Oral to Semy & The Russian Border.

The drive from Oral to Semy, was mixed with various landscapes, at first the grasses were very brown, and large vistas of the countryside were burnt, we think this was on purpose to turn over the agricultural land, either way, acres and acres of land were burnt, as before it was also very very hot, even the wind as you drove was sweltering, but the further East we headed the higher the roads lead, and as you'd think the cooler it'd become. The landscapes then gradually became greener and greener until rather than just grasslands, there were forests.

We were pulled over several more times, but never more than to find out where we were heading, and then we were allowed on our way.

The further East you head, the more the populations faces change from Eastern European and Russian, to more East Asian.

It's an interesting drive at points with a large chunk of monotonus landscape, you can drive almost 1000km and the view from left to right will be very much the same, on one side power lines carry on reeling out, and on the other side, the occassional cemetary or a collection of shacks that you can't quite tell if they're still occupied or not.

Then after you've just experienced what is most likely some of the bleakest landscapes you'll ever come across, then get to see some of the most awesome, not least the sunsets, when the clouds all contrast the skys with pinks and oranges.

We arrived at Semy which happens to be the county of Kazakhstan where the USSR tested some 456 nuclear weapons, understandibly some towns in this district have close to 100% cancer rates through the nuclear fallout of these testing sites. Semy is the last town before heading back into Russia for our crossing to Mongolia, even though it appears to on most maps Kazakhstan doesn't actually border with Mongolia, so you must enter via Russia.

The border crossing took only 4 hours which so far is out best crossing yet. After much form filling and several check points we were allowed into Russia again, which was a relief after our 10 hour crossing from Latvia into Russia.

Immediately once your enter Russia the faces change back to the Eastern European look that was so familar, but where as the Kazakh authorities just wanted to say hi and check out where we were going. The Russian police who pulled us over a couple of times straight after the border crossing, wanted "presents". They can mostly speak no English, which helps when you want to act ignorant to local speeding laws etc... It just so happens they know that as they say "Presents", that they don't need to speak English to get the point across, they simply flick the safety latch on their guns in front of you. Either way we're now minus one Biro pen, a copy of nuts magazine and 3 alcohol minatures. I'm still adament that no money will change hands with them.

We then continued on to the Altai Mountains, which were the most stunning roads we've encountered so far, the mountain roads took us to 4000 meters above sea level. There was a mixture of snow capped mountains and forest covered hills, all the time we followed the main river which flowed through these amazing views.

We ended up pulling over next to the river with the other team we were convoying with, and set up a campfire, we cooked up the most decent meal we'd had in days, and just talked the night away under a full moon. It was easily the best days driving we'd had all trip, and we were filled with excitement of finally being within an hour of the Mongolian border and the final chapter of our trip.