Evershot, UK

on our way, two jump starts already, good times

Evershot, UK

Testing from HQ

Job Done

We have made it! We rolled over the finish line on the 3rd of September at midday and fired off the bottle of champagne that we were kindly donated by the Bonds six weeks ago. As many of you may have seen we have not been on the blog for a long time so there is much for you to be updated on - including our 6 punctures and how the Micra carried 2 teams and 7 people's luggage over the finish line! Its a story of epic proportions so please forgive us for not updating the last two weeks all at once but I hope to have the whole story up very shortly so stay tuned. Thanks again for your continuing support!

Atyrau, Kazakhstan

Ferry to Russia including customs leaving Turkey and Entering Russia took 33 hours, ferry was very hot as had sat in the boiling sun all day...so the eventual crossing was very uncomfortable! Entering Russia was slow but we managed it eventually but along with team mongoliA35 we were refused car insurance on the condition that as it was now 6 pm on a Saturday evening it was now holiday. Undeterred we managed to get our cars out of the port security with out it. We made the decision to carry on into Russia as we could not afford to lose more time though we were all conscious of the notorious Russian police. We crossed Russia in convoy with team cheese on toast, mongoliA35, and the Jenner job. Overall stopped 10 times by police, broke one road law and had to pay a fine and were asked for £100 as we did not totally stop at a police checkpoint. Also stayed in a strange hostel which had a lion and a bear as pets! Entered Kazakhstan yesterday afternoon after unpacking the car twice, giving out lots of chewing gum as 'presents' and watching the police try to steal our iPods... On our way early this morning traveling a steady 30 miles an hour as the roads are awful but still Tarmac for the moment! Managed to pick up some Russian vodka for the big birthday celebrations tomorrow! The worm is running sweetly and has completed 4341 miles so far. Over and out from the front line.@

Trabzon, Turkey

 

Rıght, sınce the last update from Serbıa we have drıven straıght through Bulgarıa to Istanbul as the roads were practıcally no exısıstent and there ıs not an awful lot to see there! We drove for 17 hours from Belgrade to Istanbul wıth a few stops along the way for food and boarder crossıng.

We arrıved at Istanbul at about 1.30am and we stayed wıth some frıends ın the compound were I used to lıve. Many thanks to Fıona and Andrew for lookıng after us so well durıng our stay. We spent Tuesday lookıng around Istanbul and then we set off for Trabzon early Wednesday mornıng.

We dıcıded to take the coastal route along Northern Turkey to Trabzon but ı turned out to be a bad choıce. The road was wındıng and we barley got out of 3rd gear.Much of the narrow mountaınous roads were not properly surfaced and the route was slow. However. the vıews were spectacular and we eventaully made ıt to Trabzon late yesterday evenıng. We met up wıth 3 other teams all on the same ferry and we plan on convoyıng wıth them to the Kazak boarder.

The ferry ıs expected to leave at 5 today and take 12 hours across the black sea, so ıf all goes well we wıll be at Kazacstan boarder by tuesday. Overall the car ıs doıng us proud ın the 115 degree heat and all ıs goıng to plan....although we hear all the problems start ın Russıa!

, English Channel

left England and on the ferry to france the micra is running like a dream see you all in 6 weeks!

New Photos

Please look at the 'gallery' to the left for some new photos of the Micra!