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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 next door!! Well, I don't know, but that is my deduction, and why else would you have 220B on a building in No Mans Land??
In the end, it turned out to be one of the fastest border crossings of the entire trip to date - 1 hour! And what a difference it makes; maintained roads with lines painted, signage for the accident/emergency number, no potholes!! This must be heaven?! We even had the cruise control on!
What excitement to cross another border and with no drama or problems. And another time zone, we are now only 1 hour behind Perth/UllaanBaatar/Beijing! And our Chinese Tour agent says they are all prepared for us - no problems!
The scenery was much the same - flat, agricultural land. Although here the agriculture was mechanised and the fields were delineated with tree lines of birch. This was really beautiful and autumnal as the birch wood shone, silver white, and the leaves were orange and yellow and only blown off by the passing trucks on the road. Arriving into Barnaul was daunting, seeing as we had no map but we followed a Dirk Gently approach to driving (following the traffic and hoping it was going where we wanted to go). Amazingly, it worked!
Barnaul is a sprawling city with an awkward one-way system, but with very few high-rise buildings. So the hotel (a 12-storey behemoth) was easy to spot. Checked in and relaxed in our strange room that has a tea set and coffee pot, but nothing to put in either, we are indulging in the internet!
We are having a small issue with the central differential light coming on randomly - Fintan is researching and thinks its an oil level thing... But we may have to visit Toyota Barnaul tomorrow. We should be able to ge to the Mongolian border by Monday, and then on to UlaanBaatar. We have GPS points from the HUBB (Horizons Unlimited forum) so hoefully we will find our way!
P.S. Sorry about the photo - GoogleMaps doesn't work for Russia, and we haven't taken any yet.
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mum Your blog always makes me laugh at some point. It's great. You didn't take a photo of the birch trees?