Trans-Siberian Railway, China, Mongolia, Russia: Hong Kong to Hexham overland?

As amazing as our trip so far had been, I was starting to feel that travel these days is missing some of the adventure it used to have. You hop on a plane, watch a film and poof! you're in Bangkok. Or Tibet. Or Timbuktu. Just a little too easy. Something more challenging was in order, I thought.

We had made our way from Hong Kong to Beijing by train, with side-trips to Macau by boat and Xi'an by train. No planes. My home town, Hexham, is in the Northeast of England. Would it be possible, I wondered, to get all the way from Hong Kong to Hexham without a plane? The overwhelming power of alliteration won the day, and so the morning after Chris flew home I found myself in Beijing Central Train Station, awaiting the 7.50am number 3 train, to Moscow.

Six days and 4735 miles later, at 2.40pm on Monday afternoon, I got there. On the way I had crossed to the Chinese border, the Gobi desert, Mongolia and Siberia. I had seen ruined sections of the Great Wall, nomadic Ger villages, the extraordinary Lake Baikal and the epic steppes of Siberia. I had hopped off for brief stops in interesting Cold War era stations across Eastern Russia. I had improvised a shower with a sink and a thermos. I had eaten terrible dining car food and too many instant noodles. I had enjoyed the most stunning scenery I have ever seen, in places too vast or remote for most people ever to visit. I had enjoyed Russian vodka and good company. I had spent four and a half days by myself in a cabin on an almost empty train, and read a lot of books... I had experienced northern summers where the sun never actually sets.

And I had really, properly, truly, travelled.