Home and Contented

Dear All,

This may be the final of our small blogs for sometime as our journey has come to an end.  The trip was filled with fun, excitement and really wild things but like the life of a lovesick greenfly, it didn't last long enough.  We have all now returned to our daily lives in the UK.  We do have time however to explain about the final days of the trip and how we managed to return back home.

 

**The Car**

It was a tough goodbye in Ulan Bataar but the car was always destined to be given to charity.  It will now be auctioned off to a local family and the proceeds used, in conjunction with our camping gear and spare parts, to fund one of the three charities of the rally.  Our chosen charity was Mercy Corps and we managed to see one of their sites operating in rural Mongolia.

Surprisingly cars are worth a fair amount of money out there.  We were driving in UB and were stopped by a woman who offered us $500 straight off the bat.  Bearing in mind that the car was missing a total exhaust system, had 3 broken shock absorbers, full broken rear suspension, stickers and graffiti on the outside, dust and dirt coating all inner surfaces and the fuel tank was sitting neatly in the back seat, it was an incredibly tempting offer.  Our car and agreements lay with the charity though so the woman walked away heartbroken.   

 

**The Team**

It's always tough sharing a 2 metre cubed space with 2 other people for 50 days non-stop but we managed it without tearing each other apart.  A brief outlay of the team and what they returned for is below.

**Dave Taylor** has moved in his life and started a new website whilst simultaneously working as an optician.  You can ask him for free technical advice here ([www.askdavetaylor.com](http://www.askdavetaylor.com/)).  When asked about his favourite moment of the trip Dave replied "meeting my future wife".  We hope Dave and Phoebe will have a long and happy relationship.  Dave was seen with his digital SLR taking photos of all the countries and will soon be publishing a professional how-to-photograph-cars-and-women-in-asia guidebook very soon.

**Ben S Thomson** flew back from Berlin to meet girlfriend and family and return to practising law.  He was profoundly moved by the whole experience of travelling through Asia and was seen to shed several tears as he departed for the airport.  He commented that his favourite moment was "watching Jake get covered in mud after pushing the car out of a river".  Ben was in charge of analogue photography on the trip with a brand new Holga camera in his charge.  Please swing by his house for a free 4 hour presentation on the Telegraph Poles of Central and Northern Asia.   

**Jake Lea-Wilson** is considering a return to student life in the nation's capital city of London and plans future overland travel.  He was overheard saying "I don't know why those other losers flew home, it was easy to catch a bus,  it only took an extra 15 hours and cost an extra 50 pounds".  His favourite moment of the trip was "putting out a large 100m forest fire caused by Ben pouring petrol on to our campfire in Kyrgyzstan".  If anyone has any video footage then please send to Jake as he will be putting together a documentary entitled "Shads Inc: A Living Odyssey".

**James Close** was a new member of the team joining us in Ulan Bataar and departing in Germany.  It was a fun-fuelled two weeks for James but alas his patients needed him back home.  The favourite part of his trip was "the amazing spicy sauce I tried in Berlin with my currywurst, really tasty stuff, I loved it".  

 

**Other Teams** 

We couldn't have made it without support and encouragement and banter and lash from many other teams.  Those in pertinent note are:

Five Stans and A Pol

Chapeau Nouveau

The Griswolds 

Jizzy Disco

Yak Seat Drivers

Mongol Mash 

Living On A Dare 

Charolastra

iScream 

Escapologists 

Flight Of The Mongols

Silk Road Raiders

TEAM TEAM TEAM TEAM  

 

 

 

Until our next adventure.

Jake -Shads Inc. Member No. 23

Carpe Noctem. 

Mockba!

Good afternoon loyal Shads Inc followers.

You join us on a sad day for the team.  We have lost member number 23: David Taylor.  He has had a formidable input on the team but has had to leave for professional reasons.  Residents of South Wales need someone to sort out their eyesight.  Dave has left us in Moscow (Mockba) as we arrived after a 5 day journey on the Transiberian railway.  It was an exciting, if cramp, journey as described in previous blogs James and Dave only just made it back on to the train after stopping for too long to eat pizza.

Moscow however is fantastic.  We have arrived in the middle of their city anniversay holiday and there is all types of shennanigans going on around the centre with free concerts, shops and dancing in the streets.  James was particularly excited to see the local Capoeira gang 'playing' in the middle of the road.

The next move is to St Petersburg on an overnight train followed by a trip to Latvia (Riga) before returning home through the EU.  What will the final stage of our trip bring?  Perhaps a Lada to drive home in?  Perhaps large boozing in Berlin... only time will tell.

Thanks for all your support!

