Driving driving driving

Cassie: So here I am with the laptop on my lap, typing away while Graeme's driving on a beautiful bit of road. I've done my driving shift this morning and had an awesome run. Got us another 300km under our belts and had so much fun driving on the awesome roads mixed with road works that were more closely resembling 4WD tracks! Made for a very interesting drive. The population is thinning out which means the roads are super quiet. And for the first time, we're seeing beautiful, long overtaking lanes. You may seem surprised by my surprise, but we thought Russia didn't know the meaning of overtaking lanes on highways because we hadn't seen one up until this morning. We're eating up the miles today while we can on such great roads. So far we've done about 500km and we're hoping to do at least 600km or so to break through the halfway point to Yakutsk. Because the days are so long it's really easy to do that on good roads. We have been stopping well before we reach our tired limit
and the constant breaks have put us in good stead all day.

At the end of my driving shift we pulled into a cafe and had a go at ordering from a Russian menu. We were totally out of place and the girl behind the counter was of no help, she just kept laughing - not very helpful really. This roadhouse style place was full of bikies and we stood out like a sore thumb which was hilarious. Even more hilarious, we just pointed to random stuff on the menu and ended up with half a piece of stale bread, some chicken noodle soup and some coleslaw thing. Totally not enough food for the two of us.

The amount of daylight hours is immense. It literally isn't getting dark until maybe 10.30pm/11pm'ish and the sun seems to come up at maybe 6.30am/7am'ish.

Our camp last night was down a quiet dirt track off the highway. It was raining and there were loads of mozzies, but our car provided us with a cosy sanctuary. The rain was softly pattering on the car all night and it sounded awesome. It was still raining when we woke up and for the first hour or so of driving but other than that it's been dry and overcast which makes for good driving weather. Glare and sun are not a road traveler's best friend.

The countryside has been stunning. Amazingly green and lush like we could never imagine seeing in Australia. We haven't seen one barren bit of land that hasn't been deliberately manmade that way.

We just stopped for fuel now and I got yelled at by the "lady" behind the counter. You always have to guess the amount of fuel you need and then prepay. Well, for the first time we overestimated and I asked for a refund of the fuel we didn't end up using and she literally yelled at me! Mind you, she was yelling at the biker ahead of me in the line and then as she's having a go at me, the biker comes back and starts having more words to her about his predicament. Graeme and I are now laughing that I should've said a few choice words to her in english but with a massive sarcastic smile on my face. Hmmm, me thinks next time. Always think of these funny things in hindsight. Needless to say, I didn't get our refund.

Anyway, we're off again on our mile eating journey. OMG we just passed two little Kia utility trucks connected with an A-frame you'd see connecting a trailer. Difficult to explain. We're struggling to think how that could be more efficient than having two trucks, a bigger truck or doing two trips. Haha only in Russia.

Graeme:
Wow, what a fantastic day. Seriously stunning. Excellent roads. We stopped to help a motorcycle who had run out of 'benzine' (pertrol). We gave him a lift to the service station, then back to his bike... but we were unable to start it. He was a bit... perplexed by the bike, almost like it was borrowed (or stolen ;-) so after pulling the clutch in, nuteral, stop switch off it would at least turn over. But that was all, it would only turn over. After two or three minutes of trying different things, two bikers coming the other way. Pete and John from tough-miles.com were also doing an epic adventure. What are the chances, two brittish bikers.... how could that have ended up better. What possible combination could have been better?
In the end, it was either a side stand switch, or just that it was really flooded, but it roared into life! success.

Since our last fill of fuel (which was atrociously over filled, because of the 'no refund if you pay with card') we've been experiencing a misfire kind of condition where by it's as if for maybe a tenth of a second the fuel drops out. I'm clutching at straws and would welcome your comments with ideas. I'll list what I've done.

-Checked fuel hoses to check for air getting in - seem ok - one was a bit easy to remove, but worst case I'll clamp it if the problem continues
-We filled 3/4 of the main tank at this fuel stop, and about 1/10th of the sub tank, so changing tanks may not rule out the problem.
-I'm not sure if my imagination, but the exhaust smells a little like kerosene
-I did wonder if overfilling the tank stops it venting, or possibly backs up the fuel return line? It's now got half a tank in it, so that shouldn't be it.
-I've checked for water in the water trap, none whatsoever. It did gurgle a little bit as air went back into it.
-I've checked the dash light for the diesel water trap and it works. It also has a buzzer which was a pleasant surprise! If only the same buzzer worked for oil/alternator?

What I have done, which _MAY_ have made a difference, is I opened the tank cap and it sucked some air in. Not a heap, but some.
I've done maybe a 10KM round trip and it _SEEMS_ to be better, but I'm trying very hard to not get excited.
Oh well, better luck tomorrow. We're going to watch another episode of 'Black Books' - it's horrifically funny british humour. Thanks for the tip Brett.

Also good news, is we've passed the half way point from Vladivostok to Yakutsk!... just ;-)

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Position: 12-07-01 17:30:48 +1100 +0000
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