Posts for category camping

We had much of the today to ourselves before a dinner date late in the afternoon. The Lonely Planet guide came to our rescue and we headed off early to Lake Buntzen, a reservoir created by the BC Hydro company.

We were both pretty relaxed as we headed south east towards the border town of Tecate for our long planned entry into Mexico. What a contrast to the nerves we experienced back in June 2009 when with Norm (our guide) we entered via McAllen, TX for the first time.

We had agreed many months ago that Santa would not be leaving any stockings for us this year (as we had already spent many years christmas allowances on our yellow vehicle) so there were none of the usual Christmas rituals this morning. Instead we spent the morning strolling on the deserted beach, exploring and photographing the Baja Seasons establishment and catching up on chores.

We made the most of our morning at the Estero Beach Resort, taking a walk, photographing the birds in the estuary, topping up the water tanks and dumping. Thereafter was a short stop at Costco, Walmart, and Starbucks for a touch of Americana and a few provisions. Then onto Mex 1 headed for San Quintin about 200km away.

Our route today took us away from the Pacific coast and into the desert (and deserted) mountains that comprise the spine of the peninsular to the small town of Catavina; sparce traffic, few towns, and narrow roads were the order of the day. The scenery was not unlike the Sonora desert of southern Arizona except for the appearance of a form of plant we had not seen before - it was the Cirios or Boojum tree - a notceably tapering column structure all covered in spines with a flower on top.

We initially expected todays journey to be a gentle side excursion from Bahia De Los Angeles (south 80 miles to San Francisquito, thence 45 miles west to El Arco and then 26 miles back to Mex 1) for at least the first leg to San Francisquito was described in our guide book as "suitable for small RVs and even pickups with small boat trailers". We modified our expectation somewhat when we heard yesterday from some of the other tourists that the recent Baja 200 (or Baja 1000 depending on which particular tourist) had recently run through that road and it may be a little chopped up. The reality was, however, altogether different to any expectation. In over 8 hours of driving we had traveled only 65 miles, not even reaching San Francisquito before the day started to fade. Not only had we shaken the truck unmercifully for those 8 hours but we had also climbed our way over and around numerous wash aways in the road that in some cases reduced the road width to less than our truck and in the process gave Nina a bad case of the shakes. At the end of the day we could confidently tell any other travelers that asked that; The Baja race had indeed chopped up the road. But so had many years without maintenance. And this road certainly was not suitable for small RVs.

Anxiety got us going early this morning. There was still a little doubt in our minds as to whether there was a road from San Francisquito to El Arco and even if there was we figured we might need the entire day to cover the distance what we estimated to be another 80 miles back to Mex 1. About an hour on, our anxiety was somewhat reduced as we found an intersection and some signs. Left to San Francisquito and right to El Arco. At this point also the nature of the roads changed (or more accurately the nature of the roughness changed). Yesterday the road did not really have washboards, but rather large "whoops" (like washboards but about 3 feet between high points - we assumed caused by high speed vehicles). At this intersection the washboards arrived and they arrived in force.

A happy new year to you all from Nina and Rob. We were excited this morning to think that this is the year we plan to travel across the Eurasian continent. We have been saying 'next year' for so long that it has become a reflex. Right on the heels of that thought was the realization that based on our tentative plan we will actually ship the truck out of US west coast in 11 weeks. Yiks; thats not far off; and boy do we have a lot to do between now and then. Nina immediately started making a list. These thoughts have irretrievably turned our mind towards preparation for Russia and the things we have to do after Mexico.

Sorry - I added this entry simply to have the camping and location details.

This morning we spent some time talking to a group (of two vehicles each with two people) from Swiztland. We had a pleasant hour or so comparing notes about vehicles, talking about our respective past travels. It was interesting to Nina and I that one of the couples had recently completed a crossing of Russia and Mongolia.

We had arranged to meet a cousin of Nina's this afternoon so we had time for a relaxed morning. We started the day with a drive through downtown Cabo which required some careful maneuvering through narrow streets and under low hanging trees, before heading west towards San Jose del Cabo. Along the way we stopped at Chileno beach for an hour or so to catch some sun. The beach was well looked after, the area was clean and tidy and well maintained restrooms were provided. There was a policeman in the parking lot presumably to ensure that things stayed orderly.

From La Ventana it was only 35 miles to the city of La Paz up over a modest mountain range. In La Paz we resupplied in the very extensive Walmart store, and a Pemex gas station before undertaking the relatively uninteresting drive to Ciudad Constitucion. Throughout the day the wind strengthened and blowing dust became more wide spread so that by the time we got to Constitucion we selected a campground that we hoped would give us some shelter from the wind and dust.

We had a few hiccups and repairs before hitting the road this morning. In preparation for getting under way I checked the trucks tires for correct pressure. In the process one of the valves stuck open and released a good quantity of air before resealing itself. In addition all tires were a little low so I broke out the air hose. When I inserted the hose-end connector into the connector on the air tank the internals of the tank connector dislodged and released all the air in the tank. With the air tank empty and the connector stuck open the truck could not build any air pressure and hence we were not going anywhere until I could fix it. Thankfully after ratting around in my mess of spare parts I found a new connector. With that installed and the tires re-inflated we were on our way. Or at least on our way to the local Ley supermarket.

A few "firsts" today. Elena met us at the hotel this morning and offered to guide us out of the city. Assistance we were more than willing to accept as Vladivostok is not exactly a city that is easy to navigate. We stopped for a visit with Yuriy (Tatiana's father) and a breakfast of Russian crab (one "first") and a top up of our water tank before hitting the road (called the M60 or M58) north.

This morning Sergei took us on a tour of some of the local sights in his off-road equipped Nissan Patrol. We were accompanied on this exercise by the lady teacher from last night (Ludmilla) and a man named Shasha First stop on this tour somewhat surprisingly was a large statue of a Buddha in a small village near Ussurisk. It seems that the area around the Buddha was inhabited 10,000 years ago by an ancient race and also occupied by the army of Genghis Khan. Equally interesting to us was the forest, all the trees were coated in ice condensed out of the moist air by the overnight chill (haw frost).

Last night among the trucks was surprisingly quiet, we heard a few come and go in the night but we did not (like often in the US) have refrigeration trucks to assault our ears.

This morning we felt a little conspicuous with our bright (though now dust covered) yellow truck parked among the more dower working trucks so we decided to get out onto the road a little earlier. Besides with the water system not working I cannot use the coffee maker (what a hardship). A little way down the road we came upon one of the now familiar roadside parking spots. These are peculiar facilities. They are muddy patches of ground, sometimes with remnants of pavement, and covered in abandoned litter of kinds one does not even want to imagine. But that is not the peculiar bit. They each (of them we have seen anyway) have a large ramp made from slabs of concrete. It is like a low table with an on and off ramp. Even the roadside sign that designates the parking place has a picture of a car on the ramp. When we work out what the ramp is for we will let you all know.

Today we discovered that we had made a really dumb mistake when we left our hotel in Vladivostok, but I will tell you about that below. We also found and fixed another apparent problem with the camper. Best of all with the aid of our digital map from the Open Street Map project we navigated our way through the city of Khabarovsk to a hotel.

This morning our guardian angels Elena (in Vladivostok) and Irina (in Khabarovsk) succeeded in getting that document from the hotel into our hot little hands. The back story to the document's delivery is interesting. Last night around 9:00pm a train called the Ocean departed from Vladivostok headed for Khabarovsk. Aboard the train was Irina's doctor (friend or family doctor we never did work out). Elena gave him the document and he carried it for the overnight train journey. Irina met the train, took delivery of the document and then dropped by our hotel to give it to us.

It seemed to take forever to get on the move today. What with making the last use of our hotel room, catching up on emails, talking (Skype) to family it was midday before we started moving; and then only to a local super market to top up our larder.

Today was a day of (mild) contrasts. We started the day with a light covering of snow and once under way we traveled through a fairyland of snow and frost covered forests with a light fog. It was really beautiful. As the day progressed the fog lifted and the sun occasionally appeared, For the remainder of the day we were treated to periods of snow and sunshine; sometimes both at the same time.

The town (city?) of Blagoveshchensk (Бпаговешенск) was our destination today. The towns name means "good news" and was named for the peace agreement signed in 1858 between the Chinese and Russians that set the Amur River as the border between the two countries in this region. Blagoveshchensk sits on the river bank only a "stones throw" from China.

After breakfast our hosts from last night called by to continue guiding us. First off was some shopping at a local mall; and a very up market affair it was too. It also demonstrated the universal appeal of modern electronics. In a single story mall with maybe 10 shops there were 3 cell phone stores and one computer store. For us of more interest was the well stocked supermarket.

At 8:30 Alexander knocked on the camper door to get us up and moving. I accepted his offer of coffee and we spent an interesting period consuming the coffee, looking at off road pictures on his computer, and talking to each other via Google Translate. One of the pictures he showed me was of an off road event in China and two H1 Hummers with Chinese plates. He also offered to give me one of his USB-Wireless Broadband chips and to help us buy a month-by-month data plan for it. So Alexander, two sons (one teenage and one pre school) piled into the truck and we made the short drive into the center of town.

All the mud was frozen solid this morning; the truck showed an outside temperature of 25°F (-3°C). We got under way with some trepidation this morning as we have a long way to go to Yakutsk and everything we have heard suggests this will be a rough road. After driving only a short way we got it officially 1075 km to go.

This morning, from the comfort of our warm bed and camper we looked outside to bright sunshine and frozen puddles; so we guessed it was cold. But we were still a little surprised when the truck's outside temperature display registered 16°F (-8°C). I thought this was supposed to be spring!

There has been no internet along the M56 to Yakutsk so I am some days behind in my regular journal posts. So I decided to do a quick update to let friends and family know where we are and what is happening and I will come back and fill in with a more complete record over the next few days. We are in Yakutsk, we are safe and sound but we have a significant mechanical issue with the vehicle and for the moment we are unable to travel. Over the next few days we will assess the options available to us for fixing the vehicle and do some sightseeing things as well.

Today was the big day. Would all those parts and tools be sufficient and enable us to fix our truck. Of course before we could even start the repairs we had to get to the truck and as previously this required a trip across the Lena River on a hovercraft and a couple of taxis. It was quite surprising to see how much the river had changed in the last week. It was still filled with ice, thus preventing navigation by traditional boats, but now the ice was mushy with large sections of open water. It seemed that the current condition was harder for the hovercraft as the price was 50% higher than last time we traveled.

Today we escaped from the pot holes of the M56 and to our relief the first few hundred kilometers of the M58 west towards Chita were paved and smooth. The last 45km of the M56 took us about 1.5 hours (which was consistent with our average speed over the previous 3 days) and then with relief we arrived at the large and elaborate intersection between the M56 and the M58, turned right (west) and commenced to eat away at the 990 km between us and Chita.

Late last night Nina noticed that the refrigerator seemed not to be working; and sure enough after a little investigation it was clear that the control panel lights were operating but the compressor was not running. Hence nothing was being cooled down. We could not believe it; yet another thing in this camper that had stopped working. We spent a little while discussing where we could get a new refrigerator and how we would cope without one. Then since it was late (like 22:00) we knew that Roger at GXV would be awake and at work so we called him (actually sent him an SMS to call us). His reaction mirrored ours, "you have got to be kidding".

The highlight of today was a drive into, and a look around, the city of Chita (Чита). Though our visit was not without its challenges. First amongst these was that the entry road from the east was closed, though we only worked this out after we tried it and came to a dead end. The entry from the north was open but the road was in what you might call a rough condition. In places it was simply mud and gravel and was presenting a 4x4 challenge to some of the smaller vehicles.

The M55 enters the city of Ulan Ude (Улан Удэ) from the south along the Selenge River, and this morning in bright sunshine it was a pleasant, even pretty, drive. At first glance the city appears modern but with a different feel to the other Russian cities we have so far visited. A lot more timber fences around the outer suburban houses, some Buddhist shrines and generally a more "Mongolian" feel (though I should probably say Buhrat, as that is the name of the dominant local indigenous peoples).

There is not much to say about today. The weather was crappy, windy and dusty when we woke, and during the day rain arrived and made for a miserable day of driving. For most of the day we followed the southern shore of Lake Baikal but did not really see much of the lake as the railway occupies the prime real estate next to the lake shore for the entire length of the coast. Also today the road was crappy. Most of the length was paved road that has been patched over and over again but with some sections that have simply fallen apart and it is now a combination of gravel and broken pavement. Our new strategy for bad roads is simply go slow enough that it is not too tough on the vehicle and its occupants.

What a difference a day makes. This morning we were greeted by bright sunshine and as the day wore on it became warm. An early start got us into Irkutsk by about 10:00 and we easily found a parking place on Gagarin Boulevard right next to the Inturist Hotel and right beside the Angara River from where we walked about 1 km to the Mongolian Consulate and within 10 minutes had submitted our visa application; pick up passports with visas 3:00pm Friday.

We occupied ourselves this morning doing some chores in the truck and then some grocery shopping at the famous Irkutsk market while waiting for 3:00pm and our Mongolian visas to roll around. This is the third time I have been to the markets in Irkutsk and it still facinates me. There is a large indoor food market selling all kinds of vegetables, meats, fish, nuts and almost what ever you could think of as well as a wide range of prepared food ready to eat. Now that the weather is warm there is an outside extension selling vegetables and plants.

After admiring the view from our overnight spot we headed down the road to Listvyanka and found a spot in the lakeside parking lot. It was still early for the Russians, the parking lot was sparcely occupied and all the souvenir stalls and food stalls were just being set up.

Today we simply retraced our steps on the M55 as it traversed the southern shores of Lake Baikal. The weather added to the sense of "having been here before" as the day started with low cloud and rain (same as last time on this section of road). But as the day wore on the sun appeared and we got the benefit of a more spring like day

Today we turned south towards Mongolia and the next chapter in our journey. The weather was cold and windy as we continued to retrace our route to Ulan Ude and then onto the A165 south towards the border town of Kyakhta (Кяхта). Not far down the A165 we stopped for morning tea and bumped into another overland vehicle. A couple of Austrian guys in a expedition truck that they built themselves(on an ex-Austrian army Steyr chassis). They have been on the road since March and started in Turkey, through Iran, Georgia, Azebijan and Russia and like us are on their way to Mongolia. Their truck is larger and heavier than ours, 17,000 KG versus 11,000. We had a chat about their experiences in Iran while sharing our morning tea of Russian cream cake.

Ok, so today was all about the border crossing. In the body of this post is more information about the experience and process.

What a contrast today was. The first part of the day we traveled south towards Ulaanbaatar through beautiful grass lands with remnants of winter snows to offset the bright blue sky. It was spectacular, and tranquil. Then we hit UB and it was total chaos.

This morning we learned by email that Mike from GXV had arrived in UB during the night and that once he had caught up on some sleep, and checked out the mechanical facility he had organized, he would come visit us. The purpose of Mike's visit was to add some stronger components to the camper mounts that we had replaced near Yakutsk.

Today we said farewell (and thanks) to Ulanbaatar, Chuka's Guest House (Chinzo, Turuu and Chuka), and especially thanks to the guys Tony, Todd and Barnsey at TWB (The Mongolian Drilling Company). We will (and already are) reflecting on our time in UB as enjoyable and interesting and are pleased that we spent enough time in the city to feel we got to know it a little.

We traveled west all day on mainly good roads continuing our gentle introduction to Mongolian country roads. However there was just enough broken pavement and big pot holes to keep us on our toes. Early afternoon we turned from the A0301 (the main road to the city of Arvaikheer) onto the A601 towards the old Mongol capital of Kharkhorin and the road story changed. The A601 used to be paved, we could see the old paved road but now much of that was now closed, and in its place was a dusty track that had been carved from the grass land.

