Mt, USA

480km down, Jonah got a prize for the 10th flat tire and we bought fish egg flavoured crisps.

Malko Tarnovo, Bulgaria

visa, vehicle registration AND baggage control. This procedure should not take more the 3hrs... No problem i've got time

Chillin' out with Mozart

26.7.2011 - 29.8.2011

The rally has offcicially started! During the time in Klenova Jonah and I didn#t really take off our DJ's and people caught on to the fact that we were the idiots who thought it can be done on a city scooter. No one has any kind of faith but every one has a right good chuckle about it which I think it's all about. But don#t even think we're not going to make it. We are. "There only is a do and do not as" Alex and Mike put it and the latter is not an option. Simple as that. 

We arrive in Vienna as we have to stay here for the next three days to get our Azeri visa as it hand't come through back in the UK on time. But that didn't turn out to be a bad thing as Nicolas Riderer gave us his empty flat for the next three days! Bang in the middle of the centre, really nice flat and all of it for three days. This is how you travel on a scooter to Mongolia ladies and gentlemen.

We had absolutely amazing three days here. We got our bikes fixed, Alex and Mike got the most amazing suits they could find for €60. Alex has a mohawk with a full beard, wears silvery shiny suit trousers on a stripy summer blazer with a turquoise shirt and pink tie and looks like a glamrocker. Mike has a chechered blazer a shirt which would make a blind woman cry and rolled up trousers. The fact that he asked a drunk soctsman to cut him a mullet after the party in the castle makes him look like he just climed over the fence from Mexico and it's brilliant. The Austrians love it. We have vouched to be mainly wearing our DJs/suits for the trip. The reason for this is simple: At the end of the day we just want to feel better about ourselves after riding for 12hrs an arse which resembles that of a baboon and are starving. It's a morale booster. And who can say they camped in a DJ? Not many if any.

We changed our route on the 28th to drive on the most beautiful road in the world which is the road nr 7C in Romania. This is going to be one of the most amazing thigs I will see of that I'm sure. On other news I realised today that I left all my documents for the scooter in London. Brilliant. THankfully Fiona is the best flatmate in the world and has sent them to me so they should be here before we all leave tomorrow.

As a team the four of us have come up with some great stuff. Travelling in a group of four is far better than just two. Mainly it gives you two more people to talk to... We have decided that "Mr Sandman" is our themetune and are working on a choreographed version of it to busk some money. Keep watching Top of the Pops and you will see us up there for the next two weeks. We also developed a sign language so that we could communicate essential stuff:

- Those trees look like Jurassic Park trees / Wildlife (Old men mowing their lawn in a speedo and wifebeater)

- Look how flowery

- To the map cave! (lets check map)

Pictures of these will be up soon or might already be on [Jonah's blog ](http://www.architecturalpizza.wordpress.com)so have a look there.

 

Tomorrow we're off to Hungary and beyond. The weather forecast is rain. Again. So this brings our tallies to the following:

Tracktors overtaken: 5

Days of riding in summer weather i.e. sun: 0 

Days if riding in rain: 4

We actually made it to a massive field

24.7.2011 - 26.7.2011

We get up at quarter to five to start wobbling towards a country where the beer is cheaper than water. And guess what: It's f###ing freezing and raining again. This trip isn't really turning out like our romantic idea where we would get up at 9ish drive a few hours in the sun with t-shirt and short and get to Mongolia without any major problems. At all like it.

Nonetheless, we rach the Czech border and immediately the roads get worse but much prettier. The road to the castle at Klenova is absolutely stunning. Once we get the pictures up I will be able to show you all.

We get to the field where a lot of other people have arrived already. We set up camp and meet these two Americans Mike and Alex who also are driving on motorcycles. They have Suzukis which are 125ccm and much more likely to get there but their chances are also still slim at best.

We make really good friends with these guys over the next few days and they are absolutely fantastic. So good infact that we have decided to do the journey together.

The other big thing which happened here was the massive launch party and the rave at the castle. The organisers put on a great show and Das Boot really made his round claiming two people trying to do the whole thing in one. The day someone can do that I will think about stoppig to drink. But only think. The next day is going to be the official start to the rally and everyone is getting really excited.

Crash Counter: 1

23.7.2011 1300hrs

After a surpringsingly long night out  we took it pretty easy this morning. Had Kebab and chips for breakfast which was delicious. Perfect hangover cure I tell you. 

We started driving towards Klenova where the big send off party is we have been talking for so long and the reason we didn't go to Goodwood for the UK launch. We were actually doing rather well until I couln't see Jonah in my mirrors anymore. After a while he still didn't show up so I turned around only to see him just getting up from the street where he fell. He looked pretty shocked at what just happened. 

