Blood-sucking spiders, hospitals, vets and blizzards!

                                                                 14TH MAY

I have now reached Omsk where Molly and I have spent a horrible day in and out of ambulances, hospitals and veterinary clinics! we got got by blood-sucking spiders (that later turned out to be a form of infected tick) whilst camping in the forest a few days back and have both endured several injections up the back side as a result- most unpleasant!

My time spent in not one but two hospitals was really quite dire. An ambulance appeared at the hostel I was staying in to take me to be inspected about 8 km away. After a grueling few hours of being probed and poked and asked to remove my bra not once, nor twice, but three times for several different ‘tests’ in front of a room full of curious and really quite frightening Russian doctors, it later transpired that the medics had made ‘simple mistake’ and brought me to the wrong hospital. Consequently, they could not tell me if the ticks had been infected or not, which, after all, was the only point of going there in the first place! What on earth all the checks had been for I do not know but with impatience and frustration worsening rapidly, as I asked the only doctor who spoke a tiny bit of English, what I should do, and received the only response I had heard all day ‘I don’t know’, I left the hospital before a no doubt mammoth bill was handed to me and tried to get a taxi home.
 
The problem was that I neither had a Russian sim card nor any idea where I had been taken to in the ambulance. I asked several people for a taxi number or a bus number, showing them on my map where I needed to get to and I was amazed by quite how unfriendly and unwilling these people were to help. Most just saw me coming, wrinkled their noses, and shewed me away. I was really beginning to go off Omsk. Eventually a nice chap helped me out and called a cab, waited with me until it had arrived and bid me farewell.
 
I decided to hope that the tick that bit me had not been infected but still took molly to the vet to be checked out since she had had at least 20 crawling all over her that night in the tent and despite my efforts to pluck them all out, I was worried several remained in her thick fur. The two ladies at the vets were really very nice and set to straight away with blood tests. These revealed that the ticks were indeed infected, that Molly had very bad blood and needed vaccinations straight away, otherwise‘ dog be dead’ I was told. 
 
Thank goodness I had gone to get her checked out! I told the ladies that I had also been bitten and they said I needed to see a doctor immediately. I tried to explain the disaster in the hospital a few hours previously and asked them if they could direct me to the correct one. They contacted an English teaching friend of theirs since neither of them spoke any themselves and we were getting by with a google translate app. The school teacher gave me the address or euromed hospital telling me they were very good and she was sure someone would speak English there.
 
So after poor molly had had her several injections during which she cried A LOT, I felt it was now time to sort my own ailments out- death by tick- was not something I had planned on kicking the bucket by. Not wanting a repeat taxi saga, I drove Grettle to euromed and asked the man standing in reception if he spoke English. He waved his hand at me impatiently and shook his head. Persisting, I asked him if anyone spoke English. I received no response but was lucky enough to get another wave of hand. I saw a queue of people and stood behind them, hoping that perhaps whatever they were queuing for, I should queue for too. When I finally got to the front (it wasn’t so much a queue but more of an arm budge and elbow wrestle rush to the front desk) I showed the lady the picture I had taken of the tick. This seemed to do the trick; I paid some money and was given a room number to go to.
 
When it was my turn I sat and spoke, or rather wrote, to the doctor who had got google translate up on his screen. Once he had deciphered when and where the tick had bitten, he told me I needed vaccinations and antibiotics straight away to prevent various diseases that i can't even begin to spell, but i imagine not much different to what little molly had had. So then followed the rather painful injections into each bum cheek, a load of antibiotics, a hell of a lot of money, and finally, filled with relief, I left euromed and headed home, broke.

Now other than creepy crawlies, the weather remains tragic- hail, sleet, snow, rain and wind! SO- not exactly the sunny ride through Siberia i had imagined but certainly a challenge! During one particularly brutal and sudden snow storm, Molly, Grettle and I sought shelter in a derelict gas station, but were soon faced with a difficult decision, as a fierce wild dog appeared from behind a shed. It began to circle us snarling and baring its teeth menacingly. Freeze to death whilst attempting to drive moped in snow storm with no visor, or mauled to death by fierce dog at derelict gas pump? I chose the storm and off we went…
 

 

The day continued in a similar vein with sudden snow storms interspersed by flashes of sun light, then sleet and wind, until I was so cold and so frustrated at being miles from any apparent place to sleep, that I turned to lady in a small petrol station for help. She informed me that there was a small village nearby that had a train station and I should be able to find a room there. I found the station and despite a lot of indecision from a rather grumpy woman behind the desk, finally, with the help of a man who had taken a liking to us in the station, was allowed to stay with Molly in the station’s accommodation.
 

Russia is getting more expensive as I head West and less dog-friendly which makes it difficult finding places to sleep sometimes. Having had such a disastrous camping experience, and with temperatures still in minus figures during the nights, I’ve rather gone off the camping experience for the time being if it can be at all avoided.  In fact- my effort to save $15 by camping actually cost me $170 of hospital and vet bills! What’s more- the side effect of the infected tick bites have left me feeling very feverish and so a night freezing in the tent I imagine may just polish me off! Molly is a little glum as she has been told she can’t eat anything but porridge for two days, which, of course, she refuses to eat and consequently is all tired and mopey and attempting to nibble the bandages off her legs where the injections were shot.
 
Grettle is doing well, in fact, probably the best out of the three of us, despite coming down with a stiff steering column a few days ago. It was quite odd; I parked at a café, sat down to eat some chicken with Molly for a moment and when I got back on Grettle, I couldn’t steer! Eventually I was directed to some men who were hovering around a bunch of tires in a little work shop, one of whom removed Grettle’s front tire, cooled it down, took out the tube, replaced the tire again, and bingo- all was dandy once again!

A few few pics from the road....

I am staying in Omsk an extra night since Molly has to go back to the vets tomorrow morning for more injections but with any luck , I’ll be out of this dreadful city tomorrow and on with the road trip!