The Monastry of Erdene Zuu Khiid is one of the highlighs of a tour of Mongolia. Situated in the old city of Kharkhorin (once for a short period the capital of the Mongol Empire) the Monastry was started in the late 1500's and eventually housed up to 1000 monks and 60-100 individual temple buildings. The monastry was closed and largely destroyed in 1937 as a result of a Stalin purge, the monks were either killed or imprisoned. We tooks a tour of the main remaining temples with a delightful young lady who tried to bring us up to speed on the 500 gods of the Budhist religion; but unfortunately we only grasped a little. Still the monastry is impressive.

Before getting underway this morning we were passed by a number of mini-vans returning from the hot springs with their load of tourists. We waved a good morning greeting. Once underway we traveled at our now customery 10-15 mph over the steppes trying to find the flatest track as the truck (and Nina) do not seem to like steep side-hills.

After a pleasant night near the river (despite the group of Mongolian campers nearby who sang until after midnight) we headed back into town to the FAIRfield Guesthouse, for some coffee, pastries, and wifi. Then it was off west. At the western border of the town there was a toll gate and the paved road gave way to gravel and a short steep climb over some rocky hills. We were not surprised by the appearance of gravel road as we had been told by many people that the road "may be sealed as far as Tsetseleg". What we were surprised by was that within 10 km good sealed road appeared again and continued for almost 100km until the bridge over the Chuluut River.

Our plan was to complete the drive to White Lake and spend a coupe of nights there resting in the sun and enjoying the Lake. So this morning we set off west. Quickly we were forced back onto that roadbed as the valley narrowed towards the start of the lake and so we jostled along for about an hour before we came to the end of the roadbed; after this point the highway was nothing more than a bunch of tracks in thre grass and a few broken down bridges. It quickly became evident that we were not going to drive miles on this "road" to the western end of the lake simply to drive back again in a few days. So we turned off the road and headed directly towards the lake shore making our own road.

We explored the Larch forest a little this morning noting that there were some really big Ovoo (places that the Mongolians adorn with blue ribbons. From the LonelyPlanet Guide "sharmanist collection of stones, wood or other offerings to the gods usually found in high places"). The cool morning, light overnight rain, sandy soil and beautiful old Larch trees made for a very pleasant environment.

Sitting around camp, still buzzed from the days adventures (and maybe a little from beer and vodka), Nina and I agreed, today was one of those special travel days, a day that we will remember forever, and one of those days that will keep us thinking up new adventures.

This morning we had a visit from a local family, father, mother and daughter in traditional clothing and one of the young workmen from yesterdays ferry ride. The little girl was curious but a bit unsure of us and clung to mother. The mother was very curious about the photographs we took of the group and particularly photos of her daughter. Before the visit was over a couple of additional young men in traditional gear arrived on their small Japanese motor cycles and had a quick look over the truck.

Moron, with a population of about 36,000, is the only major town in this part of Mongolia and it was our destination for the day. So after an hour or so bumping along the highway we entered the town along a 13 km stretch of ok paved road to find that we were in the midst of frantic activity.

Before leaving Moron this morning we spent a deal of time checking out the local super markets topping up our larder for the coming 10 day trip west during which we don't expect to find much in the way of supplies. Believe it or not we could not find any form of cheese. We concluded that Mongolians must get their dairy products in other forms.

Yesterday we returned from Khvosgol Nuur to Moron with the plan of topping up with fuel and then proceeding west towards Ulaangom. But at the gas station I noticed that the right hand front wheel hub was leaking oil so we checked back into Bata's Guesthouse and I spent some time under the truck investigating the oil leak. Conlusion, an oil seal had started leaking; the seal where the axle shaft enters the outboard hub assembly. Later in the evening I called Rob Pickering (our ever helpful U500 expert) in Colorado and discussed the issue with him. His advice was "… you can probably drive it provided to check the oil level and top it up frequently". So that became the next days (todays) task, assemble the pieces needed to remove the fill plug and add oil to the hub. It also happened that today was Nina's birthday. She got a wonderful present - all day walking around this dusty town trying to find tools, oil and a means of putting the oil into the hub - very romantic.

After all the chores were done we finally headed out of Moron to start our journey west. Initially the road headed south before a bridge carried us over the Delgermoron River and then for the next 60 km we followed those now familiar wheel ruts in the grass steppes (and also the followed the Delgermoron River). This section of "road" was, however, a little different. There were a few sections of graded road where the terrain narrowed beside the river or over a small saddle, and also this section of road had km posts; very civilized.

If you are taking any notice of the mileage number you will notice that we only traveled about 50 miles today. There are two reasons for this. The first is the condition of the road - or should I say track, which keeps our average speed down to below 20 km/h. The second reason is visa timing. We cannot enter Kazakhstan until July 17th, and we don't want to spend a lot of time in the Altai region of Russia (again visa considerations) so we plan on exiting Mongolia around July 10th. Hence are deliberately traveling slowly.

It was raining steadily this morning as we got underway and continued that way for most of the day. The route this morning headed towards a town called Tsetseleg (same name as a previous town, but not the same town). At one point we seemed to be off course but a spur road took us back to the main track. A highlight of the morning was the appearance of 3 SUVs heading the other way. Also, at our morning tea stop we were visited by a couple of local guys on a small motorcycle, we invited them in to the camper to share our morning tea.

Bright sun and warmer weather. Our route today took us back to the valley of the Tesiin River and for much of the day we traveled through that valley only occasionally leaving it to bypass narrow stretches of the valley. The Tesiin is a large river and seems to support a good size population of herders as we passed many Ger camps and herds of animals through out the day.

After an easy 15 km run into the town of Bayantes the road split into two routes, a northerly and a southerly. As it turned out the more direct northerly route (the one we chose) followed the power lines and was a bit of a pain for us as we had to keep checking that we could pass under the lines without hitting them. Also this route passed over a series of small mountain passes that became narrow with steep side hills that certainly had a high "pucker" factor. The power lines and steep passes combined at one point to completely block our passage; a power pole had fallen over dragging the wires way to low for us to pass and as (bad) luck would have it this happened in a narrow valley. We examined the situation for quite some time before decicing that we had to by pass the entire area by driving the truck up onto a nearby hillside and around the obstacle.

There is not a lot to say about today. It was overcast and raining when we woke and it continued that way all day. The grey sky hid any of the distant mountains left us feeling like we were driving on an endless plain. As the day wore on the rain soaked into the ground and the vehicle tracks became muddy. It was then that we learned that even a 26,000 lb Unimog can get sideways once the ground is slippery enough. Thus we spent the afternoon "slip-sliding in the mud"

The sun was out today when we woke and as we set out on the 8th day of our journey along Mongolia's Northern Route. Today we were headed for a a salt lake named Uvs Nuur, the biggest lake in Mongolia with an area of approximately 3000 square km. To get to the lake we traveled across a huge dry valley that seemed to go on for ever. THe valley was dotted with th occassional ger and for the first time we saw some camels. As we traveled west we got the first glimpse of some snow capped peaks to the west - we guessed this is our first view of the Altai Mountains (a mountain range that sits at the borders of China, Russia, Kazakhstan and Mongolia).

It took us a few hours this morning to wind our way across the steppes back to the "main road" and then into the town of Ulaangom. To our surprise the last 13 km into the town was good paved road and it was a pleasure (even though a short lived one) to drive on a real road for a while. Mind you on this road we came across a gang of workers painting cener lines by hand with brushes and a stencil.

We had a somewhat shorter day today as we travelled only about 70 km to a lake called variously Khar-Us Nuur or Olgly Nuur. Arriving just after noon we occupied ourselves for a while doing some modifications to the latch on one of the cabinet drawers. After the chores we moved the vehicle to the lake shore and started to settle in, paddled in the lake, got out the camp chairs and started our afternoon cocktails. About this time a middle aged local man appeared on his horse and promptly sat in one of our camp chairs and started drinking the beer I had opened for myself. During the course of the next hour or so we had a very limited conversation, served him a few more beers and other assorted refreshments, and took a few photos of him.

Our route south today (for the first 100 km) was on a road that continued to be nothing more than vehicle ruts in the steppes. The scenery was spectacular with colorful mountains all around, and those to the west were set off wonderfully by the morning light. About lunch time we saw a large body of water to the south and slightly east, our map named it Khar-Us Nuur (hang on wasn't that the same name as last nights lake ?? - we have noticed that many place names get used over and over again in Mongolia - very confusing for tourists).

This morning we went back into Khovd spent some time on the internet and once again tried the market for vegetables. This time we went armed with Mongolian words for a range of vegetables. Eventually we were shown the way to the right section of the market and it immediately became obvious why we had so much trouble yesterday. Not only was it way out in the back blocks of the market area but also there were only a few stalls selling any type of vegetables, and they had only the most lmited supply. very small totatoes, one or two onions, and some long thin green things that looked a bit like cucumbers. This was proof to us that Mongolians do not eat a lot of vegetables.

From last nights camping spot the road climbed through a series of river valleys over increasingly rough road or tracks to the highest point so far on this trip, 8660'. Along the way we passed through a couple of small villages and saw the inevitable herds of cows, sheep, goats, and camels. Late in the morning we were waved down by a pair of young boys who were out patrolling their herds on horse back. We were a little surprised that one of them spoke reasonably good English. Among other things he told us that he was "Kazak not Mongolian". We gave them some treats we carry for just such an occassion - immediately he asked (via sign language) if we had something to drink. We gave him a carton of fruit juice to which his response was - "one for my friend". He will be a successful animal trader some day.

The 60km into Olgii today was slow as the road was rough (again) with many different tracks to choose from and lots of road work (a new road is being built but so far it is not ready for use). About 10 km out from the town we came upon a large group of vehicles and people walking and riding horses, some of the horses where covered in bright rugs and some of the children were dressed as jockies, we could only guess that it was some kind of informal race.

We (actually me) spent the morning procrastinating about our departure. Showers, email updates, talking to all the other travelers at the guesthouse. But eventually I accepted Nina's argument that we needed to start towards the Russian-Mongolian border so that we were in a position to cross into Russia tomorrow as the Mongolian side of the border might be closed Wednesday for the national Naadam festival. So eventually we manouvered our way out through the guesthouse gate, changed most of our Mongolian money into Russia roubles at one of the towns bank and then hit the road towards the town of Tsagaanuur.

Bright sunshine had us up before 8:00 am looking around the main and only street in the village to see what was happening and when we should start lining up for the border. I took the opportunity to exchange most of our remaining Mongolia money for Russian roubles and Nina got the chance to take some photos of a lady milking a yak.

Today we had great weather, good road and just fabulous scenery. The route pretty much traversed the Altai Mountains by following a series of river valley's with one substantial climb over a pass to add variety. The rivers we followed were generally big and fast flowing, sometimes with steep gorges, and sometimes with grass banks. We frequently passed through nice little villages, that although clearly of modest means were well maintained and tidy. We have not seen any of the wide spread trash/garbage that we saw in Siberia. We saw many places catering to tourists (though we assume Russian tourists), rafing outfits on the fast rivers, hotels, and places that looked like camp grounds. We also saw a lot of cars and small SUVs with their roofs loaded with luggae - we assumed they were the tourists enjoying this fabulous mountain playground. There were miles of delightful (possible) camping spots along the banks of the rivers and we were a little sad that we needed to keep moving rather than enjoy these spots.

We started our travels today in, and after, some heavy rain falls but quickly the clouds cleared away and another nice summers day appeared. The road (we are traveling is the M52 which for the past two days was also called the Chuisky Trakt) continued to follow river valleys and wind between rounded mountains. As the day progressed we saw more signs of Russian tourism and Russians with vacation toys or camping gear on the tops of their cars.

Today we left behnd the last of the Altai mountains. From our riverside camp our route continued for much of the day beside the ever widening expanse of the Katun River, passng througn many small townships catering to holiday makers (we even found some good super markets). The road was excellent making it easy and the traffic increasingly dense and frantic. If we ever needed proof that Russia is a first world country with a large fun-loving middle class today was that proof.

Today we were intent on finding some internet as we needed to catch up on emails related to visas for those Central Asian Countries. So our goal was the city of Barnaul where we hoped we might find an internet cafe or get good reception for our cellular modems. So throughout the morning we motored along with moderate traffic on good roads through lush farmland

We have spent the past 3 days (14th,15th, 16th) on the A340 from Barnaul to Rubtsovsk and the border into Kazakhstan. We have been forced to travel slowly because our Kazak Visa does not start until July 17th. Had we given a little more thought to our situation last week, and had a little more knowledge about the country side south of Barnaul we could easily have spent some extra time in the Altai Mountains, that would have been more interesting and more comfortable than the hot, flat farm land we have been in the past 3 days.

We were awake and moving early today, keen to get to the border and also a little anxious. We had read that the border crossing on the A349 was very busy and had even read on one website a recommendation that travelers should consider using another crossing about 100km east which was supposed to be quieter and hence easier. So we were relieved to find only about 8 vehicles ahead of us when we got to the Russian border post and pulled in at the end of the line waiting to be allowed through the control gate.

Today we (or at least I) felt the full weight of trying to cover the 1100km from Semey to Almaty in 4 days. Now our Australian and US readers may be surprised by this comment as 1100km would be an easy 2 day drive in either country, but in Kazakhstan, in our truck with the rough paved and unpaved roads today made it clear that our goal would be tiring and tedious. So for much of the day we bounced along, mostly on rough paved roads, at less than 50 km/h covering a little over 300km in almost 7 driving hours.

Before we were out of bed this morning we heard a vehicle sounding its horn and then heard the sound of a diesel engine coming towards our camping spot. To our surprise we looked out of our window to see another motorhome coming towards us. Sue and Chris, from the UK, were on their way to Mongolia. Just to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that people do all kinds of things and travel for all kinds of reasons we learned that they (Chris and Sue) were going to Mongolia to fly the hot air balloon they were carryiing in the big storage box mounted on the back of their vehicle. We spent some tiime together (after we got hurridly dressed) talking about the state of the roads, where to stay in various cities and the strength and weaknesses of our respective vehicles.

Today we saw a bit more activity beside the road. There were more villages, and in those villages there was more produce for sale in roadside stalls, and the main street through many of the villages had very extensive and long established groves of trees beside the street. We saw men out cutting grass with scythes and even saw one man painting the trunks of trees with white paint.

Last night our big question/decision was "where do we head to once in Almaty?". We talked about it for a long time and came up with all kinds of plans. This morning we chickened out and decided to head to the Holiday Inn according to the LonelyPlanet guide it had parking; the downside - it was expensive.

Today was a business day. We tried many times this morning to call the local FEDEX franchise to find out what we had to do to liberate a package from the customs process here in Almaty but everytime the receptionist tried to connect us the phone hung-up. So after failing to get anywhere over the phone we decided to add a visit to FEDEX to our days agenda.

We left the Holiday Inn early this morning and made our way to the Mercedes dealer. We were there early so had to find a place to park and hang-out for about an hour before their opening time of 9:00am.

Despite what we thought was an early start this morning, traffic was already fast and furious by the time we got underway heading to the southern part of the city of Almaty to visit Stantours. This is a well known Central Asian tourist company that helps travelers get visas and arranges tours and accomodation. We have been in contact with them for some months regarding our arrangements for Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. Also this is where our package (the one we visited FEDEX about on Monday) was/had been delivered.

This morning before heading back towards Almaty Nina got up early to walk down the Jeep road to the bottom of Charyn Canyon to the informal camping ground at the river. Like a slug I stayed in bed for a while but eventually I felt guilty enough that I got up and followed. The round trip took Nina 1 and 1/2 hours and I only caught up to her 100m from the truck. Either Nina is getting faster, or I am getting slower. It was a pleasant walk as the valley through which the track passes was in shade for most of the time. We also discovered why the rangers warned us not to drive this track; at one point the track passes under a couple of big bolders and has no more the 7-8 feet of clearance.

The past two days we have traveled from Almaty to Bishkek crossing the Kazakhstan-Kyrgyzstan border in the process. I think it would be reasonable to describe these two days as very representative of the hassles and discomfort of traveling in Central Asia.

