The day started with more sand and dirt, then after about 100km the luxury of tarmac, some without pot holes. Somewhere along this stretch the Baja developed an oil leak and we haven't seen them again all day as they searched for a mechanic in the villages we passed through.
Arrived in Aqtobe with the intention of finding a hotel so they could register us with the Ministry of Migration (a relic from the Soviet era) but were so unimpressed by the place we decided to find the office ourselves and leave town. Took 2 hours to register as they had to find a translator - seems like they hadn't registered any tourists in years as that should happen automatically at the border. So not only had we been ripped off for the cost of filling out a form that we could have done ourselves, but they hadn't registered us properly. Maybe it was part of a further scam to get us to pay a fine on leaving for not having registered - but it had cost us several hours in time, and around a 180km drive we wouldn't otherwise have
made.
As we left our campsite yesterday morning we passed 4 Spanish guys who were on the Mongol Rally (a charity rally where you give your car to charity once you have driven it to Mongolia). On the way out of town this evening they overtook us (with much shouting and hand waving) so they must have subjected their cars to the same punishment along the non-existent roads that we had.
Tonight we're camped at what will be our most northerly camp site since leaving Pat and Simon's in Holland, and it's all south from here.
Lat 50 17.46N
Long 57 49.85E
Distance 7503km (unadjusted)
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