Semey (Kaz) to Ulan Ude (51deg 49'N, 107 deg 35'E), Siberia, Russia : Eight time zones and 8319 miles

We passed the World Harmony Run  near Irkutsk - can anyone tell us more about this relay? We thought it was the Olympic torch got lost

Carol dips a toe in a very cold Lake Baikal

Gas: Our two 6 kg Calor propane bottles run out in Semey and as expected we were unable to replace them with anything similar. Three gas bottle companies had never seen this size or type of bottle. We need gas to cook and heat water when it is too dangerous to light the Kelley Kettle for fear of fires, and to run the fridge when we are camped without any mains power supply (East of Slovakia = that’s never). The only available gas bottle (‘gaz ballon’ in local terminology) was a 10 kg compressed gas monster which would not connect to our existing regulator. To achieve a solution we needed to buy a gas bottle (£15), a regulator (‘reductor’) and a metre of gas pipe (£6). I had a few jubillee clips to connect it all up with the gas inlet nozzle on the Tab. The new gas bottle had to be strapped where one of the water jerrycans goes on the front of the Tab as it would not go in the gas bottle container. (We added a padlock and chain as it would have been too easy to remove otherwise). Luckily however the displaced water jerrycan fits neatly into the now redundant gas bottle holder - plus a few other bits and pieces to stops things knocking around together. A hole needed to be cut in the gas bottle box and lid to achieve a neat connection.

Last camp in Kaz near the border

Mike gets us in a mess

Tow rope needed to haul the tab out

......but the camp site was worth it

The trans Siberian highway, typical  between Novosibirsk and Krasnoyarsk, later it opened out into rolling hills and wheat field near Irkutsk

One of several small new churches along the way

Typical old style vilage house along the highway

The road avoids most villages but not this typical one

At 90 degs east - a quarter of the way round the world at this latitude, still some way to Irkutsk

The Trans Siberian railway runs beside the Trans Siberian highway for a lot of the time

Most houses were already making provision for the next winter by the stock piliing of firewood 

Our campsite at the Irkutsk municipal offices

Camping idyll, pine forest beside river : by Lake Baikal

Siberian Chipmunk

A section of the highway gets a new bridge - presumably road works like this can only be done in summer

Lunchstop by Lake Baikal

Baikal Herring Gull

The young mechanic who reparied our UJ

Alec the caretaker at the Irkutsk municipal buildings was very kind to us



One of the many rivers entering Lake Baikal




 We had heard that the Semey road to the border was the worst in the Kazakhstan so we were prepared for the worst. However perhaps they have caught up with the road maintenance schedule as we found it generally good. The endless steppes are ending here with much sandy soil which supports pine forest. Out last camp site in Kaz was a pine forest just southwest of the border - there were nightjars calling as we went off to sleep. Our immobiliser alarm has been going off a lot and it went off again that night before we had even got to sleep. Not sure why - we will not be setting it again. Each time it has gone off in the night Mike has fallen out of the Tab in just his underpants, immediately shouting because he forgets his shoes and steps on pricklys. Enough to scare off any would be prowler.

The border routine including getting new insurance for the Landrover, took two and a half hours, all very agreeable officials but very slow. We were among about 15 passing through, one wonders how they managed with four coach loads.

We were quite startled that immediately on entering Russia everything changed. The steppes seemed to stop abruptly . It was much greener for a start and a lot more agriculture. More trees. The houses looked much more modern and better constructed and the familiar oriental faces seem to have disappeared altogether. Also the roads were much better and we were easily able to achieve our preferred cruising speed of 50 mph for most of the time.

Novosibirsk is a big place and there seems to be no bypass so the only option is directly through the town. It was hot and sweaty with long traffic jams but then there was a terrific thunderstorm with local flooding in the streets. Most of the towns to Irkutsk (1800 km away) were a pain, either no bypass or a bypass which was very erratic and usually along very poor secondary roads, not roads constructed as bypasses. Krasnoyask was the exception it had a good bypass a pleasure to drive along. East of Poyma 97 deg E the road gets bad for probably a total of about 50 km whilst they repair and replace old tarmac. There is no part of this leg that is still wholly unpaved track.

At Novosibirsk you have definitely swapped the endless steppe for the endless forest. Miles and miles of birch, sometimes with pine, rarely all pine. There are surprisingly many areas where the trees have been cleared and agriculture is practiced. This part of Russia is the land of mighty rivers. We crosses the Ob at Barnaul and the Yenisey at Krasnoyarst, both flow north to the Arctic Ocean. There are many minor rivers much bigger than you would find in the UK. It is also a land of swamps and wet ground and this means mosquitos, thousands of them, Siberia also specialises in very big flies which are basically harmless but buzz round you like hornets, you cannot afford to take you eyes off them as some are horseflies which sneak in a grab a mouthful very quickly. We had our first tick attachment on this leg - Mike found one attached under his right arm during a rare encounter with soap and water. It had only been there a few hours and was not yet distending and it came off easy with Carol’s special tick tweezers.

