Day 16 Mon 27 Jun 2016 Omsk to Tyumen, Russia (Siberia) 627kms

Another long drive with one scheduled test.  It was cancelled.  I think that was a good decision as it went through a village with masses of people and other traffic.  Not sure what they were thinking when they thought it would make a good ‘timed to the second’ section. 

We had rain again.  It seems to rain for part of every day.  It was colder today than it has been.

Russia’s roads (and I haven’t seen all that many yet) are mostly rough tar.  Some times with huge potholes and broken tar, other times with a gutter running along the road where the weight of trucks has left furrows.  These furrows fill with water when it rains and the car seems to want to jump out of the furrows all the time.

Vehicle density is way too high for a single lane each way.  Trucks, probably 40% of the traffic, travel at 80 to 90 KPH.  Cars try to travel at 100+.  The speed limit is 90 most times.  

Cars constantly try to pass the trucks. 

On the notice board, someone changed the "110kph max" to "190kph"

We frequently find cars coming towards us on our side of the road.  The done thing is to move over and make room for a “third” lane. The locals pass trucks and other cars without clear vision.  While we are waiting for the road to straighten or to see over a crest, locals sail past when we are way too cautious to take that risk. The locals rely on others making room if necessary.  It’s not for the faint hearted.

ERA Mechanic Owen changes a ball joint on the Datsun

The other complication is that the driver being on the wrong side in a right hand drive car, it becomes the passenger’s job (i.e. me) to advise if it's safe to pass. Passing can be further complicated when the truck decides to move to the middle or the other side of the road to avoid a pothole or broken tar.

We ended the day by changing the bottom ball joint on the front left. Would be nice to have another set of struts.  The event’s not half over yet….