We got an early start this morning in order to avoid the the traffic and the police as we headed east out of Bishkek towards famous Lake Issy Kul. The plan largely worked and within 40 minutes from the hotel we were out of the city and on highway A365. We did not entirely avoid the police as we passed a number of radar traps and random stop but today we did not seem to be on anyones menu.

Today was a bit of a bust. I woke with a moderate tummy upset and headache that persisted all day. I put it down to the corn we bought yesterday from a roadside vendor. It was either simply too much corn (2 large cobs) or maybe the corn spiced with some local micro-organisms; though Nina suffered no bad effects.

Much to Nina's relief I was back on deck this morning so we set off early for a full day of experiencing the delights and the unexpected of traveling.

A hair cut and a quick swim in our small lake started the day and then we took our leave from our new Polish friends and were on our way. A little way down the road we passed 3 convoys of Mack trucks carrying fuel and led by Ford F series pickup trucks heading to a local gold mine operated by a Canadian company. At about the same time we passed a complex of walls and buildings that were amazingly decorated. The main wall seemed to have immitation yurts embedded at regular intervals, an eleborate gate and other amazing features. Noone seemed to be at home in the structure and we could not for the life of us work out what it might be.

This morning not long after getting under way we passed through Kyzart Pass (at a modest 2650 meters), a picturesque spot situated among grass covered mountains. At the pass there were some primitive dwellings providing cafe services and a group of young children that greeted us warmly. On the descent we passed many herder camps most of which comprised both yurts and a soviet style caravan (for Aussies) or travel trailer (for our American friends); we even saw a yellow one.

We continued for some distance this morning along the Kekemeren Gorge with more spectacular mountain views before emerging into a wide valley with a couple of small villages and wide spread cultivation. Once into the wider valley we could see in the distance the highway M41 (the main Bishkek to Osh road) as it descended from the 3500 meter Too Ashuu Pass. Our route to Osh would take us left/south at the M41 but initially we chose to go North and climb to the pass, partly out of curiousity and partly to start our altitude acclimatization - or at least to see how we would react to some serious altitude.

The road continued to climb for a little while this morning before eventually topping out at over 10,500 ft and then we descended, and descended and descended eventually (by the end of the day) getting down to 2,500 ft in the upper end of the Fergana Valley.

We were up and going early this morning hoping to cover the 135km to the city of Osh by lunch time in order to have sufficient time to do some extensive grocery shopping. The drive this morning continued like yesterday afternoon. Cultivated fields everywhere, people selling all kinds of vegetables and fruits at roadside stalls. In many of the stalls people were still in bed as we passed; thats right they actually had beds in the stalls and we saw people still asleep in some of them.

Today we crossed what we believe will be our highest point on this years journey, Ak-Baital Pass at 4655 meters (15,272 feet). But equally we spent almost the entire day traveling at over 4000 meters (13,125 ft). Only at the end of the day as we neared the town of Murghab did our GPS register an elevation below 4000 m. Todays scenery was stark and spectacular. For most of our way the road ran through one river valley or another. Typically the valleys were very wide and filled with grey gravel, and surrounded by barren mountains of many colors, and then the bigger mountains topped off with snow and glaciers. The road was a mix of old pavement and stretches of gravel, but really surprisingly good considering where we were. Though like yesterday there were periodic signs that nature was fighting back and from time to time we encountered road sections that had washed away or were being eaten away by river flow. There were also signs of recent road works so we guessed some effort is made to keep this road open.

We spent most of today exploring the road out to, and beside, Lake Yashilkul. The gravel road that ran along the southern side of the lake gave good views and some interesting driving. Much of the day was overcast so we also spent a good deal of time simply sitting looking at the lake waiting for the sun to come out to provide better photo ops. It did sort-of.

From our campsite near the junction with the Pamir Highway our route followed a heavliy washboarded road up a narrow valley, past a couple of very pretty lakes to Khargush Pass at 4255 meters before descending to the town of Khargush, a military checkpoint and the Parmir River and across the river - Afghanistan.

The title for todays entry is a bit boring but it keeps to yesterdays naming convention. I could have called todays post something like "Panj River Villages" because we seemed to spend the entire day passing through the most amazing quaint, picturesque villages. Any patch of even approximately flat ground along the southern side of the Panj River has been turned into a village and each village has extensive fields of grain, potatoes and apricot trees. The villages themselves have generally only one main street that is always lined with hugh amazing trees that often arch over the road to form a green tunnel. The houses are made from white washed mud-brick and surrounded by stone fences.The only time villages and cultivation ceases is when the river bank merges into a steep escarpment and there is no flat land.

After leaving Hanis guest house and Vali its friendly and helpful manager we set out down the Panj River valley towards Khorog. The scenery today was a bit like a combination of the previous two days driving. The Panj River valley narrowed and steepened and instead of a wide valley floor and a meandering river we had a narrow gorge (sometimes less than 100 meters wide), a raging river and steep valley sides with the road often cut into those steep sides as a shelf. Interestingly though even in this much steeper country the locals had managed to find patches of soil that could be cultivated and turned into house compounds or small villages. With the river much narrower we got some closer views of people and farms on the Afghan side.

We had the usual chores to do today, get money, get groceries and try and buy a SIM card for my phone. So after breakfast and the usual morning crap we walked down the hill into the main part of the town. Our initial efforts to get some money were unsucessul as the ATM we tried swallowed our card, but thankfully a bank official was able to retrieve it for us - the problem, contrary to the signs on the ATM the machine only accepted Visa cards and we had tried a master card. Groceries also proved difficult as in this part of the world there are no large super markets and the local stores that sell grocery items are simply buildings with a normal domestic front door, so we wandered around asking directions from anyone that looked handy. We eventually got a limited supply.

It was overcast this morning and throughout the day we had periods of light rain, so it was hardly the ideal day to try and see the supposedly spectacular peaks that stand each side of the Gunt river valley. But regardless of the weather the first part of the day was a pleasant drive, on reasonably good road, through a spectacular steep sided valley. We passed through many villages and like those of previous days, harvest was in full swing with people working in the fields, piles of cut grain sheaves in evidence and people and donkeys carrying cut hay.

It is interesting how perception works. Returning over the section of bad road this morning it did not seem as long as it did yesterday afternoon. Also as the morning progressed the weather improved so that by the time we were descending from Koy-Tezek pass the clouds were breaking up and some blue sky and sun were shining through.

We had made arrangements to meet a young lady named Mehrafruz in Khorog today, so after a relaxed start to the day in beautiful sunshine we covered the last few kilometers into Khorog and parked in the main street. Along the way we passed, and were passed by, a car decked out for a wedding - in the photos below note the wedding car getting gas from a roadside vendor.

We were a bit slow getting underway this morning as we had to wait until our fellow campers moved their vehicles out of the way before we could manouver our monster out of the tight parking place.

Today was about the road, views of people and activity on the Afghan side of the border and other travelers. But before getting underway this morning we had a number of curious truckers who wanted to know who we were, what we were doing and about the truck, of course.

We got an early start this morning, after saying goodbye to our Swiss friends. We were on the road by 7:00am. According to our map we would follow the Panj River for another 100 km and then finaly head away from the river cross country towards Dushanbe. It is hard to believe that we have been following this same river (except for our side trip up the Gunt) since the town of Langar and our first day on the Wakhan. In other words we have driven beside the Panj river for 4 1/2 days, and to give some indication of the state of the road we have averaged less than 20 km/h on each of those days.

This morning it felt like we were starting a new chapter of this trip. The mountains of Tajikistan are (almost) all behind us, and we are headed into the heat, lowlands, and bureaucracy of Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Iran. Once we enter Uzbekistan our days of relaxed travel and pulling off to camp whereever we feel like it will be over, at least and maybe until Iran. As in Both Uzbekstan and Turmenistan we have to nominate where we will be almost every night and in most cases have to have a hotel booked.

Our route North this morning along the M34 was more spectacular canyon, and thankfully good road. We noticed electrical transmission towers situated high up on the steep walls of the valley and we spent some time discussing how they would have been erected.

Our mission today was to find "the" border crossing into Uzebekistan. Even when we were back in Gig Harbor planning this trip with all the resources of google available to us we had trouble understanding the convoluted border line between Uzbekistan and its neighbours and now that we are "on-site" it is no clearer; infact maybe even less so as the 4 maps we have of this region (3 paper and 1 electronic) show quite different road networks across the border between Tajikistan and Uzebekistan. So todays mission was to sort this out and by the end of the day know our way to a border crossing.

Crossing the border from Tajikistan into Uzbekistan was a long drawn out affair, so dear reader please bare with me it is going to take a while to tell this story.

This morning when we woke all our hosts of last night had departed and the place was silent, cool, and deserted. We took advantage of the morning peace and cool to prepare for the day with the usual myriad of chores.

Todays task or challenge was to find our hotel in Samarkand and organize to park the truck there. But of course the first step was to get out of our river valley, back to Zomin and from there find the main road to Samarkand. Now we seemed to have accomplished this and were following a rural road (which had passed through a number of desert villages and their conjested markets) and were just about to rejoin a main road when we came upon a narrow low railway underpass - no more than 10 feet high. While I was sitting there contemplating a 60 km retracement and detour Nina noticed that a local farmer was pointing us down a dusty goat track. With no really good options she convinced me to follow this advice and after about 5 miles of the dustiest trail we have yet traveled we eventually found ourselves on the main Tashkent-Samarkand road.

This morning we packed, said our goodbyes and were in the truck trying to navigate our way along the rough and busy Penjikent road towards the Samarkand ring route by 8:30. The first of our "on the road" chores was to try and find some diesel fuel. Fuel of any description is scarce in Uzbekistan as they have no oil supplies of their own and diesel and petrol/gasoline/benzene is all imported. Most local vehicles are running on compressed gas of some form which is much cheaper and more readily available as Uz has ample domestic supplies of natural gas. Fuel stations are an interesting sight, there are many derelict stations along the highway and also many new stations under construction. Of the ones that are established and appear working, many are actually closed as they either have no fuel to sell or are only selling it to locals. Thus we felt very fortunate this morning when we managed to buy 50 liters of diesel at 2800 soms per litre (US$1.07 per litre or just a little over $4 / gal).

Now we are headed for Khiva and we have 2 nights on the road. Not far out of Bukhara the country side changed to low brush and sand to signal that we are truely in the Kyzylkum desert. We are both pleased to see that the weather forecasts we have been reading for the past couple of days are accurate and that the temperatures have moderated. Thus even though we are in the desert with no shade in sight the day is pleasant and the temperatures peaked at 85°F. The past few days in Bukhara the maximum temperature was well over 100°F.

We had a rare treat today; really good road. Not long after getting underway this morning the road transformed from broken down tarmac to nice new concrete and more over it continued for much of the days drive. Apparently a German company has been contracted to build a modern concrete 4-lane divided roadway. So far only 2 of the 4 lanes are open but never the less those two lanes were drivers heaven. Just to remind ourseves that it is possible we had a brief burst of travel at 110 km/h (70 mph).

Today we got another lesson regarding the disadvantages of tall vehicles. The good German road of yesterday was no where to be seen as we wound our way over rural roads back to the main E40 highway, and then along a very rough road to Urgench the largest city in the area. Fortunately Urgench has a ring route that was evident on our GPS map and so we were saved the struggle of navigating the center of the city. From Urgench to Khiva the road was very good except for the fact that an electric trolley bus service operates on that road and the overhead wires that provide power to the buses vary in height from 5+ meters (which is plenty high enough for our truck to clear) to under 3 meters (which is defintely NOT high enough for our truck). So we had an interesting 20 km drive into Khiva trying to avoid low electrical wires and other traffic.

Yesterday afternoon at a local super market we met a local English speaking guide (he helped us figure out the check out procedure). During the course of this morning we arranged with him by phone and sms to have a tour of the highlights of the old city.

Today was mostly an uneventful day of traveling to the town of Nukkus (or Nokis) from which we will (tomorrow) take a 2 day 1 night tour to the rapidly vanishing Aral Sea. We left Khiva before 9:00 am hoping to avoid some of the traffic on the road back to Urgench with its low trolley-bus wires; a strategy that was somewhat successful. There after our route took us through some more flat cotton farming areas and then into the desert for the bulk of the trip to Nukkus.

I am sure that most people know of the Aral Sea, a large body of previously fresh water that has been steadily disapearing since the 1960s. It is famous (or maybe infamous) as a stark example of environmental mismanagement resulting from the introduction of large scale cotton farming and associated massive irrigation on Uzbekistan territory during Soviet times. We were here to see this "wonder of the world" and to do so "while it is still there" - as the Lonely Planet guide book suggests.

Tonight in Dashogus we had dinner at a local hotel and french fries were on the menu so I could not help but order some as we have not had, nor even seen, french fries since we left the USA nearly 6 months ago. They were not great, but still a treat. So now I should go back and start at the beginning of the day.

Our guide turned up at the agreed time, with a GSM chip for my phone as promised and we set off towards the no-longer existing town of Davaza (Derweze) about half way to Ashgabat. According to our guide book the town no loner exists because the previous president decided he did not like it and had it "removed". So if it does not exist, why go there? Well it is famous for a man made wonder called Devils gate, but we will get to that.

During the course of yesterday afternoon I started to think (fear?) that the sandy track we had traversed on the way in to view the crater yesterday afternoon may not be as easy to get over on the way back. There was one good sized sand dune along the track, and on the way in the track up to the top of that dune had a hard base but the track down was very soft. On the way out the soft part of the track would be up hill and I was concerned it would give our mighty-mog some trouble. As it turned out I was correct and I struggled for some time trying to climb the dune in the soft sand. My struggle was amplified by a few locals who insisted on reversing down the same hill I was trying to climb at the time I was trying to climb it and forcing me to avoid them. Eventually a more judicious selection of route overcame the problem and we were back on the highway.

I will get to the campground a bit later. Once underway this morning Nina started reading from the short Iran language primer that is at the end of the Lonely Planet guide book for Iran. So as we drove along we started trying to read the license plates on the vehicles that were passing us. This seemed like an achievable goal as the plates seem to contain mostly numerals. For the interested here are the numerals zero through nine - ۰ ۱ ۲ ۳ ۴ ۵ ۶ ۷ ۸ ۹. Unfortunately it is not quite that easy as there are two alternative symbols for the numeral 4 and also for 6, but I cannot find a way of putting in the alternatives.

We got going early this morning in the hope of getting close to Kerman by the end of the day, and also in hope of covering a good distance before the days heat was upon us. As it turned out we covered a lot of distance and finished the day within 80 km of Kerman but we did not really escape the heat as during the middle of the day we crossed some really spectacular desert country (called the Dasht-e Lut) complete with heat haze, drifting sands and temperatures of 100°F. Again we lamented the demise of our trucks air conditioning system.

The first leg of the days travel was a pleasant mountain descent that brought us to the main highway into, and about 35 km from, Kerman. There we were confronted by another no-truck sign and an indication that we should take a western ring road around the town. We were a bit perplexed by this as none of our maps, even the GPS map, indicated that this ring road existed. We followed this for some time as it made a very wide detour and eventually linked up with another major highway running west out of Kerman towards the city of Yazd. Again no-truck signs seemed to bar our entry to (or even bypass of) the town.

After a few more photos we started early on our return trip from the Kalut in the hope of covering some of those kilometers before the sun got hot. The climb back over that mountain range seemed longer on the return and as on yesterdays drive the altitude moderated the temperature. So we stopped for a break at the summit and spent a while simply enjoying the cool air.

This morning we spent an hour or more searching for the town of Maymand. The group of Iranians we spoke to two nights ago at the Kaluts told us that this town was a must see, so there we were, or maybe there we were not. The town was not mentioned on any of our maps, that was a good start. From the Lonely Planet Guide we found that it was north east from the town of Shahr-e Babak. So here we were this morning driving through the Shahr-e Babak with no sign (or signs to) Maymand.

