Countdown to Russia: Day 23. A spanner in the works.

Maybe I should've gone to Milton Keynes after all. Spend half an hour trying to get hold of the legalisation office over the phone; they put me on hold for 25 minutes and then the call gets disconnected. Not impressed. Am trying to find out how much it would cost to have my deed poll certified by a notary or a solicitor, which is one of the requirements before the office can legalise it. A solicitor in Cambridge  has quoted me £80 for basically stamping the damn thing. A pox on the Russian consulate for making me do this. Why they couldn't put my new name in my Russian passport straight away, I do not know.

Can't get hold of the consulate when I call them to find out whether there's been any progress. The phone number, which worked just fine last week, now disconnects when you press '1' for the Russian language option. The English language option gets you nowhere fast as well. Have to go to the consulate first thing tomorrow morning along with my sister, who'll be picking up her passport, to find out exactly what the delay is.

Having trouble editing the Easter Island section of the Chile chapter. I have to cut one of the boxes - either the brief history of the island, the one on the rongorongo script, the one on the significance of the moai or the one on the Birdman cult. It's an impossible choice; it's all important. I'll see if I can incorporate one of the boxes into the main text.

Not an entirely wasted day. Since we don't have internet in the new house yet, spend the afternoon working at Central Library, as well as comparison shopping online for the vital pieces of travel gear I'll need. Find a top of the range trekking rucksack similar to the one offered by the Nomad shop. Perfect. It's significantly cheaper on eBay, though I seem to be doomed to own purple rucksacks; women's trekking gear never comes in sensible colours. My 80-litre Lowe Alpine Sagarmatha should arrive in a few days, and should last me until I'm 40. Now I just need to find a Gore Tex jacket.

Finalise the route around Lake Baikal, squeezing in the Circumbaikal railway, which'll take a whole day, plus time on Okhon Island and in Listvyanka, 'the Baikal riviera'. A couple of days in Irkutsk, and then an overnight train to Ulan-Ude, the capital of the Buryat republic. I need a couple of days to check out both the city, which is rumoured to be 'lively with an Asian feel to it', and the Buddist monastery at the nearby village of Ivolga.

Then it gets tricky: when I tried to look up trains from Ulan-Ude to Ulan Bator, Mongolia, the Russian rail website told me that they're booked up on the day I need to travel, whereas the Real Russia website displays ticket prices, though availability is 'to be announced'. Worrying. Much more of a concern is the booked up train from Ulan Bator to Beijing; there are only three per week and we have to be on the one leaving on August 19th, or Steve will miss his flight. At this rate, he might miss Beijing too; the distances we're covering are way greater than anticipated, and as it stands, we'll get into Beijing on the afternoon of the 20th and Steve will have to decide between the Great Wall of China and the Forbidden City, because we probably won't be able to cram in both. In fact, even one might be a push, since we'll be arriving in a completely new country, neither of us speaking the language, and will have to get our bearings, see the sights, and get Steve to the airport before the end of the day.

Steve's considering flying from Ulan Bator to Beijing to give himself some extra time therre, and I may have to follow suit if there are no train tickets, though ideally, I need to make the thirty-hour train journey in order to see what it's like and to make sure all the kilometre markers are in the right place.

This will be my most challenging trip to date. Travelling in South America is a breeze by comparison.