Hi all,

My biking adventure has ended Abruptly.

Last Thursday May 28th I was beaten up and my belongings were stolen.

What happened:

Around 16.45 in the afternoon i cycled out of a village after having bought a drink in a shop.

I planned to cycle another 20 km before looking for a place to pitch the tent.

5 km out of the village a red Lada drove past me with high speed and pulled over. Some men stepped out and walked to the middle of the road to stop me. This felt wrong and i cycled passed them. they got in the car and drove me off the road. The driver got out and immediately hit me on me left jaw. I fell on the ground; the guy kept on beating me on my neck, head and ribs. Meanwhere the others took my bags off my bike, after which they left. This entire ordeal lasted some 3 minutes. I cycled back to the shop where the local Dr House gave me a shot. I contacted my sister to get the whole insureance aparatues up and running. I was driven to Taishjet where the local police dropped me on the train back to Krasnoyarsk. I cantacted Christina and her boyfriend Omar. They waited for me at the train station and spent the rest of the day going back and forth between police stations and hospitals.  I am ok, nothing broken; just a swollen face and some painfull ribs.

This Taisjet region is notorious and belongs together with Irkutsk to the most dangerous regions of Russia. In 2006, a German cyclist was serieusly beaten and was lucky to life to tell his story.

I was extremely fortunate that they left the small bag on the steer, this bag contained all my money and important documents. In Russia, you are serieusly fucked if you cannot provide documents!

What do i have left: the clothes i was wearing, documents, money, the tent, 1 front pannier that contained a pan, cooker and some meaningless items.

I will fly back to Belgium this wednesday and will be in time to celebrate my grandma's 91st birthday, which is as important as biking around the world!

So, this ends my trip. I want to say many thanks to my sister and Christina, who helped me through the first tough hours and organized so many things. In 2 days, i will enjoy Belgian summer (beer), teach the dog some manners (she has become a bit naughty), and spent much time with family and of course my girlfriend Barbara and start planning our future together.

Thank you all for your replies and comments during these 2 months, and i hope to see (most of) you soon.

Toon

PS, sorry, no pictures this time..