My previous post at Iran Update gave a mere notification that we had some vehicle problems. It is about time I tried to bring everyone up to date on our Shiraz Odessey.

Our truck is fixed (we hope) and it is time to get back on the road. Today we headed towards Esfahan about 450 km away. We maintained a moderate pace and checked the wheel hubs a number of times to make sure that the newly repaired hub was not getting hot. The good news - it seemed OK.

Once having completed checkin formailities and parked ourselves I set about draining the oil from the newly repaired hub. Every one in Shiraz told me I had to do this and in truth I wanted to see how much metal had accumulated on the magnetic drain plug. A large accumulation would indicate a likely problem with the most recent repair. The outcome was a modest amount of metal debris on the magnetic plug. So we are probably OK, but I will check again in a few days.

Today really brought home to us that winter is just around the corner. Some how the change in weather just snuck up on us as only 3 weeks ago we were trying to stay cool and complaining about the truck airconditioner not working. Whereas this morning as we prepared to depart Esfahan the sun was not up until 7:00am and the morning was cold, temps in the low 40°F. Later in the day as we drove north and a little west into the edge of the Zagros mountains we saw a dusting of fresh snow on the peaks and the temperatures in the valleys were sometimes only in the 30°Fs.

We tried for an even earlier start this morning being on the road and moving even before the sun had poked its face over the horizon. An effort on our part to get past/through the town of Hamedan before the traffic got really crazy.

The next, and penultimate, leg of our Iran journey is to the village of Astara at the very northern end of Irans Caspian Sea coast. Our guide Hossein R (the one who oranized the vehicle entry to Iran) lives there and he has invited us to spend a night with him before we make the trek together to Bazargan and the Turkish border. We are to meet Hossein at Astara on Sunday night so we have two days to get to and explore a bit of the Caspian Sea coast.

When we woke this morning the mountains around us were shrouded in cloud and by the time we got underway that had turned into a light rain forshadowing the rest of the day. This (the rain) was such an unusual occurrance that Nina and I spent some time discussing the question of "when was the last time we had rain" - our conclusion was Almaty, Kazakstan.

After retracing yesterdays sidetrip into Museuleh we got back onto the main coastal road heading north towards Astara and the border with Azerbaijan. This road was not memorable for any good reason, pretty much the Iranian version of strip developement being small villages with crowded mains streets every couple of kilometers, continuing rain and no view of the Caspian see. What we did see apart from lots of trucks and crazy drivers were lots of rice fields. This area is famous (in Iran) for the rice it grows.

Today began the final leg of our visit to Iran which was to be a circuitous route to the border at Bazargan with the prospect of some interesting sights along the way. To our pleasure and relief the rain was gone when we woke and we got under way in bright early morning sunshine. From Hossein's place at (or just below) sea level we climbed into the coastal mountains through some spectacular forests and switchbacks to over 7000ft before arriving on the outskirts of the town of Ardabil.

Before getting underway today we took a taxi ride into the city of Tabriz to see the famous blue mosque and the city's bazaar. The blue mosque is no longer blue, it gets its name from the fact that when it was built in 1464 it was decorated inside and out with tiles in various shades of blue. The mosque was destroyed by an earthquake in 1773 and the ruins remained untouched until a recontruction effort started in 1953. Today there are only some small patches of the orginal decoration. One of the interesting features of the mosques reconstruction is the way some of the tile decoration has been extended. Gaps left by missing original tile decoration has been filled in with plaster and the plaster painted to replicate the orginal pattern but in a slightly lighter color. This means that visitors can get the effect of the full sized original decoration but can see clearly where the original finishes and reconstrution starts.

After a very early start we met Hossein at the entrance to Bazargan about 9:45am and the chaos of the Iran side of the Turkey-Iran border got underway. The first issue to be faced was actually getting into the border post. In typical Iranian fashion the entrance gate was competely blocked by taxis and other vehicles that were applying the standard practice of "park anywhere regardless of the trouble it causes". In addition the officers at the entrance wanted us to use the truck entrance and took a little bit of convincing that we infact were not a truck.

We spent all of yesterday at Larelzar Campground just catching up on chores and generaly vegin-out. Today we spent some time in the town of Dogubayazit mostly looking for an internet cfe that had wifi so that we could connect with our own computer. There must be a dozen internet cafes in a 2 block area of this town however all but one of them has no wifi, they cannot connect a laptop via their wiring and their computers all work in Turkish. Eventually we observed that the customers of these establishments are almost exclusively local boys.

We started the day in mountain mist but that soon lifted and we were treated to a nice sunny day. It is always a little surprising how bright sunshine lifts the mood a bit. However, as you can see from the photos we had, in addition to the sunshine, a little work to do on the truck today. I discovered this morning while doing by irregular inspection that some bolts were loose and needed tightening. Fortunately we found an abandoned gas station which had a nice concrete driveway with a cover in which to work.

We woke this morning to bright sunshine and a picturesque lake right in front of us. For a while we lay in bed watching the more energetic locals out getting their morning exercise and then eventually stirred ourselves out of bed. The sun and scenery did not encourage a rapid departure so we did some chores, went for a walk into the town center for a little shoppping and just plain looking. It was lunch time before we finally got ourselves underway.

This morning we continued south towards the coast along more twisting narrow mountain roads descending towards the Mediterraean. The morning was overcast so we got very indistinct views of the Mediterranean in the distance, infact one could argue that we needed a good deal of imagination to see the sea.

This morning we were heading north again back into the Taurus Mountains in order to visit Koprulu Kanyon a scenic attraction and National Park and the nearby town of Selge with the ruins of a large Roman theater. After crossing the coastal belt the road wound its way up a river valley through picturesque forests, along side crystal clear water and past a number of villages with many restaurants and rafting businesses seemingly closed for the winter season.

There was still a bit of last nights rain and sour weather around this morning as we set off west from Antalya. Magnificent roads and magnificent scenery was the order of the day as we wound along the coast squeezed between the escapments of the Olympos Mountains on one side and the Mediterranean on the other.

We had planned to get on the road today but a last minute invitation to a Thanksgiving lunch from some fellow travelers put paid to that. We spent the morning preparing and packing and then took the yellow beast about a kilometer up the hill to our luncheon appointment. Our hosts were Brett and Sandy a Californian couple who have been traveling in Europe in their pickup and camper and have decided to stay a while in Kaş and have rented an apartment up on the hillside a little out of the main street. At lunch with us were Barbara and Peter the Swiss couple we met in Tajikistan and who are staying in the campground we just departed.

So today we did get underway again. For a while the road followed the coast and we got some great views of the Mediterranean and the numerous tourists and other sea side residential developments. As you might be able to tell we are finding the Med coast very pleasant and still marvel at how blue and clean the water looks.

We were up and going promptly this morning as we were keen to explore. However our first problem was bare feet. The main entrance to the thermal area and ruins from the town of Pamukkale starts in the village main area and ascends across the travertines (mineral deposits) on the hill side. To protect those deposits from the hordes of visitors one is required to walk across the travetine in bare feet. Now us old guys are beginning to feel the effects of age and skeletal deterioration and hence bare feet are not our forte. So after some negotiation with the entrance staff we were allowed onto an alternate path that took us to the top of the hill. However as you will see later this did not entirely get past the bare feet topic.

After our night with the trucks we set out in overcast and rain to find our way to the town of Selcuk and the famous nearby ruins of Ephesus. The roads were good the scenery pleasant and we eventually found our way into the main street of Selcuk.

Today was a travel day. We spent a deal of time winding our way along the coastal road and then through the city of Izmir (according to the Lonely Planet the 3rd largest city in Turkey). The route through Izmir took us along the water front; it looked really inviting with the bright sun, blue water, promenade and gardens but with no obvious places to stop we only admired it from the truck cab. The city seemed to stretch for miles as the road passed through one community after another. This gave us an opportunity to admire the way the Turks have put modern roads through old towns. As it passes through a congested shopping or market area inside a town the road is made up of three pieces, the center lanes are for through traffic and there is a lane on each side for local traffic. At intersections the through-road simply goes under the intersection with a well signed 4.8m clearance.

As you can see from the date on this entry we have skipped a few days. We spent those days hold up in the caravan ground at Bergama. There is not much to say about those days except perhaps that the weather varied between bright winter sun and howling wind and rain. Night time temperatures below freezing as indicated by the ice on the ground in the morning. Today we are on our way again with a visit to Pergamum, the local Acropolis (fort on a hill) and the center of the old city of Bergama

Today we are headed for the old city of Troy and since the days route seemed to be relatively short we chose to follow the coastal road as much as possible. As a result we spent most of the day traveling along winding roads that pretended to be wide enough for two vehicles but in many places would not have fitted two of us side by side. We passed through small country villages with narrow streets, lots of tractors, herds of goats and olive trees and olive trees.

We have now been in the caravan camp at Troy for a couple of days and over that time the weather has been bright and sunny as well as wild and wet. This morning it is clear and very cold. There is some solid ice on the ground this morning and snow is being predicted for the Gallipoli Penninsula just a few miles away. Never the less today is the day we will visit the historic sight of Troy. But we will do it dressed in all the cold weather gear we have.

Today is/was a big milestone for our journey, we crossed the Dardanelles (Hellespont) to the Gallipoli Peninsula and into Europe. In all other ways the day was quite un-remarkable. This morning as we prepared to depart our camp at Troia there was light snow falling (though none was accumulating). There after a shortish hop took us to the town of Çanakkale (which we would learn is pronounced Chanakarley) and the ferry to Eceabat on the Gallipoli Peninsula.

The weather was a little better this morning, though still not great, overcast with occassional showers. But we could not let the weather prevent us exploring the peninsula. From Eceabat we headed to the western shore which is where most of the sites of interest to Australians lie. First stop was a somewat run down information center which despite its need for some repairs effectively told the story on the background to and course of the Gallipoli campaign.

We were welcomed this morning by bright sunshine and blue sky. Before getting underway we spent some time walking along the water front enjoying the fabulous scenery before making a quick tour of the gun battery.

Well today was an adventure of back streets and low underpasses. Early on in the day we were feeling good, we left last nights camp in bright sunshine and got onto one of the many freeways heading into Istanbul and all seemed to be going well. Then we made a small navigation mistake by missing a fork in the freeway. But initially that did not seem too bad as our GPS quickly re-routed us and we started following the corrected route. But quite quickly this new route dropped off the freeway, into a crowded intersection and we found ourselves confronted with a 3.6M clearance sign. Fortunately we found our way past that one only to be confronted by one that read 3.8M and at this one there was no way out other than a long reverse through heavy traffic. Now remember our truck is actually 4.0M high. But I noticed that there was a slope on the road and that the clearance was greater on the left hand side of the road. Against Nina's protests I gingerly tried that higher side and squeezed through with no damage.

We pretty much got going with the sun this morning with the forlorn hope that an early start would help us avoid some of the heavier traffic. It did not seem to.

This morning we needed to find fuel and money so we used our trusty OSM map to pick a group of banks in the city of Thessoliniki and headed that way. Unfortunately the road system defeated us and we passed by our targeted banks on a limited access road with no way to get to our targets. A further check of the map identified a Shell station at the entrance to a small town called Chalastra so that was our next hope, and indeed it worked. Diesel for 1.355 Euro per liter (about $6.80/gallon). Also the owner would accept credit cards, spoke English and has a brother that lives in Canberra. We suspect we will meet a lot of people in Greece with relatives in Australia.

We departed our parking lot this morning in the rain and for a while continued south on the motorway paying tolls at regular intervals. But eventually our route and inclination took us onto some country roads and through rolling farm land. All in all an unremarkable day.

As we drove those 40 km to Delphi this morning the road became increasingly narrow and twisting as we climbed into the mountains and had us wondering whether we would in fact be able to enter the town and get to the archaeological site and museum for which the town is now famous. With that concern in mind we parked right at the entrance to the town's main street and went exploring on foot. As it turned out modern Delphi's main street is actually two streets, one in each direction. They are both quite narrow and made even more so by the habit of locals and visitors parking down each side of the street. But never the less it seemed likely we could get through; if tour buses can do it so can we. So after a tense 10 mintes passing by parked cars with literally inches to spare on each side we were on the other side of the town and parked in front of the Archaeological Museum. There, together with a smattering of other tourists we discovered that the museum was closed (it was after all New Years day).

This morning the sun was out making a perfect morning for our visit to the ruins of ancient Delphi. There were only a handful of other tourists around as we climbed up through the ruins admiring the various buidings and other artifacts. Despite being a tourists mecca, and a bit of a cliche, the place was really quite impressive. Many of the more delicate statues recovered from the ancient site are now housed in the nearby museum and after our visit to the ruins we spent some time there admiring the masterful statuary (both stone and bronze). One could not help but wonder how much of our civilization will be visible in 3000 years.

This morning we were awake at 4:45am in order to get to and catch our 7:30 ferry to the Greek Island of Santorini. The ferry ride took all day as the vessel made stops at a number of Islands as well as Santorini. The journey was uneventful, though a bit boring. But fortunately the sea was calm even though the weather was overcast.

We spent yesterday recovering from our overnight ferry ride and doing a bit of "getting underway" preparation so that this morning we could depart our friendly camp ground for the next stage of our Tour of Greece. Navigating was easy as we traveled out of Athens towards Corinth and the Island of Peloponnese.

Today was a glorious day, warm (60°F), sunny and with the bright blue Mediterranean and many picturesque villages to admire. We spent the morning simply enjoying the coastal scenery.

We lazed around Monemvasia this morning enjoying the sun and doing a little exploring of the nearby village. But eventually it was time to get going so we continued our adventures on mountain roads and narrow village streets towards the west coast of Peloponnese to Areopoli and then a little south to the Dimos Caves.

A prompter start this morning as the weather was not so inviting and we had more on our agenda today. First off we crossed back over to the west coast of Peloponnese, past Areopoli again and then north along the coast to the little village of Kardamyli. Nina had read/heard about this place from one of Rick Steve's tapes/books/shows. The people of the village apparently have worked hard to prevent over development. So after a lot more narrow roads and even narrower villages we arrived at Kardamyli.

This morning we continued east towards the town of Nafplio. Now anyone following our antics on Peloponnese will have noticed that this route takes us back almost to the start of our Peloponnese journey so the natural question is why?

Before getting on to todays report I want you to look at the photo of the green truck in yesterdays photos and note the seating position of the driver. We thought our Unimog was pretty smart with its variopilot which allows the steering wheel and pedals to be moved to the other side of the cab to make the truck right hand drive. Well the tug trucks that move trailers around the port of Patra go one better; they can actually turn the driving position around so that they don't have to reverse with mirrors.

Once awake this morning we moved our vehicle back into the ferry waiting area and the catching up with Gary and Monika continued. In addition now in the light of day we could take a few photos of the twoadventure vehicles parked side by side. However eventualy it was time for the Wescotts to checkin for their ferry and for us to get on our way.

We had a rude awakening and a few sick moments this morning. Lying in bed half asleep I could hear the engine of a nearby semi-trailer and deduced from the noise that the driver was manouvering around some kind of obstacle. After a few moments I realized that the gray mass just outside the window over our bed was not fog but the side of a truck and then that is was only 2 inches from the window. Yikes; the driver was manouvering around US. I bounded out of bed with the intent of either sounding our horn of moving our truck. I got the engine started, bare foot down on the clutch pedal to engage the gear, and my left calf muscle screamed in anger with a cramp. You see I was too quick; the truck had not built enough air pressure to provide power assistance to the clutch and my still sleepy legs did not want the stress of pushing the un-assisted clutch.

Today we planned to simply drive as far as we could in the hope of clearing the alps during a window of relatively good weather - you see we don't have snow chains for our trucks and hence we did not want to be in the alps during a storm. So we headed out towards Verona along the A4 and then north along the A22 towards the Brenna Pass and Austria.

Today we were looking for a camping ground on the outside of Munich. We wanted a place to park for two nights so that we could visit some Gig Harbor friends who are spending a year living in and experiencing the German lifestyle in Munich.

