Speed: 40 MPH
Status: Heading South East towards the Mongolian border!
We are so near Mongolia we can almost taste the fermented yaks milk! 60 miles to go until our final country and as the beginning of the end of our epic journey is upon us we're all in very high spirits and looking forward to the challenges Mongolia is about to throw at us!
Barnaul was nice, but we had to move on. After an early night we moved out at around lunch time and drove south east toward Biysk. Our aim for the afternoon would be to get our front coil springs fixed.
We arrived into Biysk and made straight for a garage. After Stu and Russ scoured the place for springs it turned out that they didn't have stock of what we needed. One of the mechanics took Stu down to another garage where they had the parts. So off we went in the ambulance to said garage.
I think the term garage has to be used loosely it was more a body shop but the man working there managed to work out what we needed and after two hours he'd finally got it all done. So we can now go into Mongolia with beefed up suspension!
We continued to drive though the most amazing scenery along a river which followed us for hundreds of miles. Eventually we stopped at around midnight, not wanting to miss out on the view because of the dark. We picked a great spot, total luck as it was pitch dark! We put our tents up next to a fast flowing river, made a fire and cracked open some beer. It was a relaxing evening after 12 hours driving.
We woke up early but were not in a major rush to get on the road again. Russ, Ben (from another rally car) and I went swimming in a calm patch of river. It was nice to have a wash even if the water was around nice degrees. It turns out the river was glacial water running down from one of the higher mountains, fresh; it took your break away.
After washing up, tea and some fiddling with the ambulance we hit the road again. As I type we are driving down a rather good road around 60 miles from the Mongolia border. The landscape has totally changed, it's looking more like the photos of Mongolia I've sent. Flat planes with hills and vast open space except we have the roads of Russia!
We're going to border today, Thursday 14th August and aim for Ulan Bator for around 23rd August in time for the second of the welcome parties.
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