Monday 23rd July 2018
After a night in a truckers stop I now know there are trucks on the road all night, maybe a lot fewer but they roll through the night!
I had a PYO breakfast and then tried sorting the gears out, the rear derailleur was easy just needed the wire tensioning the front was at the limit so I tried twisting the cage as I couldn’t get it to rotate on the tube.
After the first few hills I stopped at a cafe and slackened the bolt then gave it a bash with a handy brick – success it now drops down to the granny cog but it isn’t to happy with finding the middle cog, which is only really used on the flattish roads otherwise it’s climbing or bombing down at full speed.
The road was once again busy and a real mixture of excellent dual carriageways to narrow lanes one particular truck got to close with its draught pushing me away at speed, fortuitously I’ve learnt not to use clip in pedals on these trips so I could readily get my foot on the floor and save myself.
At a cafe a couple of police came over very friendly and were staggered when I showed them my map of the over 1,000km I’ve biked so far especially looking at my decrepit bike but I must say I’m really pleased not to have bought my new one!
The last 3 or so miles was along a real cycleway connecting the new town to central Chebsokary which seems a great place with its beach along The Volga and small harbour, I checked the cruise boat out but it was a firm Nyet to me hitching a ride to Kazan 🙁
It was then a 4km ride through town to the very grand rail station (header picture) but the queues were so big I couldn’t find anyone to ask although the boards, totally in Russian, only showed the overnight sleeper to Moscow and local trains to Kanash, so more investigation is required especially if bikes are allowed.
I used booking.com to book into the Garden Hotel as it seemed to have a pool not realising it was all the way back to the cycleway 🙁 which the navigation sent me the most bizarre way through allotments and derelict land with an off-road hill I could barely push the bike up. The hotel itself was worth it, 5* luxury for £30 a night.
Hectic day that was ,but good hotel at the end..
So good I’m staying 3 nights!
Hey Geoff!
I wasn’t sure what would be the best way to contact you, so I just decided to leave a comment here hoping you’d see it.
I’m the founding editor of a rather small youth-oriented Astrakhan-based online magazine dedicated to culture, history, and tourism. A news article about your trip from Moscow to our city was published in a Nizhny Novgorod newspaper, so I contacted their editor to get a link to your blog and started following your adventures.
Given that Astrakhan is your final destination, as well as the city our magazine is based in and writes about, I thought it would be great to meet you when you are here, ask a few questions about your impression and experienece, and show some nice places in the Old Town, if you want.
Thanks in advance!
How to contact me:
E-mail: alekseev@kamysh.press
Phone: +7 927 562 66 74
Or you can just reply here under this comment.
Many thanks I have sent you an email regarding my plans. Do you have an image of the press cutting you could send me 🙂