Russia (all)

Im Internet stießen wir dann auf den Europaradweg R 1 der von Boulogne sur Mer in Frankreich über Belgien, Niederlande, Deutschland, Polen, Russland (Kaliningrader Gebiet), Litauen, Lettland, Estland nach St. Petersburg verläuft. Unser erster Teil sollte von St. Petersburg nach Düsseldorf gehen. Den Rest ab Boulogne sur Mer nach Düsseldorf wollen wir 2012 in Angriff nehmen.

We're Emma and Justin, two New Zealanders who have 'gone cycling' after six years working and living in London.

We talked about the possibility of a big trip quietly at first. We were on a train in England somewhere and we sketched a rudimentary map which plotted our way towards Russia. Our cycling trips became more ambitious, and we tested our enthusiasm for the idea by cycling the length of the UK (Lands End to John O'Groats) over three weeks in 2009. After 6 years living away from New Zealand we decided it was time to pack up London lives, quit jobs and go.

We have been on the road since March 2010 and intend to reach the edge of Asia by March 2012. Our website documents some of the places we've discovered on our travels.

I made a trip by bicycle, starting in Gdansk (Poland), and then through Kaliningrad (Russia), Lithuania, Belarus, Latvia, many days in Estonia, Russia (with a stay of 2 weeks in St-Petersburg). My bike needed some maintenance and repair, and I needed to learn some more Russian.

From there I cycled along the coast to Vyborg (still Russia) and took a ferry to Finland. From east to west through Finland, and as a final the really nice Aland-islands. By ferry to Stockholm, a few days in Stockholm. By train from Stockholm to Goteborg, and then the last part by bike from Goteborg to Kopenhagen. By train back to the Netherlands.

Many experiences in altogether 103 days of cycling. Main accommodation in hotels, guesthouses, B&B's and at many people's homes (thanks to Hospitality Club). A lot of practical information for people who think about cycling in these countries. I can really recommend you to cycle there.

On my second winter travel through Northern Russia I explored the region of Komi and Nenets west of the Polar Ural. This part of Russia is like the most areas of Northern Siberia not reachable by bike in summer, because only fragments of roads exists. So I followed the winter roads along the rivers Izhma and Pechora from Uchta up to Nar'jan-Mar north of the Arctic circle and from there though the tundra partially back to the railway line. The main challenge was the extrem coldness in first days, accumulated snow on little roads and a lot of crazy meetings with the locals...

In summer 2009 I travelled with a friend along the northern coast of Black Sea from peninsula Crimea into the mountains of Greater Caucasus. On Russian side we crossed the major mountain range close to the border of Georgia and arrived finally Elbrus, the highest mountain of Europe. Muddy tracks and steep relief marked the second part of this 1600 km bike trip.

You will find a collection of photographs (``Bilder''), the mapped route (``Karte'') and informations about the route, day-km, weather and travel costs (``Streckenprotokoll'').

This three months trip by train, ship, minibus and bike was a really low budget adventure through whole Russia. Many decisions how and where I travelled depends on marginal money and time but also on locals help. By bike I passed in two month the Eastern part of Siberia (district Irkutsk, Buryatia and Yakutia): at first along the Baikal-Amur-Magistral from Ust-Kut to Bodaybo, than by ships on Vitim river to Lensk and from here again by bike (and minibus) to Yakutsk and finally Oymyakon, the northern ``Pole of Cold'', where -71,2°C were recorded in 1926. On last section of this 2800 km bike trip I experienced the onset of Siberian winter...

You will find a lot of photogaphs (``Bilder''), the mapped route (``Karte'') and informations about the route, day-km and travel costs (``Streckenprotokoll'').

On Russian iceroads, the so-called ``zimniks'', I cycled in march 2008 three weeks along the frozen Ob-river. The trip started in Priobe (Chanty-Mansijskij district) and ended in the mountains of Polar Ural near Salekhard above the arctic circle (Jamalo-Neneckij district). At the beginning I had no knowledge about the exactly road course, because it isn't shown on maps. I also had no special winter clothes, but no really critical situations in coldness (-37°C minimum). This bike trip was an great adventure with breathtaking impressions of Siberian winter and some meetings with the Chanty, the natives of northern Ob-region.

The tour report is written in german, but a collection of photogaphs (``Bilder''), the mapped route (``Karte'') and informations about the route, day-km, weather and travel costs (``Streckenprotokoll'') are self-explanatory.

Vagabondages autour du monde d'un apprenti voyageur.

Un ou deux ans de voyage au programme pour découvrir l'Europe du Nord, l'Asie et l'Afrique du Nord différemment.

Prochaine étape : la traversée de la Russie en hiver

Vagrancy around the world by a apprentice traveller.

One or two years to discover in a different way north Europe, Asia and north Africa.

