01.05.03 Sunshine at last, Stuart has broken camp and cycled about 60 miles and is now about 120 miles from Nizhniy Novgorod which he hopes to reach by the weekend. In typical Stuart fashion he was able to meet and make friends with the local roadside traders who took Stuart to their local shops and helped him to buy food and then he was invited to have a meal in one of their dachas, he enjoyed a couple of bowls of good home made soup and some coffee before carrying on. The further east Stuart gets the more people know the name Ilizarov and it seems as soon as Stuart says the name Ilizarov people want to help to help him and are very interested in his challenge. Lets hope the weather holds and with a bit of luck and hard work Stuart should be in Kurgan by June.

Also in that area there is a "forest" of a special tree species that grows on sand dunes and sediments and has especially long roots to be tapped to the ground water. We were so fascinated of this patch of green in the desert, that we spent half a day just wandering around among the bonsai sized trees. Acutally, the Gobi is not as barren as the word "desert" may make you think.