Just a Little Run Around the World by Rosie Swale Pope

Author:Rosie Swale Pope [Pope, Rosie Swale]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-00-733863-4
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2009-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

I run east from March to May, then turn north to Yakutsk. The landscape changes from dense forest to exposed tundra with high winds. When I camp at night I have to tie the tent to thick bunches of grass to hold it down, so the dome looks like a spider caught in the centre of a web. As the weather improves, I start meeting more people. Among the most interesting are scrap-metal collectors, who roam Siberia searching for remains of car and aeroplane crashes. One of them, Yuri, proclaims, ‘We’re very fashionable people. We’re into recycling in a big way.’ He’s observed that one of Hercules’s shafts is broken and kindly offers to mend it.

Then there’s Valdimir, who approaches me in a cardboard-covered car to protect it against the highway’s stones and shares his picnic, letting me listen to his Beatles album, his most treasured possession. Best of all is meeting Canadian explorer Colin Angus on a bicycle on his way to Moscow. He gives me a bar of chocolate; I give him my gritty coffee—not much of an exchange but at least I’m pleased I can lend him the antennae of my satphone to put a call through to his family, as his own is broken.

On 1 May, the Russian Easter, it’s still snowing, and has become −25° with wind chill. But the ice floes on the River Lena have disappeared by the time I cross this frontier into Yakutia on a ferry. Within weeks, the weather changes from winter to a blazing cauldron. This region has one of the greatest extremes of temperature, ranging from −71.2° in winter and +40° in summer. It’s become like the heart of Africa instead of Siberia. It’s a surprise, even though I’ve known it’s going to happen. The sky becomes so black with mosquito clouds that sometimes you’d think it was dark, even though beyond the swarms of bugs the sun is shining. It’s endlessly sticky and the mosquitoes have a habit of making for one’s mouth, ears and nose, and have soon bitten all the way down the inside of my throat. I get used to it and the warmth gives back time to do things: just using my hands without fear of freezing gives a whole new sense of freedom.

On 6 June at long last, after running for a year and eight months from Tenby, I reach Yakutsk N62 131E. Geoff flies out, bringing news of family and friends including my goddaughters at Kitezh. I hear that people are still sponsoring me to help Kitezh in a small but steady way. I’m overjoyed to see Geoff. It means more than anything because this is the last time until Magadan that I’ll be in touch with home, except through brief satphone messages. The last chance too to get kit for the final 2450 miles in Russia. Geoff brings new shoes from Saucony and other valuable items, and also the present for Hercules of a little anti-rust paint, while Steve Holland sends new tyres for the wilderness ahead through DHL.

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