We managed to get ourselves over the border, to say the least, they were not helpful, but we got away with a couple of external starts (the starter engine crashed in Mongolia probably because of the river crossing). We reached the city of Ulan Ude, where we were sent to a smaller service where the starter engine was renewed. Then we looked at the suspension in another place, just for sure. It was not cheap, but if something goes wrong on the sombre roads of Siberia far away from anxthing, it will be much more expensive.
We spent a couple of days near Lake Baikal, then headed for Irkutsk from where we would fly to Soeul. While driving to the city I started to be convinced that the gearbox is not a hundred percent, we decided to also check it. Well, the gearbox was okay, but it wasnt a bad idea to bring Crocodile again to the service because we had found an emulsion im the rear differential and in the offroad gearbox, so they had to change the oil. It shows howreliable are the services here…
At Irkutsk Airport we picked up Andris and Vanda, who are taking Crocodile back to Budapest in a month, on a slightly different route. Before that, we spent a couple of amazingly cool days camping at Lake Baikal, spiced up with hiking and brewing. I may have overstepped bathing in cold water because I got a little cold and unfortunately I gave it to Sophie as well.
We rest the disease at the airport, because Andris and Vanda had to return to Budapest for a predetermined time, they couldn’t stay anymore. What it was like to see Crocodile rolling on with them out of sight I’m not going into details. We immediately felt the lack of it, as our accommodation, kitchen, bathroom had left and we had to deal with the related activities at the airport.
At least there are no armrests, just the back of the chairs is really uncomfortable. People are coming, mostly at 1 am at night, we can’t sleep that good. The lights are not turned off, even though there are other people who spend the night here. Let’s eat some cheeseburgers in the US instead of paying for a hostel!
