"Back in the USSR"

Cassie:
Ok, so it's not called the USSR anymore, but we were trying to be clever by referencing a song title. Neither of us know the name of the person/band who sings it - can anyone shed any light? We're in the Altai region after crossing the Mongolian/Russia border yesterday afternoon. All up we estimate the border crossing took about 6 hours. You essentially have to cross two borders with each crossing which eats up the time. You have to exit one country and go through their bureaucracy then go to the next country's border to enter and go through their bureaucracy, all the while smiling and profusely thanking them at every separate stage for making your day hellish. Border crossings aren't hard, they're just long, tedious and boring. And when you're trying to cross on a Friday, stressful. I ended up having to fill out four customs forms at the Russian side because we made a "mistake" on the first ones (you need to fill out two customs forms - one original for them and one for us).
I say "mistake" in quotation marks because I filled it out exactly how the last Russian border wanted it completed, but it wasn't what this Russian border officer wanted to see. It was absolutely freezing at the border, had to be well below 10 degrees celsius and raining. At one stage the rain actually started to fall like snow! The wind had an awful bite to it too. I think our altitude at that point was around 2500m. All the border officers were in nice, heated sheds while all us plebs were lined up outside in the freezing cold rain and wind. It was like we were prisoners being punished as we're lining up for a bit of paper that would let us out past the high wire fences on probation, into "freedom". At the last office we had to line up at just before leaving the "compound" the lady was kind and half jokingly we stuck our hands and forearms through her window so that we could warm them. Thankfully she saw this as funny, it would've looked like we were trying to reach in an
d grab something from her desk. We were just desperate for warmth!

Anyway, we got through without any issues and the Mongolian exiting procedure was just as silly as the dance we had to do to get into the country.

Interesting story from yesterday morning, we nearly didn't make it to the Mongolian border. We got to the town of Tsagaannuur and headed in what we thought was the direction and out of nowhere a guy on a motorbike comes up beside us on the road gesturing for us to stop. Ok, hello, what's this. We were expecting some trouble if I'm honest because the town of Tsagaannuur looks like a rough and tough, dust bowl of a border town and we clearly stuck out as tourists heading to the border. He then proceeded to tell us in broken english that this is not the road to the border and that we should follow him and he will show us the way. Hmmm, I was a bit scared if I'm honest with you. We hadn't even driven 10km and I sensed trouble in the air. In my defense, I think everyone reading this would've found the situation a bit suspect. But what choice did we have really, it's likely he was telling the truth and he wasn't going to leave without us so we had to follow him. Worst case we could
just turn the car around. So through this dust bowl town we drive and sure enough, he led us to a main road on the other side of the town. You beauty! He then stopped for a bit of a chat, wanted some money, smokes or vodka from us for his troubles. Ahhh, so that's the catch. Unfortunately for him, we had changed all our local currency back in Ulaangom and neither of us smoke or drink. He then poked his head into the car to see what else we had but couldn't see anything much because we had the solar shades up on the back windows. In the end he got on his mobile phone and "called" someone, told us, yep, you're right to go now and so we said our goodbyes and headed off expecting there to be a roadblock further up with his mates blocking our path. Hello bullbar if that was to be the case. But no, I checked our mobile phone just after we said bye to him thinking wow, do we have mobile service here? Because what a miracle that would be because I haven't seen any mobile towers (th
ey're very obvious in Mongolia - literally in a town and much lower than our ones in Australia). Nope, no mobile service which means he wasn't talking to anyone on his phone. I think the guy was just trying a last ditch effort to get something from us by making it look like he had done even more to help us. I would've given him something for his troubles, but we didn't have anything that he wanted. We did give him a bag of lollies but he handed them back.

We met a Dutch couple at the border who had entered Mongolia at the Tsagaannuur border and were exiting from the same border at the same time as us. They were traveling in a Mercedes Smart Car ForTwo (worth Googling it if you're unsure what it is). Needless to say, they got to Olgiy which is about 208km from the Tsagaannuur border and turned around. Their car couldn't cope with the roads. We were amazed that this was their choice of car but gave them the much deserved kudos for even trying it! They then proceeded to tell us that they originally set off on this adventure on a scooter, had an accident with a truck in Ukraine, headed home to recover, kitted up their Smart Car at home for the drive and headed off again. What the!? They were absolutely mad but really lovely people. Sad story was, we were with them the entire way through the Mongolian border, encouraging each other through each step - real border buddies. Got through the Mongolian border sweet, no problems. Got to
the halfway Russian checkpoint (yes, it's crazy but they have a halfway checkpoint not far after the Mongolian border where they check your visa and passport before you get to the actual border). We're lined up behind the gate, the Dutch couple go through first because they were about three cars ahead of us in the line up. Then about 5mins later, they swing their car around and come back through the gate! They pulled up alongside us with long faces and I said guys, what's going on, what's wrong, why are you heading back to Mongolia!? They explained that they thought they had a double entry visa into Russia but it turns out they only had a single entry. They had to go to Ulaanbaatar to the Russian embassy there and get another Russian visa. Our hearts sank for them. We offered them water and any other provisions they may need but they declined. Graeme suggested they drive to Olgiy and fly to Ulaanbaatar because the roads are just too rough for their little car. My mind keeps
going to them. I hope they're ok and are keeping their chins up.

From the Dutch couple and another couple from Germany who were also our border buddies all the way through, we learnt that we had actually driven the difficult way through Mongolia. We went the northern route through Ulaangom on the A16 but all the tourists seem to go the more southern route and take the middle main road which is the A07 into Olgiy because it has a bridge across the massive river we had to cross. Doh! Oh well, I'm going to blow our own trumpet and say I think we deserve kudos for doing it the hard way. It was bloody hard on the car, body and spirit!

