Photos are up

We took our time but photos are finally up from the trip. Enjoy.

We made it (a while ago...)

Hi all, just a quick note to say yes, we made it. We arrived in Ulaanbaatar on the afternoon of the 19th of August a calendar month to the day from when we left Hyde Park.

There will be many more stories, photos and videos to come once I locate Tommy (he may be lost in South East Asia so if anyone sees him, please hand him in) and we collate our media.

So thank you for following our journey and stay tuned for the fun stuff.

SMS Update

19/08 14:00 We made it! The last 400km were heartbreaking! 200km of tarmac, as expected, then as we could taste the finish line beers on our lips, the roads turned crap again! Absolutely crushing! Took 4hrs to get through the last section! Eric was hurting, we were hurting. Eventually made it and have now celebrated the rest of the day!

SMS Update

19/08 05:00 "slept" a few hours in the car last night just out of Arvaikheer, 450km from Ulaanbaatar. Up ar 5am for the final push. Eric's surviving without front left shock absorber, but with two used 4x4 pirelli tyres we bought off a mechanic in Altay - they were on another Panda which he now owned after someone else left it there, dead. Not long now, hopefully next update will be from a pub in Ulaanbaatar!!!@

SMS Update

18/08 15:00 This is by far the hardest, most draining thing I have ever done. Driving isn't "driving", it's constantly deciding between corrugared, sandy, pot-holed, rocky or ridged roads, whilst all the time looking out for pot holes, rocks, ridges, dips, sand drifts puddles and rivers. This for 12hrs a day whilst sleeping less than 6 due to time spent cooking, cleaning (dishes, not ourselves) putting up/down tents and waking up to the sound of wind/rain/cars/trucks/trains/animals/land owners. We have not washed for days. Dust is everywhere. We're trying to cover a distance of 2,000km (that's more than Melb-Bris) averaging 40km an hour and hoping not to break Eric.

SMS Update

17/08 16:00 snapped rear right suspension coil and did two tyres/wheels. All fixed in Altay. Onward!!!

SMS Update

15/08 13:00 We're in Mongolia! Another ordeal of a boarder crossing, partly because there are 10 other rally cars here as well and we all take time. Will convoy with some for the next few days. Roads are like outback roofs - corrugated! If we hit resonant frequency, Eric might explode!@

SMS Update

13/08 21:00 bad day got worse. Eric died. We were driving an extra 150k to Biysk to make tomorrow easier, and just as we got there, the gear stick lost something and we couldn't change out of 3rd! Stick was just flapping about aimlessly!!! Luckily we nursed Eric to a truckstop to spend the night. It will be an uneasy sleep!

SMS Update

13/08 19:00 another rotten day of driving. Little progress made. We were up at 600am to have a big day but KZ and Russian boarders took ages. Each searched our whole car + bags. KZ people when we entered from Kyrgyz didn't give us customs papers so big issues when we left. Got taken to a dark room to meet the chief of the Boarder (all very scary) who proceeded to ask us whether we had drugs then made jokes about boomerangs!!!

SMS Update

14/08 16:00 After thinking our rally was over (gearboxes are difficult and expensive to fix) we did some hunting around the gear stick linkage to the gearbox and found the problem - a pin had come out and was easily replaceable! We're on the road again and on our way to the Mongolian boarder!!!