Team Team Dusty Martini

30am wake up this morning, we are now cooking up some breakfast noodles on the border. BRING ON MONGOLIA!!!!!!!! Over and out.

After coughing up the $40 we rolled Virgil into a lay by and began to set up camp. But of course, this too was an issue. A cop car approached us and said we could not sleep here. He explained how violent bandits come and damage cars and hurt people who sleep here. We took his word for it and came up with a strategy. 10km away was a town with a small guest house. Martin was going to have to pull Virgil uphill for 10km. We tried and we succeeded. We crawled in to the down and hunted down the guesthouse. To start with we wandered into a random woman's house. She called the guest house, and the owner came to retrieve us. The guest house is warm, comfy and cosy. It is cheap, has Wi-Fi and has food. Our prayers were answered. Tomorrow we need to get to Bishkek, but Virgil needs to be up and running... Wish us luck. Over and out.

TODAY WAS TOUGH. We started the day at our camp site somewhere north of Osh. We started the day at 6am as we knew we had a long drive to Bishkek. For 3 hours we headed down the most rugged path we have taken yet. Numerous river crossing, lots of pushing the cars up hills, and lots of getting stuck. After 3 hours of this, we had become well and truly stuck. To make matters worse, passers by told us that the road ahead had been wiped out by a rock slide. This meant that once we had freed ourselves (this process took 1.5 hours) we would have to drive back the way we came. It was 1pm and we were further from Bishkek than we were at the start of the day. Once we had changed the route, the road became better and we could make some progress. However, we had only done 70 miles by 5pm. At this point Virgil (team hotsteppers car) decided it was going to break down for the 3rd time today. But this time Virgil really broke down. We decided that if we were to make any progress, we need to be towed. Archie and I didnt have the confidence to use Martin to pull them so we flagged someone down. Amazingly someone had stopped to help after 2 minutes of waiting. This is where it goes pear shaped. The people who had stopped to help towed the hotsteppers to the nearest garage, but this was closed. 2 hours had gone by and still no garage. Team dusty martini had run out of fuel so pulled over to steal some off the hotsteppers. At this point the "kind" people who towed the hotsteppers decided they would ask for some money. They optimistically asked for $600. We laughed and said we don't have that kind of money. We said we only had $40. Of course with a bit of waiting the price came down to $300. Still too high. We waited. And waited some more. They then became a bit irate. But! Us English don't give up and waited long enough for him to say "$40". Fab. Tbc.....

Not much to report today I'm afraid. We overslept at our hostel and didn't hit the road until around 3. We then made it half way to where we were meant to be tonight. Excitingly However, we were pulled over for the first time. A rather camp police officer wafted his baton to signal us over. He told us our lights were not on (it was 4pm) and asked us to go and get money out for him from a bank. We played dumb and didn't end up paying anything. We have now set up camp by a river where some local fishermen gave us copious amounts of vodka. We are now very ready for bed. Over and out.

We have arrived in Osh which marks the finish of the Pamir Highway. The Pamir highway brought us through stunning scenerary and to heights above 4500m. It is known to be a greuling drive in 4x4s let alone a 1992 1.0 litre hatchback. However, Martin flew through the valleys with little to no trouble at all. From Osh we make our way North, out of Kyrgyzstan into Kazakhstan and begin the final stretch to Mongolia. Over and out.

Here we are at over 4000m above sea level in the Pamir mountains. How lovely it is to be cold again. Whilst we've been quiet we have been driving along the Afganistan border. We attempted to set up camp on a small grassed area, but before long locals told us it was too dangerous to camp there. They invited us to their house where we they gave us food and tea, and allowed us to pitch out or tents. As lovely as this Sounds, of course it had a price. We pitched our8 tents in their chicken pen, this small house was home to hundreds and it smelled like high heaven. To top it off, in the morning we were asked to cough up for their hospitality. Initially they asked for 10 dollars but we slapped it down to 5 in a couple of seconds. We are now away from the Afghan border (yippee) and are camping amongst the stunning mountain scenery. For the second time, it is amazing being cold again!!!

Day 1 of our pamir Adventure. Last night we stayed in an interesting hostel where we were given a garage as a room and blankets as beds. The benefit of this hostel however is it's attraction to Adventurers. The Pamir mountains are a destination where cyclists, mountaineers and silly people in underpowered cars push their limits. With this, there is an amazing community where people are always sharing advice. This allowed us to prepare as best we could and plan a suitable route. With our newly acquired knowledge, we set off early this morning to find a car bazaar. This is an enormous covered market with hundreds of traders all selling car parts. These traders sell EVERYTHING you could possibly need. Archie and I entered with a very specific shopping list (I won't bore you with the details), however we left Dushanbe and the car bazaar with a siren and nothing else! Completely useless, but great fun in tunnels. Tomorrow we have a long drive as we will attempt to make it to Khorog. Over and out

A fitting 3 Words as recently I (ned) have been getting A LOT of complaints about my snoring! Anyway, I digress. Today we crossed the border from the beautiful Samarkand (Uzbekistan) into the pleasant city of Dushanbe in Tajikistan. Here marks the start of the Pamir highway! In Samarkand we visited the magnificent Registon Square. On route to Dushanbe we drove through some epic mountain scenery. Our top speed of 20mph really allowed to take it in too! We are now in Dushanbe and are headed to a car bazaar to get all the kit we need for our days in the Pamir mountains. Over and out.

We have arrived in Samarkand for our final stop in Uzbekistan! Last night we camped wild amongst the dunes of Uzbekistan with our new found friends Oli and Katie from team Saxosaurus. We cooked up some bang average noodles and stared at the stars before heading off to bed. We were woken by the heat at around 7am and began the 8 hour shlep to Samarkand. We are now off for some sight seeing and some dinner. Over and out.

40 when we set off on what we though was a 4 hour drive to Ashgabat but turned out to be a 9 hour drive. That night we stayed in the Nusay hotel. It was incredible! Enough said.

The following day we drove through the desert to get to the Darvaza Gas Crater, or the Gates of hell, as they are more commonly known as. A pit of fire that has been burning for 40 years. It was Epic. Our convoy of 16 teams had some beers around the rather large "campfire" and had a good old fashioned chin wag. The next day was a tough one. A 7 hour drive to the border in 42 degree heat with 1 bottle of water, potholes large enough to lie down in and not enough petrol. The border was very quiet and didn't take long at all, which allowed us to get to Nukus, Uzbekistan for the night. Our plan today is to get as close to Bhukara (east Uzebekistan) as possible. Sorry about the long post, there was lots of catching up to do. Over and out.