Venture into Russia: Three Motorcycle Journeys

Lawrence Bransby, teacher, author and motorcycle traveller sets out, progressively over a period of five years, to “dip his toe into the vast ocean that is Russia”. Here, illustrated with photographs he took on his three journeys, are the personal accounts of these trips, written from the diaries he kept along the way. These are not grand epic adventures but, nearing 60 and, except for the last trip, ridden alone, Lawrence’s motorcycle journeys give us examples of what can be done if one has the will and determination to do it. His first attempt, on an old BMW 50/5 took him as far as Kaliningrad before he turned back, defeated by numerous electrical breakdowns.

Two years later, on a new bike, he ventured to the North of Russia, reaching Murmansk via Norway. His third trip, accompanied by his son Gareth (with whom he completed a trans-Africa trip when Gareth was only 17) they travelled further still, reaching Archangel and spending four days with Sasha and the Russian Black Bears Motorcycle Club on their annual pilgrimage to camp on the beach of the White Sea. There they met “Killer” (the origin of his name not explained) and Konstantine whose brother was murdered in England and Anastasia with her pert breasts exposed to the cold after a spell in an outside sauna…

They were showered with kindness and hospitality as they travelled along small dirt roads through more remote regions of Russia, seldom visited by outsiders. And they strayed into a restricted zone by accident…