Update: Thu 23:15

Thursday, 1 September

The hotel had a 9:30-11:30 breakfast policy which seems fine except for anyone who wanted to do anything today. On top of that, despite there being almost no-one in the hotel they still insisted I had the requisite breakfast voucher so I had to trudge back over the way to collect it. Some semolina to go with the fried eggs today, though, so it was worth it.

The steppes continue to rival drying paint in the absolute interest factor though they do produce a quite impressive side effect. Given the area of (Western, at least, if not all of) Europe as arable land it should come as no surprise that the fields can be "quite big." My expert eye (remind me, how big is an acre again?) says that some of these fields are the size of British farms. A field of wheat extending to the horizon and not because there's a hill or something but because it really does go as far as the eye can see over the essentially flat plain.

Phalanxes of combine harvesters (of the familiar CLAAS brand -- I wonder if they've been "requisitioned" from Europe too?) roam around. "Tractors" (though they look like the sort of thing you employ for earth moving or hauling 60-tonne tanks out of bogs) pull double trailers of stuff about.

The LP and my GPS were somewhat lacking in sleeping options in Kostanay so I chose to rumble through town and see what there was on offer. Not a huge amount on the edge of town route the GPS was suggesting to get to the main road on the far side. I ended up facing some roadworks barring the way and had missed the fact they said turn right so I wobbled to a halt at the side of the roundabout right in from of the sign saying something involving a picture of a bed and a knife and fork 350m up the road. Can't argue with that and so I'm here in a somewhat nicer place than last night at less than half the price. Go figure.

Currently at lat/long: n53 13.567 e63 35.974

Hotel Ostrov, Kostanay