The bike clocked 50,000 km today. Not a massive achievement given the longevity of modern motorcycles and engines, however it’s still worthy of note. This particular model was designed over 20 years ago and remains unchanged.

My other bike is a Royal Enfield, made as a copy of a 1950s commuter. Made in India that is, by Indians using machinery left behind from the days of the Raj. It was knackered back then, which is why it got left there! Add to that poor quality local metals and you can see why they’re a source of great frustration to many!

Given that the average distance to terminal failure for a brand new Enfield in Australia was 8000km (As recorded by the owners club for 11 new bikes), you can see why I’m impressed at 50,000 from the big kwak.

Anyway, she’s still banging along nicely!

Not a good start to the day, I dropped the bike picking up an ear plug! I should have got off but I was being lazy. It was in the forest and I was alone, the road some 5km or so down the forest track. The tank was full too – worst case scenario. Lucky I’d seen videos before I left on how to pick up a large bike on your own. With the right technique it’s not too bad! (Either that or I’m superman, you decide).

The temp gauge says 4°C first thing, and I was just starting to feel it in the hammock last night. If it gets much colder I think I’ll be in the tent!

Breakfast done I’m away at a reasonable time, back on the road to Murmansk. It’s mostly trees and swamp, but even so it’s very pretty. There’s the odd section of deeper water which is almost fjord like, being such a clear day it’s beautiful. The autumn colours are really coming out here, but of course the camera doesn’t do them justice.

Well almost! After splashing out the past few days I’m back to wild camping, but I have to say it’s great! I checked back into the Art Kultura hostel when the girls left, as it was late in the day to be leaving a big city. I also had a few errands to run.

First up was a trip to the supermarket to buy some food. I had the last of the porridge on Friday morning, which considering I wanted it to get me through Mongolia has done really well!! I knew I’d be camping tonight so I stocked up with a few meals. I also saw eggs, which I haven’t had in a while and I’ve really missed. Eggs are difficult to carry on a bike, so I decided I’d make myself a full English back at the hostel. Yum!!

I also had to collect my uk driving licence. I’d left it at the Stop House hostel in Novosibirsk and the staff there contacted me on Facebook. They posted it to a friend of theirs in St Petersburg for me to collect. Thanks very much Mikel and Elena! The last little job I did was change the oil, easy peasy!

By the time I left it was half twelve! I then had to negotiate the city traffic, which was bad. After leaving the city there was a huge traffic jam for roadworks about 50 km out. The kind of jam where engines are off, doors are open and drivers are waking around chatting. Just when I thought things were looking good!

I’ve only made 200km today, but I don’t mind as I don’t really have a schedule to keep. I just have to be mindful of the weather, not leaving it too late to get through the Arctic circle! Brr!

Храм Спаса на Крови, or Church of the Saviour on Blood is an incredible place. The outside is ornate and stands out against the St Petersburg architecture, but the inside is just amazing. I took a photo sphere picture of the inside but I can’t share it here.

On the inside the entire surface is covered with tiny mosaic tiles. There are huge freezes of religious scenes which have been painstakingly created with tiny coloured tiles. I’ve laid a few tiles in my time and I reckon I was petty good at it, but this was mind blowing.

The church was built where Tsar Alexander II was assassinated and is dedicated to his memory. I’m not sure what the difference between an assassination and a murder is, not much for the victim that’s for sure! Maybe it depends how famous you are? Something to Google on a rainy day.

While the girls were here I wanted to go somewhere on the subway. It’s a great system in Russia which dates back to soviet times I suppose, where you pay once to go in. Once you’re in, you can go anywhere you like for the one admission price. However, once you leave and go out to the streets, you pay again to get back in.

None of this zone 1, zone 2 or Miki rip off malarkey. Just pay to get in with a token you buy from a machine. There’s no one asking for your unused ticket as you come out, it’s great! I also knew Alice would like to go on a train.

Due to the geography, the metro system in St Petersburg is the deepest in the world, by average station depth. The escalator to go down takes a long time, so long that your mind has time to wander. You come back after whatever daydream you’re having and think ‘oh yea, I’m on an escalator!’.

This particular one descends 86 metres!

I’ve been joined by my girls for a holiday in St Petersburg, we’ve had the last 5 days together to look around the city. It’s been a great few days, we’ve been very busy doing touristy things and consequently I haven’t had time to update the blog. In that time, quite a few people have mailed me or commented asking if I’m OK!

I didn’t realise I was being followed so closely, but it’s quite touching – thank you all for your concern! No need to worry, the worst that happened to me was being ripped off by a taxi from the airport (but me being me I’m still struggling to let that one go!). I will be updating as per usual from here on in, now that the girls are safely at the airport.

The weather has turned, after a few sunny days it was distinctly cold this morning. In the picture you can see a couple of brave faces in front of the aptly named winter palace. The palace has over 1000 rooms, 1800 doors and 100 staircases. It’s over a mile in circumference and houses the Hermitage museum.

It’s been great to see Jenny and Alice and a welcome break from life on the road. I plan to leave Russia via Murmansk, where tomorrow’s forecast is for highs of 4°C and lows of 0 – it’ll certainly be hard to get moving again!! Brrrr!

St Petersburg is a very big city. I rolled in late last night, very late. It was close on midnight, dark and I was cold. I should have stopped earlier for the night, but I was in one of those ‘too close to stop now, but still quite far away’ type scenarios. What I hasn’t realised was how far the centre was from the turn off.

First impressions were awesome, even in my tired state. Long lines of great buildings along both sides of the streets. Lots of bikes around and I’m guessing it’s like Moscow, where bikers come out to play at night. At one set of lights there were nine other bikes abreast with me. I had the only set of foreign plates, so I don’t need to race to prove I’m a biker!

I’m staying at the Art Kultura hostel, which was recommended by Helgi in Moscow. It’s a handy place with friendly staff. Last night I was offered pancakes on arrival, but was too tired to partake. They were deferred to today, when Ольга cooked up a storm for all of us. Around the table are Freddy, Евгения, Ольга, Надя and Aлексей.

They were delicious, which is no surprise as Ольга is a chef. I brewed some fresh coffee to go with them, and had then with left over мёд. It’s well travelled that honey! вкуснa!

I finally made it across the border, after some hassle again. The Estonian guards are very efficient and thorough. I made sure I have them the current vehicle registration, which the guy disappeared with for half an hour.

He came back with my documents and told me the registration was invalid. He showed me a current UK vehicle registration and told me he’d checked with DVLA in Swansea, they had no record of my vehicle. He held up my registration document for all to see, then said loudly:

“Where did you get this document? Did you think it would fool us?”

I told him it was issued by the Australian government, where the bike is registered. I did my best not to laugh, but I’m not very good at that sort of thing. He tells me he is going to check with them and disappears again. Good luck mate!

At this point I knew I was in for a long wait. VIC roads are a bunch of can’ts. (Or something very similar). My hamster is more helpful, and poor Hammie has been dead for 35 years! There’s no way given the time difference he will get anything meaningful out of them by telephone. (But their website is improving).

Another half an hour and he’s back to tell me I can go. Mixed feelings, as this will be my last entry into Russia on this visa. 5 minutes later a huge pothole from nowhere nearly throws me off the bike. It’s good to be back!!