After coming back from The Gambia we stayed a night at Jo's (thanks, Jo!) and then took the eurostar for Mark's stag do on the Saturday night. It was great seeing all the lads again and catch up, including Sauce and the General who I hadn't seen for about 8 months. On the Sunday we took the train to Koln and then another to Warsaw, spending just a few hours in each city. Both seem pretty cool places to hang out, we were sorry that we didn't have more time there. From Warsaw we took a 20 hour train to Moscow, and we've been in the Russian capital for 3 days now. Done all the touristy things like Red Square, Kremlin, Mosova river etc. - Lots of mooching and also sampling of Russian Vodka (v nice) quite a few bars stay open until the morning here which is good :). Tonight we take a train to Irksuk, where we stay by Lake Bikal for a few days. It's an 88 hours trip(!) - 4 nights and 3 days - the longest I have ever done (or ever intend to do!) - should be interesting......

We got our tickets sorted for The Gambia and I'm writing this from an internet cafe by our hotel, which is on the atlantic coast a few miles west of Banjul, the captial. It's the end of the season here - one of the reasons why the holiady was so cheap I guess - but the weather is still nice, not too hot and with a nice breeze. The rainy season starts in a month or so. We're trying to take things easy and not spend too much money as we will need it later! Still not sure whether we are going to go all the way to Beijing, but the SARS problem seems to be getting a bit better there. Perhaps by the time we are due into China it will be fine and we'll be able to stick around for a few days and explore.

Just arrived in London a few days ago, flying from Inverness to Luton. The previous week or so we have been on a fantastic trip on the Lord of the Glens, a ship sleeping about sixty people, from Inverness to Oban, via Loch Ness, Skye and Iona. Helen managed to swing a good deal for us from her ex-work and we had a fantastic time wandering around the Highlands when the Ship Docked. The last couple of days in London have been pretty stressful, obtaining train tickets and visas etc. - but I think we are pretty much set now. We are off to The Gambia (hopefully - I still don't have ticket details from Lastminute.com) on Friday, return two weeks later and take the Eurostar to Brussels for Mark's stag night, then we get the train onwards on the Monday to Warsaw and Moscow.