Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
The finish line. If the car wasn't entirely broken, towing it 10 hours through the gobi desert should do it. 8326 miles driven, although the last 394 we swapped the fiesta for the back seat of a saloon car which we shared with a family of six. Arrived at the finish with three hours to spare so the awesome bar staff watered us and showed us the sights of UB by night, was excellent. Airport is a total nightmare. adios! @
Altay, China
Car welded but sounding wrong. Exhaust falling off (common problem for Chris and myself with any vehicle). Can't be bothered to stick back on. Back on road as ironically getting back in the fiesta was the quickest way to get to UB.
Khovd, Mongolia
what a pickle. A moment of abject horror as night fell in the middle of chuffing nowhere when a hole in the tank left us with 20 litres of petrol gushing out in about five seconds. Twenty mins later two spaniards named Inaki rocked up with some metal and the ability to fuse metal. 80km from town, the patch up job lasted 40km and we had to stop. 9am and along come some truckers who tried to fix it with a bar of soap. That didn't work at all. Towed into Khovd we are desperately trying to find a plane to UB. It is proving tricky.
Ölgiy, Mongolia
Mongolia at last. Just been released from the border compound where we had to wait a day in the snow while the charity paid some tax on the car. Car is rattling.
Republic of Altai, Russian Federation
Got up to third in the queue but is going to be a night at the rainy border. Many mongler teams here. Wish had some shoes not flip flops.
Republic of Altai, Russian Federation
Mongol border. 5 hrs and counting and still not left russia. Chicken defrosting so decided to bbq it. Rainstorm forced in-fiesta bbq. Not as daft as it sounds. Bit smokey but warm. Currently distraught re: cafetiere breakage. Fyi gaffer tape doesn't work for these type of breakages. Might have to crack open the cheap vodka soon. Queue not going anywhere.
Biysk, Russian Federation
Am in the sin bin. Which is remarkably similar to the passenger seat since the back and boot are full up. Didn't understand much of what the policeman was saying except 105 kph in a 60 zone. Back on the road now but chris has revoked my driving licence. @
Barnaul, Russian Federation
Made it back into Russia. Slow progress today was the fault of the hard-to-leave presidential suite of our hotel in Semey combined with a 3hr border crossing. Used the wait to do some car decoration. Car is looking good. We are not.
Semey, Kazakhstan
We have arrived in Semey after a long drive through nuclear bomb testing wasteland. Mosquitoes are immune to radiation.
Astana, Kazakhstan
6,000 miles on the clock. Arrived late last night in Astana and (what is becoming less surprising) pulled up next to our nemesis team. Since we arrived in Kazakhstan five days ago we have overtaken those wiley polish boys in their identical ford fiesta at least once a day. I don't know how they are doing it. Perhaps their superior language skills mean they do not take half an hour at petrol stops trying to buy non-sparkling mineral water. If you are reading this boys, we appear to have an excess of Kazakh maps all of a sudden! Really sorry - am guessing is yours..?
<p>Please visit our website:</p><p> </p><p><a href="http://www.harrychrishna.co.uk/">http://www.harrychrishna.co.uk</a></p><p> </p><p>Namaste,</p><p>H & C</p><p> </p>