Mechanical trouble struck about half way between Novosibirsk and Irkutsk, one of the front universal joints began to collapse resulting in a juddering of the steering. We had a couple of spare UV spiders and a local garage put one in for us. It was the same UV that went last September coming back form Scotland so only about 10,000 miles out of that one!! The mechanic who did the job did a master class on UJ spider changing for Mike and three mechanics under training which was very helpful to all. The vibrations of the collapsing UJ has caused a secondary problem as oil is now seeping out of the transfer gearbox where the UJ sits. This may yet develop into a serious problem.

We got badly stuck at one point crossing a ditch to get to a camp site. Mike misjudged the amount of mud in the ditch, the wet sides from recent rain and selected the wrong gear to get us through, he had stalled before he realised the problem. We needed to unhitch the tab in the ditch, and slew the Landrover sideways so that it could get a grip in some vegetation and haul itself up the bank. We then needed to drag the tab out by the towrope from a position where the Landrover could get a grip. But it was a great camp site in a hayfield stuffed with wild flowers.

Our route on this leg follows more or less constantly the Trans Siberian Railway to Vladivostok. There are an amazing number of trains go along it , mostly goods trains hauling coal, timer, oil and other bulks east and coming back with cars, and imports. The trains seem to be only about 5-10 minutes apart in both directions and once a day we see the Moscow - Vlad ‘express’. On arrival in Irkutsk we got lost looking for somewhere to park up and doing a U-turn in the municipal offices car park stopped to ask the caretaker the way. We were offered the security of parking up in their car park for the night and the caretaker Alex took good care off us, including plying us with cups of tea, fruit and biscuits and showing us his photos of local sites and wildlife. Pity his dog could not keep quiet. We have found little kindnesses like this all through Russia, people seem to start off all conversations appearing rather stern but usually by the end they are very friendly and always helpful if we can make ourselves understood.

After Irkutsk we camped a couple of nights near Lake Baikal, the world’s deepest lake at 1637m deep and measuring 636km from north to south. It holds 80% of Russia’s freshwater - apparently more than all of North America’s five Great Lakes put together. The lake is home to lots of unique marine life - and large numbers of nerpa seals - sadly we didn’t see any. There was still some snow on the tops of the mountains behind the lakeshore.
Birds in Siberia
The journey between Semey and Ulan Ude saw a distinct change in the weather, bird habitats and birds compared to Kaz. For the worse! I was surprised to find that the endless birch forest was almost empty. Very few birds, those you could see and identify were of a relatively small range of species, but there were another group you could hear, which were unfamiliar and very difficult to come to grips with. Entering the forest was often not a good idea on account of the mosquitos and this became very frustrating. OK so we were traveling fast on this section with limited opportunities to watch birds, but that cannot be the only reason. What was most surprising was that with so many large rivers, numerous lakes large and small, swamps and ditches everywhere, there were almost no waterbirds! Unbelievable. In the 2000 + km between Semey and Irkutsk I did not see a single duck, only about one heron and three species of wader. There were a few Common, Herring and Black-headed Gulls. I was at a lost to explain the absence of waterbirds as habitats seemed healthy and perfectly acceptable to many species and there was an abundance of invertebrate life. Maybe there is a limited accommodation for birds from this region in their winter quarters? The details of observations will be available on the file sharing site after 1 July.

Weather
As well as the landscape the weather has changed on this leg. We had a couple of hot humid days followed by huge thunderstorms (a welcome relief) then things cooled down to mid-high 20's rather than 30's, with a mixture of sunshine and clouds. Near lake Baikal we experienced a clear microclimate with a persistent very cold wind blowing off the icy water bringing daytime temperatures down to 15C and nighttime to 8C. Parts of the lake freezes deeply enough in winter to be driven across and it’s temperature rarely rises above about 3-4C even in summer - Carol would have had a swim in it if it had just been that little bit warmer!

See also new invertebrate pics and notes on Food Page.

Karaghandy to Semey : 1 - 12 June (80 deg 13' E - 6250 miles so far)

From Karaghandy we took the minor road towards the twin ‘mountain’ resort towns of Karkarily and Karaghayli, set in a scenic national park of granite outcrops and pine forest. We made our usual slow progress and our first night’s camp, in fact we stayed two nights, was only 20 odd km past Karaghandy. We found a wonderful open area of steppe and a little used track took us about 2 km off the road where we could not be overlooked. The rest from driving every day was appreciated by both of us. In these days since Naurzum we had started to get problems at night from very small flies which could get into the Tab through the fly screens we have on every window. These flies similar to sand flies well known to Mike in Arabia which are renowned biters. They were more democratic than the mosquitos which only seem to go for Mike, these little fellas also went for Carol. We needed to employ all our defences against them, coils, sprays, citronella candles and even permethrin on the mesh. Eventually we also used our outdoor mosquito nets in the Tab! However the problem did not continue for many days.

