We had to get up early today and were wide awake before nine in the morning. Before starting the car, I stood peering out of the window and was gobsmacked: the herdsmen who look after the cows around here don't ride horses like in the films; they follow the cattle on noisy motorbikes! How times change; even the animals have to adapt to modern technology. We set off towards Bayanaul, covering about 80 kilometres before reaching the village and its famous Lake Sabyndokol. This place is quite unique because its name means "soap lake", as its waters are incredibly soft and, according to local legend, the women in the area used to come here to wash their hair because it left it shining, something that Uncle Joan, with his expert hairdresser’s eye, surely found most intriguing.

Immediately afterwards, we headed into Bayanaul National Park, which was a radical and wonderful change after digesting so many kilometres of endless steppe. Suddenly, the landscape transformed, and craggy mountains appeared, along with rock formations in the most bizarre and beautiful shapes. We would have loved to hop out for a proper walk to nose around every rock, but the weather took a turn for the worse and it started bucketing down. As walking in the rain isn't anyone’s favourite plan, we pulled over by the side of the road for an hour to have a good lunch, tucked up inside the camper while listening to the drops drumming on the roof. With full bellies, we continued the route towards Ekibastuz, a city known globally for its massive open-cast coal mines and its purely industrial soul. Dad would have loved to detour to see the colossal chimney of the GRES-2 power station, a concrete monolith that holds the record for being the tallest chimney in the world at an impressive 420 metres, but it would have meant a huge detour and, honestly, seeing a giant grey pipe wasn't all that.

We decided to bypass the city entirely without stopping for even a second and carried on eating up the miles. After a total slog of 370 kilometres in the car, we reached Pavlodar... or well, nearly, because just before crossing the great bridge over the Irtysh River that leads into the city, we spotted the saviour of the day. We found the perfect place to sleep in a beautiful forest very close to the riverbank. We are completely surrounded by sturdy trees, and it’s just as well we tucked ourselves in here, because they are acting as a shield against the tremendous wind that has picked up outside. Time to curl up in my corner of the camper and rest, sheltered from the storm.