it takes a lot of guess work.

The first border entrance seemed pretty clean and easy, examination of paperwork a look around the bike for VIN numbers and on I went. Now I thought this was easy but I was also dying for a pee so didn’t think too much about it all. Then the next set of checkpoints loomed. I should have realised, I was in no-mans-land.

The border into Russia had only just begun…the paperwork was in Russian, while the guards were cool and quite freindly I was confused.

The crossing is done at 6 to 8 feet intervals and you must not EVER cross the next line without being told, truncheons come out and guards come over to you if your wheel goes over the line. Look on the bright side at least it’s not their guns!

Finally the last proper border gate is paperwork. I handed over the docs and got some migration cards and customs paperwork in return along with an impressive A5 certificate in Russian embossed and colourful.

Thinking everything was in order I continued on , passport shown and off I went into Russia. It all took about 2 hours. The roads were noticably worse than the Estonian side and at one point I saw a man on a little rotavator that had been converted into a car type thing. The buildings were run down and there seemed to be a lot of men in groups not doing an awful lot.

20 or 30 km further down the road there was a road block, I’ve read that the Police here don”t make things obvious, but if you don’t stop they do shoot and claim you were trying to escape - according to the Rough Guide to Russia anyway.

A copper waved his arm by his side and I assumed that meant me so I pulled over, handed over my documents and he was very specific to ask, in english, for my insurance. My documents were not in order and he wanted me to come into the station. I say station but it was actually a pretty run down building, cells to the left painted dark pink, bars to the doors, a flap to the right which held a TV and the police had the good manners to turn the volume down. In front of me was the 3 foot truncheon collection and riot gear, not that they needed to intimidate me. I did notice there was a cell empty.

They said my documents werent in order and they intend to inpound my bike in St. Petersberg, remove the registration and fine me, apparently a huge fine. They showed me a small document booklet that explained how they are able to do this and what the legislation was, this was in all languages, so it had some kind of believability to it.  There were three of them taking it in turns to question me then they went outside and i could hear them laughing. I thought at this point I had a decent chance.

They asked for some money and I produced a fake credit card and 400 rubbles which is about eight pounds, also had Polish Zloty about five pounds worth and Czeck Krone, Estonian EEk and about 40 euros.

I told them I had just got through the border and needed a Bankomat, so I couldn’t pay any fine. At this point the fine got smaller and the more strange currencies I put on the table the smaller the fine got. Eventually the Policeman gave me directions to a Bankomat. I said I needed to go on the motorcylce and this is when stuff got strange.

First he brought out a small baby kitten in his hand and said it was cute, then he said I need to buy Russian papers from a man across the road from the Bankomat and gave me directions, then he asked if I liked the cat. Then said if  I pay the fine and get the papers I would have no more problems in Russia, but thought I would not make it through Russia alive on my own on a bike. He also thought I didn’t understand that Russian roads were bad, I said I know they have been awful so far and he laughed out loud and exclaimed these are the good ones!

Would I also like to buy the cat?

I would have to pass back past them to pay the fine, then I could go on to St. Petersburg.

So now I’m sitting in a car park near the Bankomat surrounded by Russia and Russians.

Do you turn and run or pay the fine and buy the papers and continue, do you think this will happen again and again and again until there is no money left?

I feel such a wimp!

I Dare not leave the bike long enough to take a pee so I pee up the back wheel, the guys hagging around are particularly rough and I’m guessing I dont fit in that well… I saw a police car turn the corner so I wait until he is out of sight, start the engine and run for the border, tail between my legs.

Two and a half hours through customs, then running back to Tallin but I don’t have any Estonian cash and need fuel but luckily my spare jerry has 5 litres in. I make it back to Tallin and park up unpack and go for food.

After the chinese I throw up something awful and end up going to bed around 4:30 am after joining in a party in the rooms where I’m booked. Absolutely hammered and sleep the next day away.

Still not sure if I’ve done the right thing. But don’t have a choice now, the visa is used. I’ve heard similar from the guys where I’m staying, even a coach tour has been turned over and emptied of cash and sent back to Estonia. A Russian guy here says I’ve picked a terrible border to cross as there is a history of violence and abbuse and I should get a new visa and try again. He also says it would be much better if I spoke Russian. Bit late to learn I feel.

Didn’t think I would give up so easily though.

The Adventure, Visa's

Hello my lovelies, can’t get GPS to work but I’m in Tallin (Estonia). Backpackers hostel. Now heard nice stories about Russia so feeling better. There is a girl here done south to north alone and loved it. Great weather. Love to you all, St Petersberg tomorrow I hope if I make an early enough start!!!

Had a nice day until I reached a recomended bar in Tallin called ‘the bar with no name’ which is incredibly rude! The staff are the worst so far even at home. I’ve never been treated so poorly by the bar staff. This is an English Australian bar, I’m drinking up and going back to an Estonian bar…they were fabulous and perfect. Had great fun in there. Going back.

The Adventure

Hello! I’m in the backpackers hostel in Tallin that’s pretty cool. Nice in Tallin too. St. Petersburg tomorrow… Making me slightly worried but I also hear this is the easiest place to start. Should be beautiful though. Speak soon.

The Adventure

Hi all, I’m sitting in Andy’s beautiful house; warm, dry and turning soft again by the amount of ‘hosting’ that’s been going on - I have a wooly head this morning!

I can see why Riga is a draw to live in, while the old town is small it’s also quite lovely, you can really feel the European experience, there’s a calmness that you just don’t get at home. Folk are friendlier and talking to strangers in a bar is nearly expected! You couldn’t do that in London.

And the girls here are the very best yet by a very long way - they are incredibly beautiful, it seems a national trait to have long, long, long legs!

I have another dilema about getting into Russia, I could skip Tallinn and go straight for the border or go and see Tallin, spend a day and cross the border in just the way I planned.  While the visa is open and I could be using it there is probably little difference between the up and accross or just the across bit by map…dunno, the answer will pop out on its own.

Had a metre long sausage for dinner, some beer, had a curry while I’ve been here had more beer and washed me socks…

Andy and I changed the chain yesterday and the sprockets, pretty easy job really and it really needed it, the last 500 miles has really taken its toll on it. You can see the mishaped sprockets and the chain was in really bad condition.

Gotta go now but all’s great, weather has changed and the sun is out

The Adventure