More fun Internet stuff to do today! The second leg of my flights to Canada is with Ukrainian-based AeroSvit Airlines, which has a super-budget website with insufficient security to satisfy payment by SFCU credit card AND a non-functioning fax machine at the Toronto office. (My hope is that the money they are saving there is being used for airplane maintenance...) I had to write (print, sign, and scan in) a letter authorizing them to charge the new plastic. W
ith this accomplished - and finding out that my Aussie visa was granted within 16 hours! - I headed back to the hotel to pack up my stuff and get on the eastward road. Saw with great joy that my front tire had a flat, which turned out to be located at an old inner tube wound. Patched this and picked up a few new spokes (just in case!) at the local repair shop 200m from the hotel, where the mechanic was still bargaining to buy my multi-tool from me - and was offering $5 on the original $20 item. I passed. 
ith this accomplished - and finding out that my Aussie visa was granted within 16 hours! - I headed back to the hotel to pack up my stuff and get on the eastward road. Saw with great joy that my front tire had a flat, which turned out to be located at an old inner tube wound. Patched this and picked up a few new spokes (just in case!) at the local repair shop 200m from the hotel, where the mechanic was still bargaining to buy my multi-tool from me - and was offering $5 on the original $20 item. I passed. 
Finally made it the highway around 1500h and was treated to some gently rolling hills with about 100m of topographic variation. Had great fun racing the heavily laden trucks uphill, with the drivers cheering me on as I out-peddled them at a ripping 15km/h pace!
The downhill sections - normally the most fun - were a little bit more onerous due to the rippled pavement that jolted both cyclist and luggage with frequent upward stabbing motions. Being a little saddle sore, I stopped at a cafe at the 50km mark and had the requisite Kazakh dinner and warm beer, before heading 5km down the road to my roadside camping spot 40m perpendicular into the thinned out woods.
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