His rear tire burst which made him lose control over his bike and fall. There was a massive mark on the road where his bike slid to a halt but he didnt have a single scratch. His DJ did though. Who thought that H&M make the best looking motorcycle clothing. Not me at least. A retired couple came out of their house and heloed Jonah up and gave him ice-packs. We set about to fix the rear wheel. Neither of us has done this before on our bikes so we got the Haynes manual out. After "only" one hour and a half the wheel was fixed and we could continue. We didn't get very far as we and the man helping us didn't put it on properly so Jonah's bike had a massive wobble and we didn't get into the next town.

We realised it was Saturday and no mechanic was open at 8pm on definitely not on a Sunday. The chances for us to reach Klenova suddenly swindled to zilch and we might not even make the registration on Monday we have to drive that slowly! We might actually have to turn back before we start...

Needless to say we felt tired, miserable and hungry. Even so much that we started cooking our food on a crossroads just to lift our morale ever so slightly. We camped in the woods right next to it and it was just not a good day. Only did 200km of our daily 400km and we would have to get up at 4am tomorrow morning to slowly hobble to the Czech Republic. 

Karlsruhe here we come

22.7.2011 0545hrs

And we're off

21.7.2011 0600hrs

We're off. The rally has inoficially started for us! We have started our 10'000mile journey to Ulaabaatar. However not in the best way possible. It's freezing and raining. On the way to Dover we hit terrential rain so badly that even we had to slow down from our break neck speed of 35mph. We got there earlier than expected which is the only time this will probably happen to us. Nothing went wrong on this leg apart from that Daniel's DJ trousers ripped before he even left the flat. Not so classy anymore.

We even got an earlier ferry and got into our second country by lunch time and continued drving after sleeping like bums in DJ's on the ferry. We then drove straight to Arres which is a small town in the middle of France. The owner was very nice to us and we had delicious cider. 

The day ended somewhere in a forest in tents. We rustled up some pasta which we concluded by the end of a bowl was going to be our main dish for the next two months. 

Andrew aka "Mr Treabus"

Andrew is a really nice man we met in a layby on our way back from Portsmouth on Sunday. He was taking a break as well and came over to ask what exactly we were trying to achieve with these bikes. Explaining to him we are on a test run in preparation to Mongolia he couldn't quite resist laughing. It turns out that he and his flat mates themselves all have a long history of driving Phut-Phut's (that's what they used to call single cylinders) and even going on camping trips on C70s! He gave us lots of good advice he gathered from years of experience for which we are very grateful for and hope that it will keep us going for longer.

Andrew is thinking of putting things on hold and going for a big trip which he has been wanting to do for a while now. We both both want to wish you all the best Andrew and hope that you will go on a trip in the near future. We forgot to ask where you intend to go but we are sure it will be quite a trip. Thank you once again for your advice and sharing your experiences with us.

A Test Run

Jona and I drove down to Portsmouth yesterday to see the lovely seaside before we will miss it very much later on during our journey. We drove for pretty much 10 hours and covered nearly 200miles which is what we are hoping for. We strapped all our kit to ourselves and the bikes and drove at a record breaking 35mph (we are confident Andy Green will approach us any minute now). We have also invested in a tracking device so that everyone can see where we are at the moment. It plots our position on [this map](http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0O1DYJCz6K38NOObguOG4AqphIaT5lhyH "Tracker") every ten minutes so there will be a breadcrumb trail from London to Mongolia. 

The day was really nice. We saw the South Downs from A and B roads which made us appreciate them much more. We saw small towns where the village shop is still the main shop and pubs being the only place to meet people other than at home. We hope that we will see many more places like them. 

However, driving those scooters at breakneck speeds does tire you somewhat. After we had lunch we just stared at the floor saying nothing, both thinking: Bugger, we have to drive all of that back now don't we?

As we were getting into London we took the opportunity to stand up, give our dearest rear a rest and stretch out legs at traffic lights. There are a lot of traffic lights in London and we didn't miss a single one. We hope we get used to it, but we don't know how long that will take...

 That'll be all for now. Once again thank you for all your donations and the support you have given us. 

Fundraising de la crème

A friend of ours had a brilliant idea and from asking around some people don't feel at all adverse to it. The idea: Drink for charity. The way to do it: Beer bottles with labels which are relevant to our team, cause and route. Watch this space to see the different editions so brilliant Heineken wants to hire us.

 

Thank you so much Gaby Nahmani for so generously donating CHF200 to our cause. This is very much appreciated and we are awaiting the kilometer guess or the picture you want us to take.