I have now spent a week in Irkutsk and although it is a nice city and the church people have made me feel very very welcome I not only do not want to overstay my welcome but I desperately want to get back on the road. I should be collecting my new visa today and heading off tomorrow but things do not look good. The Dizzy is still not going well. The mechanic insists he is fine but he keeps stalling and does not sound good. So today I will change the oil and oil filter, put a new air filter in (the current one is a mess) and clean out the carburetor as I hope (and though many online discussions) we think the problem may just be dirty fuel or dirt in the carb, we will see. I am therefore going to postpone my leaving day until Wednesday the 8th August – my birthday which will hopefully bring me luck 🙂

I need to feel good again as I am now nervous and alone for the first time on the entire trip, if Dizzy gives me more problems I have no idea what to do as I am not ready to give up yet. However I need to shake this blue mood 😦 I know it sounds silly but I feel like a bird whose wings have been cut off, I feel so trapped and frustrated I am just itching to get back on the road, but on a bike that works.

In the mean time I have managed a trip to a Cossack village, the lake Baikal museum and Lake Baikal with father mark and it was a great day. The museums are wonderful so well done and very interesting. My favorite part was seeing the lake Baikal seals, they are fresh water seals and the cutest things. They are so small and fat they are almost round like little balloons not like the big sleek seals we usually see.

I also took the translator Andrey (who helped me with my visa) and his family to dinner on lake Baikal. His wife Anna and I got on very well and he has the cutest 3 boys ever Simon 9, Alexander (Shasha) 7 and Nicolai 7 months. They kept us in stitches and it was a great evening.