End of the Rally (the driving part)

The drive to London was basically monotonous.  My dad flew to Vilnius to have a bit of a holiday and share the drive back with me.  It certainly makes overtaking trucks on the single lane roads a damn sight more easy.Once we hit Warsaw it was motorway/autobahn the whole way.  Nealry ran out of fuel in Poland.  The signs had some warning on them with 100km next to it, we later realised it meant no services for 100km.  Got into a petrol station on pretty much fumes.  Next day left Poznan and drove the width of Germany in a day, did however get stuck in a 5 hour traffic jam outside of Hannover.  Did howeverget to 100mph in Yuri.

 This morning we left Germany and drove to the Hook of Holland to get the ferry to Harwich.  We would have gone to Calais but the emergency passport only gave me 5 transit countries.  Entered UK customs and got put to the "We are going to rip your car apart for drugs aisle"  When they saw my emergency passport, I guess they took sympathy and waved me through.

So to summarise some of the trip, I have been in the following countries: -

Australia

Singapore

UK

France

Belgium

Germany

Poland

Ukraine

Russia

Latvia

Lithuania

Poland (again)

Germany (again)

Holland

UK (again)

For the 5667 miles that the car has done, only 12 miles were on the same bit of road.  The driving part of the rally is now over but I still need to get a new passport and fly back to Australia.  Turns out my passport will be issued quicker than I thought.  So it's just a short 18 hour flight back to Perth now.

 2012 Mongol Rally is over, now I start planning the 2014 Mongol Rally and will avoid Volgograd like the plague.

 

Meanwhile in UB.....

Forrest, Graham and Simon have made it on the train and are currently causing havoc.  Forrest is doing his best to annoy the locals by singing Janis Joplin at midnight and Simon appears to be getting married to a Mongolian if the rumours are to be believed

Moscow to Vilnius

Got my transit visa and went straight back and packed the car.  Two days ago I checked the tyre pressures, fluid level etc to make sure there would be no hiccups.  I feel Russia wanted me to stay a little longer.  Went to start the car and some horible sounds erupted and then nothing.  Checked the battery and it was on full charge and then looked for anything out of the ordinary.  Couldn't find anything so smacked the engine hard with a spanner and tried again, Yuri then purred into life.

 It was supposed to be an easy drive out of Moscow, straight onto the M9 to Latvia.  Ended up going South on the road to Kiev and then basically guessed my way back to the M9.  Found it started the 650km drive to the border.  Had the most insane thunderstorm for about 1 hour where visibility was down to about 20m, of the Russian's considered this a challenge to their driving skills.  Made the border at 11pm when the last of the light was failing and joined the queue to get through the border.  It didn't move for at least 40 minuted and then we moved about 2 car lenghts.  Not all was lost since my dinner was some horse meat jerky I picked up in a service station.

 

Last night was typified by sleeping for 30 minutes and then moving forward.  When dawn broke I was about 6 cars from the first checkpoint.  Let it not be said that Russian's are very studious and dilligent in there inspection of documents, especially if you are travelling on an emergency passport which they probably have never seen before.  Got through the first checkpoint and then had the car searched.  Next was passport control which took buearocracy to a whole new level.  Example:

*Passport?*

You have it

*This is not a passport*

Yes it is

*Where is your passport*

In your hand

This goes for about ten minutes, I show them the police report etc and all of the other border guards come round to see this obviously fake passport I presented to them.  Next, I get told to park my car and come inside for "a little chat", this was to be in a room with no windows.  30 minutes later, any many phone calls later the ask me for my passport and the whole charade continues.  I think they got sick of me and just stamped my passport just to get rid of me.

 

Entry into Latvia was fairly painless except it was 10 degrees.  Latvia was fairly uneventful and so was the drive to Vilnius which is home tonight.  Tomorrow it is off to Warsaw.

Da svedanya Russia, hello Europe (again)

The glacial Foreign Migration Service have finally decided that I am allowed to leave Russia.  It's a short 650km to the Latvian border and assuming they let me out.  Going to cover as much distance as possible today and find a suitable place to crash tonight.  Tomorrows destination is Vilnius in Lithuania and then on to Warsaw.  I can only go as far as Holland since the British Emergency passport only allows five transit countries.

 

Moscow has been an interesting diversion, some awesome places to go and had some great adventures in random places.  Getting drunk in the red square at 5am with some Ukrainians while dancing around to the Tetris theme music would be a highlight.  Have decided that I will be doing the rally again, although I might gove Volgograd a miss next time.

