Back at Barnaul and Hotel Siberia we book in for 2 days and take time to wash our kit and catch up on sleep. We don't go to the bike bar as we don't want to outstay our welcome and have a quiet meal in a chinese resturant. I speak to the receptionist ( Irina, Whose very foxy ) and she informs me that Ewan Mc Gregor stayed in the hotel in a single standard room and she has photo's of him at the hotel. We parked our bike's in the same spot as he did...whoopee do. In the morning Mark video's her with the photo's( by the way Russian women are very beautiful, well most). We leave Barnaul and hotel Siberia with a heavy heart and head north to Novo Sibersk again, to the tyre's we hope!! The ride was un-eventfull as we took it steady with my dodgy tyre, and arrive about dinner time. We manage to find the bike shop on our own( good eh) and meet Andri who informs us that............. the tyre's were here, hooray for that. The wheels taken off oan a young lad arrives with 4 knobberly tyre's ( those arn't the one's) how ever we need tyre's and go with it, hopefully they will get us home? Once again we meet up with Oleg and he kindly let's us stay at his flat( nice man). So after a quick shower we go to the "Old Irish Bar" and treat him to his tea. We have a pleasent evening and Andri turns up as well....excellent, top top lads. In the morning we wake fairly early and at 09.30am go to the supermarket which as we found out does'nt open till 10.00am.....unlucky. I purchase a pipe after seeing Oleg smoke one, and buy him a pack of tobacco as a thank you. Back at the bike shop we pick up the bike's, Andri kindly drive's us to the road to Omsk. We say our good-bye's and ride off to what turn's out to be another long day in the saddle. Although the sun is shining the wind on the bike is apparent, we stop for petrol(benzin in Russia you know) and adjust our kit. Back on the move and we're getting back into the swing of riding the bike's for a long time. I spot a roadside cafe and have a bowl of soup and cup of black tea. The bike's are running good ( a credit to Astle's of Grimsby, Nigel,Sarah,Richard and Chris....thanks) The sun is still shinning at 7.30pm in fact it's the best part of the day. We decide to stop at the next hotel we find, and it's not long before we spot one. We are only 20 miles from Omsk. After a look around the hotel ( it's basically a truck stop hotel) we decide to push on the 20 mile's to Omsk as we only have a small amount of roubles left. Riding into Omsk we bump into ( not litterally Ozmeister) a local biker and his girlfriend on a Suzuki bandit 1200. After a quick chat, he agree's to take us to a hotel, where we stay the night. We leave Omsk with the weather good and the sun shinning in our face's. A slight problem getting onto the correct road out of the city as with all big cities when your a stranger, however we manage and crack on. I pull over and tell Paul that my gps is showing that we are heading to the Kazak border. We look at the map and confirm that the road we are on enter's Kazakhstan for 40 miles......bugger we didn't realise that. We decide to try and blag our way in on our visa........ a resounding no. F##k, we are told to back track and take a lesser road to Ishim, the road is bad in place's and some of it is being relayed........ more off road riding thank god we got the knobberlies. We eventually get to Ishim, were we stumble across or get lucky and meet a young man called Stan( Stan the man) in a white lada estate. As we talk he mention's Mick and Sue Wheeler (who did a similar trip last year) and takes us to the only hotel in Ishim. The hotel is 2 star at best and expensive compared to other hotels we have stayed at. All we can hope for is clean bedding and hot water, which it has. Stan explain's we can leave our bike's at his garage as they could be stolen, he takes us on a 1 kilometer ride to what looks at first sight as a scrap yard.....this could be dodgeville. Although not to sure, we leave the bike's and Stan drive's us back to the hotel and we agree to meet him later for a drink. As he drive's off we then meet an Austrian chap called Theo, who is riding a 1994 BMW R100RS. With all the stickers on it he must have ridden around the world twice. We again agree to meet Theo and kill two birds with one stone and meet both of them at 9.30pm. We meet at the required time and Stan takes us all to the top restuarant in town, where Stan pays the bill, top bloke. Stan took us back to the hotel and he said he would return in the morning at 09.00am to take us to the bike's. For breakfast we only had a cup of tea and was outside for 09.00am, good to his word he showed up and took us to the bike's. We said good bye and Paul gave him his BMW motorrad key ring as a thank you present and I took a couple of polearoid picture's of them with the bike's and gave them to them, they seemed to be pleased. Stan then procedes to take us to the road for Chelyabinsk, which he tells us is a good road ( it will be when its finished ha ha ha ). In parts it was but again sections where being repaired or resufaced. All this takes it's toll on Paul who starts shivering on the bike. The weather threatens to rain and in sparrodic periods goes from spitting to torrential rain but only for a short time. I don't know if it's a lack of food, sleep or weather but 100 miles from Chelyabinsk Paul is shivering and acheing all over. We make it to Chelyabinsk but the ride has been Paul's worst ride this trip. We find a nice 4 star hotel and book a room for 2 nights so Paul can get better. Tomorow we ride to Kuybyshev and hopefully regain another hour in time. We didn't really allow for the time difference when we were planning the trip, but the time lost going outward will now be hours gained.