Well, we have made it. To Mongolia. More or less. Diana and Alex-less, but here! We left Astana on the afternoon of the 12th, sadly leaving Alex behind to decide whether or not he would fly to Ulan Bataar or just fly straight home. I was moved from the back of the Kiwi's SJ to the Nissan Micra belonging to Team Dzogchen, Tommy has remained baggage in the SJ. We basically spent 3 and a half days driving and sleeping in our cars on the side of the road. Exiting Kazakhstan and entering Russia took about 7 hours. We boiled water and ate noodles on the bonnet of our cars and tossed a rugby ball around as we waited, attracting a fair amount of attention from the others in the line. We spent about 2 days driving through Russia to reach the Mongolian border; the last night we drove all night, changing drivers so people could sleep. We drove through some beautiful scenery as we approached the border - and needless to say the temperatures have dramatically dropped! We arrived at the exit border for Russia at about noon and ended up waiting there for about 5 hours with several other rally cars who joined us there. Getting through the two borders wasnt too bad and finally we found ourselves driving into the amazing expanse that is Mongolia! We convoyed with the other cars that had waited at the borders with us and witnessed the last shreds of Mongolian sunlight off of the mountains as our cars kicked up dust on the non-roads that will be our home for the next week! It was both breathtaking and exhilerating!

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