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Gerald sucked in me, Nick Stubley the missile designer and colonic consultant, Dr. Andy Bell. That summer they rolled off the ferry at Hamburg and before day’s end were in East Germany. The next 3,000 miles were literally mind-blowing. They were utterly unprepared for this other Europe. Devoid of neon, artificial fibers, motorways, fast food, anything Japanese… the list is endless. In fact, for most of these countries it seemed like it still was 1937.
It planted a seed that certain foreign countries might be fascinating not because of what the humans there had done, but what they had not done.
A few months later seven of us had a meeting in Nottingham to kick about the idea of a big bike trip somewhere. London to Cape Town popped up pretty quickly but we kept coming back to how mental it had been in Eastern Europe, travelling amongst societies used to living under a command economy Police State. Just then the light bulb went on over all our heads—the Soviet Union.
AM: What was the motivation behind documenting your two round-the-world adventures for the rest of the world to see?
AV: Influenced by Britain’s maverick indy film-maker, Josh Collins, I had started heavily shooting on Super-8 in the early ’90s. I made goofy films about school life, but the forthcoming Mondo Enduro trip didn’t need much thought—I knew I had to combine my love of motorcycling with my obsession with the title sequence from the Banana Splits. You know the rest!
AM: In taking on such challenging goals, like being the first Europeans to reach Magadan via the “Road of Bones,” were there issues with the group dynamics that almost kept you from reaching your destination?
AV: Very important, the RoB was in no way challenging after the nightmare of attempting the Zilov Gap. Remember, it is a road, designed for use by heavy trucks and jeeps. We rode about 300 miles a day on it. How difficult does that sound? Sure, there were loads of river fordings, immersions, mud and rocky bumpings, but basically it was trivial after the pain in the Zilov Gap of being down to less than a mile a day of progress. That’s why the RoB hardly features in the book or film of Mondo. All the “thrills” were bureaucratic!! Our visas clearly stated that we must leave USSR from Vladivostok.
Hence, after about a month of travelling from Skovorodino (which is where you swing north for Magadan from the Trans-Sib Highway) we were confident that on reporting to Magadan airport we would be told “nyet” and be sent back to Skovorodino!! Also, we arrived in Magadan with no money, only credit cards. Magadan in 1995… think about it, not a single ATM in the city, and if Aeroflot wouldn’t accept our cards (and why would they?) we were screwed.
THAT’S what was so exciting, having no idea if we could ever leave Magadan!! The team pretty quickly fractured once it was clear what the rhythm of life on the road in the former USSR was like. Some of the guys just weren’t that into it. They went ahead back in Irkutsk on day sixty-six.
