Blogging from Siberia

After making it through our final night in Mongolia with the tents intact, we headed for the border. This border crossing is known as a smuggling route into Russia so we expected a hard time, b ut two hours later we were on our way. Our tactics of having things falling out the boot to deter any eager inspectors seem to have been finely honed. Although it was going to be a long day at the wheel we decided to head up to Lake Baikal for our camp that evening. As it turned out the road was quite good and we would have made it for sunset had it not taken three hours to get out of Ulan-Ude. But we made it in the end and had a good night’s sleep.

Beautiful Baikal

Waking up to the sound of waves crashing on the beach was really nice, and we had a great morning doing nothing chilling on the beach. If we got thirsty at all during the day all you had to do was dip your cup in the lake and have a drink. It is strange to be able to drink straight from a body of water that looks like an ocean. Somewhat reluctantly we paked up and left early afternoon to make camp to the east of Ulan-Ude. Since then we have spent two days driving and have made 700 miles east. This is our first serious driving session for a long time and it feels quite good. The only slight problem is the continued loss of turbo pressure, but it comes and goes and so we can easily live with it.

Siberian Camping

Now we are back in Russia we have talked a lot about what we thought of Mongolia. As a comparison Siberia is lovely, there are huge rolling valleys full of trees and rivers, but Mongolia is just cleaner somehow. It was just a stunning pristine country with amazing people and an interesting culture.

We would all love to go back (and hopefully will G4 willing). A little note on something that we found funny - in several places in UB the history books had been rewritten and the Irish had discovered the orient, commemorated by places bearing the name Marc O’Polo.

Well next stop is Sakhalin and the Pacific, let’s hope Roxy and her turbo will get us there.

- Pete

Playing on the iPod: ‘A Thousand Trees’ by The Stereophonics

Attractive Petrol Stations