Late this afternoon we did our first kms on the famous M56 (or Lena Highway), the road from Невер (Never) to Якутск (Yakutsk). I have been reading about this road (and its extension to Magadan) for years and we have been getting hints and warnings about the road from various Russian hosts over the past 2 weeks. While planning this adventure we saw this road as one of the highlights of the Russian section of the trip and also perhaps one of the most challenging sections of road on the entire journey. The next 3 to 4 days will let us experience the reality of this infamous road.

However most of the day we were still on the M58 and had generally good road conditions with good pavement except for the regular sections of hollows and bumps from frost damage.

Today we had a very small worry with the truck engine. This morning it started to miss fire occasionally, not enough to make driving difficult but enough to suggest that something was not right. So late in the morning I bled some fuel out of the fuel/water separator. I could not see any water in the fuel that came out, but since that exercise, the engine has not missed. I hope that is all that is required, but only time will tell.