Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
We have finished!!! Got in yesterday at about 6pm, so did the Mongolia section in 5 days which is pretty good going. Partied at a German restaurant last night before hitting up a strip club called Marco Polo...ha ha love that name! Finished up about 5am. Will put up photos later.
, Gobi Desert
600km to go!!! On Wednesday we continued in our 4 car convoy to around 100km East of Khovd which included a few water crossings and continued rough road. This ended up in Yoda getting his first flat tyre of the trip! (sidewall damage from a rock but un-repairable, so we got a smaller size tyre put on the rim in Khovd). The Danes in the other Skoda we were travelling with got two flats so had to sort out those as well (their car which was originally a diesel had been converted so it could run on Canola Oil - ie they were being Eco-friendly). Ended up being about a 12hr driving day so we camped at the foot of some mountains - and did see a double rainbow! The next day (Thursday) we left early again but didn't make it far until the rear axle in the Brits Nissan Micra (which had been t-boned in Russia) started to give way. So they stayed to get it welded back together by a road construction crew along with the other 2 convoy teams (more Brits and the Danes) who were on a similar timetable. We powered on and eventually caught up to a Kiwi team we had briefly met at the border, we had a chat and then continued on criss-crossing the heavily corrugated roads at different points until the noise in our front left wheel (which we had picked up in Turkmenistan but had not caused any problems) started to get worse and meant the brakes required a little pumping to work. So we stopped and took the wheel off yo check. Turns out the calliper had come loose because the guide bolts had stripped out and the extra pumping was needed to close the loose calliper. We couldn't do too much so managed to get to the town of Altai we were aiming for and got it fixed (as good as possible) at the "Mongol Rally Auto Garage". We stayed st the same Hotel as the Kiwis (Chris & Karina) so had dinner with them and swapped Rally stories (we also heard from locals that it was only another 16hrs to Ulaanbaatar which was pleasing to hear as we were worried I would struggle to make my Monday flight...). To today: (Friday) we convoyed with the Kiwis and made great time by doing 400km and hopefully meaning t ** some text is missing **
Shebalino, Russia
Had our first convoy day yesterday as we met up with about 6 teams in Barnaul randomly :) After sorting out food and then fuel - this is like herding cats in a convoy - we headed towards the Mongolian border slowly. In our convoy were: The Panda Express (Hong Kong), The Ulaanbaatartan (Scotland) Team and The Paint It Yaks (Londoners). We briefly had a lovely German couple with us but once we found out the Western border is closed on Sundays they decided it was best to take the Northern border which is quicker. After a deliberation it was decided to drive the 500km to the border and at least get through the Russian side before midnight... a town or so later this was un-decided as there was no way we were going to make it, and that we should camp next to a river in beautiful Siberian mountain scenery! Good call, had a great night with fireworks, I took a quick raft down the river (cold) and now we are off again to the border ready for it to open Monday...convoy is going strong!
Altai Krai, Russia
Found a random nice little place to stay, off to somewhere close to the Mongolian border today.
East Kazakhstan, Kazakhstan
Had a long drive (approx 700km) today, the usual happened...One of us (Alice) got done for speeding again, which we had to pay a bribe for, this meant we had to find someone who would take US dollars for fuel, and we had to ask a few times where the local hotel (if you can call it that) was, we then had to find where we could get some local currency and sort out food (thank you to the old small lady at the corner store who was very helpful). All these things along with the different scenery's really make the trip though :)
Issyk Kul Province, Kyrgyzstan
drinking cognac 1-for-1 with a 130kilo Russian welder was never going to end anything but badly so decided to nurse our hurts and take the day off to chill by the beautiful lake isik-kol
Jizzakh Province, Uzbekistan
Met up with the Mighty Smiters team at lunch (a nice pastry meat parcel in Samarqand) and convoyed to this place. Are now in a hotel that looks like a haunted mental hospital (Alice's description) with a blackout waiting to check in...
Samarkand Province, Uzbekistan
Samarqand border to Panjakent closed.
Köneürgench, Turkmenistan
road from Ashgabat through the Karakum Desert; distance - 450km, police road-blocks - 8, times stopped - 5, 'fines' paid - 1....better batting average than the Australian top order ;)
Ashgabat, Turkmenistan
got to the Iran - Turkmenistan border by about 2pm where some dude sorted our Carnet plus passports out of Iran for US$20 (remember this part), seemed ok but a ripoff as well but got through in under an hour. Things were going cool until the visa price for Turkmenistan was US$164 and we only had US$160 (yes that US$20 would have come in handy..). Anyway we scrounged enough Iranian Rials for the remaining $4 and then Alice went out to get the car through...mmm another US$100 plus for the car (insurance)...we had no cash left! Luckily one of the border security ladies had a husband who works on oil rigs where Australian money is used so Alice was able to use some Aussie dollars she had :) We are in Ashgabat now and it is totally different from Iran, women can dress western and the city is very opulent with majestic buildings and monuments everywhere!
Am going to be a Frenchman by way of Australia for the trip - just don't assume that I know any French...
