DATE: July 17th, 7:30 PM

LOCATION: Katun River near Chemal

As you can see the van made it to our location for the night. The standard late night banya put us to sleep.

Today we rafted. We went to some caves on the side of the river. They were inhabited in stone age times but today it is just us tourist that passed through.

This will be the last post. Feel free though to blog us one last time as we will be checking the emails tommorrow.

We miss you all and look fo

DATE: July 16th, 7:35 PM LOCATION: Roadside on the M-52 Hello out there. Do any of you have AAA membership here in Russia? Stayed tuned to tommorrow to see how we solve this one... (no worries, it is all part of the adventure)

DATE:July 15th, 9 PM LOCATION: Kurai Village and glaciers It was like out of a movie of adventure today. We climbed aboard the high open platform of an old 6 wheel army truck and headed up 2000 feet into the mts. Grips were tight as we negotiated mud, rivers, and giant boulders. The ride ended and the hike began. Aliong with us were several Russian who after some vodka became our friends. The hike took us beneath a waterfalll where if you bathed it washed away 22 sins. Next we went ou

DATE: July 14th, 9 PM LOCATION: 5,000 ft, remote village in Altai Mts. The Russian name of the town is not on my keyboard. Rick here, The others are out watching this amazing display of light. A thunder and lightening storm just passed through leaving behind a sunset of brillant orange haze, double rainbows, glaciated peaks hit by the light all above an end of the road town of log homes, the smell of wood smoke and dirt roads. We met this old Altai women who took us to many petroglyphs exp

DATE: July 13th, 3 PM

LOCATION: Tourist camp in tradition log and bark huts.

Dave Hawley here

You should the fantastic sites! Such as the sacred mt the area is named for (you won't be able to spell the name) Horses were great but now retiring to the pool in the middle of Siberia below great mountains. And then the banya (sauna) for a little (lots) of steam cleaning and a beating with birch branch.

DATE: July 12th, 8 PM LOCATION: Heart Lake in the Altai Mts. Dave G. here. Number one experience for me was a bit of a gallop on a horse high on a mountain ridge, it was a real adrenaline rush. The scenery especially spectacular today. Some local Altai herders joined us and had a good laugh when they head butted my horse causing me to jump. They later invited us to see them slaughter a sheep. Today my dismount included my camera getting stuck on the saddle which we looked for until we no

DATE: jULY 12, 9 AM here, 10 pm in usa location: Same as yesterday Rocky the techn man here. Sorry the pic did not send last night. It was really late and it was hard to climb in the dark to a spot out of the trees. Lets see if this goes. Beautiful Morining. I would show you but it is a sacred moutnain and pictures are not allowed.

DATE: July 11th, 11 Pm LOCATION: 20 miles from the road, camped at a lake, high into the mountains. Rick here. We got in very late as our locals gort a little confused and packing was on Altai time. Really lovely forest and mountains after passing log homes surrounded by gardens in remote villages. We continued past the end of the road. Our self propelled transport came upon the above people who seemed to be helped in the situation by a little vodka so were having good time. We are get

DATE: July 10th, 730 PM LOCATION: Yurt Campsite in the Atlai Mts. 2500 feet. Gail here: Good to hear from home. We are having an awesome experience. The weather is great. Food is good (we bought fresh berries in the market) And the company entertaining. PS- We are having a little trouble with the picture posting, hopefully it will work better tonight.

DATE: JULY 9TH, 3 PM Siberian time, 11 hours earlier NY time.

LOCATION: Gorno, a small town in Siberia, writing from a concrete apartment straight out of the movies.

Rick here, the others are in the showers...

Hey all-
We are all safe and tired after almost 48 hours of travel. Yesterday we had a layover of 10 hours in Moscow so we took a train downtown and then subway. That was an adventure. The subway (also a bomb shelter) is beautiful. Now we are in a small town o