Journey To Russia

Continuing the series of video reviews, in this episode we look at the Trangia 25-5 – that’s the 2-4 person system that’s non-stick.

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(embedded movie from blip.tv)

The Trangia is a wonderful all round system. I use the 25 (the slightly larger version) because I find the 27 too small for a decent cup of tea for more than one person, and whilst there is an obvious space saving issue, I also find the 27 too fiddly to use with the multi-fuel burner. Talking of which I’d consider the multi-fuel system an absolute must – the meths burner which comes with the system is fine if you have an hour to make a cup of tea – but as we discovered on the Dartmoor training run last year – the last thing you need when you’re cold and tired is to be wondering if your food will ever actually be ready.

The 25 can be had for around £50, the multi-fuel burner is about £80 and then you’re looking at between £5 and £10 for the various accessories, like the multi-disk and extra fuel bottle.

I started to write a review for the EXPED Downmat… but discovered the best way to get my point across would be in a badly filmed and encoded video uploaded to YouTube.

And so it was done.

It may not be cheap, but £115 for total sleeping comfort is worth every penny. I love camping, there’s nothing I’d rather do that get way out into the countryside in the middle of no-where and sit staring at the stars. But when I crawl into my little tent I do actually want to sleep.

There’s a glut of cheap ’simple’ sleeping mats on the market – in fact there are also some pretty expensive ones – things like the thermarest – but does anyone else think that they’re just the biggest things ever!? I mean… who is going to pack one of those on the back of their bike?

Sure, the small one is tiny, but it’s so thin that even my little 10 month old kitten would find it uncomfortable. So enter the king of sleeping mats – the Exped 7 DLX!

The thing you have to understand of course is that this is no ordinary mat – oh no – it’s actually filled with down – and because down compresses so damn well it packs up really really tiny – much smaller in fact than the smallest thermarest. Having said all that when you inflate it – it’s wonderfully comfortable – even my large frame doesn’t touch the floor and it’s toasty warm on the coldest of nights.

It’s also quite clever – none of this just leave it inflate and then top up with your breath (which actually puts water into your mat and shortens it’s life) no! You use bag it comes in to inflate it! Amazing!

Last Monday the JTR team huddled at our now infamous HQ at Borough Market. Small talk was made and sausages in a bap ordered as we politely sipped our tea and ignored the rather obvious reason for us being there.

As readers of this blog will know, we’ve all had some nasty offs over the last month or so, Patrick in particular is still in a pretty bad state – as he puts it;

“Thinking back to the accident one of the first things that hit me, other than the bike, was the notion that a September departure for Russia was slipping away from me.”

A truth that we’ve simply had to accept. Whilst JTR may have started out as one persons dream, it has never been about any one of us. JTR would not exist and does not exist without us being a team, unless all three of us can make this journey then it’s not Journey To Russia.

With that in mind we’ve decided to postpone our departure. We’ll now leave the UK July next year, with a fit team and bikes that are not in several parts in several garages.

This is a huge blow to us as a team, not least because it means losing a lot of momentum that we’d built up, and a lot of the work that has already gone in is now going to have to be re-done – but it’s the right decision – it’s the sensible decision.

We pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and head for Russia in 2008!

How arrogant is it for us to thing that we should be able to write to companies and ask them to give us money so that we can ride to Russia and back? It’s not like it’s a particularly special journey – it’s out of the ordinary certainly – it’s not something very many people do – but it’s not really HUGE.

Essentially we’re getting quite a lot of coverage – in fact in the last few days we’ve secured a series of articles on the BBC. Which it has to be said is pretty cool – we’ve also go other stuff which is coming up, so from a sponsors point of view there’s a lot of readers or viewers that would see their brand. I guess what I’m getting at is that there’s something in it for everyone.

Our major sponsor – trustedplaces.com – have been amazing, they really have, and as we move forward over the next year we hope they’ll see a real return for the trust they’ve placed in us. But the interesting thing is how many people have sent us essentially the same letter… it goes something like this.

