Today we kept to our routine of driving directly and avoiding any gravel roads. We left the hotel at 07:00, made it to Novosibirsk by 13:00 and by 13:30 had already handed in our bags of dirty clothes. Better to get that in early before the 200+ other participants overwhelm the hotel with their laundry.
As the spare part is only arriving tomorrow, there isn’t anything which can be fixed yet. Mario went to get the Mongolian dust out of the car, and I went to get it taken out from under my fingernails.
As it was the eve of a rest day, some of the competitors went out to a bar after dinner. When I last did the rally in 2013, all the under 40s would go out together but as there are not many young people taking part this time, the age range was extended to include the under 60s.