After Karkarily we had our best campsite yet, we were able to get a small track that wound through a valley and up hill tracks, low ratio gears needed, bringing us out in a wonderful raised position where we had a 360 degree vista of fine granite outcrops and low rolling hills and we could not be seen from any direction. We stayed two nights and had a great walk over the hills on our day off.

After Karaghayli the road deteriorated to a hard rock road with no asphalt. Very uncomfortable to drive and slow going with the Tab which has a tendency to bounce around too much on hard uneven surfaces. We rarely got up to 25 mph - unless it was a unofficial track beside the main road which tended to be smoother and faster. The road improved to poor asphalt at Kaynar 130 km on from Karaghayli. The last 150 km to Semey were asphalted, of poor condition and very little used. On another driving survey we counted the cars we met coming the other way, in 129 miles (driving at less than 30 mph) we counted 36 vehicles (28 cars, 5 trucks, 1 bus and 2 minibuses).

We were almost caught out on this leg as there was no diesel in Karaghayli, where we had half a tank left, and we had assumed we would find some on the road but we had to decant both 20 litre jerrycans on our roof before we found a garage. This is the first time we have needed our reserve.

The Polygon
This is the area north of the Kaynar - Semey road the site of the Semipalatinsk soviet nuclear tests. In this region between the first Soviet bomb of 1949 and the last test in 1989, 456 nuclear explosions took place, with the power output of 2500 Hiroshimas. 116 of these explosions were in the atmosphere. These tests of course had a detrimental effect on the local population and environment, large areas are still contaminated and there are high rates of cancers in the local population. The test deaths, birth defects and cancers have built a certain level of resentment in the local population towards the nuclear industry and the Russian leaders of the time. There is a special display in the Semey museum about the tests and a huge monument on an island of the Ertis River running through Semey. We did not see any evidence of nuclear activity on our journey.

Weather
The last week or so the weather has settled into a bit of a pattern of sunny mornings with cloud gradually amassing during the day and then a few showers, not amounting to much, although we have seen several storms around us we have not had one right overhead. There have generally been quite strong winds blowing, mainly from the north, which have cooled things down nicely. Daytime temperatures have been averaging about 28C and at night we have had as low as 4.6C and as high as 14.8C. The great thing is that however hot and sweaty it gets during the day it almost always cools down in the evening.


PSs


We have added some more butterfly and dragonfly pictures and some notes on the food/health page.

Mike is having difficulty updating files on the file sharing site (see birds page) but he thinks the current file - birds seen to the end of May is now correctly in place.  There is also a file of all the waypoints since leaving home.  For Tab caravan enthusiasts there is a page of modification with pictures.

We have been struggling to add videos as they take such a long time and we haven't managed to make them smaller in size - does anyone have any suggestions? Would it be better to put them on YouTube?

Our first two night camp site in the Karkkarily hills

Each village has a colourful and unique bus stop - there is another below

First night in the Karkarily hills and the biggest battle with the little black biters

Many towns have monumental artwork at their threshold, like this one at Karkarily

Lunch stop by the lake

Our favourite camp site so far  - which is saying a lot as we haven't had any bad ones

Spot the Tab  - campsite as above

Walking in the hills near the above camp site we found a trench excavation with lots of disgarded blue rocks and it appeared that a seam of the blue rock was the object of the excavation. Is this lapis? It is certainly found in Afghanistan

From the Balkans, through Turkey and into central Asia a breed of massive dog is used to guard sheep.They are extremely protective of sheep and attack without much encouragement and Mike has had some uncomfortable moments in Anatolia with these dogs. This one appeared suddenly at the camp above causing us both to retreat hastily to the van outside which it then lay in the shade for some time. As you can see from the photo the ears and tail are cut off so that wolves can't grab them in confrontations. This one was probably quite friendly and it seemed to want a fuss made of it but we weren't taking any chances, especially as lone dogs are a rabies risk.

For some reason the village of Karaghayli had several huge unfinished blocks of flats, quite out of character with the rest of the village

Mike was hoping to see steam trains somewhere on this journey, this was the nearest he has got so far. This one seemed to have been run into the buffers about 20 years ago.

Male Marsh Harrier

Hills were a bit more prevalent at camp sites in the east

Unidentified ground squirrel (not a marmot)

Typical steppe  farmstead

Recently fledged Rock Thrush

During the 1960's the River Shaghan was dammed by an atomic explosion (somewhere downstream from here). On our short visit there were Nightingales and Cetti's Warblers singing in the scrub

A few photos of village life (Sarijal, SW of Semey), kids in the street, a shop, house with typically blue paintwork, and horses utilising every bit of shade

Last camp site before Semey adjacent to the Steppe Eagle's nest below

One of a number of visiting herdsman to our camp sites shares a cup of tea with Mike

Bridges over the the River Ertis at Semey. This river rises in the mountains between China and Mongolia and is already 1000km long by the time it reaches Semey, it then becomes a tributary to the Rive Ob which eventually discharges into the Arctic Ocean

Monument to the Victims of Nuclear Testing in Semey

One of the few other caravans we've seen!

A group of apparently rural women visit the monument above