Most honeymoons involve a beach. Tamara Pogosyan, 31, and Pavel Shabalin, 33, chose a different route: walking from Moscow to Vladivostok — roughly 10,000km across the widest country on Earth.

Here's the part that makes it stranger. The couple from Moscow had no expedition experience, no athletic background worth mentioning, and no long planning period. The idea struck on January 7 after Pogosyan watched a YouTube video about long-distance walking. Twelve days later they had researched the undertaking, bought gear, and set off from their front door on January 19. Their entire physical preparation was a single 20km test walk around Moscow with fully loaded backpacks.

It's clearly working. By early September the pair had covered more than 6,600km, averaging 30-40km a day on foot — no lifts, no trains, no motorised transport of any kind. Their route has stayed in southern Russia: from Moscow through the Volga and Ural regions to Omsk, reaching Novosibirsk — Siberia's biggest city — in June at around the 3,700km mark. By late August they were in Irkutsk past 5,500km, and on September 2 they crossed into the Republic of Buryatia, having just walked past Lake Baikal, the world's deepest lake. Next comes Zabaykalsky Krai, then the long push east to the Pacific.

The original goal was to finish by late 2026. At their current pace they'll likely stroll into Vladivostok early in the new year instead, well ahead of schedule.

What has carried them, beyond stubbornness, is Russia's small-town hospitality. The two have built a large following on Russian social media, and in rural communities along the route locals turn out to greet them. In the village of Ablatuysky Bor, the mayor personally welcomed the couple and showed them around the local sights.

Why should a traveller care? Partly because it's a reminder that Russia's interior — the Volga bend, the steppe around Omsk, the shores of Baikal — remains one of the least-walked long-distance corridors anywhere, even if most of us will opt for the Trans-Siberian Railway rather than our own two feet. And partly because the couple's low-key approach strips away the intimidation factor of ultra-distance travel: ordinary fitness, sensible gear, and a willingness to just start. Pogosyan's own account of their training — one 20km walk with packed bags — is almost comically modest for a trek that will span ten time zones.

For anyone inspired, the practical takeaway is the Trans-Siberian. The Moscow-to-Vladivostok railway covers much of the same ground the couple is walking, with stops in Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk, Irkutsk and Ulan-Ude, and the chance to hop off at Lake Baikal. Walking it takes a year and a half. The train takes about seven days.

However you cover the distance, the story is a good nudge to look past Moscow and St Petersburg and think about the vast, little-visited country in between — ideally from a train window in winter, rather than a muddy roadside in October.

Story via ExplorersWeb.