Today is the day we were going to head off, leaving the UK for France and making our slow way back to Australia. But…

We still have a number of items on our list which we have not managed to tick off. The last few months seem to haven taken their toll and now we need to make sure that not only are the bikes ready and administrative issues taken care of, we need to take care of our bodies. Anne’s tooth abscess has not been resolved yet – in fact she did not make it to the dentist last week. Suddenly feeling very faint, an ambulance was called to take her to hospital. Poor Anthony was confused when he got a call (while collecting the Russian visa) from a petrol station and then the dentist calling him to ask where I was. We won’t get the results of all the tests until late in the month.

Of course, we are very disappointed about this delay (and the time constraints this now puts on us to get through Russia as the visas have been issued for specific dates) but the good news is that we will now leave for our trip rested!!! We will take some time out for rest and relaxation, not sure where, but we will find somewhere to pitch the tent, take long walks and recharge our batteries.

– Anne