Hi everyone! I know this is quite delayed but I thought we better finish off this blog properly, even though we've been back in Oz for 3 weeks. terrible! I was so keen to do this for the first part of the trip. But as time went by and we found ourselves in more and more remote places, you just sort of loose the need or desire to keep in touch with the world back home. The feeling of isolation is great and things like the internet just loose their appeal. Anyway, here are some photos from kazakhstan and siberia, the [View Full Entry]

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Me again, Michelle and i have both been a bit lazy since our return from camping for 12 days around Mongolia. Easy to let it lapse when you don't have an internet connection ( or phone reception etc) We did a south west loop around central Mongolia, the exact loop can be found at http://www.imaginative-traveller.com/trips/ATMV It was a small group, 8 people in Russian vehicles getting bogged, breaking down and having a great time around Mongolia. I think we were both ready to have something organised for us with so much being independent prior to that. It was a great group [View Full Entry]

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So it is Paul again. Our train carriage from Irkutsk to Ulaanbaatar was full or westerners!! A first for us on this trip. And in a way a real treat, nice to have some people who can speak English with us easily. We met a few crazy Finnish/Swedes who were on the same style trip as us but in three weeks. Lots of French and a few Aussies. Nice to have easy people to share what was our longest border crossing yet. We arrived at 12 noon at the Russian border control to be told we had 4 hours before they [View Full Entry]

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Paul again. Let me start by apologising. There will be no more photos added to the blog or facebook until we get home in about 5 weeks. We seem to have lost some of the photos we have uploaded so they are online, but not on our memorycard in our computer. So from our last blog we have been to Almaty in Kazakhstan, an interesting city, no longer the capital, but bustling with markets and beautiful buildings everywhere. But ther scenery on the way. That was the thing. SO nice, mountains that capture your imagination all around. Open fields that seem [View Full Entry]

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Well, another installment while we can! Here are some pictures from our time in Uzbekistan, which is almost drawing to a close. It was a long tedious 3 day train journey to make it into Uzbek but worth the suffering - just! We have met some fantastic people, exclusivley Uzbek. The architecture here is just amazing. I always love being in Islamic countries, you can't beat hearing the call the prayer as the sun goes down on a hot summers night. Paul and I have both been sampling all the local cuisine and suffering the terrible consequences. however, the watermelon here [View Full Entry]

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Hi everyone! Just a few pictures from our stint in Moscow and St Petersburg. We are finding it incredibly difficult to find internet cafes where we can upload photos here in central asia. We had an interesting time in Russia. The majority of people in the cities weren't overly friendly, but nicer out of town. Moscow was a bit more exciting and edgier than St Petersburg, but bloody expensive! We did all the typical touristy stuff as you can see from the photos. We sure had our fill of Borscht! [View Full Entry]

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Hi everyone. Well, here is the last installment before we leave the west and head east. Tomorrow we catch the train to St Petersburg in Russia. We have had a lovely relaxing time here in Finland. It has been nice to spend some time with a family friend, Salme, who has looked after us well. We are clean, fed and ready to go. The countryside here is so beautiful in Finland. We've had loads of nice days of just walking through forests and visiting the hundreds of lakes that are around here. Have been out on one of the guys boats, [View Full Entry]

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Hi everyone. Time for some more photos now that we are staying at a family friends house and can use a computer. Since I last wrote we left Riga in Latvia - a place I totally fell in love with. Headed north through Estonia to Tallin - another beautiful Baltic city, but much smaller than Riga. Caught the ferry to Finland, stayed in Helsinki for a few nights then drove further north to the town of Imatra. And our little corsa made it here! It is looking a bit worse for wear but it made it! Now we just have to [View Full Entry]

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Well yesterday we rolled into Imatra. The little Vauxhal Corsa did it! All the way from London to Imatra in Finland, despite the long miles and the German bollard attacking it, the car brought us safely here. We have just had a few fun days in Helsinki with Roy and Mari, who lucky let us stay at Roys' place (he has a great cd and record collection-nice for me!). Helsinki hostels are very expensive. But these two lovely people let us stay and showed us the bars and sights of the city. Saw lots of live music, some good, some... not [View Full Entry]

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Well. here goes. We arrived in Estonia today, with my incredible driving keeping us safe. The Lativans seem to think that a 2 lane road can be straddled by 4 cars with 2 overtaking at once no problems. I am super car nervous after our car greif in Germany. Who has bollards that come up from the ground under your car to stop you continueing into a restricted zone??? Why not just have a good sign and a lowering barrier, why something that will destroy your radiator?? anyhow we got lucky, a new one(2nd hand) was fitted that night and we [View Full Entry]

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