Low front

Crossed into Russia for the final time. We're now in the top right hand corner of russia which borders with Mongolia. We are in the same time zone as Perth. Weirdly the landscape looks just like Norfolk. We are eating Borsch soup and milk soup - a Russian stew-like broth which is very warming and Shashlyk which is sort of like a kebab made out of non-descript meat. The Kazak/Russian border was our toughest yet...6 hours, sitting in a small windowless room being ignored, hallucinating with tiredness, plus the meanest looking Alsation sniff searched our car twice...quite nerve-racking. We've perfected our 'border faces' - look serious, stare at the cockroaches on the floor and be polite but not friendly. Then after a 20 hour day we crossed the border only to check ourselves into the grottiest place I've ever stayed; dirty bed linen, no water just 2 bottles of brown water next to the tap and cockroaches. Then had the most disgusting breakfast yet...no eggs so Jon ordered Cutlets...always a mistake. Ad and I didn't touch them. After this much driving the tiredness we are all experiencing is like jetlag. The other day I could only manage 1.5 hours of driving, Ad had to do the rest...it becomes painful to drive and we hit potholes and only just miss cows wandering into the road. Onwards.