Coming into Chita today, or rather on the way out of Chita I saw my first tank. Rather disappointingly it wasn’t for sale and I couldn’t have a go. Still, it was worth a photo so I pulled over. I think Chip and Ken just wanted to get out of the city, as it was getting late and we were looking to wild camp again.

About an hour before, Chip had dropped his bike. No big deal as it was low speed, it could have been any of us. Ken’s GPS took us down a closed road that was all dug up. As we went back onto the main road there was a difficult hump of gravel to negotiate whilst joining the fast moving traffic. Down it went.

No damage, but it does spoil your day somewhat. Poor Ken copped it for going the ‘wrong’ way, luckily I’m not a good enough friend or it would be my fault as well! I know what it’s like though, so no harm done. We stopped at a fairly large shop and stocked up of supplies. There was an ATM as well so we cashed up.

There was quite a crowd building outside, mostly young lads interested in our trip. One of them introduced himself as the local gangster! But like all encounters so far it was good natured, one guy Yuri insisted on giving me his LED light keyring.

It was a good enough break to restore the mood before we headed off to find a camp spot.