37 Years Later

I got off the Trans-Siberian Railway to buy bread. The train left without me. In the middle of Siberia.

China, 1988. No mobile phones. No internet. No GPS. Just two backpackers on an eight-day journey from Beijing to Berlin — and one very costly mistake.

This 17-minute story is for anyone who's ever wondered what travel was like when Western backpackers were still a rare sight in China and adventures unfolded in ways that seem impossible today.

Ralf (the German who helped me through that disaster) still grows apples in Germany. He's just come to visit me in Melbourne — 37 years after that journey brought us together.