UB

We are sitting in an internet place in UB with the Golden Horde. I (Lionel) have a flight home, unlike anyone else here. They are all stuck. Johannes and them will probably have to train home. Fun times.

Barnaul Russia

After a completely stress free border crossing from Kazakhstan to Russia and a fairly short day of driving (only about 400km) we have made it to Barnaul. Here we checked into a nice hotel for 20 euros a person for the night and had some nice steaks after a well deserved and also well needed shower. Internet in the lobby is free but also dead slow. We are currently uploading some pictures in our "on the road" album, but we will see how well that goes with this internet connection.

After much thinking we have also decided to go back to our original plan on entering Mongolia from the West. This has many reasons, mainly because we talked to the Rally organisers about the roads and vehicle drop off points but also because 3000km in russia with only 7 days of visa might be cutting it tight. We hope to be at the Mongolian border in 2 days from now. Its almost impossible to say how long the trip through mongolia will take from there but a rough "geuesstimate" is 7 days. Again, this is if all goes well.

Its 10:00 pm now and we are both getting tired! Keep reading the blog and sending us sms :) (Not to the Kazakh nr, thats out of service from now on, we hope to get a Mongolian number once there. Will update.)

 Goodnight to all,

Johannes and Lionel  

The Start

Hello again.

Yesterday we got off to a splendid start in Milano. On the way to the startline however the Adventure began a little too early. Suddenly our little KA sounded like a turbocharged V8 supercar... Not that this is a real problem for us, we were however wondering what caused this. A quick check of the engine and a look under the car it became obvious that the exhaust system had rusted through and was now 2 exhaust systems. We decided that this wasnt a fix or die problem so we proceeded to the line anyway. After a quick registration some rally gear and checking out the other teams the mighty rally began with every team getting the opportunity to introduce themselves and drive their vehicle onto the start ramp for a quick picture. The car with the best rally sound you ask? That was of cource us :) After a few revs of the engine all the spectators were in awe of our mighty racing machine and we were promptly rewarded with thundering applause ;)

So, after all the teams had cleared the ramp we pulled up on it again to try to fix our little problem for the drive home. After some handywork with some ductape and a lot of cablebinders the car was purring like a soft little kitten again... for the whole of 5 minutes when all the cablebinders and all the ducttape melted through.... so much for that.

Take 2 of the repairs, this time with wires and aluminum tape held a grand total of 8 minutes. Take 3, which took 1.5 hours to apply was holding strongly for quite a while. Until we hit the motorway... at 130kph our car sounded like that V8 again... So, after about 9 hours of travel, including repairs etc we arrived back in munich at about 2 am deaf and tired.

We leave again soon for Linz to meet up with some rally veterans for some gear and tips. After that its onto the spendid Czechout party near prague for some shenanigans and a whole lot of fun.

PS: Start pictures online :) Also, route on the way back: [HERE](http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=721000) 

Helfende Hände

 

Am 24. Juli findet der Start der Mongol Rally 2010 in Mailand statt, deswegen feiern wir am 21.7. ab 18h unseren Abschied von der zivilisierten Welt. In diesem Rahmen starten wir auch eine Spendenaktion für die Christina Noble Childrens Foundation, wir bitten um "Helfende Hände für die Mongolei" bei der jeder der eine kleine Spende für die Kinder übrig hat, unserern "Rennwagen" mit einem Handabdruck oder Botschaften verzieren darf. Für einige Grills werden wir sorgen, und wir werden auch etwas Fleisch kaufen, das von euch dann zum Selbstkostenpreis von uns erworben werden kann. Natürlich könnt ihr auch euere eigenen Steaks und Würstel mitbringen. Für Bier wird gesorgt sein, natürlich auch zum Studentenpreis ;) Das gesamnte team Yes we KAn ist selbstverständlich vor Ort und wird für gute Laune sorgen ;);) Sagt es euren Freunden weiter, jeder ist eingeladen!

Gefeiert wird in München an der Studentenstadt hinter dem Roten Haus. Bei Fragen oder Anregungen bitte eine Mail an: [email protected]

Endlich Platz auf dem Dach!

Nachdem es langsam in der Uni etwas ruhiger wird und wir uns jetzt mehr um die Rallyvorbereitungen kümmern können, gibt es auch mal einen neuen Blogeintrag. Da wir auf dem Globetrottertreffen in Zellereit jede Menge Kontakte und Informationen gesammelt hatten, haben wir uns letzten Freitag auf den Weg Richtung Ammersee zu Hubert von Your-Tour gemacht. Er hatte uns versprochen, uns mit dem Dachgepäckträgerproblem zu helfen. (Kurzer Nachtrag: Für den Ford KA gibt es jede Menge günstiger Gepäckträger auf dem wohl bekanntesten Internet-Auktionsportal, aber leider hat der KA keine standardmäßige Befestigung dafür. Und leider war das nötige Zubehör auch bei Zulieferern scheinbar nicht mehr zu ordern.)

Nach kurzem Überlegen und Tüfteln war klar, dass es keine schonende Lösung für das Dach geben würde um den Lasten- sowie den Gepäckträger zu befestigen, sodass diese auch bei großen Lasten und beim Bremsen noch halten. Daraufhin haben wir uns entschieden einfach durch das Dach (und den Himmel,der uns hoffentlich nicht auf den Kopf fallen wird) zu durchbohren und Winkel zu befestigen. Das Ergebnis könnt Ihr euch in der Gallery anschaun und uns die Daumen drücken, dass der TÜV davon nichts mitbekommt ;) Auf der Rückfahrt hatten wir dann das Gefühl, als ob wir auch aus Versehen den Tank anbohrt hätten, denn die Tanknadel bewegt sich nun schneller abwärts als die Tachonadel nach oben. Aber das wird uns nicht aufhalten auf unserem Weg in die Mongolei! Weitere News gibts bald...lasst euch nicht ärgern!

Globetrotter meeting

 Last Friday we packed up our gear and headed for this years Globetrotter meeting, which was luckily held a mere 50 minutes drive from Munich. On the way we got a little rally feeling only here it was on perfect roads... We were in high spirits to show off our newly branded vehicle (rally stickers have arrived and look splendid! Pictures will follow) and have everyone admire our beautiful ride, until we got there.

It had been raining for about the last two weeks and the meet was held on a farm meadow, which was no longer green but had turned into a nice brown slosh with very deep tracks. It was then that we saw the first truck. These were heavily modified semi trailers that could easily be self sufficient over many months. To give you a better idea of the size of these trucks we have posted some pictures of the meet in our gallery. We didn't even consider parking our minuscule ride next to one of these monsters so we drove on a little down the road (not that we would have made it through the muddy field anyway...)

The average age of people there was easily above 60 and we guessed that that would be the only time in ones life where one has the money AND the time to undergo such travels. These trucks had literally been everywhere! We met people that had driven around Africa for a year and others who had traveled the whole world for three years.

The most important contact we  made however was a group of people who modified trucks for these trips. After a conversation with them it became clear that they would be our best bet to solve our roof rack problem. Hopefully we can work something out with them in the coming week, we will keep you up to date on that issue.

There were also a couple of presentations from a select few trips that the more adventurous had undertaken, including a presentation of a tour guide who had taken about 15 camper vans along the silk road and back. This presentation included a wealth of information about the Mongolian roads... or more like the lack thereof which in turn gave us a couple more "modification ideas". More on that later.

 

 Tonight we met with "[Freunde der Mongolei](http://www.freunde-der-mongolei.de/ "Freunde der Mongolei")" here in Munich and got a wealth of information and some really great contacts, but more on that in the coming days! Stay tuned.

Munich out.