Having received all these documents, Kate Marsden went to Moscow, where she started preparing for the expedition. Moscow Governor Duke Dolgorukov and a number of other Moscow nobles ardently supported her plan to go to Siberia with a charity mission and helped Miss Mardens collect necessary supplies, including warm clothes, linen, copies of the Holy Bible, and some basic medicines to be distributed among the lepers. On February 1, 1891, Miss Marsden and Miss Fild, an English friend of hers who could speak some Russian, set off for a long journey to Siberia.

The first place to visit was Samara, a big city on the Volga river, where Miss Marsden met Governor Sverbeev, who gave her a reference letter to the Venerable Dionisy (Khitrov), Ufa’s Bishop, who had spent over 40 years with the Christian mission among the Yakuts and who had translated the New Testament into their language. The Venerable Dionisy showed unfeigned interest in the expedition and told Miss Marsden about the terrible conditions that lepers had to withstand in Siberia. He also gave her a letter to the Yakutsk bishop who might be helpful in providing assistance in her courageous journey.

One her way to Siberia Miss Marsden visited a few prisons where she distributed 9 000 copies of the New Testament among the prisoners. She also spent considerable amount of money on charity there, saying that although there were no lepers among prisoners, she did not have right to refuse aid.

By the time of Miss Marsden’s journey railways had been constructed only in the central part of Russia, and the farthest place to the East where it was possible to travel by train was Zlatoust (Chelyabinsk region). The next part of the journey, from Zlatoust to Ekaterinburg, was made by carts. In Ekaterinburg Miss Marsden met a couple of Englishmen, who, having known about her intentions, advised her to visit Irbit, a small town where a popular trade fair was traditionally held in February, which would be a chance to meet some Yakut merchants in order to inquire about the lepers in the Yakut area and about the healing herb. Miss Marsden and Miss Fild did meet one of the Yakut merchants in Irbit and had a thorough talk with him. Although this merchant did not know much about the herb, he provided some useful information about the Yakut area and he also told about horrible conditions in the places where the lepers lived.

From Irbit Miss Marsden and her fellow traveler went to Tyumen, where they stayed for a week with an English family living there. The journey was so tiring, that Miss Marsden had to stay in bed for a few days. Having recuperated, they carried on to Tobolsk and further on to Omsk, riding on a sleigh along a very poor road, exposed to biting frosts and chilling-to-the-marrow winds. Exhausted and frozen to death, both of the women reached Omsk, where they were met by Governor General Sannikov, whose hospitable family took care of the poor women. Miss Fild, who was the only member of the team who could speak both English and Russian, got seriously ill on the way and had to discontinue the journey. That was a serious loss for the expedition, because from that moment Miss Marsden did not hear a single word in her mother tongue until the end of the journey and had to communicate with the people she met and her traveler companions through a French-speaking interpreter and by gestures.

Having spent two weeks in the Governor’s house, Miss Marsden headed to Krasnoyarsk, accompanied by a few sleigh drivers and Mr. Vilenbakhov, a young officer who could speak some French. Roads were worsening with every mile the horses made. The sledges were often stuck in deep snow, despite being driven by up to seven horses. Besides, the travelers had to cross numerous rivers, which was really hazardous, because the ice had already started to melt, as the spring was coming to this part of Siberia. In Krasnoyarsk the sledges were substituted for the carts, but it did not make the trip more comfortable, as the road was in fact a perpetual chain of pits and bumps, so that the travelers had to experience interminable jerks and pushes.

In Irkutsk, where Miss Marsden arrived in the end of April, the local Governor Goremykin convened a committee for organizing help to lepers, but the committee did not make any decisions, pointing out that it would be necessary to wait for the results of Miss Marsden’s expedition. The next part of the journey from Irkutsk to Yakusk was made down the river Lena in a pauzok, a small barge without any shelter for the crew that was usually used for shipping grain or goods in high waters. In three weeks’ time, having undergone a terrible ordeal of storms and pouring rains, cold and wet nights, myriads of mosquitoes and centipedes, and all the inconveniences of traveling on the open deck, Miss Marsden arrived at Yakutsk. The local General Governor met her at the riverbank and invited her to his steamer, where he expressed his gratitude for the feats she had made and gave her a very warm and hospitable reception. The Governor spoke for a long time about the leprosy that affected many local people and made necessary arrangements for the further journey.

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