To Russia With Love......

A P4N location at the Old Colliery Pub on the outskirts of Edinburgh proved the ideal place to spend two nights as it was next door to the P&R so I enjoyed a decent meal in there before a final check of my paperwork.

Tap and go made it easy to catch the bus in to the centre at Prince's Street from where I walked the mile or so out to the Russian Visa Application Centre. This turned out to be a nondescript and unsignposted office behind a block of flats whose steel roller shutter door was just lifting as I arrived at 10am. My appointment wasn't until 10.30 but the place was hardly humming and a polite lady asked me to sit down at a glass screen and then checked off my forms, took my passport and then fingerprints from both hands. A receipt was issued for the couple of hundred pounds in cash that covered the visa application fee and returned tracked postage and I was away in under 20 minutes.

Walking back I passed the old Holyrood Castle which is £25 to get in but only a pound if in receipt of benefits so I decided to give it a miss and visited the new seat of the Scottish Parliament alongside. The security guy was a friendly Moroccan and as the Parliament wasn't sitting it was possible to have a good look round the modern structure although quite where £400m went was hard to see.

Outside I decided to hop on the City Tour open topped bus for a good view of the major sights before I caught the bus back to the P&R and dined again in the pub.

After the rush hour had died down I set off south down the A1 in torrential rain, at one point narrowly missing a lorry prop shaft strewn across Lane 3 : the bemused driver was stranded on the hard shoulder a mile later.

I detoured in to Huddersfield to get a new two pin sensor that I hoped would sort out the coolant after run pump issue and was impressed by the stock held at the renowned Brickwerks.

Finally back in Sheffield I joined Mandy and friends for Carol's 80th birthday walk and called in to Curry's at Meadowhall where Emily and Joe had a decent enough refund waiting for me. The newsagent in Stannington issued a 1968 International Driving Permit for a princely fiver, Post Offices no longer provide this service.

The local Kwik Fit fitted 3 new Michelin CrossClimates and put my unused spare on as the fourth one but retained the best two 'old' tyres : one as a spare to go back in the cradle underneath and one to be taken and fitted to a second rim in due course. They had done 20,000 miles and all worn evenly and would be good for another 10k but I wanted good tyres from the get go and the spares had to be meaty enough to do the job if necessary. The second spare sits nicely on the bike rack and can contain the spare fuel can : as I am only taking one bike the weight is about the same. We also managed to change the sensor which seems to have resolved the issue at last which is good news.

So after a final day of packing everything for the next ten months I headed down to Brecon and stayed the night at Jan's prior to my dental appointment which fortunately revealed no concerns. I had left the bike and other clobber with Jan and headed over to Bristol for a night on Dale's drive as on Tuesday I had arranged for a new clutch to be fitted. It was a lovely evening catching up with him, his daughter and her boyfriend and I was away first thing to drop the van down at Gloucester Road Gearboxes who had done the previous clutch 8 years and 110,000 miles ago. I walked in to Bristol for a couple of hours and then met Dale at his works as he had taken time off which allowed us to walk his now fully recovered dog along the Avon at Saltford. A dairy farm that has diversified in to cheese making has a good cafe to stop at and it was even warm enough to sit outside before we returned to the car. My phone rang and the garage rang to ask what they were doing to my van, so I confirmed it was a clutch replacement to which the guy said 'why?, there's nothing wrong with it..'. I explained my travel intentions and the reasoning behind my request which he completely understood, confirming that it is not possible to check how much a clutch has worn. He also stated that the gearbox was on its way out which had me somewhat alarmed unil he explained he meant it was coming out....

After another enjoyable evening at Dale's I waited until a call the following morning confirmed all was well and caught a bus down to the centre. At the garage the manger was fascinated by my plans and confirmed that the clutch was nearing the wear  indictators so my decision was quite justified even though as the van sports a dual mass flywheel the bill was £1200!

Back at Lower Chapel I sorted out more tools and the 3 each of oil, fuel and air filters plus front and rear pads and 12l of oil that I would be taking with me and on the Wednesday night joined good friends from the badminton club for the Christmas Meal. The Bull at Libanus again put on an excellent spread for us.

