Our new approach

Graeme: We had found our camp by 17:15 and are pretty much setup and cooking dinner now. We have a tactic now to start looking for a good campsite by 5, and be camped by 6. Today it's worked wonders. The sun is still quite high and I'm sitting at the back of the car at the table in the shade - nice!

Some spectacular driving again today. We only did 267KM today, the going was rough. The traffic over the last few days is pleasantly thinning out. You'd still pass a car every few minutes, but it's better than one every 30 seconds. We spent about two hours just chillin, having lunch, washing clothes and hair by a river today. Really smelling the roses! Also got some beautiful video to put us in the picture. The dust was also crazy today (which reminds me, I should check the air filter), the bonnet was grey with thick dust.

This country is a land of contrasts: Today's contrast is that as a people, Russian's are so proud and humble, yet the countryside is littered with rubbish. Have not quite figured that one out yet.

I've felt the engine hesitation once or twice again today, but it's so minor I almost don't care. I spent 20 minutes this afternoon at camp removing the fuel pre-filter. This car has two and I replaced one of them before we left, not knowing there was a second one. It had a kilometer and date written on the side of the bowl of 97,500KM and some date in 2006. If that's the last time it was changed, some 150,000KM ago, then that might be part of the problem. I've got plenty of video of its contents, but effectively had maybe one teaspoon of rust/silt/dirt and half a teaspoon of some unknown orange liquid. Without blowing out the filter, I can only assume it was filled with the similar silt. What was also weird, in the bottom of the bowl, there was almost a hard resin that may have been done at the factory. It peeled off easy enough, but I have no idea why it was in there to begin with.
I've taken the filthy filter out and I'll see if I can get one in Yakutsk. It's a lot easier to say 'One of these' and show them it, as opposed to quoting all manner of models and makes.

Cassie cooked some stunningly good tomato and onion mix to have with our lovely bread. It's quite tough bread in Russia, but it is good and very filling! It smells so good. The main course was followed by a desert of honey and peanut butter bread... mmm

Cassie's continuing to try reason with insects who fly into our car. It's fruitless I tell her, but she doesn't listen. LIVE UPDATE: She's just killed them all with spray. Note to self, negotiation with Cassie is futile.

OH! we saw snow today... seriously. A huge block of it at maybe 600M altitude, hidden in a valley that must get very little sunlight.
Some of these flys are cool. They hover and survey - like drones. I'm not sure why but the insects feel slower here.

Over the past five days of driving on several occasions we've overtaken a 100 series landcruiser towing a boat. It's distinctive because they are going sooo slow. It's getting to be quite a joke between us now, with much horn honking and waving. It would be terrific to stop them at some stage, we may even meet them waiting for the barge to Yakutsk.

We'll be in our 'house' by 8PM tonight - I think we'll be having tea and 'Doc Martin'. We love our house.

Cassie: As Graeme has just said, it would be great to be able to meet the guys towing the boat to wherever they're going. It's becoming quite the occasion for all of us when we do catch up to, and eventually pass, eachother. I hope we catch up to them again tomorrow.

The roads are still shaking and bumping the bejesus out of us and the car. The screws that fix the cabinet to the car were starting to come loose so Graeme tightened them up. All good now. We will have to backtrack on these roads for part of the way to get down to Chita and on to Mongolia. We're not sure of the route down to Mongolia from here but we have a couple of weeks to think it through I suppose. The problem is there doesn't seem to be a road to Chita in our atlas but we know there is one because other people have driven the road. No Google maps up here!

I'm feeling the magnitude of this trip and have been unable to feel real joy from it so far. I'm just a bundle of nerves. I was truly enjoying Vladivostok before we started driving. There's such huge distances to cover and there are limitations on the amount of time we can spend in each country on our journey, as well as being limited by entry and exit dates. I tried my best with the visas and the paperwork and I couldn't have stretched the times any further. There's also a time limit on the temporary car insurance for Russia which is weighing on my mind. This is one massive country and will take us quite a while to get across it. Really, it's just the paperwork and beaurocracy that's really stopping me from enjoying this trip. At least once a day if we go through a town we get stopped by police to check our documents and it's becoming tiresome. It makes me feel like big brother is always watching and that I may be doing something wrong. It's a comfort to me that Graeme is st
arting to relax into a groove and is enjoying this trip. Yes you heard me everyone, Graeme is relaxing! He's convinced that I'll start to feel the same way. I'm sure he's right, each day is just hard yacka at the moment.

I miss all of you back home, as I knew I would. If I could pop back for just a little while, catch up with you all and then pop back over here I would.

I have a question for our beautiful niece, Charli. In the movie Madagascar, which character is Maurice and what colour eyes does he have? The reason I ask is that for some silly reason we've given the police the nickname "Maurice" and have been doing the silly sounding voice along with it. Probably because it rhymes with police.

Anyway, we must get this post out to you all now and start thinking about getting tucked in for the night.

Position: 12-07-03 20:38:28 +1000 +0000
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