The tragedy of life is not so much what men suffer, but rather what they miss. ~Thomas Carlyle
It's not easy to get some perspective on this trip. Having never travelled outside the U.K. I have no frame of reference, so to answer most questions I can only speculate. It's natural to worry, but I'm level-headed enough to know that worrying is as useful as a concrete trampoline. After all, today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday. Yes we're bound to get hopelessly lost, but these are the events that make the journey.
I'm worried in case the huge mileages across Russia will be tedious. I've considered a motorcycle specific sat-nav that plays MP3s as a form of entertainment rather than a tool, handy across Europe because it saves stopping each time you need the map, but it's useless in Russia, as the maps are unavailable, and was still illegal to use until 2006. It therefore doesn't justify it's cost. Besides, there is only one main road [sic] across Eastern Russia, so how lost could we get? Most traffic on this new 'highway' is imported Japanese cars, driven from Vladivostok to Moscow, for sale at an inflated price. So to answer another popular question, 'Am I worried about food and fuel,' the answer is no. As a result of these car imports, food and fuel is available everywhere from new fuel stations cropping up along the route. Geoff still prefers a map, as do I, technology will always be as unreliable as those who design it but I find it has intrinsic value. Technology changes everything, so it's not just a logical step but an ecological step forward. You wouldn't be reading this otherwise. Geoff's reason for his 'technophobia' is because he would never survive his fellow courier's riducule at his ineptitude neccessitating his need for a sat-nav, even though he won't admit it. What a shame to succumb to peer pressure at his age. Strange how he prefers his laptop to chalk on a cave wall. Maybe if that many people were attracted to his cave it would probably now be a Tesco express.
Of course I'm worried about crashing the bike, it's one of the main reasons why I'm still alive! I did have a close call just after my 18th birthday. My Honda C90 lost an arguement with a tanker lorry full of human excrement. Whilst laying in traction in hospital my older brother Phil paid me a visit in full mechanics well-used attire, both wondering how we had got in such a state, and assured me the lorry was empty, as he had just finished servicing the lorry minutes before it hit me. 'No shit!' I exclaimed. It was nonetheless a painful experience. No pain-good! Years of experience have taught me the main skill, is ride the bike in a safe way so that you don't have to rely on the skills you've learnt.
In Siberia, and anywhere else for that matter, should the worst happen we will have medical insurance that covers repatriation for us and the bikes. A simple 'what if...?' will prevent most people doing anything let alone achieving their dreams. As a motorcyclist I realise what most people dont; where there is a road, there is life.
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