Finish Line!!!
We finished on the 25th August at about 3pm!!!!!!!!!!!! Wahooo!!! best and worse feeling ever. Best because we made it half the way around the world, and worst because the rally is now over, and life will go back to being normal and therefore miserable.
After repairing our car in Altai we powered on to the next few drop off points, praying that dear old Terrence would not break down again (the exhaust was broken- bracket seperated from another bracket or something). Fortunately ol'Terrence held strong, but the Swift (one of the cars in the convoy)got a hole in its petrol tank (some amazing mechanical skills repaired it, sort of) and of course the micra got a few more punctures.
Turns out the weather in Mongolia isn't too hot, and we started to regret our terrible packing skills (apart from George who brought a jacket), especially as it was freezing at night.
We had a few problems with the tent when in the Gobi desert as it would be calm when we went to bed and then we'd wake up in the night to find the tent was suffocating us and teh outer touching the inner, so we got soaked.
As the weather got worse so did the roads, as the rain mixed with the sand to create very sticky mud. On th eplus side we got loads of puddles to play arouind in, and soon the Suzuki Carry adopted the nickname 'Suzi the Snorkel' due to their antics in EVERY puddle they could find (and river for that matter).
After driving along some pretty trecherous roads we eventually found 400 Km of tarmac. Bliss. Or so we thought. Turns out bad tarmac is worse than bad dirt roads, soon the micra got more punctures, and our suspension soon started to feel the effects of too fats driving over too deep potholes.
After driving through the best archway we had ever seen in our life, Ulaanbaatar in big red sparkling letters, we made our way into the centre - after a few dirt tracks, just to remidn us where we were.
The city was absolute mayhem, and george decided a little excess revving waqs needed, especially now Terrence sounded so mean with his cracked exhaust. Jamie and I were shouting instructions at George (not usually the city driver) to be permanently bumper to bumper with the Carry. Unfortunately (for the carry) George was a little too enthusiastic and took bumper to bumper a little far...and some carry paint was definetly transefered onto Terrence.
After an hour of driving with a map that had English names around a city that had Cryllic, that we eventually found the finish line!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Was a totally amazing feeling - everyone cheering from the balcony, and beeping their horns.
Took loads of photos and finally had a nice cold beer. And booked flights - Business class, oh yeah.
Stayed in the hotel at the finish line, which was pretty dire - brain freeze from the shower. Also every night one of the hotel staff would bang on the door, open it and then tell us to lock it, at 5am. The following day we took a bus to the mad, bussling, crazy market. Before we went we were told by Adventurists Ton that it was an absolute cert that we would be robbed, which was ever so sweet of him. Fortunately thanks to our amazing skills (hand in pocket at all time) we weren't.
On the 27th we visited the Christina Noble Children's Foundation which was one of our best experiences from our trip. The orphanage was pretty pectacular, a damn sight nicer than all of the places we had stayed on the trip, they even had an IT room. The children were lovely, and took my camera so they could all take pictures of their friends. They were so energetic that we were soon totally exhausted.
After the orphanage we went back to the finish line for the fifth week party. The children performed for us, dancing, singing and fighting. A member of CNCF then gave out some Mongol Rally prizes, but unfortunately we didn't get any...obvioulsy din't take enough risks, as one team who one 'balls of steel' turned their car three times in the Altai mountains, and managed to make it all the way (even though they had to be towed the last 5ookm).Â
They then took us onto to a club where there was free vodka and more performances.
Our flight left at 7.30 am so we went to the airport at 4am. Unfortunately we were obviously too hopeful that the flight would leave on time, as our flight actually left 10 hours later. First it was too windy and second the plane was too heavy so half the bags got left in Mongolia, including Jamies.
Having been rather sceptical of Business Class on Mongolian Airlines, we were pleasantly surprised and managed a four course meal, and a film dubbed in Mongolian. Thankfully we were exhausted so slept most of our flight.
Home safe and sound now, missing the rally HUGELY. I urge people that read this to do the rally as it is amazing, and well worth all the costs and organisation - best experience of our lives!
Also we have raised more than £370, but for some reason the charity section on this website doesn't seem to work...
I hope you have enjoyed the blog.
Please send any queries etc to [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected])
