May 13 Tulun - Irkutsk (RUS)

We left for Irkutsk a few days ago and wish we could show you a lot of pictures and tell you many stories. Fact is that we left Novosibirsk and drove and drove and drove through dense forests which somethings changed into endless fields. A beautiful scenery, but quite boring after a few days. Nonetheless very therapeutical. Time to clear the mind and think of...fresh beer. The road was a double single lane and varied from good to bad to none existing. Luckily there were a lot of restaurants and cafes where we could stop for a nice plate of chicken or pork ( after 2 weeks in Russia these are still the only dishes we managed to remember )
We spend 2 nights in a hotel and went camping 1 night in the Siberian forest. Afraid we would light the whole place one fire we went to sleep before nightfall. The fact that the mosquitos were driving us crazy also made us go to bed that early. Finally we arrived in Irkutsk and now official hold the world record of getting a Mongolian visa in the shortest amount of time. 30 minutes it took us from arriving at the embassy to getting our visa stamped into our passports. Initially the ladies told us to come back on Monday, but when the ambassador himself saw our bikes he was that impressed that everything moved extremely quickly. Thank you mister ambassador.

Terwijl Johan en Carl het visum voor Mongolia aan het reglen waren, kreeg Peter hulp bij het zoeken naar een hotel. / While Johan and Carl were arranging the Mongolian visa, a fellow biker helps Peter finding a hotel.

Ambassade van Mongolië in Irkutsk / Mongolian embassy in Irkutsk.