Day 44, to Ayagoz, Kazakhstan 146km , 3751km to date,  679m up, 763m end

Another hard day, wind against and very rough pavement/gravel.  My butt is very unimpressed with the very rough riding….

One of the small disasters we have had to live with is that after Mongolia we have not been able to find peanut butter - our Russian support person, and now our Kazakhstan support person have never had peanut butter - looks like we will be without this basic necessity until Iran.

One of the guys on the ride, Steve, is a Geography Prof from U. Washington.  Each day just before dinner he is giving us a 5 minute lecture, todays lecture was on the rivers of central/northern Asia.  An interesting fact for you:  Most of the rivers in central Russia flow into the Artic, they also thaw from the south to the north - so yes that means flooding as part of the spring breakup.

A good pic of me leaving camp at sunrise:

Only one other pic from today as the the landscape was really simple - flat Steppe(prairie) that didn’t change.  The road was very straight - 50km without a turn.  We commonly saw hearts of horses like this, I didn't see any markings so have assumed they are wild, they definitely didn't like you getting anywhere close to them.