Frog on a bike – Arnaud’s cycling adventures

Arrived in Rothenburg this evening. Staying in a B&B and will quickly visit by day tomorrow morning. Found some free wifi in the street and I am typing this on my mobile so no pictures for now. (Show on Google Maps)

I’ve created an account called frogonabike on twitter to be able to send and receive SMS updates on the road.

I’ll still have to pay from 29 to 49 pence (outside Europe) to send texts but I can receive them for free wherever I am, and with twitter you can also send me texts for free.

You’ll need to create a new account on twitter.com (you can ignore the “invite” screen after signing up) and then to send me a direct message, just type in the “What are you doing?” form:

d frogonabike YOUR MESSAGE

and twitter should tell you that it has sent a direct message to frogonabike.

To send more texts, just prepend all your messages with “d frogonabike”

Unfortunately I can’t guarantee a direct reply by SMS but I’ll try to keep in touch by email!

Update: I just realised that twitter won’t send SMS updates from accounts that I am not “following”. So if you send me a twitter message and I’m not following you already, I won’t get it until I can connect on the net and update my twitter account.

I am now pretty much ready to leave in 48 hours (Monday the 21st)

I received my visas for Russia and Kazakhstan last week, so now it’s a race against the clock to get to Russia early enough to have the time to get to the Kazakh border before the Russian visa expires on the 15th of June. I’ve planned a fairly direct route (

See map) through Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and the South of Ukraine: about 3000km altogether from my parents in NE France to the Russian border in Crimea. If I cycle at least 100km each day, I’ll be in Russia before the end of May and in Kazakhstan around mid-June.

I’ve heard very bad news about obtaining a visa for China: the Chinese government has just tightened its visa regulations following the recent anti-Chinese protests around the world. More information is available on the Lonely Planet’s Thorn Tree forum, but in short they are now even tougher than Russia: 30 days maximum stay; need to show proof of airline tickets and booked accommodation; need to apply in a country where you have right of residency; etc…

With these limitations it’ll be virtually impossible for tourists to cycle all the way to China, especially when entering through the West border as this is an area forbidden to foreigners anyway (this rule wasn’t strictly enforced until now). I am not sure what I will do once in Kazakhstan, I may actually have to fly from Almaty to avoid China altogether. I won’t get there until August anyway so I have 4 more months to think about it…

Regarding my preparations, I wish I’d have a few more weeks to research all the places I’m going through and also re-think some of the stuff I’m taking with me: my bike fully loaded is 70kg, and with all the cakes I’ve eaten recently I’m also 10kg overweight so the total weight is about 155kg. No way I’m leaving the laptop at home though!

A very overloaded bike

D-2

I’ve applied for 2 visas:

• Russia: 1 month – entry date: 15th of May
• Kazakhstan: 3 months – entry date: 5th of June

I used a French visa agency to make things simpler. So far my applications seem to be going smoothly and I hope to receive the visas (and my passport!) by the 10th of April.

I am moving back to France from the UK in early April and I should leave for the trip around the 15th.

I have a 12 months sabbatical from work. It shouldn’t take more than 6 months to cycle to China (especially with the visa time limits) so I would have enough time to cycle back through India and the Middle East, or maybe I’ll take a plane further West…

There are 3 main routes from Europe to China:

• Northern route (Russia and Mongolia)
• Central Asia route (Russia and Kazakhstan, possibly Kyrgyzstan)
• Southern route (Middle East and India)

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A couple of weeks ago I received my new touring bike: a Thorn Nomad.

In the Cotswolds with the Thorn Nomad

Compared to my previous touring bike (Cannondale T800) it’s heavy and slow but it feels much sturdier. The rear rack is guaranteed to 60kg (25kg only on the T800!) and the bike itself handles like a big lorry, which is A Good Thing when you carry a lot of stuff. It comes with a Rohloff hub gear for easy maintenance (provided the hub doesn’t fail!) and S&S couplings to split the frame in two for easier transportation. I also added a Schmidt dynamo hub to use with this German Dynalader AA/USB charger to recharge batteries when cycling!

Update 02/2008: the Dynalader charger doesn’t work properly. I found a possibly better solution with a product called TuneCharger. Unfortunately it requires a bit of soldering and things can get rather hot when going downhill… I’ll give another update after more testing.

It looks like the Russian government has recently introduced tougher visa restrictions:

Up until last month (October 2007) it was relatively easy to get a multi-entry 12 months business visa even for tourism purposes, no questions asked. That’s what most long distance cycle tourists opted for.

The new restrictions now impose the following:

• A 12 months multi-entry business visa is only valid for 90 consecutive days and no more than a total of 180 days per year in the country.
• Multi-entry visas can only be issued to people who have already been issued a Russian visa in the past.
• Foreigners applying for a visa must do so in their own country, or any country where they are permanent resident or have the right to live for 90 days. In practice this should mean that EU citizens can apply anywhere in the EU.

Therefore it is now impossible to get any visa to travel any longer than 90 consecutive days in Russia.

3 months would be enough for me to cycle without too many detours from St Petersburg to the Mongolian border near Irkutsk (about 6-7000km). However I will need to change my plans about studying Russian in St Petersburg for 2 months…

You gotta love these Russian bureaucrats, although to be fair I don’t think the UK or French visa restrictions for Russian citizens are any more lenient. Restrictions on immigration are more popular than ever in any country… I find this rather hypocritical in a world where “global economy” is the rule.

Today I saw a travel nurse in preparation for my 2008 trip to Russia and Asia.

I will get these recommended inoculations (descriptions from the official NHS travel website):

• DTP (diphtheria, tetanus and polio)
• Typhoid and hepatitis A
  Spread through contaminated food and water. Typhoid causes septicaemia and hepatitis A causes liver inflammation and jaundice. In risk areas you should be immunised if good hygiene is impossible.
• Rabies
  Spread through bites or licks on broken skin from an infected animal. It is always fatal. Vaccination is advised for those going to risk areas that will be remote from a reliable source of vaccine. Even when pre-exposure vaccines have been received urgent medical advice should be sought after any animal bite.
• Tickborne encephalitis
  Spread by tick bites. It is a serious infection of the brain and vaccination is advised for those in risk areas unable to avoid tick bites such as campers, forestry workers and ramblers.
• Japanese B encephalitis
  Spread by mosquitoes. Risk is only in the very far east of Siberia close to the Chinese border. Advised if likely to be repeatedly exposed to mosquito bites, such as during prolonged stays (e.g. more than 4 weeks), or repeated visits to the infected area.

So far I got the DTP and Hepatitis A inoculations.

I’ll get the ones for Typhoid and Rabies closer to departure, probably around the end of January. I will also need to see a doctor for Japanese B and Tickborne encephalitis as these are not free on the NHS and need a specific prescription.

2008 will be my big cycle trip across Eurasia. I’ve been thinking about this for a few years and I would have done it this year if not for PBP.

My rough plan is to leave around April 2008 at the latest, spend a month travelling through Germany and Eastern Europe (Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia) and finally stop for a couple of months in Saint Petersburg to study Russian in a private school. 8 weeks of study with accomodation in a host family should cost less than £3000. It will be useful to improve my very basic Russian and also give a nice focus to the journey.

After Saint Petersburg I am thinking about cycling to Irkutsk near lake Baikal. It should be around late September by then, and just the time to cross Mongolia before it gets seriously cold. After crossing the Gobi desert I would then get into Northern China and from there probably head towards Beijing.

Mike Vermeulen has just recently finished a similar tour to Vladivostok: http://www.bikerussia.com/.