Listvianka

Here we are in Listvianka, hotel is on the edge of the frozen lake, right opposite the finishing line, at least some things are in the right location.

The room looks out over the lake, it looks immense, just ice stretching as far as you can see.. It looks a lonely place to be.

The flights from UK to Irkutsk were tiresome, we left the UK at 8.40 in the morning, on a relaxed flight, pretty empty so plenty of room, we had bulk head seats so even better.. That was the best bit, we had 4 hrs to kill in Moscow airport, that was ok, now the next flight was meant to leave at 9.15' delayed 1 hr, they then put us on a bus to take us to the plane
and then kept us on it for 15 minutes while they finished getting the plane ready! WHY?

It's now 10.30 pm, the flight was packed, hot and cramped, think Ryanair space, but warmer and overnight, was not good. Slept for about 15 mins.
So glad to be off that flight. Then an hour bus journey to the hotel, which was frozen up on the inside so you could not see out.

The hotel is nice, no one speaks English ( but why should they speak English), some strange practices they have security here which don't seem to like us, we went out for a walk, came back to the hotel and went into the bar to get a hot drink, we had our jackets with us...Obviously not the done thing. You live and learn.

This is the most remote place I have been to, we walked around the town in 30 mins, no shopping here..

This is one of the biggest challenge that I have done, looking forward to tomorrows run, with excitement and anticipation. It will be a long day, as we leave the hotel at 9.30 to get to the other side of the lake where the start is. We start at 11.00am, we have to finish within 6 hrs, this creates problems about fuelling the body.

A decent breakfast followed by gels etc will bet the order of the day.

If you are reading this in the UK , when you wake up on Saturday morning we should have finished all being well:)

This picture is taken near the finish, roughly 26 mile behind us is the
start, what a frightening prospect..

I would like to say a big thank you to everyone who has sponsored us for this race we are very grateful for every penny received.