Team Betty Maddox Mongol Wanderers

We made it to ulan ude at 5.00am this morning. Mongolian Russian border took 3-4 hrs. Met up with team 'honk for old monk' at the border. Was great catching up and chatting about all the problems and crazy stuff thats happened. This is first team we've seen since 1st day when in belgium! Off to finish line sometime today once had 40 winks

Made it to ulan baatar! Hooray. Betty just holding on in there. On way back to ulan ude now and the finish line..hopefully be there tomorrow. Betty will get tlc before her journey back home as were only half way! Roads are tarmac all way from border to ulan baatar but they are very similar to kazakhstan roads...yep you guessed it..pot holey and bumpy. At least they are tarmac though. Also roads works for a while from border to ulan ude so got that to get through again too. Ahh well we will get to ulan ude sometime tomorrow morning I'm sure.

Made it over the Mongolian border. Drove through night. Absolutely shattered as full 24hrs driving. But worth it. Mongolia unspoilt and beautiful. Border crossing only took us 2hrs. Went through at 4.30am so early is best with no queues! Mongolia side tried to get us to pay 2000 rubles. We just told them we had no dosh. They Lowered amount to 100 rubles and we still didn't pay. She gave up in end and we got stamp and escaped! On way to ulan baatar now to donate baby betty to UNICEF children's charity

More set backs today. Needed to get tyres swapped over due to uneven wear due to tracking out on betty...all these horrendous roads and then engine needed work whilst on road. Put us back couple of hours so arrived 11pm in irkutsk russia. Time to find some food and a nice cold beer.

Late stop over at hotel. Arrived late but we were welcomed with soup and cheesecake at midnight. Very hospitable and much needed! Betty having more tlc this morning. She's losing oil so Colin is stripping bettys engine this morning to try and find problem....then we will try and head off to tulun betty ok and prob get there tomorrow morning. Glad we picked this route though. We've had torrential rain and if it's like this in Mongolia then I can imagine it's pretty tough for driving those dirt roads..

In kemerovo russia. Yesterday we made the huge decision to head into Mongolia and to ulan baatar and back again via ulan ude end instead...as betty is on her last legs after Kazakhstan roads nearly killed her. Every day Colin keeping her going and repairing her to keep engine running as ....we just didn't think she could make the bad roads around from ulgii to ulan baatar..and betty needs to get us home too. So were going a bit different to plan but we'll get to Mongolia yet.

Goodbye Kazakhstan. I'm off to Russian border mate. I like your horse and you and your friends..but don't think much of your roads!. Made it to barnaul at 1am..

Been set back a day. Poor bettys fuel tank was leaking due to stone or rock chip..found local garage to weld the tank up so all ok for now..done and sorted no problem. They wouldn't weld fuel tanks up in Britain.. .were at pavlodar and heading to Russian border tomorrow. Fingers crossed roads are better as took it's till on betty... just hope she can make it through rugged areas of Mongolia.

Poor betty had a breakdown on road from qyzylorda yesterday as was worst road we been on. No tarmac for most of road. 300km road took us over 16hrs. No fuel stops at all. The jerry can used and luckily another driver came to our rescue and filled us up for free when near empty again. Also bettys steering was damaged. 2 big lorries stopped and helped and shone there lights on us as was going dark. Managed to limp to town v late. Needed to restraighten steeringbar at garage. Betty back on road now. Off to karaghandy tomor

Hello helo hello!Stopped by police for 4th time in kazakhstan..this time they wanted selfies...why not?.lets have a sneaky selfie too ha ha