Optimistically hoped to be able to enter Russia on Tuesday 19th, although our visas clearly stated the 20th. Arriving at the border just north of Ust (east of the main border at Semey), I duly handed our passports to the guy at the gate and we were even allowed to drive through - before someone realised we were a day early. Ah well, a day of rest would not be wasted! We parked just a little way from the gate and spent the day productively. Phil repaired two tyres and I did other useful stuff (I can’t actually remember what I did!). At around 9.30 p.m. we drove back to the gates and promptly both fell asleep! A couple of hours later we were actually woken by the border guard to tell us that we could start to proceed. And proceed we did! In just obout an hour and forty minutes we had entered Russia, with little of the fuss and stress we had expected and at a cost of only 540Rubles ($20) (Insurance and disinfectant tax).

It was now around 2.45a.m (we had “lost” another hour as the clocks yet again move forward) so we drove only a fairly short distance before finding a quiet spot in a field to sleep for the night.

The drive to Barnaul was an uneventful one, though we did manage to get yet another puncture. The scenery was pastoral and pleasant and the tarmac, mostly fairly good. We ate up the kms and arrived in the town in the early evening. We had received an email from Bruno, telling us where he was staying and with the help of the ever useful GPS we found not only the hotel, but that Bruno was still there. Unfortunately we had just missed David, Ingrid and Edde, who had left a few hours earlier. We decided not to stay in the hotel, but to drive just out of the town to sleep and arranged to meet Bruno somewhere on the road, the following day, which we did, at a garage whilst having the tyre repairs carried out. It was late afternoon before we were ready to leave, but we drove on together to find a camp site.

We found a lovely spot, just along the river-but sadly the mosquitoes loved it there too and it wasn’t long before we were driven inside after having been bitten more times than I care to recall! Making a prompt departure the following morning, not even wanting to leave the safety of the vehicles (mossys can't penetrate!) to perform necessary morning actions!

The drive from Barnaul became more and more lovely as the kilometres passed. The Alpine scenery of a river valley which was flanked on both sides by pine clad mountains was quite gorgeous. The variety of wild-flowers growing by the roadside was quite remarkable- bright orange, pink, yellow, purple and blue. Varieties that I could recognise and some of which are even grown as garden flowers in the U.K. We had heard that this area was lovely but it surpassed our imagination.

A more successful “bug-free” camp site was found early enough in the afternoon for a considerable amount of laundry to be washed in the fast-flowing river and in the warm wind and sunshine it dried in a very short time.

The final part of the journey to Tashanta was to be completed the following day and the scenery remained just as stunning though quite different in that it became more “open”. We had decided to park up very close to the border and make an early start the following day to exit Russia –which we did. Tashanta proved not to be the large town where we would hope to find a final internet connection before Mongolia, but rather a squalid little village tucked into the bottom of a bare mountain-side.

Well, we were at the border by around 8.40- but we weren’t the first. Allowing only a very few cars through at a time, we were to wait around two hours before even getting in to the Russian exit point. However once in- everything was pretty efficient and dealt with in under an hour. The only cost so far - $15 for a document which seemed to suggest that we could import goods into Mongolia!

We spent a final night  in “no-mans’-land” between the borders, in order to get to the Mongolian border early and not lose too much time. Phil decided to swap the wheels around, putting the new Goodrich tyres on the back and the reliable Michelins on the front. A few maintenance jobs, a bit of re-sorting storage and I even made some Welsh cakes and the day was well-spent. Bruno didn’t appear (he was following a few hours later) but we were informed by a German couple we had met a day or so earlier, that he had parked a few kms behind us for the night.

Our totally false pre-conceived ideas of Russia, that we would be hassled by police, searched at customs by blank-faced officials, lots of road stops, were not to be! We were met only with friendliness and courtesy, even when at 1am we awoke woman who then had to complete all our customs declaration forms for us.