Bagged a last minute spot on the Sri Lanka rickshaw run! Now to embark on the biggest game of catch up known to man. With so much to do, we're off to the pub. Cheers.
Bayanhongor, Mongolia
After accendentally driving a day in the wrong direction, we made it to a large river crossing. Cross successful. Although one marshall standing in the water had to leap onto bonnet as current pushed our steed straight towards them. Rewarded our 8 year old navigators/co drivers with frisbees & top hats. Used some of our Suzuki water pipe to fit a new fuel pump to an ambulance. Patched up a fuel tank & sump on two cars in our convoy. Awaiting "sheep & rice" for lunch.
Altay, China
Woke with over 80 mossie bites on Pete alone. Terrible road, passed a team with broken rear axle, another with punctures... and no spares. Punctre of our own. Had 3 tyres patched at Rally Repair garage in Altai, home to a rally car grave yard. Bumped into some teams we hadn't seen since Prague.@
Khovd, Mongolia
Awoke to find some of our friends in convoy with buggered battery. After some creative sign language and one electrocution, one totally unsuitable replacement is bodged in and we're off by midday. Beautiful drive through Mongolian landscape, punctuated by two stops to help other ralliers with water leaks. Later, our convoy stops in the absolute middle of nowhere to find a shop and small collection of yurts. The children speak fantastic English which puts us all to shame while we do animal impressions in the 'shop', upon which a huge goats leg was presented to us, alongside beer and firewood. We made camp further downstream after some roof rack surfing (just as it sounds!). We made fire, dug a large hole and buried goat and hot rocks down there together - apparently someone saw Ray Mears do it once on TV. 2 hours and a certain amount of scepticism later we have one perfectly cooked and very delicious goats leg and special fried rice meal. Maybe tomorrow we'll get some miles down!
Ölgiy, Mongolia
After a long day of off-roading (including several miles of 1st gear hill climbig), we arrived in Ulgij and found a bar with attached Yurt accomodation. Trusty lonely planet recommended an 'excellent' bath house. Upon arrival queued in border crossing manner before Pete and Stu ushered rather forcefully by a large Mongolian woman into the same shower cubicle. We can only assume this to be normal behaviour in Ulgij... Moving swiftly on... night in Yurt was great, those things are perfect in the freezing nighttime temperatures here. Progress slow so far. Aiming to clock some miles tomorrow.
Bayan Olgii, Mongolia
Arrived at Mongolian border at midday and handed over our documents. No progress 7 hours later so 20 of us piled into immigration to try to speed them up. We were then invited to spend the night in their customs impound. Don't think they anticipated the antics that a collection of penned-in vodka-fuelled ralliers could produce. After perishingly cold night, they seemed pleased to see the back of us the next day, 24 hours after arriving.
Biysk, Russian Federation
Arrived very late in Biysk, acquired midnight feast of bread and liquid cheese on bran flakes. Ollie of team Mongol Mavericks cornered in the supermarket cheese section by two rather large and very drunk Russian ladies. He hasn't been the same since. Awoke to discover our last hotel for quite some time didn't have hot water technology. Drove deep into the beautiful Altai mountains where we met up with the Cornish ambulance team. Found an amazing campsite on a riverbank - had to cross a rather rickety wooden bridge over some serious rapids to get there. Campfire with plentiful vodka, ukel ** some text is missing **
Semey, Kazakhstan
Just made it back into Russia after very chilly camping in one of the most radioactive areas on earth. Border crossing involved lots of walking back and forth through no-mans land in search of the elusive customs stamp, which only we seemed to lack. Met a Russian chap at the border who upon hearing we were from the UK, asked if I knew 'James' from London.@
Akmola, Kazakhstan
Stu had his first ever car crash - fortunately into the rear of another rallier. Everyone OK. Our car slightly better ventilated at the front now. Other car unscathed. Unwittingly camped in a cannabis field last night, now on our way to the Russian border. May need our remaining tennis ball to bribe the Russian sniffer dogs.
Almaty, Kazakhstan
Being driven around Almaty by a family we met in Aktobe, blacked out Merc, dance music, cognac... now onto some bars with our friendly Kazakh lunatic!
