we have made it to irkutsk (our final big town before mongolia) with plenty of time to spare.

the roads along the way have been testing in the extreme: i don't think that any of our party has come across roads as terrible as the ones we have been encountering recently. much of the surfaces have had no man made covering at all and the little surface that has been there has been gravely and uneven. the bumps and creaters in the road have could very well be described as moonscape. however, the potholes, ditches and mounds of rubble (at times forcing driving on the lowered bank at sides of roads) have ment that the constant thwack of the towing hitch on the ground has become a reassuring indication that larry is still with us.

larry has been recieve much love and attention from the pit stop crew (daddy, tessie and me) and has undergone two major repairs in the last two days:
as we were peacefully driving out of a garage on a typically russia road (seeminly non-existent) a faint thud and scratch could be heard in the car and a lopsided larry could be seen out of the rear-view mirror. his right wheel had fallen off. daddy stoped (he is always driving during these incidents) and we pulled back into the garage. we had to change the ball-bearings on the wheel, a job which was undertaken with the up most efficiency, and seal the wheel from dirt, which was done with foam and tape.
this morning the right tyre punctured completely but this came as no suprise because it had become paper-thin. we were forced to pull over on a public footpath and look for bricks with which to raise larry off the ground. two new wheels were attatched to larry.

a couple of days ago we met our first english travellers: an english couple from oxford and an american couple from santa fe, new mexico. both were lovely and travelling in the same direction abit in suitable vehicles (landrovers). the english couple had left oxford only the week before and were due to reach ulannbaatar today. i cannot believe we have been driving so slowly (10-20 mph on the unsurfaced areas).


OBSERVATIONS SECTION (by dwight wood, written by loong wood):
1. police check points may be encountered every 50-100 miles and also before and after towns and cities. we have only been stopped by three as of yet.
2. the vast majority of towns still use a stand pipe for their water and cities have functioning ones everywhere. this is how we have been getting the majority of our water.
3. wooden buildings are in the majority in the towns and villages. they are also common in the inner cities. they are painted colourfully but are always wonky as they have no solid foundations.
4. horse-drawn carts are the prefered mode of transport in and around villages, frequently with little boys driving them.
5. we have camped in lovely locations a little off the main roads every night in russia. there are seeminly no campsites in russia. the few campsite signs we did see (near the latvia/ russia border) led us to a car park area by a cafe where we were expected to sleep in the car.
6. cigarettes are 25p a packet and colourful to boot.
7. people swim in the rivers.
8. towns are big a well spaced in the countryside.
9. all towns are centred around, novelly, the town centre with a statue (usually lenin).
10. hundreds of imported cars that are right-hand drive (probably from japan). in the last few days we have seen many being driven from east to west, covered in masking tape.
11. in the cities the russian women we have seen have been tall, skinny and well dressed.
12. we have had to stop for cows and goats that have been in the road, at the side of roads and in people's gardens.
13. many oil works.
14. many new ladas out and about. we have been told to look out for a model near you.
15. as you would expect, given the area and ecosystem, the vegatation is not varied and you find silver birches high up.
16. the terrain has been hilly but not mountainous, even in the urals.
17. parking is free in towns.
18. the traditional food stores (majority) have no windows and only a poster an small sign on the outside to indicate thier existence. they are usually concrete. we are also not allowed to touch any of the goods (you get in trouble for that sort of thing); instead everything is behind the counter and a lady goes round getting what you want for you. things that are not behind the counter are in locked cooler cabinets.
19. many goods still go by rail (one train every 30 minutes) and railway tracks, roads and pipes lines run fairly parallel.

Q&A: in another bid to make our blog more interactive dwight wood would like to formally open the floor to all and any questions. please note that he mainly invites questions on russia.