This morning before they left the Mrs at the hotel brought Einar a bar of chocolate as a birthday present.

They started off in decent weather and rode towards the Altai mountains. A bikers dream, twists and turns, hills and valleys. Went up to an altitude of 1700, down to 750m and then again up to 1800m.

The borders are at 2100m altitude which is about the same as Hvannadalshnjúkur in Iceland. Yesterday they got all the way there but because they couldn't get a place to stay the night they had to go back 50km only to get an unheated room with an outside WC. "Wonderful" was their word for it. They'd bought a loaf of bread, some cheese, sausage and beers for supper.

It's been cold, only 5-9°C (41-48°F) and windy. But the scenery is lovely and nice to ride through it.

Tomorrow they're going in to Mongolia and will be riding there for a few days and look around before heading to the capital. 

Happy Birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Einar. Happy Birthday to you!

The brothers were happy today when calling via mobile phone. They went to Novosibirsk this morning and got the tires they wanted for their trip into Mongolia. After that they rode about 360km to a small town called Biysh where they're staying at a small cute hotel.

As they were entering the hotel a Rotary meeting was starting and Sverrir got invited in. It turned out that they'd been waiting for someone and mistook Sverrir for that person. There was a person from Anchorage, Alaska, overseeing the meeting and he gave them their business card and made them promise to visit when they'd finally arrive. At the end of the meeting there were pictures being taken and our two travelers used the opportunity to take a few pictures as well. There was also a woman from a local newspaper who interviewed them and an article will be published one of the next few days.

Their room has the American history up on the walls and a disco ball hanging from the ceiling. A spring in Sverrir's mattress is poking through and the bottom of Einar's bed fell out as he took a seat on it.

Dinner was a nice Russian steak.

They've been in contact with Þór Daníelsson who works for the Red Cross in Mongolia and he's promised to help them while they're there. Einar also got an e-mail from a Japanese woman he's been trying to get in touch with since April in order to secure transport for the bikes from Japan to Alaska. Everything is looking good right now.

Hopefully they'll make it into Mongolia on Wednesday. 

They've arrived in Novosibirsk. They rode 330 km today and are staying at a luxury hotel where some of the people are speaking English. It's Russia's third largest city with about 1.5 million inhabitants and is somewhat Western to see. There aren't many tourists.

Tomorrow they'll try and find new front tires and hopefully buy a better map of Mongolia.

Remember to visit Sverrir's blog to see pictures from the trip. 

Yet another long day. Starting off in rain and cold, only 10-12°C (50-55°F). They're at the flats of West Siberia north of the Ural Mountains. The scenery is very monotonous.

The distance today was around 700km.

Tomorrow they're heading to Nowosibrisk to get front tires for both bikes and a better map of Mongolia.

They're currently at GMT+7.