Next step : from St Petersburg to Vladivostok during winter time

This November, Simon Evans and Fearghal O'Nuallain will begin the first Irish circumnavigation of the globe by bicycle. Their unsupported expedition will cover over 30,000km, passing through 30 countries and some of the highest, lowest, driest, coldest, warmest and loneliest places on earth. In doing so, they will be promoting the positive contribution that cycling can make to mental health and the environment, raising 100,000 euro for Aware and highlighting climate change.

I'm at one of those grave intellectual impasses that have been known to bring even greater minds than my own to a standstill. I have an orphan sock. Trivia, you say. Ha! I think not.

The cause of this problem is surely the work of that Slovakian KGB Agent, foolishly disguised as a laundress in Svolen. She stole it, I'm sure. Probably for a DNA sample to impress her superiors in Bratislava. They've been following my every move since the kustoms agent in Warsaw asked me the purpose of my visit to Poland. When I answered ``vacation'' the disbelief on his face gave him away. What, doesn't anyone go to Poland on vacation?

But back to the real problem, the orphan sock. The purists among cycle tourists would say, ``Throw it away, it's excess baggage. And while you're at it, cut three inches off that over-long toothbrush handle.'' But the Calvinist in me says, ``Save it. It's a good sock, nearly new.'' I've already reduced the weight of my baggage by losing its mate. Maybe I'll lose another and be back to even and lighter still.

We are performing a 2 years (theoretically) trip around Eurasia. During the trip, we are performing a photo documentation for ICOMOS, an expert organization of UNESCO about cultural heritage. The database created will be available on the website.

We wish with this project to perform some challenging cycling, linking with useful actions.

Our website relates our diary and we are putting plenty of photos and comments (and lots of other fields are going to come, such as advices, technical data...).

Just a simple compilation showing some photos of my solo, minimum preparation/planning, fast, travel light, using only my vacation allowance rides across the continents. First ride was with road bike, all other rides on Orange P7 rigid mountain-bike with semi-slick tyres.

Mal & Lee on a world recumbent cycle tour of the world.

Just completed a cross continent tour of Australia and circumnavigation of Tasmania.... Off to the UK now :-)

A trip planned in 2007 to cycle across Eurasia. Follow along as Mike discovers Russia by bicycle. Departure from Amsterdam at end of March. Plan is to ride the first month to St Petersburg and then for five months cycling across Russia including the new section of road across Siberia.

A 40,000 km. 3 year ride through 30 countries, from far eastern Russia (Siberia) in winter, to London England, via Australia. Trying to cover the whole route by bicycle and boat only. I have encountered plenty of good times and a few tough ones, noteably in Siberia (camping at minus forty), Papua New Guinea (pushing my bike down a beach as no roads) and Tibet (in winter).

12 countries, 12,000 kilometers, five men and five bikes. This is the story of a remarkable bicycle journey across Asia nearly entirely by bicycle. At the time, we believed it to be geographically and politically, the most diverse summer ride the planet had to offer.

The website contains hundreds of high resolution photographs, extensive journals of each country and much advice on gear, immunizations, maps, routes and visas.

The author is selling a book on his tour around the world, but has made several chapters available for free, in PDF format. Espcially the chapters on Ethiopia and Siberia are fascinating to read and among the best stories found on Trento Bike. This is true adventure. Here are two short paragraphs:

• Ethiopia How can two sides of one village be so different? One hundred metres from Sudan and I had left behind Islam and North Africa and was into the continent's heart. The buildings, people and attitudes all felt different. The red dirt road was busy with pedestrians. Barefoot people and donkeys easily outnumbered the few fume-spewing, rattling vehicles. Women walked shaded beneath golf umbrellas, a strange sight in the African sun. Men bore a stout staff across their shoulders, their hands hooked over like wings. In Sudan the ladies flowed in colourful loose robes and men with bushy moustaches glided around in white galibayahs. In Ethiopia the men wore tight little shorts and tattered T-shirts, repaired many times, with a blanket draped over their willowy shoulders.

• Siberia We rode on and on through a frigid emptiness of low hills white with snow or black leafless woods. The white road ahead on the wooded hillsides stood out like a photo negative. The horizon's high mountains looked enticing and I felt happy to be here, to be at the ends of the earth with my bicycle. ``I'm out here a thousand miles from my home, walking a road other men have gone down. I'm seeing a world of people and things,'' sang Dylan in my headphones.

Also check out the expedition advice.

We are now in Cambodia, after 10 months of cycling thru New Zealand, Australia, Malaysia, Thailand. Our site is bilingual.

Our web site is about the trip that we are now realizing. We have gone across the world to go back to Canada. We already crossed 5 different countries in 10 months. We will keep biking for around 2 more years. The subject treated by the web page is mostly about our trip (story, pictures, organisation) but we added a lot of other stuff like recipes, rock climbing, and small articles. We are French-Canadian, so our web site is belingual.

