DAY 109 | Russia | How To Move The Stars | A bicycle ride around the world

How To Move The Stars is the day by day retelling of a bicycle ride around the world. Start from the beginning to get the whole story. 

My adventure was a modern day epic, a solo, self-supported bicycle ride spanning 38,000 miles across six continents. There were moments I barely survived, and times I cried tears of joy, but mostly, this is a story about the thousands of people I met along the way.  I moved through their cultures, and dramatic landscapes. I ate their food and slept on their land. I was constantly arriving to the open arms of strangers who were excited to help me achieve a feat that few could imagine. I did this for years, immersing myself in the world and meeting the people who live here. The story I returned with is a snapshot of humanity, captured in a lived experience. Thank you for joining me on my journey.

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
June 2nd, 2013, Pretty Russian Day.
I'm reading The Motorcycle Diaries by Che Cabrera.
In 1952 he travelled 5000 miles across South America.
He speaks about leaving civilization behind and being
free from society. I don't have that same sense of
removal. Today there are 5 billion more

(00:21):
people alive than when he did his journey.
Civilization spreads out inescapably around me.
To get away completely would be a different sort of adventure.
In truth, my reliance on societyis the same as before I started.
What's different is that I no longer feel like a participant.
I've become an observer. I'm now on the outside, looking

(00:42):
in. I made slow progress today.
My legs were tired and I had a light head wind.
Needing a break, I took a long, relaxing lunch in a Grove of
trees stretching far into the distance.
Around me were acres of flax blooming with millions of soft
blue flowers. I walked out into the field,
humming with bees. Above me were 1000 cotton ball

(01:04):
clouds. Beneath the deep blue sky,
wherever the sun streaked through to the ground, colors
burst forth, vivid and bright. I took a photograph, but the
scene deserved a painting. The big toe on my left foot has
been hurting. My shoe is pinching the skin
into the nail and this evening Isqueeze Milky green puffs out of

(01:25):
the blister. I know this means there is an
infection, but I have no way to treat the problem.
I don't even have clean socks toput on, just the one pair I've
been wearing the past 3 1/2 months.
I adjusted my shoelaces to reduce the pressure on my toe.
Hopefully that will be enough toheal.
Tonight I'm camping in an airy Grove of trees on the edge of a

(01:46):
field of wheat. The breeze is picked up, soft
rain is falling, and there's lightning flashing in the
distance. This is a good spot, except I'm
a little nervous about the dead branch creaking in the wind
above me.