Mother Russia welcomed us into her bosom with great weather and scenery, as if in direct competition with Mongolia. The start of the Altai mountains are spectacular, and I’m sure there’s more to come. The big difference here is, you can actually take your eyes off the road for more than 2 seconds to enjoy it!

We rode through amazing gorges, canyons and alongside rivers as we descended from over 6000ft to around 3000. As my thoughts wondered, I realised that I’ve ridden my bike higher than I’ve ever flown a hang glider. I’d never have thought that, I guess I didn’t quite get to the peak of flying – it was still pretty awesome though.