“Thank you very much for your letter concerning Journey To Russia we regret to inform you that we wont be able to help you with your trip.

As you can imagine we get many requests for help each year and we have decided that we are concentrating on just one charity this year.

We do a lot of charity work… etc etc etc…”

But then we got a letter from Blacks that appeared to be from an actual person rather than automatically generated (some of which were not even signed), that was a nice enough change that it made us feel quite good – but on top of that they also sent us three 10% off vouchers – a really nice touch as we genuinly felt that when they wished us luck for our trip that they meant it.

So as a thank you to Blacks we’re going to add a little advert to our site and buy as much of our kit as we can from their stores – and you should do the same!

I feel as if we’ve taken a blow, and we’re winded. There seems to be no other way to describe it. Patrick had his massive off, Stace had his and then I got sent down the road by an idiot car driver.

Since then we’ve done nothing, we’ve not looked at visa applications, vaccinations, entry points, route details, nothing at all.

We’re starting to surface again now though, work, personal issues and the crashes are starting to fade a little allowing us to see the mammoth task that still lies ahead for us.

And collectively we’ve said. “Oh Shit.”

Crisis meeting Monday night, are we up for this? Or have we bitten off more than we can chew?

I’ve just started reading Running With The Moon by Jonny Bealby – after reading the reviews over at Amazon I was a little concerned – some are amazing, but rather a few are a little derogatory.

It’s a revelation. I made the mistake of reading the first couple of chapters just as I was heading for bed whilst away in Swansea. Away from my wife and my family I read how Jonny lost his love as she died in his arms in India. Not what I needed for a good deap sleep, in fact it stirred the most silly dreams and I ended up calling Catheirne in the middle of the night to make sure she was okay.

Now the story is into full swing, it’s settled into a wonderfully woven thread that grabs you and refuses to let you put it down. So if you try to get hold of me over the next couple of days, forget it, my head is buried in this fantastic book

I’ve been very lucky with this small crash – I’ve escaped with relatively minor bruises and grazes compared to Patrick’s broken leg! But it still blasted well hurts!

I’m sure it will heal very quickly but I can’t wait for the shoulder bruising to sort itself out – It doesn’t look much but the whole shoulder hurts when I try to rotate my arm – I’ll give it a few more days and if I’ve still had no joy – back to the docs.

These accidents are playing havoc with our training schedule – and the fact that we can’t get out to write reviews for TrustedPlaces!

I don’t know what’s going on with us lot recently but as Patrick has already said I had an off this evening. A corsa behind me felt that stopping at traffic lights was optional.

I’m now hurting quite a lot – bruised chest from going through my windscreen, bad ankle and knees but according to medical staff I’ll live – which is nice.

The weekend training run is of course off whilst I deal with insurance companies and getting Toby back on the road.

I’m going to take the opportunity to try 4 days in the saddle this weekend – the tent will go up and down 4 times, and I’ll do 180 + miles each day – the idea being of course, to simulate the kind of milage and day to day activities Russia will see us face. I’ve not done this kind of milage, or multiple camp sites before, so I think it will be a good indication of what it’s going to be like when I’m tired, possibly wet, and just need to sleep.

If you’ve got any ideas where I can head this weekend drop me a line, at the moment the plan is to just head north, then west, then south then home.

The other bits to try out this weekend will be writing each night. So far I’ve been so pre-occupied with actually getting the tent up, cooking, and all that jazz that I’ve not sat down and written for the blog or searched out interesting places for our TrustedPlaces reviews.

Well that’s it. Patrick is home safe and sound – he’s got his leg up in the air and a dog that is really happy to see him!

We’re all very relieved that the man himself is home, and we’re crossing everything for a speedy recovery so he can get straight back on the bike.

Hopefully tomorrow we’ll have some shots of the damage to the bike and we can assess what needs to happen to get the man himself back on the road – he’s even applied for some print outs of his x-rays, which will certainly brighten our flickr stream up!

Thanks very much to all the people who’ve emailed me to help find some gloves for Patrick – sorted now thanks to the wonderful Ness!