Just hear say.

Last week the "Dorpskompas" fell on the doormat again. Usually I always put it in the basket with the other magazines, but this time I opened it. While I leaf through it, my eye falls on the words: "Lecture: On the bike to icecold Siberia".

Quite interesting...
I was immediatly interested, because questions popped up in my mind, that I would like to have answered. With daytemperatures of -20 degrees during the day in springtime, how do you handle that. That evening I pointed it out to Roel and he felt the same. So I made reservations for the two of us. With the help of light-immages both doctors Jur Lamers and Richard Danel would illustrate their adventure. And so they did. With short movies and pictures from their laptop, they gave their comment. Very fascinating. The room was packed with people, but you could hear a pin drop.

Preparation...
While studying, Jur and Richard never met, but they did shortly after graduating. Both bikefanatics and both eager for adventure. There was a match and they became friends. On one of their trips they once stood in front of the Russian border and promised to each other that they would cross it someday. And so it happened, after nearly 2 years of preparation. The goal: the Nenets-nomads. On March 30, 2003 they left from the Grote Markt in the city of Groningen, both on their well prepared BMW R 1150 GS for their 90 days (18,000 km) adventure.

Jam-packed...
Both bikes were jam-packed, by all the accessories that could make a difference, but also the contents of their fuel-tank of nearly 42 litres. Imagine you fell on the ice. A winch would come in handy. But what would you use to fix it? An iron rod to put in the ground, but that's heavy too. Energy is essential, so a small aggregate had to be packed as well. Then the laptop and a sattelite-phone to keep the website up to date late at night for the homefront. Then they needed some food-supply for 2 weeks, because there would be days, that they wouldn't see a village. The bikes would weigh about 500 kilo's including the biker. They found sponsoring for this trip at Gasunie and Richard his company: Mediplus.

Fascinating story...
They told us that Russia is one big sandpit. When it's frozen, nothing's wrong, but when the thaw sets in... The villages are often only to be reached by railway or the 9 months of the year frozen rivers. The roads were sandpaths, especially here up north. When traveling on the icy rivers and in the colder weather, they could use the soft rubber Trelleborg tyres with carspikes mounted in. Then they had enough grip and control over their bikes. Finally they reached Yamburg, where they had to travel by sleigh for another 3 hours to meet the Nenets-nomads. They wanted to give them a snow-scooter-ambulance.

Homeward journey...
On the trip there they followed the extent of the area affected by frost, but on the way back, springtime passed them in a great haste. While Jur was the track-doctor on the TT-track for 17 years now, on June 28 they first drove to Assen. During half-time of the Dutch-TT they made their round on the track in front of an audience of 90,000 people. Quite a unique homecoming. After that they drove off to Groningen, where the trip would end. But all the details are on their website. It was sure worth while going to this lecture. Your blood starts itching, that's for sure!

Betty Smit.
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