During our rallye, we did wonder what that 'road' would look like after 
only a hint of rain, or <gasp> even snow....:))

http://englishrussia.com/?p=315

(even the hard/tarmac roads have pot-holes so deep that even the largest 
Russian semi-military trucks have to avoid them....which means that after 
rain, with puddles of in-assessible depth, be it tarmac or dirt/gravel, 
driving them at any significant speed equals plain simple Russian 
Roulette....)
(and without speed, you get stuck on those dirt roads....:))
(we concluded that the only way to drive such dirt roads after rain would 
be in the (literal) slip-stream of a truck-driver with *very* up-to-date 
local knowledge of that road, being able to dream/visualize all those 
potholes from the dry season....:))



Recent article in a German 4x4 magazine about the scout-tour for a second 
rallye that took place this year, Berlin-Shanghai: 

'....the last 678km east of Irkutsk are worse than the most horrifying 
African washboard-piste, only bearable by lowering air-pressure....'

(1x TLC HZJ78, 1x TLC HZJ-105)






-- 
Bye,

Willem-Jan Markerink

      The desire to understand
is sometimes far less intelligent than
     the inability to understand


[note: 'a-one' & 'en-el'!]