What this is all about.

The longest rail journey from Bristol Temple Meads?

We all travel by train – but our destination is usually somewhere in the UK or, more rarely, in another European country. However, the track reaches much further, into Asia. The southern route, through Turkey and beyond, has become difficult for travel due to political and military issues. However, the route across Russia and into China, and beyond, is both accessible and relatively comfortable. Travelling to China presents few obstacles beyond the need to get tickets, visas, and dealing with the long stretches of train journey. The railway line to Tibet, opened less than a year ago, provides a tempting destination for travellers – however, access to Tibet is still regulated and tickets for this train are very hard to obtain. A group of three of us – a Bristol University professor and two medical doctors, is therefore setting off from Bristol Temple Meads at 09.30 on Wed 27 June, with the aim of travelling to Beijing – a distance of 10,893 km – and (if circumstances permit) to travel on the new line to Lhasa, arriving there at 20.58 on Fri 20 July. We are being joined in Germany by the fourth member of our party, an artist and teacher.

Why are we embarking on this month-long journey?

Travelling by train shows us what lies between our point of departure and the destination. People get on and off, the countryside changes, it’s possible to break the journey to visit places en route, and it becomes useful to learn at least the basics of the languages spoken by fellow travellers. We shall be stopping in Germany and Poland on our way to Moscow. Several of us have family ties to those countries, and speak their languages. Russia presents a bigger challenge – but it’s worth having a go, particularly in the dining car in which fellow travellers are keen to engage in conversation to while away the days. Lake Baikal in Siberia is the world’s largest lake by volume, and Olkhon Island, on the lake, is said to be exceptionally beautiful and worth breaking the journey for. In contrast to its serene beauty, we arrive in Ulan Bator, the capital of Mongolia, at the beginning of the festival of Naadam, an ancient “Olympics” with three sports: horse-racing, archery, and wrestling. And so to Beijing, where we are due to arrive at 14.31 on Sun 15 July, to see this powerhouse of a city and to try to get tickets for the Tibet train. We shall try to learn enough Chinese en route to manage at least the basics of these tasks. In Tibet, the track finally runs out after having covered 14,947 km from Bristol. We continue through the Himalayas by jeep, past the Tibetan Mount Everest base camp, finally reaching Kathmandu in Nepal, and a return to UK by air.

All this variety of vistas, conversations, surprises, and insights into related cultures is not accessible to air travellers. The train, a 19th century invention, still has a major role to play in the 21st century.

Tom T