May
3

The last stretch (Estonia – Latvia – Lithuania – Kaliningrad – Poland – Germany – NL)

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2017-12-10 This day day I drove into Tallinn, walked around for a couple of hours, and drove out again. Good looking place with a cute, tourist filled, center. I found a nice hamburger place on the road towards Lithuania where I ordered a huge hamburger with fries and coke. After that I drove for about 320 km until I found a place in the forest next to the road. Another night in the car. The next Read More →

Apr
15

Russia 2 Part IV (Barnaul – St. Petersburg)

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2017-11-19 After some rest and social recharging in Barnaul it was time to hit the road again. I drove for 3 days. Driving – sleeping – driving – sleeping – driving and sleeping. Since I’m writing this a few months after the trip, I’m not sure about some details anymore. Pictures tell me I was in Omsk for some minutes to restock on food and take some pictures. I slept in the car close to Read More →

Feb
3

Russia 2 Part III (Aldan river – Barnaul)

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Time to continue this blog! 2017-11-05 In the last post I ended up besides the semi-frozen Aldan river. And it was getting dark. So I decided to drive some kilometers back down the road towards Yakutsk again but quickly became tired and hungry. So I drove off the road into the forest and started making some dinner. The temperature was below -30 and it was rather painful to hold anything metal during the cooking. Also it takes Read More →

Dec
23

Russia 2 Part II (Vladivostok – Yakutsk)

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An icy post. 2017-10-26 (day 283) The trip back to the “what-to-do?”-point took another 4 days. The route was exactly the same as the route to Vladivostok. 3 nights in the car between the trees, one night in Khabarovsk, in the same hostel. 2017-10-29 (day 287) A few kilometers before the junction it started snowing. It was also cold so the road quickly turned white. I turned right, towards Yakutsk. It was getting dark and the sky cleared Read More →

Dec
1

Russia 2 Part I (Border @ Solov’yevsk – Vladivostok)

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2017-10-10 (day 267) Mongolia seems to continue for a bit into Russia after crossing the border. Except, the road type is mainly tarmac, and the plains are more littered with old buildings and ruins. The first camp site was dark and cold. Winter was really setting in now. No more tent from now on I suppose. It all felt a bit strange, since the first main goal was to go to Mongolia, and that goal was met Read More →

Nov
18

Mongolia Part III (Ulaanbaatar – Border Russia)

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2017-09-26 – 2017-09-28 In the 4 days I stayed in Ulaanbaatar, I didn’t see much. A restaurant, Toyota garage and right before leaving, the dinosaur museum and some of the center. Blog writing, socializing and beer drinking in the hostel was relaxing and resetting. The city itself is not really that interesting. Just big, quite modern and shitloads of traffic. On the way to Ulaanbaatar, Brutus’ rear shock absorbers started rattling so it was time to Read More →

Nov
11

Mongolia Part II (Taishir – Ulaanbaatar)

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2017-09-19 The engines of the Germans and British fired up early. This woke me up to a slow morning. I made a standard yoghurt/oats/egg/tea breakfast, checked out the scenery for a bit and fired up my engine too. From there on the world was mine again. A lot of lonely driving through epic landscapes lay ahead. In the first few hours, a clunky noise from under the car became worse and worse. When I took Read More →

Oct
27

Mongolia Part I (Ölgi – Taishir)

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2017-09-11 Pete and Jenny (in Brutus’ clone), Frederik and Charlotte (in their Landy), and me (in Brutus) had crossed the border into Mongolia! Our first encounter with Mongolians wasn’t very successful. We were stopped by someone looking somewhat like a police officer who told us that we needed to get insurance. We walked into a shabby shed, where 3 people asked for our passports and started writing our information in forms. Charlotte was not amused Read More →

Oct
25

Russia I

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2017-08-29 (crossing 24.000 km) The border between Kazakhstan and Russia went super efficient and all officials were very friendly. I was through the whole thing in about 2 hours, which, I think, is a record. The plan was to go to Barnaul, to get some more work done to Brutus, and after that continue towards Mongolia. It was possible to drive all the way to Barnaul, but I found a promising spot on iOverlander, and Read More →

Oct
19

Kazakhstan Part II (Astana – Russian border)

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2017-08-23 We had a good time in Astana, but it was time to get a move on again. Bas had booked a train from Semipalatinsk back to Astana to fly home from there. We found a place on the map called Ridder which we found funny and eastern enough to be feasible for Bas to be able to make it back. The road to the east was under construction, so about 80% of the time Read More →

Oct
14

Kazakhstan Part I (Almaty – Astana)

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2017-08-08 Bas and I woke up in our tent, made breakfast and continued to the little lake, south of Almaty. We took a little walk there among a bunch of other tourists and locals. The lake has a beautiful light blue color and streams ending up in it. Just before we wanted to take a dip, we talked to a woman who told us that wouldn’t be a good idea due to soldiers who wouldn’t Read More →

Oct
7

Kyrgyzstan Part IV (Bishkek – Almaty (kazchstan)

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2017-07-25 Alone again! But only for like a week because my friend bas decided to book a flight to Astana, and take a train to Almaty to join me for a couple of weeks. In Bishkek I did some shopping at the Osh Bazaar and drove off to the west. I wasn’t quite sure what to find there but on the map I found a small lake at the end of a road that seemed Read More →

Sep
27

Kyrgyzstan Part III (Naryn – Issyk Kul – Bishkek)

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2017-07-15 We stayed another night in Naryn after the Ethno festival. When we came back, I headed out to get some beers for the late evening, but after less than one we were too tired to continue and went to bed. The next morning we planned to go south, towards lake Kel Suu in the south. The road was good in the beginning, but quickly began to get worse. From tarmac to gravel to sand Read More →

Sep
21

Kyrgyzstan Part II (Osh – Naryn)

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2017-07-09 After I picked up Ilse from the airport, we drove back to the hostel to drink some tea and talk. We decided to drive off the same day, towards Arslanbob. We tried to find a spot to camp near Uzgen but we only found a lake with a load of rubbish and tons of people fishing. Also tons of insects. So we drove on until we found a nice spot on a hill near Shoro Read More →

Sep
5

Kyrgyzstan Part I (Border – Osh)

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2017-07-01 When Fanny and I crossed the no mans land into Kyrgyzstan, we met 2 Polish brothers, an opera singer and a ballet dancer, who were walking the 20 km road to Tajikistan. We had some tea and biscuits with them and when we wanted to continue, also Seth and Kristy, who I met in Murghab hotel, drove past. They had done the whole Wakan valley and M41 in something like 4 days and on the Read More →

Eastward!

An overland journey from the Netherlands to Mongolia and back

The last stretch (Estonia – Latvia – Lithuania – Kaliningrad – Poland – Germany – NL)

Russia 2 Part IV (Barnaul – St. Petersburg)

Russia 2 Part III (Aldan river – Barnaul)

Russia 2 Part II (Vladivostok – Yakutsk)

Russia 2 Part I (Border @ Solov’yevsk – Vladivostok)

Mongolia Part III (Ulaanbaatar – Border Russia)

Mongolia Part II (Taishir – Ulaanbaatar)

Mongolia Part I (Ölgi – Taishir)

Russia I

Kazakhstan Part II (Astana – Russian border)

Kazakhstan Part I (Almaty – Astana)

Kyrgyzstan Part IV (Bishkek – Almaty (kazchstan)

Kyrgyzstan Part III (Naryn – Issyk Kul – Bishkek)

Kyrgyzstan Part II (Osh – Naryn)

Kyrgyzstan Part I (Border – Osh)