Today we just drove, with the intent/hope of getting to a camping ground within easy reach of Antwerp by the end of the day. At one point during the day the road crossed a 20 km section of the Netherlands, we joked with each other that if it is 2:00pm - it must be the Netherlands. At this rate we could drive across the whole of Europe in a coupLe of days and see nothing except motorways.

We spent yesterday preparing the truck for shipping. This mostly involved packing things away inside the vehicle out of sight and cleaning. We had been warned by the shipping agents ( Seabridge For Motorhomes) that Canadian customs will be fussy about dirt on the outside of the vehicle. So at Merex we had the outside thoroughly cleaned with steam and pressure washer but the drive since then (through the rain) had covered the vehicle with road dirt. So we both spent a few hours with broom and bucket cleaning said road dirt off.

Today was the big day, we were reunited with the truck. We hung out at the apartment until about 11:00 am and then headed to the office of the freight forwarding agent that was going to help us with the port formalities. At the office we did some more waiting, had some documents copied, and did some more waiting. Eventually Karl (the driver) turned up and there after things moved at a brisk pace. A drive to the port, a lightning quick visit to the customs office, a signature on some papers at the entry to the holding yard and we were at the truck all cleared for departure. From the time we got into Karl's car the whole process took less than an hour; and most of that was driving time.

Today we were headed for the home of some travelers we met back in 2010 in South America. According to the instructions we had, their house was in a small village called Thilhove east of Cologne. We feared that it would require some squeezing through tight streets and a bit of careful navigation. So after waking up to a nice sunny day, getting some fuel (Euro 1.47/liter) we headed east along the A313/A4/E40 (all the same road, A313 is the Belgium designation, A4 the German and E40 the European - and I forgot what its called in the Netherlands. But we only spent 20 minutes in that country today.)

Wolfgang had offered to drive us into Koln this morning so that we could at least get a taste of the city and see its famous cathedral. So after a pleasant breakfast outside in the morning sun we piled into his Landrover 110 and got going.

We said an early thanks and goodbye to our hosts and then negotiated our way back onto the A4 via a Lidl supermarket and a BP gas station. There after most of the day was pretty uneventful, just purring along a European motorway.

Our overnight spot might have been relatively empty yesterday afternoon, but this morning it was a hive of activity. Trucks pulling in and out and families stopping to snack. We got an early start hoping to make it all the way to Warsaw.

After yesterdays unsuccessful effort to find a campground in Warsaw, this morning we were determiend to give the city another go. At least to the extent of finding some place to park so that we could spend a little time exploring the old city.

More trucks, forest and farm land today; and it rained most of the day. Crossing into Lithuania we noticed that the villages seem a little more run down, the cars and trucks seem a little more beaten up and we see more incidents of people parked on the side of the road fixing their vehicles. All together more "ex-soviet" in nature. Also the driving styles have become more "eastern". All roads now have three lanes, mine, the one coming towards me, and the one that someone is trying to make between those two. Something that is totally unheard of in Germany. Maybe the driving style explains the many small shrines we noticed on the road side.

Today we got to Riga, the capital of Latvia, and after parking at the campground we walked into the old city for a look around. While it was another of those old cities decked out with wall to wall bars and restaurants for tourists it was still interesting and impressive. More churches was the order of the day.

Leaving Riga this morning we managed to take ourselves (or should I say our SatNav took us) through the very center of the city, followed a cobbled street and tramline for 12km or more before finally getting onto a more regular highway. Now just so you understand the Yellow Mog does not particularly like cobblestones as they tend to be a bit like those 1950s weight reducing vibration machines. It certainly dislikes tram lines as steering becomes somewhat optional once the tires find the groove. But the big bug are the tram wires. When erected during the soviet era the tram wires were often lower than the 4m height of our truck, as we discovered in Central Asia. Fortunately Vilnius seems to have upgraded their tram wires to European standards but it was quite a few kilometers before we were completely convinced.

On our way out of Pärnu we had a real shopping spree as we found a huge supermarket (actually a couple of them but we only needed one) and stocked up for our pending journey into the remoteem> Scandinavian North. Now it is not that we have not seen supermarkets anywhere else on this journey. But finding one with a very large selection and with a car park that allowed us easy access has been quite rare. So we reveled in the opportunity.

A curious episode on our departure from Helsinki. As we approached the entry ramp to the E13 (the main road to the North East) we pulled up beside a large white truck pulling a large white enclosed trailer. The driver signaled me to wind down our window and promptly asked (in a language I did not recognize) something about St Petersburg. I pointed right onto the E13 and tried to also signal that we should stop together and look at our map. That seemed to work a few miles down the motorway we both pulled into a rest area. The truck was a mobile television production facility and the two guys in it were taking it to Moscow via St Petersburg. After some discussion over our iPad map they seemed satisfied and got underway. At this point in our journey St Petersburg is about 400 km east.

Well Russia got a lot closer today. At our mid morning rest stop near the town of Simpele we were within 600 yards/meters of the Russian border. Not surprisingly we had noted during the mornings drive that more signs where in Russian.

So we continued north today, more good highway and of course more trees. But the weather is good and life seems stress free - except for the water leak. I spent a little time trying to diagnose that issue during the drive but got no where. I really need to be able to pull the entire fresh water system apart but don't have the facilities, tools or parts to do that. The good news on the water front is that the isolation valves that were installed by GXV while we were back in the US have proven very useful. I have been able to isolate the hot water tank from the coolant system. That means I don't have to deal with hot components while I examine the area of the leak.

Today was a bit of a lazy day, we traveled just under 150 miles. Considering that we are now far enough north that it does not get dark that represents a very lazy day. In addition to driving we had another shopping opportunity. In the town of Kajaani we found a number of large well stocked supermarkets.

We spent some time this morning at last nights camp site, and also at stops along the days route, looking further at our water leak. It may be hard for those that don't own motorhomes to appreciate the frustration of having a problem like this and not being able to diagnose or fix it; but believe me it is (in our case) high. Thus we were delighted that today we believe we found the source of the water and it is nowhere near as big a deal as I had been fearing. I will say more on this topic in an upcoming post on Plumbing, but for the moment let me just note that the leak was from the second stage fine grained water filter we have installed for our drinking fountain. Now mind you we have not proven this beyond a shadow of doubt just yet but feel confident.

Today we hit The Arctic Circle. This happened on our way to the city of Rovaniemi which is the capital city of Lapland, the home of the Sami people. Along the way we got our first sightings of reindeer and one very obscured moose. As an aside we have been looking for moose since Poland. There have been signs warning of moose every 5 km since we entered Finland, but his is first real sighting.

Just a little north of Rovaniemi there is a place called Santa Claus Village. It has lots of souvenir shops, cafes and a number of different Santa Claus's that you can visit and talk to. This is the place where children's letters to Santa are sent (at least if you are not from the US). We spent a while here walking around looking at the place, the people and giving Nina an opportunity to buy some of those souvenirs. Interestingly the place had a number of Russian tourists and hence many signs in Russian.

What can I say. Finland provided yet another glorious summers day and we enjoyed it. We stopped frequently to photograph the industrious reindeer (they are occupied eating to the extent that they seem not even to notice people), had a swim in one of the very pretty and beckoning lakes (just to find that despite the sun they are pretty bracing).

This morning we headed towards the border with Norway and what started out as another great Finish summers day slowly turned into a cool overcast 50°F (10°C). The forest of evergreens gave way to stunted birch and the roads suddenly were quite bumpy.

Today we spent a good period following a section of Norway's rugged coast. What a difference between this scenery and Finland's forests. The weather continued cool, with a strong breeze that added to the sense of ruggedness. Low scrubby birch trees continued to be the main vegetation but with large areas of moor land as well, reminding us of the maritime provinces of Canada - not surprisingly.

The highlight of today was a visit to Sapmi in the town of Karasjok. In our guide book the place was described as a Theme Park and on the basis of that we almost did not go there but it actually turned out to be more like an historical village. There were many re-creations of dwellings and various other artifacts used by the Sampi peoples in their traditional way of life. It really was quite interesting. Not surprisingly there were lots of things related to reindeers.

This morning we drove the road to Nordkapp, and what as spectacular road it was. Narrow, clinging to the side of one mountain after another that bounded Fjord after Fjord, Some 14 km of tunnels, the longest of which at 7 km actually went under the ocean to join the mainland to the island of Mageroya (where the town of Nordkapp is located).

This morning there was no sign of the cold and mist of yesterday, indeed everyone was out and about wearing summer clothing rather than the down jackets of yesterday. We paid the various lookouts a final visit and then we were on our way south bound. What a difference the bright sun made as we retraced the narrow coastal road, and tunnels, back to the town of Olderfjord where our southerly route departed from the route we had taken going north. At one of the nameless villages north of Olderfjord the local Reindeer population decided to give the tourists a show and we sat stopped on the side of the road for perhaps 30 minutes while a small herd of the animals busied themselves going this way and then that. It seemed like a random coming together and parting of the group only for them to rejoin in a few minutes. At one point the entire heard got together and headed for and entered an old derelict building.

It was a short drive into Alta this morning where our first item of business was groceries, one of those never ending chores even when one is on a vacation/adventure. With the necessities done we headed for the local museum, a nicely situated building with a rather strange assortment of displays. The one that captured my attention was a short video on the local slate mining industry and small display of related tools. It was fascinating to see the miners split large slabs of slate into thinner sheets with just a hammer and chisel.

Our route this morning carried us along side a series of connected lakes through country that was covered in low birch trees towards the town of Kautokieno and its small museum. Our guide book informed us that this town is predominantly inland Sami people and traditionally was the winter camping place for the Sami.

Not much to report for today, as it was pretty much just drive to cover some miles. We spent a pleasant few hours parked in the little town of Enontekio while we got some groceries and did some online business and then into Sweden through the small Swedish border town of Karesuando.

Our route this morning took us through Vittangi and Svappavarra on our way to Kiruna and the nearby village of Jukkasjaavi, which are famous for the worlds largest underground iron ore mine and the Ice Hotel respectively.

After a comfortable night in the hostel parking lot and the luxury of long hot showers we were ready for our Ice Hotel tour. So at 10:00 am we strolled down to the large TeePee near the rivers edge to meet our guide. He was inside making coffee for the group over an open fire. The group turned out to be just Nina and I so we basically got a private tour.

The weather was overcast this morning with the local mountain tops covered in mist. The weather somewhat detracted from the splendor of the view as we wound our way along the coast through inlet/fjord after fjord. Around lunch time the road took us to a ferry dock where we waited with an assortment of motorhomes, cars and trucks for the ferry crew to decide it was time to load up and get going. The ferry was carrying the traffic across a rather large expanse of water that had not yet been subdued with a long under water tunnel. I guess that will happen in time. Incidentally the ferry cost us approximately US$50 proving that motoring in this part of the world is not cheap.

The big event of today was that we are finally dropping below the Arctic Circle. It seems amazing that we have been traveling North of that imaginary line for so long. In North America there are only a few roads that actually go north of the circle but here we have traveled a whole complex of roads, towns and even countries above the Circle.

Our journey today was away from the coast and the scenery was more mountainous interspersed with many small farming villages, farm houses, lakes, rivers and the ever present trees. The volume of clean clear fresh water is hard to comprehend. When we first got to the US the abundance of water was one of the aspects of the country that surprised us, well the Scandinavian countries have surprised us again. Water seems to be endless. Today it was in the form of picturesque lakes and crystal clear mountain streams and rivers, some of them meandering and some of them roaring.

This morning after a little while traveling the road brought us to a long thin lake called Snasavatnet and there after followed the shore for its entire length. Along the lake there were a number of villages and many farms. The area had a general sense of being less remote with the buildings being even more well cared for and more traffic on the road. By the time we reached the city of Steinkjer a little while later the density of traffic, sections of 4 lane highway, and bustling businesses confirm that we are no longer in the remote north of Norway but heading towards more populated areas.

This morning we traveled the final leg to meet our German friends. Once through Roros the road was varied with some good sections and some really quite bumpy sections. Also, in places, the local sheep decided to make driving more challenging by sitting down in the middle of the road. We guessed that the roadway was warmer than the nearby grass.

Last night we all decided that today we would travel together (in convoy) and try and find a camping spot together since it seemed that both parties were traveling in the same direction for at least a few days; headed towards the coastal fjords and mountains around Bergen.

We decided that the two vehicles would travel separately today but that if possible we would meet up for the night. Romy and Wolfgang were on the road first and so would probably find a spot first. If so they would text us their GPS coordinates.

Our two groups parted ways this morning. Wolfgang, Romy and the children need to start south tomorrow whereas we (Nina and I) are headed towards a town called Flam in the hope of being able to find a base for exploring the area. So we said our goodbyes and then the VW van was off leaving Nina and I to slowly get ourselves organized for the days travel.

First let me explain the title of todays post. Between the towns of Laerdal and Aurland there is a famous tunnel. It is the longest road tunnel in the world at 15.23 miles (24.51km) in length. The tunnel opened in 2000 and made obsolete the original road between these two town that traveled over the mountains reaching over 4000'. That original road still exists and is called locally the snow road (I don't under stand why it is called that as when it is snowing is the very last time one would want to use that road). But never the less it has become a tourist attraction in its own right. We read some weeks back in our LonelyPlanet guide book the following statement about driving the snow road "the drive was worth the messy pants" Giving us the hint that the road would be steep, narrow and probably a little scary. Well this morning we got to the town of Laerdal and it was time for us to try the Snow road.

During this trip we have been often quietly amused by the enthusiasm Europeans exhibit in their efforts to take some sun. We often see travelers pulled up at some little way side stop, with their deck chairs out, sitting faces up catching the summer sun. Mostly the men (regardless of age or physical condition) have their shirts off to maximize their solar dose. Well yesterday evening we saw what might be the ultimate example of solar craving. In the parking lot of the Flam train station we observed a well conditioned young man repacking his car wearing only the briefest of swim suits (or maybe undies - we did not ask).

Today our goal was the famous Pulpit Rock (Prekestolen) it took us a while, and more interesting roads and nice scenery to get there, but eventually we pulled into the parking lot and were confronted by hundreds of cars and motorhomes all packed together. We had read in our guide book that this was the most visited tourist attraction in Norway and the number of vehicles in the parking lot gave credence to that claim.

Today was pretty much simply a travel day. We headed approximately east all day (approximately because road directions in this country are dictated by valleys not the destinations) passing through a number of winter skiing areas and areas with what looked like lots of holiday cottages. We got captivated by the grass roofs and the little raised log constructions - see the final picture. We would be interested if anyone could tell us the function of these little structures, we speculated that they are some form of storage.

We are now on a bit of a mission to get to Stockholm. There are a number of reasons for this not the least including that it seems like a good place to do some preparation for our upcoming trip to Africa (without the truck). So today we set off from our camping spot with the plan of getting to and crossing the "border". There was a noticeable change in scenery as we passed by Oslo (on the southern side). Up until then Norway had been characterized by very steep, mountainous, rocky terrain and consequently with roads that wound between the terrain. Not far east of Oslo we were suddenly in flatter more open country and by the time we got to the Swedish border the country was flat and either forested or farmed. What a difference.

Had I known what the day was going to bring I may have stayed in bed, but I guess thats not how things work. This morning it was raining, a really wild storm with heavy driving rain, which was (as it turned out) the perfect weather to expose a leak in our trucks roof-top air conditioning system. Only a few miles down the road we noticed a wet patch on the ceiling of the truck's head liner. As we drove the wet patch expanded until almost the entire drivers side ceiling was wet. A few miles later and it was now raining inside the truck. Fortunately we found a convenient truck parking area and stopped. However the rain did not stop and neither did the the water leaking into the truck. Eventually I got out a tarp and covered the roof of the truck. That eventually worked but by then the entire head liner was soaked and we had containers catching water all over the inside of the truck cab.

