6 weeks to D-Day ...

Departure Day that is - just 6 short weeks until we leave, and plans are well underway.

We have officially started running down supplies of dried and tinned goods - the cause of a few interesting food combinations - if anyone out there knows a good recipe for desicated coconut & mushroom ketchup please let me know.

The latest on travel plans is some difficulty with international train tickets from Russia, with the continued absence of our passports at the visa agency being the primary cause - with the kind help of my long-suffering travel agent I hope to get things resolved over the next week.

I found a great website this week detailing a one-man struggle to travel around Mongolia on horseback, it grabbed my interest as this is likely to be our first wilderness destination and chosen mode of transport. He has some very interesting parallels with our own plans - not least the part about not really being able to ride.

Now I really must learn the Mongolian for "quiet horse" ...