....Crazy few days!.....The haircut never materialized but I managed to get some antibiotics over (or under!) the counter to deal with my toothache...Visited the now retired nuclear powered icebreaker LENIN which is one of the few "visitor" attractions in Murmansk...It was pretty interesting although the guide who could speak good English decided not to do so and conducted the whole tour in Russian....The visit ended with us being sat in a room and subjected to a propoganda film in Russian explaining the joys of nuclear power!...Then visited the Murmansk State museum which had it's interesting moments....
....We were glad to finally leave Murmansk...Our new friend Igor wanted us to stop another week there and go into the hills with him at the weekend on his quad bike (a Rotax CCM) but we just had to go!....Our first day heading south took us about 150 miles to Kandalaksha...We went straight to the port to see if it was possible to get a ship to Archangelsk....Nyet!...so pretty knackered, we headed into town to find a hotel... 
....Just as Ruth was checking out the second hotel (the one next to the war memorial made out of an old tank), I was approached by Olga, a lady offering us a room on the Kola Peninsula....It sounded good so we followed her car for 25km and ended up at a beautiful wooden house on the shores of the White Sea.....It was lovely...Dinner was soon on the table....lots of vodka flowed and we had a great night.....It was nice to be in Russia and not worry about locking up the bike....

...The following day was gruelling.....229 miles south...The road was hard...and just didn't exist in parts....there was about 30 miles of dug up road to navigate which I find quite hard 2-up with all the luggage...We met quite a few bikers heading north to a festival in Murmansk....Getting south of the Arctic Circle was the highlight of the day...We stopped to take photos and have a coffee....We were both a bit sleepy by the end of the day....
....Yesterday we decided to get the boat (minus the bike) to the Solvetsky Islands in the white sea where there is an old Russian Orthodox Monastery.....To be honest it was all a bit of an anticlimax (read s**t!)....At one point it had been used as a gulag but revived as a monastery during Peristroika....Despite the revival, the monks all looked really miserable as did all the faces in the icons....The highlight of the day was the boat journey by far!....Despite there being quite a few tourists on the boat, no information is made available in English....They're really missing out there on coining it in!....
...The Dunlop Arrowmax is doing it's job well so far.....

.....Today 172 miles south to Medvegjorsk....Blue skies all day, liner out of the jacket,....only about 10 miles without road, the rest of the road was great.....arrived in the town.....Checked out the first hotel (again next to a war memorial made out of a tank)....went onto the the next which is a cabin by a lake.....had a swim, sorted....internet sorted and made plans for the days ahead.......