Im ok and in astana. Dan please check the message board. I would love to catch up with some aussies if there are any living here in astana. Dunno which is your email to reply to. cheers

So, What an amazing turn of events in Semey. We rocked into town, did some internet and we wanted to copy all our pics onto dvd so we each had a copy from other cameras. While we were waiting for this to happen a reporter came and introduced herself. She helped me check into a hotel and before we knew it she was asking if we would mind doing some interviews outside the hotel! Before we knew it there were photographers and a crowd gathered! they were really friendly and afterwareds took us out to dinner. They even paid for us! There were translators who arrived and it made for a fantastic evening till a couple of the guys in their group ended up in a fight after too much to drink! Anways a great night. The other 3 stayed for the night too. Next morning we visited the memorial for the nuclear bomb test victims. The area, and i drove right by it, about 100km west from town is were the soviets blew about 460 bombs as "tests" and obviously this had a nastyeffect on the townsfolk.Semey is a beatiful city now though.

So the others left and i cruised off by myself towards Astana. I only got 200km though and the pannier frome on the LHS had cracked, again! Found a guy to weld it for me and put on some bracing struts. He wouldnt accept payment so i sent him on a ride on the bike. This meant i was invited for tea and this led to me staying the night, helping him collect his horses, chop wood and we enjoyed a banya! Absolutely amazing. THere is a definate sense that when i stay with someone they are very prud to have someone from as far off as australia to stay with them and they tend to show you off to their friends and neighbours. There were many pople who dropped by to see me and say hello :)

Yesterday i rode quite a long way and camped by a creek and decided to change back to my road tyres. This turned into quite a drawn out affair as its very difficuilt to put the tyre back on without pinching the tube. Its quite a fun game to take the tyre off, repair your puncture, put it back on, take it off, repair your puncture and so on.... you get the idea. Anyway thats the game i played for much of today as well. I ended up outside a servo changing tyres and obviously this caught many peoples attention. One guy said right, lets go to the Shinamontash (tyre changing shop) and get it sorted. So he took me there in his car. The guys there were fantastic and i had to force even just $4 into their hands for the 4 punctures they repaired and the 1.5 hours they spent on the tyre. All while this was happening i had left my bike and all my gear spread everywhere at the servo, right in the open and the fuel attendent guy said he would keep an eye on it for me! Pretty balsy leaving it there but i was getting tired of this game by now. Sureenough not only had he kept an eye on it but he had attempted to pack it up for me so it was quicker when i got back!!!!

They wanted me to stay for beers, vodka and some kind of drug that was in little pellets that he kept taking but i said no thanks and cruised towards Astana. Saw a motorcross track, pulled in looking for some oil and got sat down and fed, watered and some free oil. Ive come into the very modern city of astana to find internet, got some fruit to keep me healthy and gonna head back there now to camp with the motorcross guys! Astana has got more contstruction going on right now than Beijing which absolutely blows me away. It is so new and like stepping from the 3rd world outside town into modern first world in a matter of minutes. Gotta run, beer is calling, probably warm and flat, and they might only have vodka.... well, theyre bikers i guess they drink beer, sure hope so. Will have to beat lunch today at a cafe of brain, kidney, liver, heart, intestine and potatoe....!

From here i will be heading probably tomorrow towards Kostanay and the russian border eventually. Dont worry mum, im being carefull on the road.

Kinda lonely being by myself all of a sudden.