Moved another hour forward today, now 6 hours ahead of the UK!
We slept the night outside the local police station on the advice of two friendly ladies in the town shop. It was also opposite a church which makes us feel doubly safe!
On the way out of the town we stopped briefly at the war memorial and again noted how many names were there for such a small town. I suppose the 20 million plus that died in the second world war had to come from somewhere. There must have been a whole generation of young men wiped out. I am not sure what the population was then but it must represent a big percentage.
The rest of the day was just a long drive in the mist and the rain. Not much to see but an occasional glimpse of the Trans – Siberian railway line which follows our route.
We passed by Omsk and headed towards Novosibirsk. On the way we saw our first UK number plate, a Toyota Land Cruiser with lots of mud and overland bits coming the other way. There was also a German camper. These were the first european vehicles, other than two dutch lorry convoys, that we had seen since Estonia. We also passed the 9000km mark since leaving home. The lsat few days we have more than doubled our normal average of about 250km per day and so will have plenty of time in the Altai.
As we go further east the trucks are getting chunkier. This one would make a good overlander if you could afford the fuel ….. Not so bad here as we saw our cheapest diesel today (from a proper fuel station) at 22.80 Rub. That’s around 50p!
troopytracks 