Another few minutes distraction. Another few minutes avoiding the future.
Rumour is Russia has some fuel issues so I down as much of Poland’s finest as I can while the Twat watches someone modelling the latest in High Vis summer clothing.
He knows a lot of hairy arsed docker types that will love wearing that all week, instead of just the weekends.
Another distraction. Another time wasting tactic. I’m fucked off, and I’m hot. I’m not like him. I can’t stand still and sweat. I need the wind to blow through my chesticles and cool my beating heart. I need to FUCKING GO. NOW.
And we’re finally off. There is absolutely nobody about on this road. No other bikes for me to wink at. No one to ask what the fuel tastes like. No one to ask how rough the roads are. Nobody.
Roll up towards the border at 11am. No queue at all. Through the check and into Poland border control. 2 lines of maybe 10 cars. Result. Hallelujah. Yeeeeeee HA. Or should that be yeeeee ha ha. Nothing moves. 6 hours waiting and we’re out of Poland.
Wait an hour in no man’s land and roll up to the Russia control about 5:30pm.
I’m fine at borders. Never a problem. All The Twat has to do is in a form for me and I'm done. I can be very patient. I can be poked and prodded and have unfamiliar hands delve inside my box but there are limits.
The Twat is standing at the passport booth. It sticks a metal tongue out at him. Decision time. He puts his passport in and the tongue disappears. And it doesn’t come back. His mate puts his in, it has a chew and spits it back out to him immediately. Oh dear
It’s 6pm. “Wait here”. A guard takes The Twat to a plastic chair outside an office. It’s fucking boiling, he’s wearing leathers and he’s sweating big style. There are no refreshments here and he’s out of liquid. I can see he’s not comfortable. Not at all. I’m guessing he knows that if you poke the bear enough times it will bite you eventually.
3 hours later he’s led to an interview room by a young lady. It’s 9pm. His mate has gone through and is still waiting outside. The Twat is worried about what happens if he gets refused entry but unbeknownst to him a friendly border guard has seen what’s happening and taken his mate to another guard house and given him a cup of tea, a sandwich and a stuttering chat about motorcycles.
The Twat is giving chapter and verse about his family, his job, his wife’s job, his son and daughter’s jobs. His reasons for being here. His entire trip plan. His views on the conflict. His life story. And then he has to hand over his phone. That’s got to be unnerving. Watching a Russian border guard search your phone. Pictures. Texts. Whatapp…. Hello, she doesn’t look happy now. She’s gone to Whatapp and searched the name of the current leader and it’s got a lot of hits. And they’re not at all complimentary. The Twat has an Australian friend who regularly vents his frustration about the conflict and his views on the personalities involved. And because he’s Australian, his favourite go to word is, of course, ****. Add **** and a certain persons name and show it to a Russian border guard and she’s unlikely to see the funny side. She is screen shotting and translating all the conversations. Reading through. He’s trying to read her expressions. Arse getting tighter than a bow string. Sweat dripping from his ears. Already planning the journey home. He’s using translate to try and mitigate the situation but is only getting blank signals back. And then, eventually, she suddenly goes full Satan. Fuck. But it turns out her computer has crashed and we have to go though it all again
Eventually, whether through boredom, desperation or sympathy she just gets up, takes him outside and gives his passport back to the booth which gives a big smile and slides its silver tongue out with his passport stamped. He and his mate jump up and down, hug and kiss, do a dance and get my paperwork done and we’re set free. It’s 11:45pm. Nearly 13 hours to cross. My new record
But … it’s nearly midnight. We can’t change money. We can’t get insurance. We’ve not got a hotel. The satnav says “niet”. This is when a trip turns into an adventure.
The two bladders can’t see a thing in the dark as we set off. This is where I do my thing. Take responsibility. Take over and take him somewhere safe. I remember a big hotel in the centre from last year and head in that direction. It’s all different at night though and the roads have huge gouges in to watch out for. I’m very keen not to twat my rims so I take it easy and we eventually find our way. The car park is coned off and is being dug up because of course it is. I drive on to the pavement and round to the street. My job done. I’ve delivered my baggage. 10 minutes later and they’re back. Apparently Mrs Hagrid was on reception and rather than deal with 2 foreigners at 12:30am she just told them there were no rooms and to fuck off. Jesus. Can’t these 2 look after themselves for even 5 minutes

. Fuck knows where we go now. We set off in the general direction of the centre and I see a sign on a building. Drop them off again and this time they can get a room but the cost is going to be almost exactly 1p less than the total amount of Rubles they have on them. So that’s lucky then. But they have to share a bed. It’s 1:30am. There is no plan B. Its done. They drop me and Africa in a cold underground car park and walk away. The Twat does at least say “Thanks girl” and gives me a stroke as he goes.