A couple of days spent in Brecon saw the EcoFlow power pack supplementing the leisure battery as the cold grey weather meant zero solar. The Rotary Club Brass Band entertained people in Bethel Square, I enjoyed a final crumpet in St Mary's Church before sadly the cafe closes and only just spotted a stealth van parked alongside one day. The Post Office produced the $5,000 in small denominations I had ordered as in Central Asia cash is king and ATMS few and far between, which was split up and hidden in ten different locations around the van. Then on the Monday I headed up to Sue Pope's campsite west of Llangurrig for the rest of Christmas week. I was the only occupant and with the weather turning cold was content to fill up with water, plug in to the power and prepare for the staff Christmas party the following day. This went well with everyone I invited turning up and the festivities going on for minutes.

A bright but breezy day saw me complete the circuit down to Rhayader and round the Elan Valley with a return via Cwmystwyth where the winds had increased and bowled me along to the start of the climbs back over to Sue's. I picked up a message from Crad to say that my passport had eventually been delivered a day late by Royal Mail and did indeed contain the much hoped for multiple entry transit visa for Russia valid for 6 months from mid April.........

Christmas day saw me ride out to Nant Syddion bothy where apart from a wind damaged loo shed and rusted out flue all was well. My return against an incredible head wind was arduous and slow going leaving me no time to call at Nant Rhys and indeed that evening the wind chill was significant until things eased around midnight.

I called at Crad and Dawn's to collect the passport and my last meds and was hugely privileged to join the whole family for a late breakfast, all 3 sons plus two wives and two grandchildren plus various dogs. It must be ten years or more since I saw everyone under the same roof so there was a lot to catch up on. Just after leaving them the van clicked over the 150,000 mile mark, 120,00 of those under my care. Not bad for a 25 year old vehicle......

Finally I returned to Lower Chapel where Pete joined us and on the Saturday five of us rode over to Erwood and back in good conditions : a tough ride for the traditionalists but at least the ebikers opened all the gates....

Sunday saw the three of us walking up to the old folly above Talybont returning via the Hop In in Brecon for cider and tapas before sorting out a semblance of caving gear for a quick trip planned for Monday.

As the clutch guys needed to inspect the job after 400 miles to validate the warranty I offered to drive as I needed to get some miles on and we pulled up at Penwyllt alongside the South Wales caving Club hut to meet the others including two very excited 6 year old lads on their first ever trip. To keep to the party size limit we three pushed off on a separate trip once inside the system' s Top Entrance and spent a happy couple of hours whilst Jan experimented with her new phone's camera. We all met up again in the Big Chamber Near The Entrance and dropped back to the hut to change and show the boys how huge the system is as there is a remarkable survey on the common room wall.

Pete left early morning and I was not far behind with my appointment at the garage taking under ten minutes before I headed back to Wales with time to call at Mike and Claire in Talybont who are just starting a whole house redecoration after having all their walls insulated internally prior to a heat pump going in.

That afternoon I repacked the van with all tools, service and rescue kit now in one place under the single seat and the following morning loaded the spare tyre and bike, attached the cover and headed down to Brecon to get my laundry done only to find the machine broken, ditto at Sennybridge where due to -5 degrees overnight their machine was frozen. They have also removed the jet wash but moving on towards Carmarthen I found one at Nantgarredig so gave the van its first clean since July thanks to the Yorkshire hose pipe ban. A launderette in St Clears was working so I arrived at Fishguard ferry port in plenty of time for the 01.30 sailing.

New Year's Eve fireworks entertained us at the magic hour and by 01.00 all 9 cars were loaded and we were underway. There was no problem finding a corner to sleep in on the almost deserted vessel and we disembarked without issue on time.

I headed out to the beach below Rosslare village and crashed out until late morning before clearing my head with a bracing walk along the sands. Culletons of Killrane allow overnighting in their car park and I enjoyed roast duck washed down with Guinness before a quiet night.

So today I have spent the time down at Carne Beach with another bracing walk before tucking away until check in opens at 20.00 for the 32 hour sailing to Bilbao that leaves at midnight. Direct sailings from Portsmouth were fully booked until mid February but this slight dogleg has cost the same despite the extra crossing as fares from Eire are cheaper. From Bilbao I will head slowly to Barcelona for a ferry to Rome by the end of the month where with luck Mandy will join me for the Vatican City, Southern Italy and then Greece.

My trip to Central Asia is ambitious for both me and the van and will no doubt be full of adventures and surprises. There has been a lot of planning and thinking on my part but behind the scenes the trip would not have happened without the kindness and support of many friends who are, to name but a few : Crad, Dawn, Jan, Ian, Dale Michelle and Megan, Greg, Pete, Mike and Claire and of course Mandy....

If it all goes belly up there is only one way to point the finger : right back at me !!

A few pics here