A five week tour from the Hungary/Ukraine border from Uzhgorod, Ukraine to Samara, Russia. Two American cycle tourists who speak some Russian travel across much of Ukraine and southern part of European Russia. This was a mostly self-supported trip where we stayed in hotels, but also some visits with friends in Russia.

A story about a small cycling trip in a large country. Helsinki, Lahti, V?rtsil?, Olonec, Vitegra, Vologda, Tot'ma, Nikolsk, Kotelnic, Urzum, Kazan.

A photo report. Route: Tver - Staritsa - Ostashkov - Svapustcha - (soil road) - Molvotitsy - Demiansk - Zaluchie - Staraja Russa - Shimsk - Erunovo - Novgorod - Train to Pavlovsk - Tsarskoe Selo - Petergof - Saint Petersburg

Warum Karelien? Warum nicht! Ich wollte schon immer einmal mit dem Fahrrad durch Nordrussland fahren, seitdem ich dort einmal mit dem Zug durchgefahren war und aus dem Zugfenster heraus die endlosen Wälder bewunderte. Dann las ich während meiner Arbeitszeit, beim Drucken der ``Frei atmen'' um genau zu sein, die Anzeige von Markus Müller, der Leute zu einer Radtour durch Karelien suchte und ich rief an.

Unreliable server, you'll have to dig for the story.

The natives of Kola Peninsula are kindhearted and eager to help, but there is one strange thing about them. Each time you try to ask someone about the road he puts a strange smile on, makes wide gestures and mutters something about off-road vehicles and ice roads. Sometimes our questions brought sweet memories to life: ``Yes, it was in the year before granny died, 1973 it was, and we drove 150 km to the very end of this road in a lorry in no more than a week. And don't listen to the neighbor, he just got to the middle the year before last.'' Inspired by these descriptions we took one of the ground roads north. It started from simply bad quality and later turned out somewhat between ``absolutely impossible to ride'' and ``possible to ride if you Really want it''.

26 days from 26-6 to 21-7-1998 - Distance 4830 km. - Average speed 21,3 km.t.

After an official visit to Dubna, about 120 km north of Moscow, I had the pleasure to spend two days with friends on a dacha in a little village about 150 km east. [...] I set out for the unknown east. At that stage my plans were as follows: take the main road to Nishny Novgorod and then muddle yourself through in a big semi circle via Vologda and Petrozavodsk to Finland; fly out then from Helsinki. This would have been a distance of about 3000 km, ambitious enough for 18 days of cycling in the West. What I had not taken into account were the typical Russian difficulties.

A short bicycle trip from one world to another (plus train travel 36 hours from Nikel to St. Petersburg, and a bike trip in the streets of St. Petersburg).

Also see Igor Romanenko's Comments.

I cycled around the Baltic Sea from mid-June to mid-July 1996, starting in Stockholm and going clockwise, finishing in Stockholm a month later. It was a great trip!

This is the story of Marcus Endicott's solo bicycle journey from Yugoslavia to the Soviet Union in 1990. The adventure really began the year before, in 1989, but really hasn't ended yet today; though, there have been perhaps more than a few bumps in the road along the way...

This is a travel journal, and was originally intended to become a book. But, two great historical events occurred virtually one after another and changed the course of not only my personal history but that of the world as well; the first was what became known as the ``Gulf War'' and the second was the ``August Coup'', essentially the collapse of the Soviet Union.

We wanted to visit the classical destinations of the Russian Republic of Karelia... But not in the usual way with a river-cruise on a vessel... We did it by bike!

A nice report, with plenty of pictures, and extensive practical information.

An enormous collection of bicycle tours all over the world.
Eine enorme Sammlung von Fahrradtouren in der ganzen Welt.

A massive travel site, this guy has been everywhere.

Hier finden sich einige deutschsprachige Reiseberichte von Fahrradtouren, die hoffentlich unterhaltsam und informativ sind, aber auch vielleicht die eine oder andere Anregung für Leute geben, die selber einmal so etwas machen wollen. Für englischsprachige Radtourenberichte habe ich hier auch einen Anfang gemacht, ebenso für schwedischsprachige Radtourenberichte, wobei noch ein bißchen auf norwegisch und dänisch dabei ist, aber diese drei skaninavischen Sprachen sind so ähnlich, daß man entweder alle drei ein bißchen lesen kann oder eben keine davon.

[The author travels around the world and reviews hostels, and has built up a large hostel directory.]

What are hostels?

The quickest answer I can give to you is that hostels are budget accommodations where you share a room with other travelers. To be more specific though and to give you a better idea of what to expect I will say that a hostel room is like a hotel room but instead of being just one bed there are a couple (or a few) bunk beds. There are also (gasp!) other people. People you do not know! These other people are travelers who are most likely very much like you in the sense that they are exploring and traveling and doing it as absolutely cheaply as possible. Hostels have been around a long long time. There are over 20,000 of them around the world. Hostels are very much a part of the culture of Europe, and are starting to be known in the USA as well. Hostels are a cheaper way of staying in a city where you do not live.