Across the Kazakhstan/Kyrgyzstan Border
Saturday, June 21, 2014 It is always good to start a border crossing day with a coffee. So we did. The 200-odd km drive to the border was on very good roads, but with the usual dangerous drivers, slow trucks,…
Leg 4
Almaty (Алматы)
Thursday, June 19, 2014 We loved Almaty. Unfortunately we would not be staying more than 2 nights here. On arrival in the city we looked for a coffee shop, with wifi, to enjoy a latte and to look for a place…
To Almaty (Алматы)
Wednesday, June 18, 2014 We decided to go with the ‘gun it to Almaty’ option which meant covering 1130km in 2 days. That way we’d arrive in Almaty on Thursday evening, have the Friday to sort the car and paper…
Semey (Семей)
Tuesday, June 17, 2014 Semey is twinned with Ypres in Belgium After checking into our spacious hotel and finding out we had a ‘small’ immigration issue – and discussing our options (see notes below), we headed out to do…
Across the Russian/Kazakhstan Border
Tuesday, June 17, 2014 After stopping at Coffee Art for a very nice latte we set off for the short 37 km drive to the border. We arrived at 10:32am to find 6 cars waiting in front of the border…
Rubtsovsk (Рубцо́вск)
Monday, June 16, 2014 Rubtsovsk is twined with Grants Pass in the United States. A place we have very fond memories of. Started the day for a coffee from Arabica Coffee. For some strange reason the coffees here in Russia…
Barnaul (Барнаул)
Saturday, June 14, 2014 Barnaul is twined with Flagstaff in the United States. And Flagstaff hosts overland expo each year. We don’t often pre-book accommodation, but we did for Barnaul. It is a bigger city and we didn’t want to…
Biysk (Бийск)
Black Friday (черная пятница), June 13, 2014 Woke up early as our room did not have curtains and the sun got up early here. Still, we took our time and enjoyed breakfast and a mid-morning latte (our first ones since…
Gorno-Altaisk (Горно-Алтайск)
Thursday, June 12, 2014 Huge driving day today, covering some 445kms (278 miles) through the Altai Mountains. We had wonderful scenery along the way. It was so nice to see the dust and sand of Mongolia replaced by green valleys…
Kosh-Agach (Кош-Агач)
Wednesday, June 11, 2014 The drive from the border to Kosh-Agach was very painless. We were driving in search of a place to stay based on some loose information we had received from the Land Rover driving Norwegians we had…
Across the Mongolian/Russian Border
Wednesday, June 11, 2014 We set off from Ölgii around 9:30 and headed towards the Mongolian/Russian border. Most of the road was sealed but we did have our last stretch of unsealed Mongolian road as well. In a strange way…
Ölgii (Өлгий)
Sunday, June 8, 2014 On arrival we rushed around and picked a hotel. The one we liked was full. Ended up making a poor choice of room in a good hotel, which was fixed the next day with a room…
To Ölgii (Өлгий)
Sunday, June 8, 2014 We had a leisurely 6 hour drive to Ölgii. The roads started out dusty and bumpy but ended with near prefect sealed road (there was one very large pothole to be avoided). The scenery was wonderful and…
Khovd (Ховд)
Thursday, June 5, 2014 Our hotel had the usual challenge, ie.:lacking hot water. But we setup our camping shower and used the kettle to boil the water. It was good to get cleaned up and wash away the dust and…
Traveling to Khovd (Ховд)
Wednesday, June 4, 2014 We woke up to find a dusting of snow on Sterlin as well as on the northern slopes of the surrounding hills. In our cozy hotel room we were completely oblivious to the weather outside, so…