July 7, 2016

Tuesday 47km Wednesday 46k
After three days in the Urals there is still no sign of serious mountains. It's just been hilly roads through forests. I have only had one real vista! The climbing is not very tough either today I started with a 3km climb and them a lot of gradual rolling hills. There was one glorious five km downhill :)
Yesterday I met two interesting German motorbikers on their way to Mongolia. They are going to fly back home with their bikes. Cost to fly each bike is 1,200 euro.
Today I stopped at a very nice diner for lunch after I saw a poster with a great lunch special for three Euro. I snapped a picture and went inside and asked for it. It consisted of the most delicious piping hot vegetable soup, beef cubes, potatoes, veg, salad, bread and tea. Then when the man there fussed over everything including moving my stuff around on the table, I thought I was going to be hit with a big bill! He even whipped off my hi-viz vest as there was a tear on the shoulder and then he sowed it! I also had a large bottle of lemonade and he gave me another one for the road! His name was Sergey and he wouldn't take payment. He was a really nice guy who even asked if I had a thermos that needed filling, and then he tried to start with some preventive maintenance on Karma! Finally he pushed a bottle of massage oil into my bag! What a nice guy.
I also got a message which I took to be a runner who wanted to shelter me in his home. This can be difficult to do, especially when communicating through Google translate. I have had a couple of time wasters who just fell by the wayside, it's the price you pay for wanting to share and be open. Though it was way off my route I agreed as I was assured I would be returned to my route in the morning. When I texted back at the end of my day I was picked up by the local tourism people and dropped off at a hotel. I can tell you, it was a disappoint as I was looking forward to sharing my walk with a fellow athlete, had I known about the hotel instead of staying in the family home I would not have agreed. Then I was asked to do some media interviews in the morning and also tours. I turned down the tours and will only do brief interviews to promote my own message of...Life is precious... Early cancer screening saves lives. I was all set to find my own hotel on the highway, as they are reasonably priced. However, inconvenient I feel I have a duty to spread this message.