A Journey by Bicycle through Europe, Siberia, Mongolia & China

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Sunday, 13^th June 2004
Novosibirsk
Total kms so far: 10,000

Not feeling very inspired in the words department today but have a look at lots of photos for this month via the link above.

As the pictures will tell you, there's 1500km of swamp between Chelyabinsk and Novosibirsk and the best advice I can give anyone planning to cycle-camp that stretch of road is: DON'T. Or at least, do it in winter when presumably all the insects die off or get frozen in the ice or something.

Imagine one European-sized horsefly.
Now imagine one twice that size.
Now imagine about 80 of them.
Now imagine riding your bike at 20km/h with all 80 of them constantly circling round your hands and face.
And imagine that every time you kill one, another 20 appear out of nowhere to replace it.
Now imagine riding like that for 120 kms a day, every day for two weeks.
With mosquitos and ticks to add to the party any time you stop.

It really isn't a great deal of fun. I'm hoping that in the hills and mountains of eastern Siberia things will be different!

Sunday, 13^th June 2004
Novosibirsk
Total kms so far: 10,000

For those who like statistics:
10,000 km exactly from Exeter - though my website seems to think it's 10,002.

Of which, days with:

0km: 4 days
0.1-9km: 0 days
10-19km: 1 day
20-29km: 1 day
30-39km: 3 days
40-49km: 1 day
50-59km: 0 days
60-69km: 3 days
70-79km: 4 days
80-89km: 6 days
90-99km: 9 days
100-109km: 22 days
110-119km: 21 days
120-129km: 13 days
130-139km: 7 days
140-149km: 2 days
150-159km: 2 days


Days 1-10: 778km
Days 11-20: 746km
Days 21-30: 1077km
Days 31-40: 1190km
Days 41-50: 959km
Days 51-60: 1072km
Days 61-70: 1032km
Days 71-80: 970km
Days 81-90: 1029km
Days 91-100: 1147km

See photos for this month