Omsk to Irkutsk (via Tomsk)

Distance: 2673km

Starting to lose track of what time it is! Have crossed quite a few time zones, and are now at Moscow + 5 hours. We think! Lucky I'm keeping a diary or I would have no hope of knowing what day it is!

Officially in Siberia now. Lots of wetlands and marshes. So experiencing lots and lots of mosquitoes. Even just stopping for a quick loo stop you're likely to get bitten!! It is very flat. I think I was expecting more mountains. The traffic has started to thin a little bit, but the roads are definitely not what I would call quiet.

Where the M51 ends and the M53 starts near Novosobirsk, there were roadworks so we had to come off. But the detour wasn't very well sign-posted so ended up in the city and coming out the wrong road. We're working on 1cm = 15km map so didn't have much detail!. We ended up having to go cross country otherwise we would have had to take a further 150km detour to Kemerovo (we wanted to go to Tomsk, otherwise that wouldn't have been an issue). It was an 'interesting' drive, though not ideal at dusk and then dark... The road eventually thinned out to dirt and corrugations, with lots of potholes. About half-way we needed to ask directions on which road to take out of the town (which surprisingly given it's location had lots of high rises and quite heavily populated). Almost everyone was intoxicated! But friendly and willing to help. One wanted to get in the car to show us the way, but thankfully we don't have room!

Tomsk is a nice university town. There's a concentration of nicely refurbished wooden buildings and good places to eat and shop. Was a good place to have a break for an afternoon and we stayed overnight in a hotel to update our registration. We ate at a place near the hotel called Pastamama, and were a little surprised to see prices for Vodka and other spirits, not just per 100mL but also for the whole bottle! Although the road to Mineersk looked like a minor road on our map, it was pretty good. It was only gravel for about 20km, where there were also some nice, well-kept villages.

The road is getting progressively patchier. Some parts are great, others are none existent, particularly where the new road is being built. Quite muddy and rocky in places. Where the landcruiser overtakes all the little jap cars. Right-hand vs left-hand drive cars are now just as common as each other.

Some other Overlanders - We usually see at least one other 'Overlander' a day. Usually they are sensibly doing the trek in the other direction.