By Trudy and Marijke

Extra adventure within our adventurous trip.

During the morning check of the Model T, Dirk discovers that the fin no longer works. The wiring is rotten. He removes the entire fin from the radiator.

We head towards Barnaul, see the skyline on the wide river, the Ob.

During a coffee stop, a man comes cycling. He doesn’t speak English and to understand each other he calls his English-speaking friend. After a pleasant conversation, the man gives his cap to Dirk. And wishes us a good journey.

We drive on a major road. Large trucks overtake us and come towards us. The wind is blowing very hard, but Dirk keeps a firm grip on his handlebars. We’re going like crazy.

Suddenly thud…thud… and the Model T turns off. The tank is completely empty. We had a vortex in the tank, Dirk said.

Marijke has finished taking pictures and is waiting until we leave again.

A dark cloud comes, and the sky breaks open. Fortunately, we are just at a gas station. We take shelter here while enjoying a cup of coffee.

We drive further and the landscape becomes increasingly flatter. Rapeseed is blooming.

Along the way we are overtaken by motorcyclists. Later they stand on the side of the road taking pictures of us. Then they catch up with us again.

When we are on the outskirts of the city of Rubtsovsk we see them again. We ask them if they know of a hotel in this city. They drive us to the hotel.

We are happy with the place, and we get their phone number in case we need any help. We settle in the rooms and go out for dinner.

When we return, we are sent out of the hotel. We must leave immediately, because according to the owner we had crossed the border illegally. There we are in a strange city in the middle of the night. What to do???

Dirk called the motorcyclists, who came to our aid. They first took us to a secure parking lot for the cars and then they arranged taxis to take us to the apartment of one of the motorcyclists. The four of us could sleep there. What a great help!!

After a short and restless night, we call Dimitri at 6 am. He picks us up. The four of us are stuck in the backseat of the car, but we don’t mind. As long as we get back to the cars. They are still sleeping neatly in the parking lot. We started quickly and Dimitri takes us back to the place where he met us yesterday. We say goodbye and can hardly thank him enough for his help.

We stop a little further on. The Model T needs to be checked and cared for and we grab our papers that we need for the border crossing.

On the way to the border, we are stopped by the police. They wanted to take a photo. That’s always allowed.

There is a line of trucks waiting at the border. A driver, his name is Yaroslav, tells Marijke that he wants to help us. All truck drivers let us pass through customs.

It’s exciting after last night. We entered the country with good papers, passport and visa, but can we leave now?

Yes! It’s all going well. We are allowed to leave the country. The barrier opens.

The Kazakhstan fence is nearby, and they are happy for us to enter the country. Dirk must show the original registration certificate of the Model T. He looked that up and customs now understood that Dirk is very careful with that. It’s so old.

We can take out and pay for insurance for the cars in a box. Fortunately in rubles because we don’t have Kazakhstani money yet.

We drive into the country and… the road is hopelessly bad but the nature is beautiful.

We stop at a café and there is also Yaroslav. We order coffee with cake and we get coffee with delicious warm bread and chocolate cake. He says: For free! How lucky we are again. He gives his telephone number, because he lives in Almati. Maybe we can meet him there again.

On the way up a mountain in the afternoon we see shasliks being baked. It smells so good, so we stop to taste one.

We are looking for a hotel in Semey. A young man takes us. It is a luxurious hotel, but we are tired after these extra adventurous days