Yay!
2GM are in UB!!!
Camping
Monday evening - camped in the desert about 50 miles east of Altai. Had boil in bag curry and jam sponge to celebrate progress after yesterday. The roads have allowed about 23 average today - a VAST improvement! Cloudy, windy and spitting. No shooting stars tonight. Terry Pratchett by torchlight.
Biysk, Russian Federation
The BGM is typing this without specs...  We are at Biysk some 600 kms from border with Mongolia and we're in a nice Sooviet hotel again. This time one door to two twin rooms - and all retro decs like the 1950s!!! Unf there's no bar and or eats available...
Almaty
Drove through mountains in sunset -Â spectacular!
Arrived at Almaty late and found a hotel.  The city is not easy to navigate. Long drive today of over 400 miles. Quite hot, but tremendous scenery. Need to find something to eat (Big Green Man checked out a Kazakh kebab yesterday
Baikonur
Last couple of days have involved some horrendous travelling by normal standards. Drove thru desert for 10+ horrs and slept in tent in desert by side of sand track. Left Aral on the sea (not). Tough but good hard drive south. Major road works put us miles and miles into desert. Low fuel and water but ok. If it sounds tough it is the good challenge. And there are lots of good bits too. Just stopped having linked with two teams for a paddle in lake neat Baikonur. The dust and sand from the traffic turn the sun red in the day and dim the moon at night.
A New Plan
We have changed our minds. Well sort of.
We had planned to go to Goodwood this evening and participate in the footie antics and sundry fun and games. A late invitation to a curry and a couple of good bottles of wine, not to mention the last chance to sleep in a decent bed for the next few weeks was too strong a call to deny.
Yet it has been a good day. The pound bought a few more dollars than expected. everything does actually fit in and around the car. The fully laden test drive worked really well if only for a small fraction of the total journey. Lots of calls and texts from family and friends and some excellent support right up to the wire.
Found a bit of extra space for some reading material to support the maps and travel guides. terry Pratchett and tom Sharpe won over anything more serious andI found two really nice bottles of whiskey that need to be consumed in the early stages of what might become a very dry event.
All set for an early start tomorrow to join the party and festival of slow before 11am.
