Wednesday 23rd June

cooler today only 35 in shade....off up north to Actobe today, there is a long and a short road, we opt for the short...long is supposed to be quicker because of the bad road......we come to a salt lake still has the water in it, as we walk down to it our feet sink into the oil in the ground and it sticks to our shoes...I think the sun has got to me because for some reason I try and read the sign backwards--as if reading Russian is not difficult enough, backwards is ridiculous....we follow the track--we have only a tiny map of Kaz in our Russian map book---no compass as that decided to jump out of the window off the dashboard, luckily we still have Sandy the satnav, she has no idea where she is but can tell us north or south ect......we go off the so called road onto mud track it is better...now a hundred miles of bone shaking road....saw our first prairie dog ( aah! sweet just like a big gerbil) --saw horses sheltering in huge drainage pipes.48 degrees in shade......we stopped to camp but we were too near the road, or really too near a track which turned out to be another used road----so we went to move but can't start--starter motor dead!!! A lorry came along and pull started us, now we have to camp on a hill!!!