Back in the USSR! So good to have decent food again, in fact it was the first thing we did was get some cheese and chorizo 100m inside the border post. No probs through the borders, only took 3 hours all up. Interesting to note that where we crossed (tashanta crossing) that there is about 40 km of no-mans land. The arcane paperwork of the russians was what obviously took the most time.

We have spent the last few days riding here to Barnaul. Had a rest day - this actaully means about 8 hours work in repair and maintenance on the bike. It was a nice camp that we found to do it at though, the only problem being some curious cattle coming up, frightening themselves and then bolting damaging a few things.

Been pretty crook in the guts the last day or so, really unwell actually. Lucky to have all the medication i need to sort it out and have started a course of antibiotics which will hopefully sort things out. I knew i bought them in australia for a reason :)

Had a sketchy incident where i was riding along a narrow muddy track and saw a stump in the middle of the path, what i didnt see was a branch coming out of this stump. It caught the bike, stopping it dead and throwing me over the handle bars. I slid along on my arms in the mud beside a creek coming to a rest in the water. I managed to end up with cow s*** up my sleeve and mud over my face. The bike loved it and enjoyed being upside down for a bit of a rest. Bent the pannier frame a bit more, but like i said, it loved it!

The only other thing of note that happened in the last coupla days was getting smashed by a wasp while riding when it got caught down the side of my sunglases. And cause he only managed to sting a few times, later in the same day i stumpled across another nest, disturbing it and getting smashed again on the side of my face and all over my legs! Good times eh!

Heading to Kazakhstan either later today or tomorrow, will have to see if the weather clears up...