I'm heading from Western Siberia towards Eastern Siberia and people here are uniquely kind, welcoming and helping. Kemerovo is the city of coal miners. I got here with 4 cars, totally around 300 km from Novosibirsk and it's a midday.



I was driving with one Russian army guy who gave me a gift of an army food pack for extreme situations, the other guy gave me a Russian flag, but the third - Edik from Kemerovo drove me all the way from the city to the auto route to Irkutsk, which is about 1800 km from here and insisted to take 200 Russian rubles from him, which I did as he was telling me that he is giving it from pure heart and I'm totally out of cash right now. I feel real gratitude towards all Russia and I'm truly amazed about their wide, warm heart.

So now i'm heading towards Marinsk, from where to Irkutsk. Every step I make I can feel - I'm in Siberia. It is as it sounds. Rough, cold weather but air full of Love. It is something western civilization might never understand and get the feeling of.

Towards Krasnoyarsk I was picked up by funeral car, who drove me about 600 kilometers with 5* service :) as there was even a plasma screen with DVD and all the way long I was watching Russian movies. On our way we stopped in some road cafeteria where I had some proper warm meal. What a coincidence it was when other expedition from Netherlands also stopped there - they are driving with quadrocycles all around the Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkey, etc. We had some chat and afterwards we continued our funeral car journey.


Actually it was very weird day since the very beginning as the first driver who picked me up was from local veterinary service, second from army and third from funeral service. I stepped out of the car in Krasnojarsk at midnight, again and as it was to cold for sleeping without sleeping bag I decided to continue my journey.