Best club in Moscow by far

When stuck in Moscow, what is the best course of action to take..... drink of course. 

Have been playing hostel roulette for the last few days since each hostel in our area seems to be booked up at different times.  It's getting a little smelly here since air con is massive luxury and the humidity is starting to get a little opressive.  Had a wander around the Red Square and saw the funky domed church that is in Tetris (spent most of the time in Red Square humming the Tetris song and now have it stuck in the there).

Last night we all went of for some drinks and gate crashed a wedding reception, ended up going out with most of the hostel to some bar which now sells my favourite drink.  It's called a tequila bang.  It involves putting on a WW2 era Russian army helmet, having the most riduculously large shock of tequila smacked against your head.  Drink said tequila and then they smack you on the head with a baseball bat.  If we thought that was weird, it was nothing to compare to the next drink on offer.  Ingredients are as follows: - (I'll leave the mixology up your imagination, suffice to say my head hurt this morning in more ways than usual)

1x gas camping stove

1x saucepan with a broom handle attached

100ml of the strongest spirit in the bar

Tabasco sauce

Russian WW2 helmet

Baseball bat

Tomorrow I find out if my visa will be issued any time before the next ice age.  There is still a faint glimmer of hope that I can make it to Mongolia by plane, it is all up to the gods now.  Forrest, Graham and Simon are getting the train to UB on Tuesday.  At least they are going in the right direction.

Visa fun

So had an adventure on the Moscow metro and found the British embassy.  There are only two options for the trip available now.

1) Drive home to London and get a passport poste haste and then get a Mongolian visa in my new passport.  Fly to UB and join the 5 week party and get my original flight back home to Perth.

2) Give the car to Graham or Simon from the Mile Munchers and they drive to UB fricking quickly.  Fly home from Moscow and the still go to UB.

We are now waiting for confirmation from the adventurists if we transfer the documents......

 Either way we are off on a drinking session tonight and see the sights of Moscow. 

Volgograd sucks arse.

So bad week for us really.  Our room got broken  into in Volgograd and my passport, ALL documents phone, $200 and sunnies taken.  Forrest had some money and his iPad taken. We called the police and they came by and started asking questions at the hotel.  One of the guys from another team said that a strange woman had come into his room asking for a cigarette.  When he described the woman to the hotel staff they went up to her room to find my washbag???(wtf) and my glasses case on the floor.  Myself and Forrest then spent 12 hours in the police station (we got there at 4am).  Wrote out the same statement 5 times and eventually left, seriously, no wonder the USSR collapsed, they were all to busy doing paper work.  In the mean time they found my document folder with everything in it apart from the passport.  I contacted the British Embassy in Moscow and got told I need to get an emergency travel document, then get a exit visa for Russia.  So here are three options 1.  Get my passport and get another Mongolian visa (50/50 chance), drive like buggery to Mongolia since the exit visa is valid for only 10 days.2. Get exit visa but no Mongolian visa and drive back home and sell the car to recoup some cash, also hang out in London for a few more days.3.  Get rid of the car and fly from Moscow to Perth. Personally I like option 1, but it is now in the lap of the gods.  We have driven 1000km from Volgograd on some pretty horrific roads with the Mile Munchers who are along for the ride.  Still no police stops but the roads are so shocking that in some places 60km is doing well.  If we did get stopped I literally have a get out of jail free card with is my passport substitute.  If I drive/fly home then they and Forrest will try and get the train to UB. The next 24 hours decides everything.  But on the plus side we get to see Moscow, cant be worse than Volgograd.... Plus my Russian driving is coming along swimmingly.

Ukraine to volgograd

Left mariuopol and went to the border. Got stopped by the police and they wanted to check if we had any guns or ukrainians in the car. Got out of Ukraine ok, Simon was shifting himself after scrapping his car. Took awhile to get through the border, met up with Team Fox and we conveyed to volgograd, stunning scenery but the drive was long and we arrived at 11pm. Had a beer at the hotel and crashed. 

Took a drive to get some new tyres and shocks with team fox. Got them and got them fitted and given some Russian pastries from the mechanic. Found out they don't have any shocks but we got insurance. Turns out i would have been arrested if we didn't have any at a police stop, phew ! Tomorrow  it is off to Saratov and then it is time for Kazakhstan . 

Ukraine

We left krakow and headed to the Ukrainian border. Took six looong