Been driving for 40 hours, as we want to get into the queue for the border before it shuts friday night... Very tired.

...haven't got used to the Russian alphabet yet, and are still referring to place names using letters such as "Capital Backwards N" and so on... sigh. Panda doing ok, but has definitely seen better days. Fingers crossed we'll get to the Mongolian border in the next day (hopefully) or two (probably).

Cruising at 50mph (60 downhill) so making slow but steady progress. Still having issues with the headlights/electrics, but seems to be going fine at the moment - touch wood! Stopping for the night, trying to get some miles under the belt now.

Staying in a motel about 5km outside of Almaty. Camped near the big lake in eastern Kyrgyzstan last night, which was really cool. Quite the eventful morning: got towed out of a field, took a ride on a horse, and got a speeding fine. In the panda, not on the horse....

Just made it through the border> Met 2 other teams and we're going to stay in the Panda tonight just this side of the border, then make way to Bishkek tomorrow via Toktogul Reservoir. Got invited to a wedding this morning, and met an Uzbek English teacher... All in all another random day!

Just got to Namangan. Was hoping to cross the Kyrg border this evening but we've heard on the grapevine it's closed for the evening, so will try tomorrow. Currently staying in a "hotel", not the best we've seen... Was awesome driving through the mountains from Tashkent today. More mountains planned for tomorrow.

Made it through the border this morning to Tashkent. Currently in the rather lovely Markaziy Hotel, swimming pool, sauna... awesome! However it's quite like a sauna outside too, 40* plus... hot weather for us gingers!