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| Anna and her bike |
I was very fortunate this last week to have a very special
Motorcycle Tourist guest staying with Maream and I – Anna Grechishkina. Anna’s
from Kiev, and she is doing what I, and I suspect, many of us would love to do.
Anna is on a world trip; her mission – to do every continent (except
Antarctica), solo, on her KTM 1190 Adventure. No support crew, just Anna and her
bike.
A Ulyssian from Perth (John Cordier) sent an email to our
Branch contact site, mentioning that Anna is on her way from Perth through
Melbourne and Canberra, and would there be anybody who could put her up for a
night or two. Having been on the receiving end of great hospitality in 2012 by
the Ulysses Club of Germany where I really appreciated the opportunity to share
stories of countries far and wide, I jumped at this opportunity. So John’s
email included this link to Anna’s website www.ihaveadreamrtw.com, and the more I read, the more I thought ‘this is great’.
You see, Anna, who is from Ukraine, a country that has seen more than its’ fair
share of turmoil, has a mission ‘realise your dreams’, and to help women and
children in under-privileged countries try to get the most out of life by
following their dreams.
So far Anna has travelled all through Russia to Vladivostok,
into Asia (Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore), where she put her bike onto a
ship bound for Perth. After staying a while in Perth, she travelled across the
Nullabor Plain via Adelaide to Melbourne. So the week dragged by – Anna in
Melbourne, where the fickle weather kept her off the road for a few days, and
so by 10 May (my birthday, as it happens), Anna is due to arrive in Canberra
(the day of the MRA Blanket run). But more rain approaching Wodonga kept her
there until arriving in Canberra on Sunday 11 May. My family hosted Anna until
Thursday morning, when today she headed off to Sydney, and from there it will
be Brisbane, to Darwin via Rockhampton & Mt Isa, and after Darwin, back to
Adelaide via Uluru, and Melbourne again where she will put her bike on a ship
bound for Alaska, arriving there by mid August.
I won’t say any more of Anna’s trip, that’s for Anna to
describe. You can follow it through her website, on the occasion she gets to
have it updated. It was a privilege, and an inspiration, to have Anna here. I
asked ‘what did it take to plan and motivate?’ – Anna reckons the hardest is
the thinking about what may go wrong - A female travelling alone in foreign
countries, far from any support, etc. But when she made that first step and got
going, all the issues just get easier.
So what did we do here in Canberra? Keen to just have a rest
from the bike, Anna was happy to hop on back of mine, or walk, and do the
touristy things in Canberra. The War Memorial, the ‘4 peaks’ – Mt Ainslie,
Black Mountain, Mt Pleasant and Red Hill, and the ‘tourist-bus drive-by’ of the
Embassies. We went to Parliament House on Budget Day (first time I’ve seen
Parliament in session!) with the Ukranian Ambassador, and were shown through
the local Ukranian Orthodox church in Turner (did you know there’s a small
museum there displaying traditional Ukranian arts, crafts, music instruments
and costumes?).
We also attended the MRA monthly meeting on Tuesday night at the Harmony Club, and on Wednesday Anna went to Jindabyne to meet the ladies at the local branch of the Country Women’s Association. She almost didn’t make it – the bike wouldn’t start on this cold morning, and after a half-hour delay of cussing & cursing, a quick tweak of the battery terminals sorted it out. Thick fog she couldn’t see through, and -4 degrees at times. She reckons it’s colder than Russia, and she travelled right through Siberia!
So what did we do here in Canberra? Keen to just have a rest
from the bike, Anna was happy to hop on back of mine, or walk, and do the
touristy things in Canberra. The War Memorial, the ‘4 peaks’ – Mt Ainslie,
Black Mountain, Mt Pleasant and Red Hill, and the ‘tourist-bus drive-by’ of the
Embassies. We went to Parliament House on Budget Day (first time I’ve seen
Parliament in session!) with the Ukranian Ambassador, and were shown through
the local Ukranian Orthodox church in Turner (did you know there’s a small
museum there displaying traditional Ukranian arts, crafts, music instruments
and costumes?). We also attended the MRA monthly meeting on Tuesday night at the Harmony Club, and on Wednesday Anna went to Jindabyne to meet the ladies at the local branch of the Country Women’s Association. She almost didn’t make it – the bike wouldn’t start on this cold morning, and after a half-hour delay of cussing & cursing, a quick tweak of the battery terminals sorted it out. Thick fog she couldn’t see through, and -4 degrees at times. She reckons it’s colder than Russia, and she travelled right through Siberia!
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| Anna and hosts Chris and Maream |
I wish Anna well on the rest of her travels, and am looking
forward to reading her book when she gets around to it!
Chris Dietzel
