Barnaul

We made good progress upto Semey from Almaty, enjoying a detour to see a canyon and scenery. KZ to Rus border was fine, and spent a great night out in Barnaul with some other teams. Heading off slowly to the Mongolia border, aiming to cross on monday morning. Still trying to make the 4 week party! Going to enjoy the last 600km of tarmac roads before Mongolia! Susie swift is going strong. Hopefully the next update should be in Ulaanbataar!  

Almaty

Made it too almaty by the 9th. Amazing scenery, ridiculously friendly people, terrible roads! Aside from the Hotel catching fire in kyzlorda, and a $50 dollar speeding fine its been great. The Atrau to Aqtobe road was terrible... dont take it! massive potholes and ruts led to a snapped in half exhaust, but an amazing mechanic took great pride in fixing it for free after 4 hours work. lack of fuel stations on the way to aral were a worry but the spare jerry can came in handy!

Ukraine and Russia were good, apart from a "second hand tyre tax" for the spare wheels on the Russian border of $25 dollars! roads were hairy, and the temperatures close to 45 degrees.

The swift is going strong, as are we... we are going to slow down abit now to enjoy the land of seven rivers heading upto Semey.