Greg Thomas

Greg Thomas
Of Does My Yak Look Big In This
On the The Mongol Rally 2011
HIGHLIGHT ON MAP
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Altai Republic, Russia

The rumours are true: Rus/Mongolia western border is closed Sundays! Will have 2 wait 'til tomorrow. We have been warned queues get messy & the crossing can take an entire day! No-mans land is approx 10 miles wide! Few days ago the coolant system decided to have a laugh & empty itself! Don't know where it went! After losing 3L every 2hrs we put an entire bottle of radweld in,which slowed leak to 1L/day. Let's hope it holds!

Greg Thomas
Of Does My Yak Look Big In This
On the The Mongol Rally 2011
HIGHLIGHT ON MAP
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Semey, Kazakhstan

Finally some phone reception! After more visa issues & missing out Tajikistan, we can only enter Russia on 20th, so we have a wait before the last push through Mongolia! Let's hope nothing goes wrong! Done about 7500 miles I think - lost count! Lost sanity too! Police everywhere and all bent on finding something wrong with our paperwork! When we're stopped, they all ask about football and Wayne Rooney... Deluded fools! Hahaha! TTFN@

Greg Thomas
Of Does My Yak Look Big In This
On the The Mongol Rally 2011
HIGHLIGHT ON MAP
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Karakol, Kyrgyzstan

Distance: 6800 miles Speeding tickets: 2 Exhaust: Noisier Location: Karakol, Kyrgyzstan Weather: Hot. Dry. Sunny. Lovely. Sorry for the lack of updates - we've had phone problems ever since Iran. We can't connect at all. There will be more gaps ahead, as we travel across places that aren't aware of mobile phones... We're in sunny Kyrgyzstan! Stunning place. Went for a swim this morning in a crystal clear lake, surrounded by snop capped peaks! Awesome! Car had it's first blip this morning - it ran out of coolant and started to overheat! We filled it back up, and will keep an eye on it. Also, door locks have vibrated loose on the dodgy roads and tracks! Nicked some screws from the rear doors and hope nothing else falls off! In all - good! Running low on food, so starting to sample the local delicacies. We ordered some shish kababs, and got 6 sticks full of liver. Hmmm.... TTFN!

Greg Thomas
Of Does My Yak Look Big In This
On the The Mongol Rally 2011
HIGHLIGHT ON MAP
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Samarqand, Uzbekistan

Finally! A computer that works, and that can let me login to the Adventurists website! Apologies for the lack of updates so far, my phone doesn't seem to work ever since we were in Iran. Tim's sim works in my card, and that's about it. I guess we'll configure that to work on the updates.

We're in Samarqand in Uzbekistan! Lovely here, and after some serious thinking and some tasty local food (and a chat with other travellers coming from the East) we have decided to bail on Tajikistan. It all started when we found out that my Tajik Visa has the wrong date on, and they only gave me 4 days to travel a route that would normally take 6! So, in the end - we've had to avoid that country. Not only that, due to the shorter route, we thought we could get to Mongolia quicker - oh no! More visa problems - we can only get into Russia from the 20th August! 10 days later than we requested. Genius. Lets see how this goes... The remainder of the route from the Russian border normally takes about 8 days if we don't break down... fingers crossed!!!

So - some facts so far

Miles: About 6000 done, 4000 ish to go

Exhuast: Nearly dead

Rattles: More

Fuel: Crap. Octane 80 makes the poor little suzuki pink like there's no tomorrow. We need some booster stuff!

Roads: Uzbek roads: The good ones are poor. The poor ones are dire. The Awful ones you avoid and use the verge or field!

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