Two bits of excellent news to start the week! Firstly, the overall fund for the Run Around The World crept over the £297,000 barrier and £29,000 for the Road To Astana campaign at the weekend. This was thanks to some kind donations and also ticket sales for next week's Goodbye Run Geordie Run event (tickets are still available by the way).
My own personal target of £50,000 is going to require a lot of luck and generosity to achieve but I'm confident.
In other massive news, I have just taken delivery of my passport which contains a bright and shiny Russian visa inside it. It has taken a lot of form filling in and head scratching to get it. I must say though, the Russian Tourist Office in London have been extremely helpful.
When you're going to be travelling across the Russian Federation pulling a buggy the question of "Where will you be staying" is a very tough one to answer.
With only 42 days until stage 5 of the run around the world starts, the floodgates can now open and some major tasks need to be completed. Booking of flights, freight and accommodation in Belgrade head the very long to do list. Donna and I will be working our way through that as we have done for the previous stages around the world.
I've always said that getting to the start line of this run will be an achievement in itself. After getting charity sign off last year, the visa for Russia was the next obstacle. The final obstacle is figuring out how to get the buggy back to the UK from Astana after the end of the run. Watch this space for more news as preparations hot up.
