Day 25 – Orshhamomo (farmers field in Kazakhstan) to Omsk (Russia)

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!

Low point: Inner city driving. Not to say Omsk isn’t a nice city but entering an industrial chaotic Russian city again after the beauty of a Kazakhstan was quite tough. Spending two glorious nights sleeping under the stars (demonstrating our amazing camping gear to James, Ben and Dave) and driving on the most amazing straight roads watching and wildlife on the “steppe” was awesome. Being in Omsk felt like we were in a washing machine, hot, sweaty, stressful and crazy crazy driving. Having said that it wasn’t all bad, when the tough gets going the FTFE stage 2 crew resorts to sushi and beer, and to be fair I was the one who probably indulged a bit too much. I’m writing this with a bit of a heavy head!

No point: Burn (aka Red Bull is purple over here).

Russian word of the day: Pryana = straight on (very good for tip for Kazak roads).

Authors comments: As you may have gathered from the above I’m quite sad to be leaving Kazakhstan behind us. It is an amazing country and the people are so friendly. It’s a such a shame we only really had the time to touch the very North. There is so much to see and to only have felt the fringe feels like a bit of a crime. I’m sure that more than one person in stage 2 will be back.

From a personal point of view the last couple of days feels like we are making great progress again. In stage 1 we visited so many countries in such a short amount of time it felt like we were on a proper mission. Stage 2 has been slightly different in that although we have been doing the mileage, the number of countries have been dramatically reduced. Naturally this is because Russia is just simply huge, but having left Kazakhstan and realising we are now 6 time zones ahead of the UK is a good feeling.

After Ben’s sterling job of RMG in Kazakhstan I am now back in the seat for the rest of Russia. I have a hard act to follow (stage 2 crew please remember this in 20 years time). I would like to take this opportunity to thank Ailsa for all her help on this, I know it will be awesome.

For those of you that don’t know, every crew member so far has signed up to a beard pact. Stage 1 beards were admirable, stage 2 has taken it to the extreme. We now have names for all our beards (you guess: George Michael, Alopecia, Leroy, Bear and Tramp), weird, Siberia here we come. anyone for tiger watch?

Ross

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