Radiator Blues

After a promisingly early start from Olgii this morning, we ran into trouble about 40 km outside the town whenour radiator sprang a leak after running aground on some nasty tire ruts. We got a tow partway from a nice construction worker, then managed to cruise the remaining downhill distance back in to town in neutral. The mechanic assured us he could fix it, and proceeded to remove the radiator, rip out the damaged bits, replace the hoses, and epoxy the whole thing back into place. He also replaced the guard over our oil filter, which we lost somewhere along the way. The drive back to the hotel was promising - no overheating - but the real test will be tomorrow when we push on to Khovd. The mechanic's parting wisdom was "when you see a rock, get out and move it or find another way around. If you can't, camp".

Sure thing ...only 1700 km to go.


Baku to Almaty

Well, been awhile since an update - but then again, been awhile since we had reliable internet. In brief, here's what happened since we left Tbilisi with a now spot-free Kiavash:

1) Drove to Baku across some stunning mountains in Azerbaijan, camping at a restaurant en route - a taxi driver helped us with directions and then a pulled over, phoned his son who spoke English, and had him explain to us that the roads got better and where to turn. Super nice. Baku had a lovely old town, though we spent most of our time repeatedly visiting the port.

2) Ferry from Baku to Turkmenbashi - not nearly so sketchy as reported, but definitely hard to find. Got on board and the captain was giving out shots of something. See Dave, I said there'd be a welcome drink. Managed to score breakfast, too!

3) Entering Turkmenistan - 16 windows and about 8 hours later, we were in. Brad gets hero points for negociating the car importation while the rest of us watched Olympic showjumping.

4) Turkmenistan - odd place, lovely people. A traffic cop stopped us just to give us a watermelon. We ran over a pipe and punctured our gas tank with a three inch hole, only to get a free tow from the first trucker we flagged down to the nearest city. where a mechanic patched it up in two hours flat while feeding us melon and tea. 

5) Uzbekistan - Samarkand and Bukhara were beautiful. Photos as soon as we can!

6) Kazakhstan border crossing - required a painful 100 km u-turn due to a closed border post at Tashkent. Bored border guards incessantly asked us for Mongol Rally tshirts. Ended up spending the night in Shymkent, not Almaty. On the plus side, we lost our spare tire on the highway and some nice truckers stopped, picked it up, and chased us down to return it. Thanks guys!!

7) Almaty - lattes, the Gap, and a hotel with cloud-soft beds. What's not to love?

Next up: Semey! Should take two days or so.

Goodwood to Budapest

Having had our day to prep, we rolled into Goodwood only a touch late and lost, stalling three times as we tried to get into the muddy campground. We put up our tents and enjoyed a cold dinner of salad, cheese, and smoked fish. Amy and I gave the rest of the team their presents, 5 flasks with outdoor themes and their initials on them - these were promptly put to good use with Scotch Brad brought. The party wore well into the evening as the rain came down harder, with everyone ending up crowded in the bar tent. It was nice to meet other teams but by the end we were all quite wet and muddy.

In the morning we packed up and went to the Goodwood Speedway for the Festival of Slow. We were shown to a stall, which was thankfully covered, since the rain continued to come down in torrents. Brad finished the application of our snazzy wave decals, and we were feeling pretty ok about the whole thing - only to be selected by the organizers as the winner of the prize "Team Least Likely to Make It". Being good sports we went up and gave a rousing acceptance speech, followed by a failed attempt to win a tire-changing competition (note: pump jack must be able to reach the bottom of the van in order to change tires). Shortly after that, we were off to Calais, which we made in record time on a train. 

A brief night in Calais was followed by a long drive to Germany, where we fell short our goal and stopped in Koblenz instead of Hiedelberg. Koblenz ended up being a beautiful stop at a fork in the Rhine river, dotted with churches and winding medival roads. From Koblenz we headed straight to the Czech republic for the Czechout party. A night of madness in a 13th century castle, we enjoyed shisha, beer, tea and many new friends - plus some intense renditions of Stan Rogers songs with other Canadian teams. Others had a more interesting time, not the least of whom was a guy we met on the way back to the campsite wearing a dress and going barefoot because he'd traded his shoes to the bartender for a beer. Good times were had by all.

The next day, among the least hungover of teams, we rocketed out of Czech through Slovakia, and into Hungary, landing in Budapest as the sun set. Enthusiasm over stunning views of architecture along the Danube and warm, non-rainy wheather was slightly overshadowed by our inability to find a hostel with room for us, but eventually we landed at Thumbs Up Hostel and found our way to a funky bar for dinner, where Dave was creamed by Brad in a foozeball tournament for the ages.

Countries crossed: 7

Coffees consumed: 51

Litres of alcohol consumed: 20

Cigarettes smoked: 17

Backseat driving infractions: 32

Bribes paid: $0

Next up: Belgrade

Picking up our Porter

So after catching a flight to London and staying at Kiavash's lovely aunt's place, the day finally arrived to pick up our van from Mark. We took the train to Potter's Bar, a taxi to Mark's farm, and as we bumped down the dirt track leading to the farmhouse - what did we see but our Porter driving towards us! Mark gave a friendly toot and pulled over. He had wanted to take it for a quick wash before we came, but we were too keen and arrived early. We turned back to the farm, paid the taxi, and got out to inspect our beautiful car.

