Altay, China
11 300 miles, had a crazy drive to altai, lots of ralliers and nearly everyone breakin springs, shocks n sumps, luckily we have a bullet proof sump that has saved us a million times, thank you charlie! At a mongol rally garage to fix the ambulance tomorrow while we change another of our broken springs, had the best meal ever after a whole day of driving, about to go to sleep in the restaurant and have our first shower in 3 weeks, the ghobi desert left us completely covered in dust and the whole inside of the car under about an inch of dust, only 2 more days of driving left
Khovd, Mongolia
10 000 miles. Pretty landscapes across the mountains, had to get all 8 of us to push the ambulance up a hill, got a ride on a mongol motorbike, eaten some good food and lots of super noodles, lots of teams around and lots of hyundais!, havin a great time and so is kim, our dear leader
Barnaul, Russian Federation
10 500, drove through the worlds most radiated city and then back across russia, hot in day and freezing at night, went for a swim in a very chilly mountain river, driving good roads through the beautiful scenery of the altai region, seeing lots of other ralliers
Semey, Kazakhstan
10 000 miles, drove up north by the tian shan mountains and then hit two very large bumps just outside semey, cracked a spring and damaged the bearings but car is all good still, heading to the russian border now with dino and up in to altai mountains, getting very cold after sunset
Almaty Province, Kazakhstan
9100 miles, did a 36 hour stint to almaty then drove off to a lake a stayed in a £2 a night hotel, met up with team dino again
Aktobe, Kazakhstan
7500 miles. Making our way across terrible roads, got ourselves beached on a 6 inch deep dusty nightmare of a road but towed to safety. found another team in a fiat 126 broken down and towed them to another town where we managed to fix it despite kazakhs saying it was dead, fixed a hole in our sump, caused by rust not the massive whacks the guard's been taking, and fixed the exhaust, which got a bit loud. So left with fixed cars and some tasty food in us and the fiat broke 5 minutes down the road, so were carrying on alone now, and enjoying the cool desert evenings and starry sky@
Bekdash, Turkmenistan
bad news, we didn't bring enough dollars to the border and couldn't get in to turkmenistan, so we are doing the epic route across kazakhstan, braving the bad roads and harsh desert, had 1 puncture and almost lost the car when the road disappeared beneath us into a steep pit
Aqtau, Kazakhstan
6200 miles had another night in the car then went for a swim and wash in the river, which was very much needed, only to find a dead body on the shore, so we decided not to wash and carry on, hit a 200 mile stretch of terrible roads through desert and camped in the middle of nowhere with a brilliantly clear starry sky, just eat an amazing melon from the side of the road and heading to 50+ oC turkmenistan tonight, car is still alive@
Almaty, Kazakhstan
5500 miles, had a pleasant drive across russia (only $8 in bribes paid) and a nightnare cross in to kazakh, had to empty the whole car while 5 border guards eyed all our stuff and asked for 'presents', then harrased by packs of present hungry children and finally on to some very choppy roads through dry steppe landscapes with only goats and camels. So hot it makes your eyes sting, books fall apart, batteries die and 5 litres of water a day leave you thirsty, but the car is taking it all, sump guard already taking a beating, but we're looking forward to the even worse roads to come@
Kerch, Ukraine
Spent a nice few days travelling through the Ukraine with the Crusaders, but had to part due to visas. We followed the black sea all the to the Crimea and then spent a little while on a beach! Just spent 9 hours at the ukranian border, next we have a small ferry to Russia, border guards wanted money but a nice russian woman put a stop to that! Russian customs next!! Xx
