Siberia
A little further on I came across a light green one-ton
truck bearing an Asahi Beer logo, parked near the road. The
driver was Yura, on his way back to the town of Kansk, sixty
kilometres further on.
A man in his early thirties, he couldn’t stop smiling. He
had on a garish sports top.
“There’s a campsite on the outskirts of Kansk. You’d best
stay there tonight.”
I had already cycled one hundred and ten kilometres that
day. Another sixty kilometres? That would be pushing it.
A short distance further down the road off to the left, I
saw a parasol outside a shashlik shop with smoke rising from
it. Great, I thought to myself, when I suddenly noticed the
Asahi Beer truck parked nearby. Yura was beckoning me over
from behind the parasol. He bought shashlik for me. I hadn’t
had shashlik for ages. It tasted wonderful.
“You’ll find the GAI (traffic police) just outside the town
of Kansk. Call me from there. I’ll come and lead you to the
campsite I was telling you about.”
He had been so kind to me that I decided I had to cycle
there, however far it was, fuelled by shashlik!
(from "Against the Wind" - Poolbeg Press)