This morning I discovered that during yesterdays removal of the hot water tank I committed a rather embarrassing oversight. After packing up and doing all the other "leaving-camp" chores this morning I decided that I would start the truck and warm up the engine while Nina went and paid the bill. So I was sitting in the cab letting the engine idle when suddenly the truck computer started making it's unmistakeable something is wrong noise, a high pitched siren; to be helpful the computer also displayed a sign on the instrument panel that indicated low coolant. Shutting down the engine I rushed to the side of the truck to check the valves that close off coolant flow to the (now removed) hot water tank only to discover that those valves were open and that coolant had been pumping into the space under the kitchen sink where the hot water tank resides. That commenced a good hour or so of soaking up red coolant with paper toweling and topping up the cooling system with water. What a stupid mistake, but fortunately with no significant consequences.

The final leg of the drive into Copenhagen was good, 4 lane motorway and weather that was the same as yesterday a mix of sun and heavy rain, but all in all an easy days driving.

It would to accurate to say that I have long been nervous about the job of re-installing the hot water tank. That is one of the reasons I did not remove it to check it for leaks much sooner. I have been concerned that I would not be able to reconnect the engine coolant supply well enough to prevent leaks. That concern was based on the difficulty I foresaw of working in the tight confines under the kitchen sink, and because even the original installation had some very minor leaks - suggesting that it was difficult to make good connections.

Yesterday, Friday, the big day finally arrived and we were off to Africa. This trip has been in the planning since last year in Iran and Nina and I are both quite excited. But unfortunately as often happens with exciting vacations they start with a long spell of waiting in airports and sitting squished up in modern planes. Our Africa vacation started the same way. Hours at Berlin Airport waiting for a delayed plane, a packed plane of Egyptian families and their spoiled sons. More waiting in Cairo, a reasonably comfortable flight to Nairobi and finally a 4:00am landing and the inevitable paper work. But never the less we were in bed at our hotel by 5:00am and got some welcome catchup sleep.

Today was a traveling day, from Nairobi to Arusha (Tanzania), so no animal watching. The day was not without some points of interest however. To start with the hotel recommended we book our taxi for 5:45 to travel the 15 km to the airport for an 8:30 flight; seemed like a lot of time to us. Once we were on the plane we could understand their suggestion. Even at 6:00am in the morning Nairobi traffic was thick and not moving very fast. At the airport there was a long line of people trying to get into the terminal as all bags and passengers had to pass through a security screen before entering the terminal. And then the gate staff commenced boarding the plane an hour before takeoff. The good news about the early boarding was that the cabin staff could serve the "meal" while we were still on the ground as the 35 minute flight time really did not give them enough time to push their service trolley up and down the aisle more than once. The other good news was the relatively new and apparently well maintained plane.

The president's presence was still being felt in the hotel this morning. A lot more people, a red carpet out in the main foyer, and a higher level of security. In amongst all this organized chaos we got breakfast, checked out and started out safari. First stop was the downtown area of Arusha, provisioning up for the journey and a briefing on the details of our safari at the office of Easy Travel. Following that, there was a drive of about 2 hours to the entrance to Tarangire National Park. After lunch and park entry formalities we started our afternoon game drive, and it proved to be very successful. By the time the afternoon was over we had seen herds of zebra, giraffe, wilder beasts, antelope, elephant, water buck, small groups of wart hogs, and a number of ostriches. A very successful first afternoon of animal watching. For Nina the day had garnered approximately 850 photos that she had to edit and cull during the evening.

Today we drove north to the Serengeti. The name means "endless plains" and it sure lived up to its name, we drove all day (with various sightseeing stops) and at the end of the day we are still not at the end of the Serengeti. Now I do not mean to give the impression that the day was just driving. Early in our day we stopped at a Maasai village for a tour. The villagers organize the tour themselves and appear to provide no "kick back" to the tour company. We were met outside the village by one of the chief's sons who collected our entrance fee. Then there was a welcome dance by a large troupe of men and women, the four of us tourists got to participate in the dancing (not a pretty sight) and then we toured the village, a Maasai house and their school. We could never entirely be sure of this but it seemed like the entire village of 138 people were descendants or wives of the chief.

This morning we decided to take advantage of the luxury of the Four Seasons and delay our departure until after lunch. So we spent the morning variously catching up and or lazing around. A few souvenirs from the hotel shop, then lunch was done and we were on our way. Swai, our driver/guide, told us that it was 150 km or about 5 hours to our next camp and that our route would take us out of the Park/Conservation area in order to shorten the drive. So the day was largely just a drive to get there. Once out of the Park the roads deteriorated at times being nothing more than the marks of previous vehicles. Swai explained to us that the route we were taking was not used during the rainy season, and we could see why. Long stretches of clay soil that would turn into a quagmire with even a small amount of water.

This morning we got under way about 9:00 we only had a moderate drive to the local bush airstrip for a flight to Nairobi and connection onto Kigali. But even a simple drive to the airstrip resulted in some exciting game spotting. To my delight only a few minutes out of camp we came upon a Cheetah lying in the grass recovering from a failed effort to run down a gazelle. Amazingly we drove up to within 2 meters of the animal and it hardly gave us a second look. It seemed much more focused on the herd of gazelles 200 meters away. Continuing on our way to the airport we encountered Jackals, Bat Eared Fox (really cute), Elan (the largest of the gazelle family weighing up to 900 kg), Thompson Gazelle and Grant Gazelle.

Way back in Arusha when we were briefed by Easy Travel about our trip there was a problem with one of our flights, namely todays; from Kigali to Nairobi. Somewhere along the line the booking got changed (we think by the airline) from a morning flight to an afternoon/evening flight which would have been entirely unsuitable for us as we had tonight booked at a very special place and wanted to get there early to get the full experience, you will see why below. Anyway eventually, and thankfully, we got put back on the morning flight having discussed among ourselves that we could even charter a plane if necessary. Well it seemed this morning that Kenya Airlines almost chartered one for us as our flight (in a Ebraier 190, which holds over 100 people) there were only 12 passengers, and we were 4 of them.

We got a prized extra hour with the giraffes this morning as our flight (to the next stage of this adventure) was delayed. We had quite a long and smoggy drive to Nairobi airport as traffic was thick and barely crawled along. We understand from our couple of short visits to this city, and from locals, that this is the usual situation. Too many people, too many vehicles and infrastructure that lags the city. A very common story. Anyway after a pleasant 3 hour flight we dropped down onto the airfield at Livingstone, Zambia to be met by a blast of hot air and 34°C. What a change from the mild temperatures of Kenya and Tanzania. Immigration was quick and efficient and we were soon in a small bus on our way to the Zambian/Zimbabwe border and our next stop Elephant Camp, near Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe.

Our day started with a blood red sunrise and an introduction to the camps Cheetah named Sylvester over breakfast (I will say more about Sylvester in tomorrows entry). Then it was off on our days activities. Not surprisingly the first event of the day was a visit to the famous Victoria Falls, US$30 entry for foreigners. The falls themselves were hard to photograph as the falling water creates a large mist cloud that partially obscures the entire area. That same mist creates an entirely different micro climate within 20 meters of the falls. Close to the falls the vegetation is almost tropical yet outside that zone the place is very dry, talcum power dust, yellow dry grass and bare soil.

Sylvester is a very famous Cheetah, he even has his own Facebook Page. The non profit organization associated with Elephant Camp acquired Sylvester from the Zimbabwe Nation Park Service via a tender process. They won that tender because their proposal was to have Sylvester join an education program that already included the camp elephant families. The good news for us was that, as guests of the camp, we got to spend some time with him.

In case you have been wondering what has happened to us, Nina and I just want you to know that we are in Zagreb, we have been here since the 30th of September and we look like being here until at least the end of the coming week (17th October). Why I hear you ask? Zagreb is a nice enough city but that seems like a long time in one place. Well you will have to read the rest of the entry to find out.

First stop on this mornings drive was Zagreb Arena Mall. We had passed by this place each time we caught the bus into the city but it was only late in our stay that we decided to get off and investigate; we should have done that much earlier. The mall (as distinct from the Arena) was a really good up-market modern shopping mall but even more importantly it had a really great super market. That supermarket was this mornings goal, we wanted to stock up.

This morning we retraced our route back along the D1 towards Zagreb as far as the little town of Slunj. We passed through, and noted this town, on our way from Zagreb two days ago as the place seemed to be built in the middle of a river with water flowing in, around and under the houses and buildings. So this morning we went back for a look. Sure enough the towns geology was similar to the Plitvice park with the river widening into a series of pools and cascades and thats where the town was built. Certainly picturesque, but also difficult to build and maintain and also noisy.

Todays route to Sarajevo was approximately 300km in length and for the first 100km we continued south on the excellent Croatian motorway through a picturesque landscape of wide valleys and distant mountains. To our surprise (and the surprise of our GPS) the motorway continued all the way to and across the border into BIH (Bosnia Hercegovina).

You can see from the gaps between blog entries that the relaxed pace of travel, and somewhat quiet uneventful days are having its effect on us. Some days it just feels like there is not much to say. On the other hand our travels through Croatia and Bosnia (and now Montenegro and Albania) are interesting in a quiet sort of way. Croatia is proving to be a much more first world country than we had expected with great roads and clean towns and cities. So, going back to the gaps in the blog - this entry will bring you up to date since the last entry in Sarajevo.

We left Dubrovnik this morning heading south towards Montenegro and Albania. The mornings drive was along the coast, firstly through Croatia and them into Montenegro. It was a really pretty drive with bright sunshine and the blue waters of the Adriatic. Again generally good roads with light traffic. Very pleasant.

Another gap in the blog, I must be getting old and or lazy. Well we hung around the camp ground on Shkodra Lake for a few days, did a few chores and I worked on the software project that I am trying to do with Brendon (the campground had good wifi, that was the incentive to stay). While we were there a smattering of other travelers dropped in. A German guy on motor cycle and sidecar, a couple of European motorhomes and two Landrovers with slide-in campers. But this morning it was time to move again. So today we headed for the capital city of Albania - Tirana.

We had planned for today to be another short day and for it to end at the Albanian coast just south of the port and resort town of Duress. Via the internet we had located a beach front hotel and campground and thought that if it was "OK" we might spend a day or two there. Well as it turned out we never did get to it. The problem was exiting from the coastal multi-lane highway. Every time our GPS showed us an intersection at which we should turn/exit we were confronted by a highway edge with no way off. After this happened a few times we gave up on our beach side camp and headed to the next destination on Nina's list the town of Berat, a UNESCO world heritage site.

Today we headed towards the Macedonian town of Ohrid situated on a lake of the same name. As it turned out the route we chose followed a series of narrow country roads through active farming areas. There may have been a more major road to our destination but it would have required us backtracking almost all the way to Tirana.

Today we made our way to Skopje, the capital of Macedonia. An unremarkable drive except perhaps for the bright autumn sunshine that eventually appeared to push away a morning mist. As we approached Skopje the highway turned into a motorway (or at least a toll-way) though in no way was it European standard. After a few toll stations and lots of pot holes we began to think that the road was more of an employment system for locals. There seemed to be a toll booth every 5 km or so.

Around 8:30 we got the hotel reception to order us a taxi to take us into downtown Skopje for a quick look around. The taxi deposited us right near a big open square in the center of Skopje. We soon discovered that it was called Alexander the Great Square and had a whole series of extravagant statues of Alexander and other historical figures. Indeed as the morning progressed we noted that Skopje had a real taste for super sized statues of various figures.

Yesterday morning we left our disused gas station camping spot in a blanketing mist and spent much of the morning driving through a grey haze. It was quite late into the day before the sun finally made its appearance.

One of my goals for our Balkans Adventure was to get to the Black Sea and today was the day we headed for a town called Varna a largish coastal town and apparently a Bulgarian sea side resort. Because we are running out of time on this trip the exercise was symbolic rather than substantive as we only planned to stay there long enough to touch the sea and then move on, but, it seems to me a lot of travel is symbolic.

Today was "just a driving day", from Varna to Bucharest and for much of the morning this required back-tracking over yesterdays route generally through farming country. The day did not really get interesting until the Bulgarian-Romanian border.

We got an early start today headed north towards the region of Romania called Transylvania and maybe a look at one of the "Dracula" Castles. It did not take long to notice two things. The first was the signs, indicating that trucks should not be driving on the roads on Sundays (today) and secondly the large number of cars and the high level of activity in some of the smaller villages.

There is not much to say about today, we drove, making our way towards Serbia and the capital Belgrad. But we did not get that far today.

As we approached the Romanian-Serbian border this morning we had the usual discussion as to whether we would join the line for cars/buses or the line for trucks and how would the border staff respond to us being in the car lane.

After yesterdays realization that we are in "get there mode" today was simply a driving day. Navigation from the campground to the main highway west towards Croatia was pretty easy and then the remainder of the day was on good European highways all the way to the Zagreb ring route.

In the past few days we have put on a lot of miles, traveling from Zagreb all the way across Slovenia, Austria and Germany to the Black Forest area in the South West corner of Germany. We will spend a few days in this area, catch up with our son Brendon and prepare the truck for 6 months in storage while we go do some other things outside Europe.

Today we are off to Katmandu for 3 nights. Pickup at 8:00 by our tour bus and an 11:00am flight from Delhi airport. We did not really take much notice of the airport on our arrival. I guess we were too sleepy and got out of the place too fast to take much in. But it is a very large and modern airport. We soon discovered that the Indian security services have added their own touches to those familiar airport checkin, immigration and security screening process. Our boarding passes were checked at least 6 times between checkin and the end of security screening, and at the security screening posts a young uniformed official dutifully recorded the details from the boarding pass of every passenger into a hand written ledger (where of course the information is totally useless). After security we were confronted by a massive array of duty free shops.

This morning we finally caught up with Kathy and Rick of travelin-tortuga.com. We met them for the first time back in May at Overland Expo, but we have been following their website since 2009 on our North/South America adventure where it (their website) was an invaluable aid to finding camping places. Back in May we had discovered that both they and we planned to be in Iceland at the same time and hence made an agreement to try and "meet up". Well this morning it happened. So we spent until early afternoon together exchanging Iceland info and talking about things "travel". It was fun and the talk of future travel plans may have inspired Nina and I to some new adventures.

From our camping spot we had a 50 km drive to a place called Latrabjarg a top scenic spot in Iceland renowned for its high cliffs and the thousands of sea birds that nest in those cliffs. The drive was another of the now familiar spectacular Iceland roads.

The town of Isafjordur was an early stop on todays travels. It was quite a sizeable, and neat place. The local tourist information place informed us that some of the F roads are now open and that, may have the effect of changing our plans. We got a pamphlet giving the location of RV dumps around the country, useful info for us mobile house dwellers, and we got a few groceries and fuel. A small aside about buying fuel might be in order. Many fuel stations in Iceland (and more generally in northern Europe) are un-attended and to buy fuel at these one requires a credit card that operates with a PIN not a signature. But of course none of our US cards will work in these places (the US banking system is slowly coming into the 21 century, and we are told that 'next year' we will be able to get such cards from US issuers), but fortunately we have an Aussie card that will work. The other problem with these places is one must specify the monetary value of the fuel to be bought. Hence at these places we "top up" but don't fill-up. At this stop we could pay inside the convenience store and hence we could fill our tank completely.

Todays adventure took us up road 643 on the Eastern side of Drangajokull Peninsula to a town called Djupavik. True to the claims of our guide book this was a remote and wild place, steep mountains on the west, the Atlantic Ocean on the east, drift wood from Siberia on the beaches, very occasional buildings, a scattering of tourist vehicles, and eventually muddy roads as the weather turned wet as we progressed north. The village of Djupavik turned out to be only three or four buildings, an abandoned herring processing factory and a lot of derelict vehicles.

Today we headed for Iceland's second largest city, Akureyri, though to be honest the word 'city' should be used with some care as the place only has a population of 17,000 and hence almost any where else would be a "large town". Along the way we passed through the small town of Siglufjordur and to our surprise ended up spending a couple of hours there.

