And Then....... Something Happened

Day 91 Friday 1^st July 2011 

Last night after posting the blog onto the website we had news from Yuri saying that the container has now been offloaded and he is coming to the hotel tomorrow (that’s today now) to complete some paperwork and sort out some insurance for the bikes. Things are finally moving forward and the horizon now looks brighter even the weather forecast for the day looked good.

The tall ship was still in port when we went down the hill towards the station and a quick check at the quayside revealed a lot of pomp and ceremony going on with bands playing, marching girls, priests blessing etc. So we gave that a miss and went off in search of Dom Kniga, another bookshop which was reported to be along the major Svetlanskya Street. We found the store easily enough and there was an English language section with I guess no more than 25 books languishing on its three shelves in a little recess of the store. My soul was lifted when I saw a row of paperbacks but quickly deflated when I saw that they were all John Grisham novels – nothing against John Grisham – just that I have read every one of them. I just had classics left to choose from so I chose the Arthur Conan Doyle “Hound of the Baskervilles” and also, rather aptly I thought, Daniel Defoe’s “Robinson Crusoe”.  Today was Friday after all and Friday was a character in the book and we felt a bit marooned so I thought that the spirit of the storyline kind of mirrored our own situation.

We had a look round the Gum department store and stocked up on a few items for the road journey then back to the hotel where, with Svetlana, Nina (the insurance agent), an American guy named Jack from Portland, Oregon and the Australians, we got to complete the insurance that we need for riding the bikes in Russia. Things had finally started to move forward.

Russian Insurance Certificate. All we need now is our bikes !!

Talking to Jack we found out that he had just graduated from school and he and two other friend had flown to Tokyo and bought an old Subaru Forester –popped it on the ferry to South Korea and then onwards to Vladivostok. They aim to spend a month in Mongolia then head north to Moscow, St.Petersburg, Finland then back south to Lisbon where they will ship to New York and drive home.  So good luck and Bon Voyage Jack !

Svetlana told us that we may get documents from the shipping agent, FESCO, on Monday – then we can start the customs clearing process after that we will be almost ready for the off – can’t believe it after all this time.