Journey To Russia

Well we’ve been back a few days and we’ve finally sorted the washing out. So it seems returning to normal now seems to be the order of the day…..

However before we all slip back into everyday life we’d just like to express our thanks to everyone who has supported us on our journey. We’ve all enjoyed the experience and the memories will remain with us for ever and most importantly of all we’ve done a little bit of work to raise awareness (and a bit of cash) for Everyman.

That being said we couldn’t have done it without you guys wishing us well from a far. Your messages kept us going on the journey so now sit back and enjoy (once we’ve sorted them all out) the pictures and videos…….

Sorry for the lack of video updates but as you can see from the last post we’ve had some issues getting the latest ones live… it’s now fixed though!

Latest videos now appearing at the top of the screen – don’t forget we’re doing several a day now (shorter ones!) so click on the ‘qik’ button and make sure you’re up to date with the latest news from the road.

Germany here we come!

It’s hard to think that just 48 hours ago we were still in mother Russia, now we’re in Poland… in a hotel… living the dream ;-)

Not much to write that’s not already in the video – but talking of the video – they’re not working properly. For some reason the videos ARE uploading to the QIK service but not to our website – so to see the latest video go over to www.qik.com/matthewcashmore to view… I’ve emailed support and it may just fix itself. For those interested it appears the RSS update isn’t coming through… mmm odd.

Anyway – all is well here and here’s the latest video. Not quite live, from Poland.

… yeap we’re back… after reaching Russia we spent a few days in St Petersburg (we did the washing – and sight-seeing) – had a fab time – made Russia – we’re really happy!

See you all soon.

xxx

Sorry we’ve not been writing quite as much as we’d planned – but internet access doesn’t seem to be as prevalent as expected.

But none of that matters! Because we’re in a camp site of our dreams…. the first three we went to today were shut – this one was open – and why is it so fantastic? Because they’ve let us camp in the band stand, and they have wi-fi – and all this for four euros each.

We’re now two days behind schedule – tomorrow we should get to St Petersburg – with any luck – and we need it. You’ll know what’s gone wrong if you’re following the videos above (tip – click the ‘qik’ button to watch older videos – we’re now doing more than one a day) but essentially all our problems have meant we’ve had to seriously re-think our plan.

So far the plan goes like this…. get to St Petersburg… after that we’re going to see how much money and time is left. The repairs to the bikes have hit the pocket hard as have the enforced stays in hotels – either due to horrendous weather of breakdowns.

Anyway – we’ll update you more when we get to Russia. Keep watching the videos – I’m also uploading some photos to flickr – but they’re taking ages so don’t expect too many :-)

Yesterday didn’t go quite as planned – our dear partner in crime (Patrick) was three hours late to the party and turned up just as Stace and I had finished the emotional goodbyes with our families… so we went without him…. he managed to over-take us on the way to Harwich though so the joke was on us as we arrived at the ferry and he was already through passport control and waiting for us to get on!

The party was fantastic – there’s loads of photos on Facebook – go look… they’re there somewhere… I should have ordered more food.. and certainly should have made more potato salad – fun fun fun…

Today was really long – I didn’t sleep at all on the ferry and just hit a brick wall at about 2pm – I had to pull over and force down Red Bull – it’s hideous by the way – but it did get me to Berlin in one piece.

We saw nothing of Holland and Germany other than the motorway network – that was always the plan – but still it still feels a bit wrong. Tomorrow we hit Poland – only 185 miles (rather than the 450 today) so we can take our time, take in the sights and enjoy the country through which we’re traveling.

PS – The podcasting isn’t working right now – we don’t know why but I’m looking into it!