Ruben Martin

Ruben Martin
Of Lamb Chop
On the The Mongol Rally 2011
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FINISH LINE!!!

Well today (wednesday) 3pm I made it to the finish line in Ulan Bataar!!!

I left Ulan Ude yesterday morning and arrived at the Mongolian border at exactly midday. 8:30pm I left. There was a lot of paperwork to do with bringing the car into Mongolia. While I was waiting in the customs office, a Kamaz logging truck went through the quarantine drench, then the driver hopped out and left the handbrake off. Well it rolled down the slope, over a lavender garden and was halted by two brand new garbage trucks. Awesome. Those trucks saved my cars life. It's amazing how much mongolians spit.

Driving through Mongolia is great, such beautiful scenery. The outskirts of UB were dusty rough patches of road. Near the CBD a Mongolian dude who spoke good english, led me to the finish line in the middle of the city. FNISH!!! a bit of paperwork and now all I have is my backpack.

The adventurists have a bar and restaurant here, staying at a dingy motel next door. 12 teams are here with another 20 expected to arrive in the next 24 hours. The border posts phone the guys here letting them know we're on our way.

Will let you all know how the finish line party goes on Saturday night! The camel will be there, karaoke is popular in Mongolia so I'll be at home.

Ruben Martin
Of Lamb Chop
On the The Mongol Rally 2011
HIGHLIGHT ON MAP
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ulan-ude

I have spotted another team here! maybe they have a map or satnav, or a clue on how to get to the border, because I have diddly squat.

 

Get this, Russian council workers wear forest camo overalls....?? even in the city!

 

There's a huge water fountain here that shoots heaps of different jets to the tune of classical music, it's quite speccy. 

Ruben Martin
Of Lamb Chop
On the The Mongol Rally 2011
HIGHLIGHT ON MAP
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Tomorrow is Mongolia

10 August - Got lucky today and had a nice lunch at a Kafe. Cabbage soup, some pork dish with mashed potato and a tomato salad. In russia a tomato salad is half a tomato, sliced, put on a plate....but it was nice. Just after hitting the road I spotted team 'texas2steppe' waiting for a gas station to open. They have blown 3 tyres already from rubbing on the rear fenders. So out came some pliers and crowbar and the 3 men from New York made some more room for the wheels. We convoyed into Novisibirsk and arrived by midnight, pouring rain. 

11 August -  There are bugger all signposts when you get into the bigger places, so following the flow of traffic trying to stay on the highway inevitably gets me lost a few times. Asked a dude for directions in Kamerovo and he jumped in the passenger seat and showed me the way out of town!

12 August - I thought today I could do a big one and do 1300kms to Irkutsk, the the roads turned to dirt, potholes as big as my car and rain, heaps of rain. So I found a camping spot 500km short between the highway and trans-siberian railway. There is a train every 10 minutes!

13 August - roads bad again today, got some rattling noises from the fornt of the car somewhere now. Made it to Irkutsk, couldn't find a hostel/motel, got lost, got directions kept driving around Lake Baikal towards Ulan-Ude. I found a nice camping spot 400km from UD, rain rain rain, Lake Baikal looks like an ocean!

Today - Got to Ulan-Ude and it is a much nicer place than Irkutsk. Staying in an old soviet style motel tonight and heading for the border tomorrow!

Ruben Martin
Of Lamb Chop
On the The Mongol Rally 2011
HIGHLIGHT ON MAP
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on the road

Knocking up the k's now. Averaging about 600km a day.

Crossed the Ural's yesterday. There was a truck hooning over the top and was on the brakes hard on the way down the other side. Then there was smoke, his brakes were NYET!.

Russians are definately the craziest drivers on the planet.  Anyway I am now in Yekaterinburg and am staying the night here. Turns out this place has 1.3 Million people in it, so it wasn't hard to find a cafe with internet.

 Heading to the Ural Motorbike factory in Irbit hopefully tomorrow, then onwards for MONGOLIA!!!

Yesterday I was topped by the ARC traffic  cops. They stand on the side of the road swinging this red and white baton. Every now and then they wave someone over to check documents. He liked the Camel. 

 

Ruben Martin
Of Lamb Chop
On the The Mongol Rally 2011
HIGHLIGHT ON MAP
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soon i will be moving

Hello all, I am now in Tallin by myself. Uncle Martin has flown home due to health reasons. The mighty Clio wont be ready until 7pm tonight, so am spending another night in trendy Tallin. Team leaders on leave are at the russian border having a lot of trouble getting through...something about an old style passport. Ill hopefully catch up with them tomorrow and convoy.

The hold up is a left hand side front wheel beering which is also cactus. I think most of tomorrow will be spent at the border.

Here goes!

Ruben Martin
Of Lamb Chop
On the The Mongol Rally 2011
HIGHLIGHT ON MAP
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Estonia with a French car = long time

We have arrived in Tarnu Estonia, thinking we should have no hassles getting the car fixed before Russia.....um no.

Estonians don't like French automobiles.....Our right hand CV joint can be fixed in Tallin next Wednesday. But honestly I don´t really mind. Going to try Kiiking which is trying to do a 360 while on a swing. Our Russian visa starts today, so we will have 25 days to discover Russia.