The Finish Line

FINISHED! After 38 days on the road, 15 countries, 8 police stops and 1 flat tyre we have finally reached the Mongol rally finish line and we weren't alone!

Our convoy rolled into Ulan Ude at 4am this morning so people could make their flights in time. We had a 3 hour border crossing at the Russian border where a lovely Russian couldn't find our VIN number.

We are so happy we made it here without (too many) problems. Our little yellow minion the micra has been astonishing while other cars were broken down she just kept going.

Adventurists, let's party!

The unofficial finish and the convoy celebration

Ulanbataarrrr!!! We're in the capital. We spent the afternoon navigating traffic and visiting the Chinggis Khan statue so the convoy of now 6 teams had a bit of a celebration at a Mongolian hip hop bar, where the beats were interesting and awesome. We are now packing to head to the border with Russia for the finishing straight

Dust, breakdowns and a team gobi birthday

It's been a mixed couple of days here in the wilderness; the kiwis Panda was pronounced dead and was loaded on a truck for ulaanbataar. After a short team discussion the boys decided to buy a motorbike and split up the rest of the team between the other convoy cars.

After leaving Hovd our new 3 car 1 bike convoy made excellent progress to Altai. We had 100km of good road before we hit the dirt all was well until in some deep sand another car pulled in front of us forcing us to swerve off our trail to get out of the dust cloud which resulted in us being beached in deep sand. We managed to dig our way out fairly easily by which time darkness had fallen so we set up camp for the night.

The next day we drove straight through Altai and made 300km in the dust, unfortunately the next day things took a turn for the worse after we reached the small town of Bombogor. The exhaust on the saxo wouldn't stay on so it was welded back together then a mystery issue meant it cut out every 300m. After hitting the fuel pump with a hammer seemed to solve the issue but 10km outside of town it happened again.

Luckily it was Andrews birthday so a vodka sozzled Andrew set out to help them by shouting at their stationary vehicle

While we were waiting for the for the team while they carried out some roadside repairs someone accidentally threw a rock through our rear windscreen luckily no one was hurt!

We continued on for another 15km before the Canadian Suzuki cut out completely and we lost the saxo in the trails. We attempted to fix the Suzuki but to no avail and after a couple of passing Mongolian truckers lifted it on to their truck with an excavator to take to the next town we were on our own once more.

We made Bayanhongor the next day and bumped into the other two teams at the garage where they were all fixed up and we left and drove through the night towards ulaanbataar after finding some Tarmac.

We are now just 150km from the capital and unofficial finish line and luckily only picked up one flat tyre last night! (We only have one spare)

Mongolia and a 100km tow

Day 2 in Mongolia, after our night in the yurt we were preparing to make a solo push for Hovd when by happy coincidence we bumped into the other teams in our convoy as we were leaving the campsite.

We drove together into the mountains once more where we ran out of Tarmac and the pace slowed and we crossed dirt and sand tracks. We forded our first river which the kiwi team took too fast causing a bow wave to get water into the air intake and flooded their engine. They managed to get it running again but sadly, 20km later it died once more which meant a 100km tow to Hovd.

We tried to get to the town but as night fell we lost the main road and were lost in a criss-cross of tracks. We called it a night and camped on possibly the windiest mountain in Mongolia. We almost lost the tent and at one point it looked like snow might be a problem.

This morning we did the last 50km into Hovd and are waiting for a final verdict on the kiwi car. We decided on a hotel for tonight and are currently being stared at in the posh hotel lobby for tracking mud in, while we sneak fitting 15 people into a 3 bed room....

Bureaucracy and a yurt

After our dash to barnaul and early morning arrival, we got up quite late. The day continued in convoy towards the border town of Tashanta. In our new style we decided to push on through dusk to cross a couple of mountain climbs and passes to gain progress. I'm telling you there are a lot of moths there!! And they are huge. The convoy camped up at 1am. We woke early to get a decent run and to have as much time available to cross the border. The scenery of the Altai passes was phenomenal. Arriving at the border we did the usual thing but we had an issue with the grumpy guard not accepting our v5 and wanting us to pay the import tax. Not a chance. We told the other teams of the convoy to carry on and we'd hopefully catch them when we resolved this issue. About half an hour of sitting in the closing border trying to find enough signal to download a copy of the full v5 emailed by a helpful housemate and we were back on track, no deposit paid. Go team. As we left the border and parked up to buy insurance we gained our lovely German hitchhiker, Martin, who had to get to ölgii to get some more money out to pay his fee, the border accepted him access but not his car. So the 4 of us headed to the town, keeping an eye out for our convoy. We reached the town and are staying in a yurt for the night (awesome). We're hoping to find our convoy in the morning.

Convoy and a midnight dash

We finally made it to Semey, with okay roads and only 3 police stops, and headed to the border. Outside of Semey we found 3 teams at the side of the road. Enter Team Southwind Storm, The Canukistans and The Mongoolians. We covoyed the the border where bureaucracy held us for about 4 hours. We crossed in the dark and decided to join the convoy on a blitz to Barnaul that night. We arrived at 2am and then had some fun finding a place to stay, ending up in the hostel above the train station at 3 am. Another dash tomorrow towards the Mongolian border through the Altai mountains.

Police and the capital

After another battle with potholes yesterday morning we finally found some tarmac and had a well earned rest in the khazak capital, Astana. we only got lost once en route and ended up fluking a 22nd floor apartment in the new centre to stay. What a view.

And here they do beer in 1.5 litre sizes. Jolly good!

The second driver to get pulled for speeding, but this time the police weren't as interested in where we were from, but playing the dumb brit goes a long way and Andrew managed to get away Scot free. However apparently attempts to trade a sandboard for the disgruntled policemans hat were not successful.

Onwards to the Russian border! Ж

Camels and off roading

As mentioned in the previous check in, It took us 2 days to cover 200km between Maqat and Shurbaqadiq because apparently the road is only used by oil workers in trucks and 4x4s and everyone else takes a 1000km detour. Despite the poor roads we only got stuck twice and only had to get towed out once.

Then we hit the smooth Tarmac and decided we needed to play catch up if we are to get to Mongolia so we have changed our route and are now heading to Astana instead of Almaty.

We covered 550km yesterday the only incident was with a passing policeman as we were slightly speeding. They pulled us over and we played the stupid tourist. Luckily they were more interested in where we had come from and where we were going so we swapped souvenirs and they signed our car and they went on their way. Looks like we've been lucky with the bribes so far!

Sweating buckets

After 12 hues of waiting we boarded the sweat box across the Caspian sea and nearly drowned in our own sweat. The cabins were hotter than the outside temperature.

We managed to sleep for 10 hours consequently we missed breakfast and lunch with 6 hours until dinner

We arrived in Aktau and were welcomed with 5 hours of paperwork, bureaucracy and men in various shades of camouflage enthusiastically stamping bits of paper.

We are now in a Kazakh cafe deciding between Bulgarian gays and Eggplant Loving for breakfast