And wow, is it awesome. And tiny. We chatted and Mark showed us the ropes - then it came time to take off, as we had a long trip to Bristol ahead of us to get parts. As we drove out, we had to stop at a hill - and of course, stalled trying to get out. As we rolled backwards down the hill, Mark pulled up beside us to give us an impromptu lesson in the fine art of starting a manual on a hill. Parking break engaged and a firm rev later, we were off to Bristol.

The trip went very well, after getting quite lost for a bit, the GPS Kiavash's aunt loaned us came in quite handy. We hit the highway and pushed the car to its max 120 km/h. It shifted beautifully and hummed (well, whistled - no one can say it's a quiet car) down the road.

After a quick pub stop for lunch, we arrived at the garage in Bristol to load up on parts. The mechanic there gave a quick look to the car and pronounced his approval - though he was quite puzzled as to why we were doing this trip. The funniest moment came when he asked how many people do this - when we told him almost 800 will be participating this year, he burst out "so there are that many idiots out there!" with a good natured chuckle.

Parts acquired, we headed back to London - no easy feat in rush hour traffic, but we made it by 8 pm in time for a nice family dinner with Brad and Amy, as well as Kivash's cousin and partner. 

 

Dave and Kiavash doing our first off-roading in the Porter at Mark's farm.


World's tiniest dream catcher for our rearview mirror.


Dave trying to get some quiet time to do a phone interview with CBC, rally-style. 

 

Ignition Party - Success!

Incredibly kind and generous friends, colleagues, family, and random acquaintances came together on June 1st to get down, party, and raise some truly awesome cash - just over $2,000! - for our two charities, Cornerstone and Lotus Children’s Centre.  

A shindig like this can’t go on without a whole village of support, and Five Crew Canoe wants to send a grateful shout out to everyone who made ignition possible: our doorkeepers Drew and Katherine, our heavy lifters Brennan and Mike, rockstar bartenders Tyler and Sarah, beer salesman extraordinaire Julien, fixer Lisa, game-masters Mike and Tamara, fundraising pros Josh, Lydia, and Robin, elected rep and friend Paul, our fantastic sound team Alex and Matt from [Raven Street Studios](http://www.ravenstreet.com/), Nat for her tech loans, my dad for fixing that damn remote control car, the fine folks at [Beau’s beer](http://www.beaus.ca/), [Wall Sound](http://www.wallsound-lighting.com/)…

And extra-special adventure love goes out to our music masters DJ Meera and the [Dustbowl Daddies](http://www.myspace.com/thedustbowldaddies). 

On to photos of the revelry!


One of our star bartenders Tyler - he's so happy because we just fixed a foamy key (Mongol Rally Essential Skill #462) 


Dustbowl Daddies getting the crowd to their feet


Screening some films from last year, and yes, that's a mini Rally course there...


..and let's all hope this isn't how Brad actually plans to get through border crossings.


The lovely and talented DJ Meera and Sarah, who brought the beats...


Celeste and KT, who brought the dance.


Lots of great name suggestions for our Piaggio Porter (sorry Pat Martin)


Megan Leslie, representing Halifax!


Thank you guys all so much for an incredible night - let's do this again in 16,000 km! 

 

Great Glebe Garage Sale - Rally Style

**Are you in Ottawa this weekend? Do you love great deals and crowds? **

Then you're probably already coming to the Great Glebe Garage Sale on Saturday May 26, where you can find Five Crew Canoe selling all sorts of nifty stuff to raise money for our trip.

Check us out on First Ave between Bank and O'Connor - you won't miss our banner! Fun gets rolling around 8 am.

 

Things for the Road, Pt. 1

Once you tell people that you're going on the Mongol Rally, a funny thing happens - people start giving you awesome, random items to help you on your way. Lots of these things are pretty great, and the people who have handed them over are very cool, so we thought it might be fun to chronicle them on our blog. 


**Mongol Rally Stuff, Pt. 1**

Starting on the left, we have a very practical gift from Jordan's parents - a compass! This will likely be duct taped to our dashboard.

On the top, we have an extremely badass vintage Soviet pocketwatch - yes, that's a Mig on the front. And yes, it works. A gift from Jordan's dad, so we always know what time it is somewhere, no matter how dead our car battery is.

Beside that, we have the coolest dice ever - instead of numbers, it has compass directions. When we don't know which way to go, we'll just roll the dice. Found in [San Francisco's only independant pirate supply shop](http://826valencia.org/store/).

Then, we have the ever-popilar Rubik's cube, donated by our friend Phyllis to keep us from killing each other out of bordem.

Below that, Jordan's dad steps up once again with a great xmas gift - lessons on basics of car mechanics! Quote: "I don't know much, but I'll show you whatever I know." Thanks Dad!

To the right, not to be outdone, Jordan's mom takes a cue from the Brits and has donated a stash of quality tea to Five Crew Canoe.

Thanks everyone!