12 - 07 - 2006

Tyumen

It was late so I sleep in. I call Alexey around noon and he takes me to a garage where I can work on my bike. I change the oil and filter and burn my forehead slightly on the cylinder in doing so. Silly me.

During lunch I have a very nice conversation with Alexey and Nazareth. Alexey pays my lunch as a gift. Again I get an escort out of the city, Russian hospitality and generosity has no bounds. I contact Doug after getting some more gas. He is way ahead of me since he took of early in the morning. He is heading for a bike meeting in Tomsk. It is not really that far, so I decide to try to make it to the meeting too. The countryside is really vast here. A lot less trees, more like plains. Not all agricultural land as it is a bit marshy. I camp out in a field, but the mosquitoes must have seen me coming and quickly gang up on me. I put up the tent in a hurry and get inside, not to come out before morning.