Day 17- Khovd
Today we moved from olgii to Khovd which had pretty much no road at all. The rascal is going well with all the dry stuff but when it got wet we had problems. We got stuck for about an hour at a water crossing as the front decided it wanted to eat the mud. After 3 cars 1 4x4 and 1 bus and all their occupants we got out. After this fiasco about 30 miles down the road it died again but this time in about 18" of water but again with help from our mini convoy we escaped the clutches of a watery grave to carry on for another day
Day 16 MONGOLIA!!
Today we made the Mongolian border and made it to Olgii found a hotel that is terrible but funny the shower has 1 door left so there is a 2 foot gap in the cubical. The cubical doesn't actually drain either, it's overrated. The roads are a bit hit and miss the dirt roads are terrible but it makes the little parts of Tarmac heavenly.
Day 15- Altai region
Today we drove from Novosibirsk to the Altai region in Russia stopped by the river in a random field in the middle of Russia was a really nice spot had a light show with all the lightening over the mountains. The rascal got a bit asthmatic with the altitude
Day 14- Novosibirsk
Got to Novosibirsk today was a real good run, even had some dirt tracks enroute, got here at 5 ish had a look round the city. Had 1 slice of pizza each instead of a whole one so found an Irish bar and got some real food :) Found a nice hotel as well to crash at.
Day 14 Omsk
Made it to Omsk today a good 440 miles but managed to turn up on 'City Day' so half the city was shut off with police everywhere, great! Had what looked like a Maldovian road here as well for about 15km holes everywhere but the rascal took it in its student and we undertook everyone on the dirt
Day 13- Ufa to Truckerville
Planned an early start today ended up leaving at midday as we made some friends in a Russian bar. Still managed a good 380 miles but did have to sleep in the van
Day 12 Borisoglebsk to Syzran
Knocked out a fair few miles today was a good hit might have to do that for a couple of days now to catch up some time. Found a hotel here it's so crap even the bog roll hasn't got a hole in the middle
Day 11 Kursk to Borisoglebsk
Last night drove from the border in the pitch black with what can only be discribed as lights equivalent to candles made it to Kursk but couldn't find our hotel so slept in the van. As for today we drove to Borisoglebsk found a hotel and gonna make the most of the shower
Day 10 Border from hell
Just got through Ukraine/Russia border was horrendous took 7 hours in the blazing sun
Day 9 Rascal race tuned
So today we found a garage and got the Rascal sorted/ok'ed they checked everything as well and can't find anything wrong like us they reckon it's the poor quality petrol here. We had thought this and in the morning had got octane booster and carb cleaner. They had it for 6 hours cleaned out the car, changed the fuel filter, done the timing, adjusted fuelling and we got 3 more octane boosters and 1 litre of oil for just £31!!! That's our kind of fix. Off to Russia tomorrow
