We've very nearly missed our train, but with a fair bit of assistance a very much worse for wear Odka manages to get us to the station with tickets, and we're on to our final train. This makes me sad. Strange how living in a tiny box room with two Norwegians and an Australian starts to feel like home. Its just a one nighter this time, and I've timed my potato/noodle stash perfectly. The dining cart is also pretty luxurious on this train though. We arrive at ...

So this is a bit more like how I imagined Mongolia - vast plains covered in snow, surrounded by mountains and with the occasional frozen lake dotted about the place. I'm not going to start gushing about landscapes, but it is pretty spectacular. We're staying at a ger camp smack bang in the middle of it. A ger, or yurt, is basically a super insulated little round hut made from felt and other warm things, and is fitted out with a little wood/coal burner in the c...

We're leaving Russia, so its back to the train, and we seem to be the only people in the world making this journey today. Our delightfully decorated train carriage gets picked up and shunted along by various different engines during our two night trip over the Russia-Mongolia border, and having done our bit to destroy relations with Russia on our final night in Baikkal, it's a pretty quiet start to the journey. The highlight comes as we reach the border town on...

We're getting deep into Siberia now, and its getting colder, which I wasn't sure was possible. And we're off the train! I feel dizzy from not moving, but a splendid man called Dennis (more on him later) has come to take us to a big lake called Baikkal. I may have spelt that wrong. Its very pretty here. Dennis says that if all the other fresh water in the world dried up then the water in Lake Baikkal would sustain the world's population for 50 years, and that...

As we approach day 4 on the train, everyone starts to appreciate the occasional stops a little more - if only to remind us why they keep the carriages so effing hot. The coldest recorded temperature so far has been -21. It makes your eyes water and then your tears freeze onto your face, and also makes your joints and teeth ache if you stay out there longer than about 20 minutes. We entertain ourselves with little strolls or mad dashes to the supermarkets if th...