Chores kept us around the campground this morning so by the time we got underway the weather had stabilized and guess what - its a sunny day. Our first stop today was one of the big tourist draw cards in Iceland Godafoss (water fall of the gods) a quite impressive waterfall. The name derives from (as legend has it) that one of the early kings was required to make a decision at the annual parliament about whether Iceland would become Christian and after much deliberation he decided in favor of the "yes" case. On his journey home after the parliament he threw all his idols of the Norse Gods into this waterfall.

The weather changed for the worse overnight so this morning we were greeted by rain and howling winds. Not a good start to a day of sight seeing. A bit east of last nights camp we came to Aybyrgi, a gas station, visitors center and campground at the northern end of a spectacular gorge. The significant thing about this gorge is that (scientists believe) it was carve in a matter of days by a huge flood as a result of a volcanic eruption under a glacier. Despite the rain we took a short walk to some of the viewing sites.

It seems that the owners of the ferry that transport tourists between Denmark and Iceland are from the Faroe Islands (a small patch of land about midway between the two end points of the route) and in order to boost tourism for their little patch of paradise they force travelers like us to stop at the Faroe Islands on one leg of the journey. Hence our return to Denmark was to be a two stage affair. The first leg was from Iceland to Torshaven (the capital of the Faroe Islands), then a 2.5 day wait and opportunity to explore the islands and then the second leg back to Denmark.

We idled away our last day on the Faroe Islands at the campground and then in the ferry line. In the process of returning to the ferry we managed to rack up our most expensive toll payment to date - Euro 50 for a return trip through a 3 km tunnel. Somehow that summarized the Faroe Islands for us.

Yesterday (Sat 15th) we made the trek into Amsterdam for some sightseeing. The travel was a bit of a chore as we had a 1 mile walk to a bus stop and a 40 minute bus ride to get to Amsterdam central station. We have not visited this city since 1976/77 and unfortunately in that time memories have faded a bit so today was a bit like visiting a new city.

We were shocked this morning. Having been conditioned by the Iceland ferry's practice of please vacate your cabins two hours before docking we were shocked and more than a little disoriented. Not only did the ferry staff NOT ask us to leave our cabin before docking, but they also unload all commercial trucks before asking drivers of private vehicles to attend their vehicles. This means that we could have slept until almost the official private vehicle schedule docking time of 6:30am.

Our first full day dawned fine, but cool. As we prepared breakfast we were visited by a large white swan who was very insistent, and persistent. We quickly deduced that feeding the canal water birds was a common pass-time of boaters and that the birds had come to expect this. Hence the swan was quite determined that we should provide food.

We were underway before 7:00am this morning in order to cover the remaining few kilometers to the depot at Rugby Wharf before the deadline of 9:00am. We wanted to give ourselves plenty of time as this last little bit of the route required us to perform two major turns. The first of these was at the junction of the side channel to the depot where we had to do a full U-turn in order to approach from the correct direction, and the second was just before reaching the depot were we had to turn 180 degrees in order to reverse the boat into its dock. As I have noted earlier turning these boats is not easy as the boat is at least twice as long as the canal is wide and as such turns can only be undertaken at specific turning points.

Today was a fabulous day, one of the most visually stunning days of our travels. We spent it circumnavigating the Trotternish Peninsula on the Ilse of Skye and while the scenery was picturesque the light (for some reason) had a special quality that made every view stunning.

The center point of todays travel was to be a "backroad" from Ullapool to Lochinver that we learned about at the SRMN meeting in Blackmore. It was described to us as "picturesque". And indeed it was. Like the single track roads of the past few days it was quite outside our experience elsewhere in the world. Usually wilderness roads are gravel and dirt, and often with pot holes, washboards and dust or mud. But this wilderness road was paved, though narrow - usually only 8-9 feet wide, except for the regular passing places. The reason for the pavement though is pretty obvious as the surrounding country side is mostly moor or peat bog so without the pavement the road would probably not survive.

We made it to the little town of Thurso on the north coast of Scotland this afternoon, quite a cute little town, but not so cute weather. We had expected to catch a ferry from this place to Orkney tomorrow morning and spend a day or so there seeing some of the archeological sites. But on finding out that the ferry ride would cost us something like $400 we decided on a one day bus tour (from the town of John O'Groats) as a better alternative.

This morning after checking out the tourist information center, a display on the local nuclear power station, getting some money and other such chores we headed along the north coast towards the town of John O'Groats.

We spent today driving along the road beside Loch Ness. We had been told that the best view of the loch was to be had by driving the road North to South and so thats what we did, from Inverness to Fort Augustus and then back again. However in truth the view was not great in either direction as trees block the view from the road for almost all of the drive.

We did a bit of sightseeing today. The battle field of Culloden is close to Nairn so that is where we went first. I had already mentioned the events associated with this place when we were on the Isle of Skye as this is where the battle took place that Bonnie Prince Charlie had to escape from.

Before getting underway today there was a little chore to do, replacing the water filter in the campers water system. I have not done this in a long time and it is well over due. The process requires emptying all the "stuff" we have stored in the locker under the bed. Thus the exercise turned in to a bit of a spring clean, even though it is autumn.

Today is a big day for us, it is 50 years today since we first met. Now if I was being really pedantic about it we are actually a day late since when we met we were (obviously) in Australia and it is now the 6th of November in Australia - but that seems a bit too precise. But anyway 50 years seems like a significant milestone and we had planned to spend it on Aran Islands , so early this morning we were in the car headed towards Rossaveel (in heavy rain) where we were scheduled to catch a ferry to the town of Kilronan on Inishmore the largest of the three Aran Islands.

As per the title, we were up early (for us), saying goodbye to Alice and then off to the ferry for the return to the mainland, no dramas there, although we were surprised by how many people appeared apparently from nowhere to catch the ferry. Back at the ferry dock in Rossaveel a man miraculously appeared to collect the 5 euros we owed for our days parking and then we were on the road heading towards Westport.

Just a brief update to let you know that we spent most of November on a visit down-under, or at least to Sydney. It was a catchup with family and a chance to do some personal business. As always Sydney harbor was picturesque and impressive with some really lovely walks around the foreshore. On the other hand Sydney traffic dense, slow and frustrating. It was great to catchup with family and meet the new members that have arrived since our last visit.

We flew into Amsterdam last night and stayed in an airport hotel to allow some of the jet-lag to wash away and then this morning took a train to Eindhoven and taxi to our friend Erik's place (the power behind adventure-trucks.com) in the little village of Sint-Michielsgestel where our yellow GXV has been stored for more than a year.

Looking over the map last night we discovered that our overnight spot was close to another jumbo supermarket and so once underway this morning that was our first stop.

Today we had a specific destination, the village of Badenweiler, which is located in the Black Forest and is known for its thermal spa. There is a nice campground in the town (that we have stayed in previously) and it is close to where our son and fiancee live (when not in Berlin). We plan on staying in Badenweiler 5 days or so for a "family catchup".

We have been hearing about Aires for years from people and publications about motorhome travel in Europe (but more specifically France). We have been told, and read widely, that these are like overnight parking places for RVs that typically are not suitable for trucks, are specifically set aside for RVs in or on the edge of towns, and usually provide a sani-dump, fresh water (and even sometimes) electrical facilities. But in truth in our last two seasons in Europe we have not actually used one. We have often had conversations with non Europeans about the word Aires and its meaning. Google translate will tell you it means something like area, or zone. But that does not really explain the terminology Aires

As I mentioned in yesterdays entry I was somewhat nervous that today we would find that the guys in Eindhoven had replaced the previously faulty alternator with some European part that was not up to the job. This concern was driven in part by the understanding that in Europe the U500 Unimog is a full 24 volt truck whereas the US version has a 12 volt alternator and 12-24 volt dc-dc converter to boost the voltage for all the control units.

It rained heavily throughout the day as we travelled down the A7 and then the A9 motorways towards the Spanish border. These sections of motorway seem to be managed by a different company and in general the road, and facilities were in poorer condition than those of the first few days.

The Spanish town of Figueres is famous as the location of the Dail Theatre Museum. As the name implies this is an old theater building that was converted (by Dali) into a museum to display various of Dali's works. Visiting this museum and soaking up some Dali atmosphere was our plan for today.

Just a short hop today of about 100 kms to Barcelona and we hope a camping spot from which we can base ourselves for 4-5 days while we explore the city and its attractions. The motorway south from Figueres was pretty easy to find and follow until we got into the complex of roads around and through Barcelona and then it was very helpful to have a co-pilot and a GPS/SATNAV each and to know that our intended campground was south of the city near the airport. That meant that at the numerous merging and separation of motorways if all else failed we could simply follow the airport sign.

Today we headed west eventually towards the city of Salamanca. Initially our route took us south along the coast past what looked like affluent holiday destinations and an area known as Stiges and then onto the AP-2 a toll charging Motorway that links the coast to the inland city of Zaragoza. Past Zaragoza we diverted to the A-2 still a motorway quality road but now without tolls. It was a very pleasant day. Bright sunshine, exceedingly light traffic, and picturesque country side that seems to be given over almost entirely to agriculture while regularly dotted with quaint little villages.

Today we decided to venture off roads of motorway quality onto national-highway standard roads, so at Calatayud we turned NW onto the N-234 towards Soria and eventually Valladolid and then back onto motorways into Salamanca. The N234 turned out to be a good choice with lots of small villages this time with the road going right through the middle rather than bypassing as was the case yesterday on the motorway. We discovered that every village has at least one church (some times more) that seems to be much larger than could be justified by the size of the village and that many of those churches (and also many electrical poles) have their own resident Stork and brood.

Well, we got off to a bad start this morning. Out first chore of the morning was emptying our waste water tanks at the campground sani-dump. Unfortunately I failed to notice a short concrete wall beside the dump area and as I pulled out of the dump the right hand side of the truck collided with that wall and completely destroyed the camper stairs and almost completely removed the storage box behind the stairs. That left the vehicle in an un-drivable condition so we spent the next 2-3 hours removing the damaged step assembly from the vehicle and finding a way to carry the damaged storage box on the rear carrier beside the spare tire. The real bad news of this event is that there is some significant damage to the actual camper body in the vicinity of the stair well and that will require some professional repair at some point in the nearish future. In the interim I will seal it with silicon and duct-tape in the hope of preventing water entry.

Today we took an excursion into Madrid and will find a hotel for the night and return to Toledo tomorrow. We simply did not want the hassle of trying to find a camping spot in the Madrid metroplex, and once we learned that there was a fast train available that covered the 46 miles in 30 minutes (maximum speed 270 km/h or 168 mph) and cost only Euro 12.50 per person the deal was done. So why Madrid ? For us ( or should I say Nina the culture fiend ) the big attractions were the National Palace (Palacio Real), Guernica exhibition in the Centro de Arte Reine Sofia and the Prado.

A pleasant drive through Olive groves and mountains to Cordoba

I mentioned in a previous post that the campground Carlos iii was a bit tight for us due to the mulberry trees. Well it got a lot tighter over the past couple of days as a group of Italian motor-homers arrived yesterday and have filled all the spots around ours. So when it came time to leave this morning there was no room near us for negotiating our way out. In the end I had to reverse between trees and camper vans around 3 corners with literally inches to spare on either side. We have definitely discovered that the correct dimensions for a motorhome in Europe is NOT 7.9meters L x 2.4 meters W x 4.0 meters H.

It was a shortish drive of 200km today to the pretty little town of Ronda. Another day of easy driving on lightly traffic roads through gentle and picturesque countryside. The campground we chose (Camping El Sur) is a little south of the town and there was no bus service, so after settling in we walked the 3km into town. The town is famous for its "new bridge" (newer 1751-1793 than the one built by the Romans) and we had to see it. We spent a pleasant afternoon wandering around the town with lots of tourists from all parts of the world doing the same.

Our day started with a a slow, twisting drive through green mountains dotted with white villages hanging to the sides of, or sitting on top of, the hills. Though this section of the day was somewhat testing on the driver it was very picturesque. Eventually we dropped down onto the coast where the fierce wind we had been feeling all day had whipped up a dense haze and very large white caps on the sea. As a result the massive rock of Gibraltar which should have been easily visible during our decent to the coast was only occasionally seen.

This morning the wind was, if anything, stronger than yesterday which had caused a change in plans. On our original schedule we were intending to camp tonight in a campground called Valdevaqueros, which is near the port of Tarifa, from where ferries go to Morocco. And then tomorrow visit Tangiers. But due to the high winds all ferries had been cancelled indefinitely.

The wind was STILL strong this morning and from online weather forecasts did not seem it would lessen until at least Sunday (today being Friday), so another change of plans was required. Rather than stay at Valdevaqueros or follow the coast we decided to make for Sevilla for the night.

We had to drive 140km this morning before getting to the start of the Portuguese toll road, and all that we had read about it being confusing was to some degree correct. Just after the border there is a place for foreign vehicles to pull off the highway and go through a set of "gates" which accept credit cards. When we got there another motorhome was already parked there with the occupants trying to figure out what was required. While we went through the same process a number of other vehicles arrived and their passengers were also more than a little confused. However it turned out to be pretty simple. At one of the gates, the electronics read the vehicle license plate, once recognized the credit card slot flashes blue and at this point one inserts a credit card. The toll system has now linked the credit card to the vehicle license plate. Thereafter on electronic only toll roads the toll charges are applied automatically to your card. You get a printed receipt from the card machine to verify you have registered which you may have to show at some point. This registration lasts 30 days. So why was it confusing? Because there are at least 3 other options that a foreigner could use to pay tolls, there are two different sets of toll roads and some of the automatic payment mechanisms work on both sets of toll roads. And finally the official websites are hard to find, and even harder to find English versions of them.

Our destination today was the town of Evora (another world heritage listed town). It is inland about half was across the country (east to West) and somewhat north of where we were last night. For a bit of a change we chose a route that consisted entirely of minor highways and NO toll roads. The first 60 kms of the route was through or along the edge of a forest, and through out the day the country side varied between open farm lands and forests.

So you might be wondering abut the first photo in todays blog entry. Well we have seen many many Storks in their nests on top of electrical poles while driving in Spain and Portugal. But today we saw them for the first time in actual trees and also for the first time more than one nest in a single structure. This got us curious about why so many Storks? Google provided the answer. Traditionally White Storks have migrated across Spain and Portugal to Africa from Scandinavia. But in recent decades have discovered that the unprotected landfill trash heaps in this part of the world to be a reliable source of food and hence they have been able to spend the whole year here in this mild climate. As a result numbers have boomed. However there is a question over the future of these newly non-migrating Storks as there are plans afoot to do away with the landfills and hence deprive the Storks of their abundant food supply. So those that study Storks are awaiting developments. Will the Storks discover an alternative food supply in this part of the world, will they return to their traditional migratory pattern. I would say .. stay tuned .. but this development is likely to be a long process, one that Nina and I will not be watching closely.

Our first stop today was the city of Coimbra and some what unusually we planned on doing some sightseeing around the town and then moving on all in the same day. A bit more energetic than my usual pace. Thus we needed a place to park within walking distance of the city center and in our Aires guide we found an area along the river near the rowing club listed. When we got to it we discovered that this was a very popular spot as there were already over 50 other motorhomes parked there. Coimbra is famous for its University, the third oldest in Europe. We were particular fortunate in the timing of our visit as the academic year was at its end and graduating students were out and about in their traditional dress. For the men black suits and cape, with accent colors to depict their course of study. For the women white shirts, black skirt, black stockings and cape. One of the traditions we read about but did not witness is the burning of the ribbons. Students traditionally tied their books together with ribbons to make them easier to carry, these ribbons are burned at graduation to signify that the students are no longer studying. Today of course the ribbons are purely symbolic and have become part of the traditional dress, we saw many student ribbons for decoration. The old city and University are built on quite a substantial hill and so during our hour long stroll through the narrow old streets we also got a change to ride the public elevator and public funicular that offer resident and students a slightly less energetic means of ascending that hill. We were blessed with a bright sunny day, and in that light the city looked really spectacular when viewed from across the river at our parking spot.