Mongolia was just amazing. A day would yield the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. It's a tough country to traverse because many of the roads are rough and it's so darn difficult to navigate. But my goodness, you're rewarded with the beautifully warm smile of a local and stunning vistas. By far the most beautiful scenery I've ever seen in my life. At numerous points the beauty seriously moved me to tears.

In answer to your question Nora, I don't know if there's bears in Mongolia. I have read that there's wolves. I was so hoping to see one, or even hear one - how spooky and cool would that be! But alas, no. We were really keen to see a bear in Russia, and because of all the forest fires in the area we were in we thought for sure they would be forced out of the depths of the forest towards the edges where we were likely to see one. But again, no.

The Altai region in Russia is really beautiful. Today we've seen snow capped mountains, massive fast flowing rivers, huge rocky mountains, driven awesome mountainous roads and have finally camped alongside a river. Unfortunately we couldn't find a spot where we can access the water because it's holiday season in Russia and every Tom, Dick and Harry is out camping in this area. Damn tourists! Haha. I can see why the Russians flock here, it is a lovely place for a camping holiday and we would have our pick of amazing camp spots but they're all taken. It's actually nice to see the Russians holidaying and enjoying their country. The people who have recently pulled up and camped nearby to us occasionally pump up their car stereo to it's limit which is annoying but what can you do. Hope they bust their speakers?

We're 3 hours behind home time now. From here we're heading up to Barnaul over the next couple of days where we'll get a hotel, much needed shower and wifi hopefully. My hair is so gross it just stays in place when I take my hairband out of an evening. Ewwww. Thankfully we were able to bathe in a river in Mongolia and wash our hair on Monday. That feels like a lifetime ago as I type this on Saturday evening! You've just gotta roll with it and hope you don't stink too much when you pop into a town for lunch and some supplies. In Mongolia it was fine because we couldn't smell any worse than the nomadic farmers who stink to high heaven of cow poo, or sheep, yak, camel or goat poo - whichever you prefer.

The drive up to Barnaul is going to be a very slow, casual one because we can't enter Kazakhstan until the 15th because that's the entry date on our visas. We had to guess the date way back at the start of this year when we were applying for all of our visas. Thankfully we were fairly spot on with guessing the dates. We've been pretty tired these past two days so this will be some great forced "take it easy" time.

It's wonderful to be back on tar roads again before we hit the dirt again in Kazakhstan. I can't help but feel the toughest part of the trip is over. I do realise that the adventure will throw up different kinds of challenges as we go along, but hey, we've endured Siberia and Mongolia and we're still smiling and not ready to go home, surely that's readied us for anything else that is to come.

Graeme:
First things first - I need to clear up some confusion with the 'Altanbulag Border Scammer' Video. Just prior to leaving Mongolia, we were pulled over at an offical looking check point, with a very official looking man with MTA badge. He asked us to see our tax receipt. Cassie kept asking what he was after but I knew it all along. He was after our receipt that the 'scammer' provided. We showed him, he said, thanks very much and sent us on our way. IT WASN'T A SCAM!!! OMG I have been snickering about that for days now. I'll need to make the video private so we can all have a laugh about it, but it's not open to the world. A couple we met didn't pay on entry because they thought it was a scam and had to pay the exact same ammount (10,0000T) on exit.

Thanks to Dad and Warren for the suggestions on the dust. I think the problem is a result of a design modification I made when doing the fit out. In the back of these things, as with most cars, there are usually a pair of vents towards the back of the car that let air out when you put air in (like front windows open, closing a door or fan running on fresh air). When renewing the side panels in the back I deliberately covered these vents to stop a draft on cold nights. This is demonstrated when we have the fan on fast, a squeal, a bit like a baloon can be heard from the rear door seals as the air forces through them. I do agree, a little bit of positive pressure probably helps the dust senario, but I'll have to see what works best from your tips because our setup might be a little different from normal. Thank you.

I don't have much to add. Altai is beautiful, but oddly difficult to photograph. You just need to be here. We've seen so many overland travellers, all from europe coming down the highway today. In the realm of 50 cars? 40 of them would be landcruisers (2 troop carriers, 20 prados, 38 80/100 series) remaining few were land rovers or misc like F150's. Nothing entering Mongolia was 2WD.
It's been relaxing charging and cleaning all the camera gear.
This morning, 2 minutes into driving, there was an odd sound. Pulled over, it was the flapping of a rubber guard that keeps mud out of the engine bay against the drivers side wheel. The push clip had broken, so a cable tie and it was all good. Investigating this noise brought to my attention a few drops of coolant on the bottom radiator hose. Tightened them all up, all good now. As Cassie might have mentioned, last night was freezing, last time it was really cold at home I had the same issue. Damn new hoses. I should have just left the old ones on and carried new ones instead of replacing them ;-)

Oh, one thing that was staggeringly cool to me, was recreating one of the photos in the Long Way Round book! Do I sound obsessed much?! It was a pretty ordinary photo anyway, but I knew it had to be on this road. Sure enough, we looked for half the day using components of the photo such as the big power pole on the left hand side of the road, the 40kph sign, the funny trees etc. It turned out Cassie spotted it from a pattern on the fence. Inside I was adamant this couldn't be the place... one tree was about half the size, a whole new strip of street lights, different signage and fresh tar made for a different looking scene. She was right, and we got the photo. Niceeee!