Day 96 Wednesday 6^th July 2011 

We set our alarm for early again and after a light breakfast we walked down to the port to meet Yuri. The Transfes lady didn’t turn up for work until 8.30 so we walked to the port to look at the DongHae ferry which would be leaving later this afternoon.

Back at the Transfes office our lady had turned up and again we watched as Yuri went from one desk to another and eventually we went off with him to the cashier to pay the port charges and came back and waited whilst he visited some more desks and then, as suddenly as it had started, it bwas over and we had the required stamped documents. Yuri then dropped the surprise of the day by saying that he had arranged a truck to pick up the container today – yes ! today ! and we asked if that meant that we could have our bikes today and he looked at us with the look that only Russians can give which goes a bit like why are you asking such stupid question of course bikes can be picked up today – all these words achieved by just a look, a Russian shrug and the words “of course”.

We were elated. Yuri went off to deal with some more business and we started to make our way back to the hotel grinning like Cheshire cats. I stopped off at the station to take a picture of the marker for the end of the Trans Siberian Railway and made a shot video on the platform – odd British man on train station talking to his camera.

Back at the hotel we waited we went to the local supermarket to get water (which we later found out was carbonated and not still) , some pasta, tuna and other similar provisions for the trip ahead but most importantly, a jar of coffee. 

End of the road or I should say rail. 9288 kilometres

We waited for Svetlana to call us and around 2pm we went back down the hill to meet her outside Gutovs restaurant and she drove us the 6 miles or so out of Vladivostok to the warehouse where we met Micha who delivered our bikes to the entrance. They had arrived unscathed and after connecting the batteries both started without problem. Svetlana had gone back to help Yuri by now so we navigated our own way back to the hotel and proudly parked our bikes in the car park – we were free at last.

We called Yuri and asked him to stop by the hotel so we could settle our bill and we sat and chatted with him and Svetlana – it will be sad to say good bye to them as we have had many funny chats over the past month and we have been teaching Yuri English slang and sayings such as “you don’t get many of them to the pound” and we have had much fun explaining what these sayings mean. Yuri and Svetlana will always be special friends in our hearts.

After Yuri and Svetlana left I collared Mark and we went off down the hill again to Gutovs where we caught up with the Aussies from Brisbane and had a couple of beers with them. They are nearly at the stage of getting their vehicles and we expect to see their Land Cruisers in the car park some time tomorrow, fingers crossed.