Many things have happened since Semey and I'll do my best to recall all the main events that filled what, without any doubts, was the most intense and toughest part of this long journey.
Entering Russia proved to be way easier than expected. The paperwork was pretty straightforward and answering "no" when asked whether we were carrying guns or drugs was more than enough to pass the "security" check. Actually the border official made sure to check our Russia map and gave us tips on the route to take (tips that we clearly failed to follow as we ended up lost in the city center of a city few Kms after the border...).
We spent the night in the pretty unimpressive city of Gorno-Altaysk in the foothills of the Altai Mountains and on Sunday we had another early wake up call as we hoped to reach the Mongolian border before lunchtime.
The road from Gorno-Altaysk to the border was stunning and probably one of the best drives I've ever seen. Almost 600 Kms of winding road along the Ob river (the 7th longest river in the world) with the amazing Altai mountains in the background all the way to the Mongolian border.
We pulled up at the Russian side of the border crossing just after lunch and parked in a line of other Mongol Rally teams. There was no sign of human life at the border and we quickly realized that this very last border crossing was not going to be challenging. However we were certainly not prepared to what turned out to be one of the most bizarre experiences of this trip...
In the afternoon more Mongol Rally teams as well as locals joined the queue. It felt like a reunion even though none of us have met before during the trip. After sunset we set our tents up. This was the first camping night of the trip and we could have not chosen a better spot for it... on one side barb wire and the no man's land between Russia and Mongolia, on the other side toilets (a hole full of shit and flies covered by filthy planks of woods) and a training ground for "very aggressive dogs" as described by a border official.
Despite the cold weather and the location it was a good night and the day after we woke up fully energized ready for the long awaited drive in Mongolia. How wrong we were...
For some obscure reasons leaving Russia proved to be the most complicated part of the trip. We started queuing at the immigration office before 9am and were welcomed by the grumpiest and rudest border officials we met during the trip and only ad 4pm they finally let us through.
The process was not not over though. We drove the 25km of no man's land between the two countries and arrived at the Mongolian border just an hour before the closing time.
The
officials here were friendly but unfortunately this last border crossing
is a fairly long one because we were importing the cars to Mongolia so
more paperwork was needed. Therefore it was disappointing but not
unexpected to be informed that they were closing for the night and we
would have to stay here overnight. We were not allowed to sleep in the
main building or to leave the fenced area so we all had to set our camp
up on the only narrow strip of grass available (once again close to the
barb wire and the toilet).
We spent the rest of the night drinking Kazak cognac with the border officials (who showed up to work the next morning still completely drunk) and went to sleep in the freezing cold anticipating more waiting and paperwork the following day.
At 9am the officials slowly showed up to work and we managed to get our last stamps on our passport just before lunchtime and after "only" 45 hours of border crossing, we were finally ready to face the last part of the trip, the vast open land of Mongolia...
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