Today we made a short visit to Santiago De Compostela the end of the famous pilgrimage, Camino de Santiago, and the location of the shrine to St James the Great the reason for the pilgrimage in the first place. We arrived in Santiago mid afternoon and walked into the heart of the old city to find the place alive with people. Many were clearly "walkers" completing at least part of the Camino others just tourists like us come to look at the place and the walkers. The feeling of the place was definitely "if you are not a walker you are on the outer". But thats OK, many hiking towns and mountaineering towns have that same vibe.

Today we started our trek along the north coast of Spain. It took a few miles out of Santiago but eventually we were traveling along the north coast on a relatively new motorway (built since the early 2000s) most of the day being spent on the A6. As it turns out much of the terrain along the coast is mountainous (or at least hilly) with valley followed by hill being a continuous pattern. The terrain was clearly a problem to the designers and builders of the new motorways as a new road that dropped down into these valleys and then climbed out again would not be the modern high speed road that was their goal. So the solution was ingenious and we presume expensive. Valleys are crossed by large, high and long bridges and often the hill on the other side is pierced by a tunnel, thereby creating a relatively level roadway out of very up and down terrain. We have not been able to find a reference to how many bridges (viaductos in Spanish) there are on this road but we did see a reference that claimed in one 16 mile section of the road there are 20 bridges and 7 tunnels. This is between Villafranca del Bierzo and Pedrafita do Cebreiro.

The motivation for going to the city of Bilbao was for us to visit the cities Guggenheim Museum but the campsite we chose turned out to be a bit of a feature as well, though a little more of that later.

Today we made the short drive from Bilbao to San Sebastian and it became obvious quite quickly that we had entered Basque country. We no longer have any idea what the road signs are saying. After settling in to our chosen campground (this one is described as a campground - but more of that later) we ventured to the nearby bus stop and then into San Sebastian.

Today marked the end of the long trek from the south and while we are not yet in Zeebrugge the long driving is over and now we start concentrating on preparing the vehicle for shipping. One aspect of that preparation is the repair of an oil leak in the left rear axle hub. This started a few weeks ago and needs to be fixed before we get to the port as the shippers will not accept a vehicle with visible oil leaks. So we are back in the Eindhoven area as Erik at Adventure Trucks has arrange for the fix to be done at a local truck repair. However we arrived in the area a day early and decided to stay in another aires for two nights and spend some of that time repacking the junk that has accumulated over the 4 years since the truck was last at our house.

You would be excused for being a bit perplexed by the strange mixture of photographs in todays posting. The image of a painting with all the folks seeming to have a good (but not virtuous) time is included because a print of this painting was on the wall of our hotel near the elevator on our floor. It happens to be The Garden of Earthly Delights, by Jheronimus Bosch. You might be interested to know (or maybe you already do know) that this is part of 3 painting fold-out called a triptych. This particular painting was the middle image of the triptych. The left panel depicts Adam and Eve (before their sins) and the right panel depicts the tortures of damnation. As a complete change of pace the photos of the truck show the left hub with wheel and brakes removed and oil leaking from the offending seal.

We had planned on traveling along the Fundy coast after leaving Halifax. The Fundy is famous for its large tides with daily swings of 40 feet being common. But the weather was poor, cold, wet and gray. So we changed our minds and after leaving Nova Scotia we headed generally North along the coast of New Brunswick.

Our route today took us a little farther north (to Miramichi) and then west to Grand Falls along a series of minor and sometimes bumpy roads. It was nice to be back in "the wilderness" after Europe and we were rewarded with a brief glimpse of a young moose.

The weather was still wet this morning and got worse as the day progressed. The poor weather has diminished our enthusiasm for exploration and now we are thinking of increasing our pace and getting back to Gig Harbor a little earlier.

Today we followed minor highways generally paralleling the St Lawrence river in up-state New York. Lots of quaint little towns and small farms. Finally the weather has improved and there is a sense of summer in the air. We saw lots of evidence today of recent flooding with the water still quite high whenever we got near the waters edge.

Another fine day, so we celebrated the sun by taking a long walk around the campground and the nearby break-water before getting underway for the day. More minor highways, more quaint little towns as we followed the southern shore of Lake Ontario. But the highpoint of the day was Niagara Falls. On that subject I will let the photos do the talking.

Today the nice weather turned into "hot and windy" and decidedly less pleasant. We spent the day pushing West into a strong wind with temperatures into the 90's. The disadvantage of the Mog's large windscreen is evident on days like today. On a totally different front we got a couple of photos of Armish horse and buggies. We have been seeing these sporadically for the last couple of days but this was our fist successful effort at capturing a photo. Interestingly we have seen road signs warning of such vehicles and even dedicated parking places at shopping plazas for them.

No much to report about today. It is still hot and windy as we pushed through the farm lands of Illinois.

You will see we took a few photos of the campground before leaving this morning. The weather was a little bit gentler today. It is still windy but the temperature is a bit more moderate because of a cloud cover that also makes for a bit of a "gray-day" but also a somewhat better day for traveling. So we pushed on a bit harder than usual making use of I80 into Iowa. You will notice that this route brought us in contact with the "famous" truck stop Iowa 80 the self claimed "largest truck stop in the world".

A more pleasant day still some wind but not so hot, and sunny rather than gray. This generally put us in a better mood and a nice campground early in the afternoon gave me the opportunity to work on a problem with the truck.

More nice weather and a change of scenery today. We are now in the grasslands. The change in scenery happened quite quickly as all of a sudden we noticed that we were traveling amidst rolling grass covered hills that stretch as far as the eye can see in every direction.

Yellowstone National Park really is a scenic treasures. Even on a grey wet day like today the animals, the mountains and the rivers make it a feast for the soul. This morning we crossed the Northern part of the park from the junction with 212 to the Northern Entrance and while we were really only transiting on our way to Bozeman we could not help but want to stop and take photos. As you can see the animals conspired to feed our temptation.

Todays goal was to try for some good photos of Mount Rainier, we were optomistic as the weather was great so we decided that Sunrie Visitor Center would be the best spot as we would not be in position until afternoon. That proved to be a less than ideal choice as by the time we got there the sun was over the top of the mountain making for poor light. Still the drive along Hwy 410 and along the Sunrise entrance road was enjoyable.

The outside temperature this morning was 37°F emphasisiing the fact that we spent the night in the mountains and at altitude. Stopped in Yakima for a while to get some supplies and communicate with family and a bit of exercise on the Yakima Green Way, a very extensive walking and bicycle trail system.

Today we got a good dose of Washington farm country. Lots of fields of straw colored growth, some just stuble having been recently harvested, some tall and swaying and about to be harvested (we assume). Quaint little towns some of which seem to be caught in a bit of a time warp, except for all the modern pickup trucks. Really a pleasant day and a salutory reminder of the scope of farming.

We stopped for a long while in Lewiston this morning. The town has a nice skate park and walking trail beside the river. We took advantage of this facility, and the fine sunny weather, to undertake our daily exercises. I am on a regime of strengthening and stretching from my physical therapist and Nina is aiming to achieve her Apple Watch goal of 10,000 steps every day.

We spent the day exploring the area south of Orofino along Idaho Highways 13 and 14 before starting the trek along Highway 12 towards Lolo Pass. The day was wet with light rain and this discouraged photos and encouraged an early stop.

We had some business to take care of so we set off early towards Lolo pass with the goal of getting to Missoula, a campground, wifi and enough time to "take care of business". The day turned out to be sunny which made the drive up Hwy 12 to Lolo Pass quite picturesque. There were long sections of new pavement which made driving very pleasant. But this was offset by a number of delays due to single lane sections where road crews were at work.

As the reader will deduce from the photos, today brought grey skies and rain. After dithering around in Missoula for a long time we eventually got a late start heading south along Hwy 93. Fall colors were out in force but the lack of nice light and water on the lens reduced the opportunity for nice photos to zero.

This morning was a real treat. From our overnight spot we climbed steeply to Lost Trail Pass and were delighted to find ourselves amongst fresh snow, quite a few inches of the nice fluffy white stuff. Despite having lived in the US (a place where snow is not uncommon) for 20 years we still have the typical Australian reaction to this "exotic" stuff. After Lost Trail the road towards Wisdom, MT climbed a little higher to Chief Joseph Pass before dropping out of the mountains and eventually the Big Hole Battlefield Memorial, and the cafe in Wisdom.

This morning our Webasto diesel heater would not start so we had to rely on the generator and a small electric heater to get our little house up to a comfortable temperature. To my surprise we also had difficulty getting the truck engine to start. Both these small problems were more than a little surprising as we were not at a particularly high altitude (only about 6,500 ft) and it was not particularly cold (33°F). Throughout the mornings travel both these problems persisted in a minor form. Both the heater and engine would start but would generate blue smoke for a while until full warmed up. Eventually in West Yellowstone I added some diesel anti-gel treatment to both tanks and we decided to bypass Yellowstone and the Tetons and head south towards Idaho Falls looking for lower altitude and slightly warmer temperatures until we were convinced the anti-gel treatment had done its job.

We got off to a good start this morning. The heater, generator and truck all started as they should, and the sun was out providing very good light as we drove east through farm country. Near the town of Driggs we ran into a very dense and extended patch of fog which had largely dissipated by the time we stopped for some exercise on the walking/cycle trail at Victor. Then over Teton Pass to Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

The day started bright and sunny, with no clouds, so we were up somewhat earlier than usual to take advantage of the great photo opportunities. This theme continued throughout the day and we spent more time on the road than would be usual for us as we wanted to cover our targeted areas of both the Tetons and Yellowstone while the good weather lasted.

It was cold outside this morning, 24°F at 8:00 when we finally decided to get out of bed. But the diesel heater worked all night so we were comfortable inside our yellow box. And thanks to that same diesel heater I was able to warm the engine and get it started first try. I am now quite confused about the cause of the isses we have had with the truck engine and diesel heater.

As the title says, today we visited the northern end of Big Horn Canyon. Our route took us through miles of grass lands and Crow Indian Reservation before finishing in the small town of Fort Smith. At this time of year the town is gearing up for for fishing. There are many fishing lodges around the town and drift boats on trails were very common.

Today turned out to be a long distance day by our standards, over 200 miles. But bad weather is forecast for the next few days and we wanted to be at a campground while it (the weather) descended on us. Also the roads today were good, travel easy and the grass lands scenery interesting without being spectacular. Thus we made it to Devils Tower late in the day to find, fortunately that the KOA was open for a few more days. We also arrived just in time to get a few photos of the Tower before the sun was gone.

The forecast bad weather arrived over night and by mid morning the temperature was below freezing an snow was falling. That's how the day continued.

It was cold this morning, 20°F, and still snowing lightly. Overnight our diesel heater had (again) stopped working and this time I could not get it restarted. Fortunately we are in a campground with electricty so we can still heat the camper and truck engine or maybe we would be here another day. Putting aside the vehicle troubles the morning was really pretty. About an inch of snow covering most everything yet clouds high enough that we could see the Devil's Tower also with a light snow cover. We quite enjoyed our stay at Devil's Tower KOA.

In order to give the mail service time to deliver the parcel we are waiting for, we decided to pay a visit to the Badlands National Park, spend a night there and try again for the mail tomorrow. So, after the usual round of grocery shopping chores, we headed east towards the famous town of Wall, SD and the Northern Entrance to The Badlands National Park.

We spent this morning completing our exploration of the Badlands finally exiting the park through the town of Interior, SD before heading back to Americas Mailbox and that long awaited parcel. In case your curiousity is aroused the parcel contained a supply of mint flavoured chocolates that Nina and I use as an after dinner treat.

Our excursion to the Badlands a couple of days ago had the unfortunate side effect of getting our truck very muddy as the road to Sage Creek is gravel, or in our case mud, as a result of the recent snow. So this morning we had intended to visit a local Rapid City Truck Wash to cleanup. However when we pulled into the entrance we noted 3 or 4 animal carrier tractor trailers ahead of us, and in short order one of the truck attendants informed us that our wait would be at least 4 hours. So much for cleaning the truck.

We decided to spend an extra day in the Hot Springs area. We are a little ahead of schedule for our visit next week with Rob Pickering and I am not feeling well, I have a cold. And the town of Hot Springs seems to deserve a little more attention than we have so far given it. So after a relaxed morning we spent a few hours in the town enjoying the walking paths beside the river.

We made another visit to Hot Springs this morning before getting on our way. Nina wanted a few more photos and the town offered a good trail for her daily walk. Thereafter we spent a pleasant day driving through miles and miles of open grass lands.

Before getting underway this morning we could not resist a few more photos of our pleasant camping spot. Then it was "onward" with the plan of getting to the Denver area so that we would be within easy driving distance of La Junta for tomorrow. Along the way we made an extended stop at the Wyoming Visitor Center just before the Colorado border. Quite an impressive building and facilities.

We spent the day making our way to La Junta, a long run east along I70 and then at the town of Limon south on state route 71. The run south along 71 was notable for the dryness of the country side. We would later hear that moisture (rain or snow) has been scarce in this part of the country for over a year. AS you can see from the photos we are in grain growing country.

We had a bit of a hiccup this morning. We stayed in the parking lot at Terry Lee Ent. last night and headed east this morning. But a little way into our drive we discovered that our new exhaust system needed a bit of adjustment. So back to La Junta where Rob was waiting to spend a couple of hours of his Saturday getting us ship-shape.

We had a little McDonalds fiasco this morning. We rarely eat at the "Golden Arches" but this morning as we approached Dodge City we decided we would take breakfast at one of those eastablishments. Thus once in Dodge we found a place to park, ordered our desired nourishmet at the new fangled electronic boards that McDonalds now have, and sat down waiting for the delivery of our food and drink. Within a few minutes a young lady came to our table to inform us that "the expresso machine was not working would standard coffee be OK rather than the expresso I had ordered". yeh, sure. A few minutes later she came back with "oh, and by the way the iceream machine is also not working so we cannot make the chocolate shake you ordered". At that point we cancelled the entire order and left. On the way out I noticed that the store advertised "mobile ordering" using your smart phone. I wondered how the McDonalds app would have handled this situation, certainly their fancy electrtonic order board was not aware that expresso coffee and icecream while on the menu were not available.

As you can see this morning we were still obsessed by the lake and the birds. Why ? We could not work out an answer to that question.

After running down the KOA checklist for departing campers we took a few "last" photos of Springfield KOA and then hit the road south. For those that have not been to this part of the world, south of Springfield there are a series of popular lakes and the town of Branson. Branson is like a small Las Vegas with a varierty of entertainment and shows and to ensure that visitors get to know the choices available to them the highway is lined with large billboards advertising the various artists that are performing in the town. However, we have been to Branson on previous visits so this time we just continued on through the town.

We spent the morning at the Clinton Presidential Center in downtown Little Rock. The approach was easy for our not-so nimble vehicle and parking was easy as the Center has a large lot adjacent to the entrance. We also noticed that there is an RV park on the northern side of the river right opposite the Center. Had we stayed there we would have been able to visit the Center via a pedestrian bridge. Something to keep in mind for next time.

Not long after getting underway this morning we came upon a police officer who had closed the road we wanted to take; seems there was a marathon underway and we needed to detour around the town of Wynne to avoid it. This caused us a bit of navigational confusion for a while, but eventually we found our way on to AR64 as required. By midday we were racing along the I40 northern bypass of Memphis surrounded by trucks and Saturday shopping traffic. Not our favourite style of travel.

The next few days are going to be a bit boring for you readers as it is time I started preparing for the sessions I am presenting at Overland Expo. That means we are looking for campgrounds with wifi so that we can spend a couple of days stationary while I work.

Overnight we looked a little more carefully at the map and the location of the Overland venue and decided that we were a bit too far away from the venue and in any case we needed to collect some groceries before the event. Thus a we changed our plans and decided to move.