08/11/10 by Ross Shepley-Smith | Expedition Updates, Stage 2 : Moscow to Beijing | 4 Comments »
High point: THE BORDER CROSSING without doubt, 3 hours 55 mins (Ben won the FTFE crew bet…again). The Kazakhs were so friendly on the border, and Martha got her usual fan club, and to be fair, as it was such a quiet border even the Russians were really nice and chatty. The usual problem of the carnet (Martha’s passport) wasn’t an issue as we were duly informed that it was still open for Russia. One could look at this as an error, I think it was a lucky bonus. Everyone was a winner!
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08/06/10 by Ross Shepley-Smith | Expedition Updates, Stage 2 : Moscow to Beijing | Comments Off on Day 20 – Ufa to Chelyabinsk
High point: By far the highlight of today was the drive into the foothills of the Urals. The Ural mountains are traditionally seen as the division between Europe and Asia; they stretch nearly 200km from the Arctic in the North to Kazakhstan in the South. Although this was quite a long section with roughly 420km to cover and each of us doing two lots of one hour stints at the wheel, the scenery more than made up for the long drive. Long gone were the barren featureless landscapes of central western Russia and we welcomed the beautiful birch and pine forests of the Urals, punctuated with inviting lakes and rocky outcrops. Oh fresh air finally, I think we all took a huge gulp and it surprised me how long the conversation about our surroundings lasted; I think twenty days without a little TLC from our girlfriends and our feminine sides are blossoming. Read more →
07/22/10 by Ross Shepley-Smith | Expedition Updates, Stage 1: London to Moscow | 2 Comments »
Ross : Day 5. The Alps have been pleasured by the sound of Martha today. Finally at 8am this morning with a solid fuel tank in place we departed our motel and headed towards Italy. I am now writing this at 7.30pm and we are approaching the Austrian border – boy it’s been a long day. Read more →
