From Ulgii we drove to Khovd, then to Bayankhognor, to Arvaikheer and UlaanBaatar. The first few days were tough driving, as there was little to no "road" just a series of tracks. We kpt looking at the GPS and when we saw other vehicles we were reassured that we were on the main track... but at times it was hard to believe that this was true. As Fintan said - it's like driving in a field covered in snow, but it's a whole country! On the way to Khovd we had to go ...

It seems this trip has taken us to The Switzerland of almost everywhere except Switzerland (Mestia and Ushguli, Georgia in the Caucasus, Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia and now Altai in Russia)! The drive through Russia is so pleasant; the roads, the autumnal scenery, the very cheap diesel! Not only is it good to be on the road again - these roads are so civilised! Road markings, well maintained and smooth! The landscape is stunning and one night we stayed in a hot...

We made an early start with over 100km to go to the border! Another border! And this one we were really worried about... Russia... wow! The horror stories we've heard about this border! We were prepared to arrive at 8am and be there for the entire day. The Kazakh side probably took more time, and at the fourth and final official ink-stamping office building I noticed a sticker by the window for 220B - They are massive Sherlock fans, and desperately want to live n...

For all the geologists/geoscientists out there - no, this is not a reference to GIS! For my Mum - don't worry about it, it's an in joke, you won't understand. So over the last week we drove through the infamous "Polygon" - the Soviet nuclear testing area... apparently there;s a huge lake, man-made in the fact that its a nuclear explosion crater. It's not on GoogleMaps, so we couldn't locate it... but if you want to visit some of the towns around Semey you need c...

4 and a half months on the road... wow! And I'm sure to all those reading this, it seems like 14 weeks of non-stop excitment and discoveries... well, that's true for a large part of it. But there's also the parts in between. The 6 hour drives, days holed up somewhere just waiting for the next step, the inevitable sick days, and search for a salad that's made without mayonnaise or meat. This blog post is about those moments. Such as Fintan's epiphany that being a...