Here is the map of the first stage which has been completed.

Now the first 3000km have been ridden, there were some lessons we have learnt. The first thing I wanted to do is make the load lighter. The plan was also to loose weight off myself but that didn’t work very well as all people we met were so nice and offered us more than enough food and drinks.

But the luggage diet should work. I just took a big bag and started removing items from our luggage which I think were less critical and necessary. The following items will stay in Donetsk: the 2 sheet bags, maps of germany, poland, ukraine, 3 books, 1 pants, 1 tshirt, 1 first aid kit (we had two of them), 19″ inner tyre,… Maybe it does not look much but I think the volume and weight will count.

The big question now was also should we take our camping gear or not? I think for Central Asia there should be possibilities with the locals. My concern is that after Central Asia, if we get to Mongolia, or even Siberia, that we will need our camping gear. The total weight of it is about 10kg, on our total weight of 450kg, I guess it does not make too much of a difference and we better take it with us.

By the way today was my birthday 🙂 We had a good party in the evening. Sergei and Vitta had bought me a bottle of vodka and a bottle of Riga black balsam…

Larisa took 3 pictures of Sergei, Vitta and me, but I am not sure which one is ok to put here, so I put them all 🙂 Then there were some bike pose photos. Always nice…