Irkutsk, Russian Federation

UB was fantastic, a great party city with lots to do. Unfortunately we didn't see much of it outside of the Russian Embassy, Black Market and various bars and nightclubs. This, however, did mean that we managed to catch the Transiberian railway to Moscow. We are aboard now on a 4 day voyage of vodka, cooked fish and big lakes. Unfortunately our stop offs are short and the newest team members didn't get back in time from their shopping. Dave and James are currently speeding their way alongside in a taxi to meet us at the next stop. Meanwhile Ben and Jake have plenty of cabin space, food, reading material and vodka to keep them going for many hours. Communist trains wait for no man. Stay tuned to find out what will happen. Shads Inc out.

Bayanhongor, Mongolia

It's been i long few days with over 36 hours drives. Spent the best part of 6 hours yesterday putting our petrol tank inside the car as it kept falling off. Only 24 hours of driving left now. Will the car survive?@

Khovd, Mongolia

We made it over the border in 45 hours, which was very good considering some teams have been there for 3 days. The rally really begun for us after that and within a few short hours we'd knocked out our rear shock absorbers, whole exhaust system and the skull had fallen off our bonnet. After a yaks milk and egg breakfast we're off on the road to Altai. We'll be in Dave's Bar in UB by sat!@

Barnual and Battered

Good afternoon, you join us in Barnaul Russia where we have checked in for some, much required, R&R.

A crisis meeting was held last night at 1am with an American team (5 Stans and a Pol) to discuss recent problems: 1) 2 damaged wheels and tyres, 2) Ripped tarpualin, 3) Broken tent, 4) Mongolian border closing for the weekend, 5) River crossings in Mongolia, 6) Dave's growing flatulence problem.

The proposal was to drive through the night to Mongolia to make the border before it closed giving us 9 days to make Ulan Bataar.  It was decided this wouldn't be an easy drive as it was 500 miles in the pitch black.  We are therefore staying in Barnaul 1 more night to make it to the border on Sunday for an early Monday crossing thus giving us 5 full days to make the party on Saturday night.  

We've seen videos and pictures of wild river crossings and dusty sand dunes with only tracks to follow, we've heard stories of 2 weeks to cross Mongolia the way we're going but we're doing it anyway.  Bring on the rally!

 

In the meantime we can leave you with a list of skills and nicknames acquired by each member of the team:

DAVE

a.k.a. : Seagull, MLA, Dai Specs, Emergency Stop Dai.

Skills : Adventuring, Toilet hunting.

Beard level : High 

 

BEN

a.k.a. : Legs, Bullshit Ben.

Skills : City driving, Shouting/freaking out, Navigating.  

Beard level : Medium 

 

JAKE

a.k.a. : Strawbs,  Jake HD, Gingerani.

Skills :  Wheel damaging, shop finding and hat acquiring.

Beard level : Low 

Semey, Kazakhstan

Roads took a sudden turn for the worse yesterday and the car suffered. I managed to nail 2 wheels but we managed to get them repaired last night for only 8quid. At russian border now about to make our way to Barnaul. Dave has a Semey-by-the-sea, Ben has his new hat on and my driving skills are at an all time high.@

Kazakhstan - I like!

Shads Inc

 

have safely arrived in biggest city of all in glorious nation of  Kazakhstan, Almaty.

 

Kyrygzstan was mental chicken oreintal with a big night in the chelsea disco pub with our texan friends Joey and cOLE.  YEE HAA.

 

next, a mad dash across the length of kazak to russia and then onto the unknown of mongolia.

 

stay tuned listenters

 

laters

 

SHADS inc

In Hungary We Find Ourselves

It's been only 5 short days but we've managed to cover over 1500 miles and 8 countries.  After catching the Ferry we settled for a night in Bruges which turned out to be a pretty big one.  4 hours sleep and we hit the road again for a drive to Frankfurt.  Frankfurt was prettz exciting as we stayed in the same hostel as the Australian Ultimate Frisbee U19 team.  After a few drinks in an Irish pub we found a traditional German sausage restuarant (Ben loves German Sausage) and a few more large beers. The highlight of the evening was meeting a God loving, beer swigging crazy american construction worker from Las Vegas and his rather fat bird.

Another day another few hundred miles.  We set off for the infamous Czechout party in a castle in Klenova.  Debauchery ensued.  More on that later.

We're currently in Budapest which is a fantastic city.  We plan to visit the beatuiful views overlooking the river from the Unesco world heritage site bridge at the heart of the old town.

We will shortly set off for Romania where we hope to find the Transfagasan highway as featured on the popular TV show Top Gear.  David Taylor hopes to buy a Cluj football shirt to send home to best friend Owen Matthews.

Chow for now, dictated but not read.

Shads Inc.