Saturday 31st July

152880,,,,,,,Beautiful day, have done all the washing in the river, workman stop in lorry to say hello, they are very friendly but as drunk as lords!!! We do our first river crossing and stop for picnic --trees,, mountains it is so WOW!!!! Beverley has seen four white siberian huskies so far, I have just seen my first--so gorgeous,,,,we camp by the river again it's 35 in the shade.. happy....

Friday 30th July

152806....lovely sunshine today and warm....stop at shop for bread etc. they have an abacus for counting, no calculator.....getting higher now 1590 my ears can feel it!! Stop at a small town and walk around market, I buy a warm jacket, great now I can throw away my old jumpers which are so much trouble to wash and dry.....we see beautiful picture postcard villages, this area is stunning it is called Alty....camp at river again....a car stops, policeman he has run out of petrol, we give him what we have in our can we use for cooker, he tells us this area has no trouble and we will be ok for another 100k.....a family stop and the daughter speaks english, they say we are very brave.....we light a fire and settle for evening, cars and vans passing tooting horns and waving.......the people are much happier here!!!!!!

Thursday 29th July

Arrive in BNNCK looking for jerry cans for diesel for Mongolia, we have no idea what it will be like for petrol stations, we have been told they can be hundreds of miles apart, don't really think so, but we have to be prepared just in case.as we drive on we see a huge graveyard in the forest, not in a clearing but inbetween the trees - very unusual.....as we go towards the mountains the plants are getting bigger and taller and the leaves are huge..........we see a rope bridge for cars, but we are too tall .we pitch in a lovely spot by the river in a clearing just big enough to turn the Landy around.....

Wednesday 28th July

152525,,,,,,On road for 9am.....If this is summer in Siberia I can understand why huskies have such thick coats.......we see a genuine Russian cowboy with a hat and a whip.......there are huge rips in the earth where it has ripped open leaving huge gaping holes.....Lee notices that at least half of the cars are right hand drive....the houses are provided with hot water and you can see the steam rising from holes in the streets......went into a town and bought a new phone card and Beverley found an Oggi shop, and bought another couple of outfits, she loves Oggi fashion, we first came across it in Astana, then Almati and then here in Russia......driving out of town looking for place to camp we find an empty hanger and decide to set up here, it keeps most of the rain off us, enabling Lee to mend the headlights, good news as it is compulsary to have them on all day, and I was able to cook us all some hot food, it's only 15 degrees and very wet!!!!!

Tuesday 27th July

152322....temperature only 11 degrees....it's cold and I was cold in the night ---- grey skies -- on road for 12.30pm...1.45pm we see first police, all ok let us pass!!! 5pm after family discussion we decide to change our plans, to get to lake Baikal will mean travelling long distances for the next five days=====we all feel that we would prefer to just leisurely drive straight down to Mongolia, through the mountains and enter on the west side, we have all seen many lakes and feel that such an effort may end up with something we have said quite a few times before "Is that it?" ,,,, We find a good pitch for the night in a field behind a huge haystack, no mosies......we are just starting to watch a film as it is dusk, when the farmer and his wife arrive to collect a cart full of hay, they welcome us and let us know that they are happy with us camping there,, we watch them loading the hay and say hello to the horse, it is great to see the wooden tack that they use,,,,,,,

Monday 26th July

152156........After good night -- driving N.E.....2.40pm getting close to the last Kaz. town before the border!!!!! scarey Russia!!!!WE see huge fields full of sunflowers...we are heading for a storm----arrived at border called Kocok at 3.30 and managed to buy insurance!!!! Feel a bit sad to leave Kaz - we have driven over 5,000miles and it's been good--------------------4pm through first borde,,r checked car---4.15 second barrier--passports,,,now to Russian side------4.40 3rd barrier for passports....4.45 checked by dog at customs. 5pm through 4th barrier.... No problems then at the final barrier, where they Sprayed our wheels with disinfectant, and then asked for 100 dollars to raise the barrier,, Lee was not amused - he told them No money ---they tried again --- NO -----OK, 5.05pm we passed through!! Beverley comments that they are all like little hitlers------ almost immediately the landscape changes, it is much greener with loads of trees and its raining with black clouds!!!!.........5.45pm we stopped for a break, the mosies are enormous and we all get bitten again!!! 6.30 pm looking for a place to camp --- the hour has changed again it is now 7.30pm here......we have a full phone signal,but the phone will not connect, its just gives us a message we cannot read....

Sunday July 25th

151925....on road for 9am driving east to Pavlodar -- 250miles --half way we stopped for supplies and topped up phone.......drove up path to camp for night behind some trees, Beverley found a cows foot -- lovely!!!