Butterflies and Flat Tyres

The Dizzy broke his chain again and this time had to undergo some surgery as one of the casing bolts snapped off. So we ah dot drill it out and fix it all up. Breaking the chain twice in 10 days has got me a bit worried but we cannot…

We’ve gone back into Russia for a couple of days on our way to Mongolia (Kaz and Mongolia do not border each other) we rode though the Altai mountain region and WOW these views are just breathless. The mountains remind me of parts of Canada an Alaska and Switzerland all…

The first thing we noticed when camping in Kaz as that although there are a few mozzies they are smaller and less agro than the Russian ones so quite easy to cope with, and they hate mozzie spray. The Russian mosquitoes drink mozzie spray for kicks, you can spray it…

While on the road to Almaty we passed two cyclists took pics of them while riding and waved but rode on. A few kms down the road we needed to stop at one of our GPS waypoints where we all meet up with Jeff in the 4×4, they are like…

The Kaz roads are something else, long dead straight roads that don’t just go on for miles but days. It’s incredible and quit monotonous to ride for hours on end. There are a lot of road works and although you get sick to death of corrugations they do break the…

The best thing about Kaz is the people, so friendly and hospitable. They treat bikers like celebrities, every time we stop they want to talk to us shake out hands, one guys even asked for my autograph (go figure) they keep taking pictures of us and with us. The women…

Finally time to do some blogging so much has happened that I just cannot write it all so here are some bits and pieces.   We made it to Kazakhstan and the border crossing was a breeeeeez so different to the Russian border. There were no queues and the border customs…

(Pic from internet as I didn’t get a good one of a police car on the trip) What we don’t like are the cops. We’ve been nicked twice now both times for crossing the solid white line while overtaking hmmm I know BAD PANDA. However when sitting behind huge trucks…

  Finally in Russia at about 8 or 9pm after the border crossing. Then a terribly cold ride to the hotel and finally to bed at 2am. Up early the following day with a couple 100kms to Moscow. We reached the outskirts of Moscow early enough to brave the traffic…

I have read and heard so many stories about border crossing and how difficult (frustrating) the Russian one can be. However unless you have actually experienced this no stories can truly describe the reality of the situation and complete lack of logic fond amongst the customs officials. Our first attempt…