Job Done

We have made it! We rolled over the finish line on the 3rd of September at midday and fired off the bottle of champagne that we were kindly donated by the Bonds six weeks ago. As many of you may have seen we have not been on the blog for a long time so there is much for you to be updated on - including our 6 punctures and how the Micra carried 2 teams and 7 people's luggage over the finish line! Its a story of epic proportions so please forgive us for not updating the last two weeks all at once but I hope to have the whole story up very shortly so stay tuned. Thanks again for your continuing support!

Somewhere in the desert,

Sorry for the delay since our last update...our last two blogs have been lost somewhere on the dodgy Kazakhstan Internet and finding Wifi is proving harder and harder. Well a lot has happened since the last update when we first reached Kazakhstan, but much of the news is not so good!  The car is finally showing signs that Nissan Micra's were not designed for rally driving in the desert although in the early part of the desert we were convinced this car loved the sand! We have been suck in sand 5 times now and needed towing out by a team called Windy City Warriors twice. After our first tow out of the 10inch deep sand the car had it first real problem.  The CV joint which connects the wheel to the drive shaft obviously got dislodged in the sand and that has resulted in what we think in a jamming of the joint with sand and stones. (In more non Mechanical Language, the wheel makes a loud and repetitive clicking noise when we turn any corners due to what we think is a rubbing joint). Even though we know NOTHING about mechanics and how a car works, two lads in our convoy are car mechanic lovers and they think the problem isn't a major one although we cannot fully know the extent of the damage without taking it to a garage. We have done a few running repairs and we pray the Micra will soldier on. The other cars in the convoy are also deteriorating with a spring in the 'windy city warriors' car braking clean in half and the 'Non toxic avengers' having basically no rear suspension!   In the good news we are making decent time despite the awful and at times non existent roads. We also found a cows skull (horns included) and connected it to the front of the grill and it looks the business!    This is what the Mongol rally is all about....  

Atyrau, Kazakhstan

Ferry to Russia including customs leaving Turkey and Entering Russia took 33 hours, ferry was very hot as had sat in the boiling sun all day...so the eventual crossing was very uncomfortable! Entering Russia was slow but we managed it eventually but along with team mongoliA35 we were refused car insurance on the condition that as it was now 6 pm on a Saturday evening it was now holiday. Undeterred we managed to get our cars out of the port security with out it. We made the decision to carry on into Russia as we could not afford to lose more time though we were all conscious of the notorious Russian police. We crossed Russia in convoy with team cheese on toast, mongoliA35, and the Jenner job. Overall stopped 10 times by police, broke one road law and had to pay a fine and were asked for £100 as we did not totally stop at a police checkpoint. Also stayed in a strange hostel which had a lion and a bear as pets! Entered Kazakhstan yesterday afternoon after unpacking the car twice, giving out lots of chewing gum as 'presents' and watching the police try to steal our iPods... On our way early this morning traveling a steady 30 miles an hour as the roads are awful but still Tarmac for the moment! Managed to pick up some Russian vodka for the big birthday celebrations tomorrow! The worm is running sweetly and has completed 4341 miles so far. Over and out from the front line.@

Trabzon, Turkey

 

Rıght, sınce the last update from Serbıa we have drıven straıght through Bulgarıa to Istanbul as the roads were practıcally no exısıstent and there ıs not an awful lot to see there! We drove for 17 hours from Belgrade to Istanbul wıth a few stops along the way for food and boarder crossıng.

We arrıved at Istanbul at about 1.30am and we stayed wıth some frıends ın the compound were I used to lıve. Many thanks to Fıona and Andrew for lookıng after us so well durıng our stay. We spent Tuesday lookıng around Istanbul and then we set off for Trabzon early Wednesday mornıng.

We dıcıded to take the coastal route along Northern Turkey to Trabzon but ı turned out to be a bad choıce. The road was wındıng and we barley got out of 3rd gear.Much of the narrow mountaınous roads were not properly surfaced and the route was slow. However. the vıews were spectacular and we eventaully made ıt to Trabzon late yesterday evenıng. We met up wıth 3 other teams all on the same ferry and we plan on convoyıng wıth them to the Kazak boarder.

The ferry ıs expected to leave at 5 today and take 12 hours across the black sea, so ıf all goes well we wıll be at Kazacstan boarder by tuesday. Overall the car ıs doıng us proud ın the 115 degree heat and all ıs goıng to plan....although we hear all the problems start ın Russıa!

Belgrade, Serbia

We hit heavy traffic after Budapest at both the Serbian boarder (charged us £120 for insurance!) and entering the capital Belgrade. Heading to Bulgaria today and will reach Istantbul in next few days...The micra keeps going!

Lots to tell!

So its been a while but we are still around... So we headed down to the Czech party on Monday afternoon and found many cars along the way heading to the big party. We all had an amazing night in the old castle and everyone shared their stories of the journey so far. The next day we hit Prague which was only a 3 hour drive and we found an nice cheap hostel with secured parking. However as we were driving along the Micra made its first sign of tiredness and the clutch started to jam! Lucky it was just above the biting point so we could still change gear even though the pedal would not fully come up. We did make it to the hostel eventually. We headed into Prague that afternoon and found thousands of Polish football fans in the city for an international friendly, the atmosphere was incredible. In the evening 5 other rally cars came to the hostel and we all squeezed the cars into the ridiculously small car park! That evening with 4 other lads our age we decided to tackle the famous Prague bar crawl through the centre of the city...we survived to collect the free t-shirt (although some fellow Mongol travelers didn't make the whole crawl!!!). Prague is an amazing city and we would definitely go back.  The next day we had to wake up most in the hostel trying to find the person that had blocked us in in the car park (we eventually got away after a grumpy man still half asleep moved his car!) We headed down to Auschwitz to have a tour as we both had want to visit in the past. We found a cheap clean 3 star hotel right next to the camp and got a real bed! The tour in the morning was fantastic and the scale of the horror was unbelievable.  Today after leaving Auschwitz at about mid day we planned on driving to Budapest. The clutch and gears still seemed dodgy but we took our time and then luck came our way! During the most incredible storm with lightening, thunder and heavy rain we decided to pull into a petrol station until it cleared only to realise the bulb in the front left light had gone. We did however have a spare in the car and we tried to replace it but without any luck. As we were stood there with our heads in the engine a Slovakian man came over, took the bulb and instantly replaced it without saying one word! We also (in sign language) showed him the jamming clutch and he said in some weird language what we interpreted as ''big problem''! So he got some tools out of his car, pulled a few wires, kicked a few tyres, banged the pedal, and then he just said 'good'. We think he is now the finest Mechanic in the world! We brought him a drink and we were on our way. The clutch cable needed tightening and it is as good as new. We only drove for 5 more minutes as the weather is appalling and now we are in a hotel in a deserted village in Slovakia about 3 hours from Budapest.  Right, I think your fully up to date. Stay tuned for the next update! 

Lesser Poland, Poland

Just left Auschwitz after a fantasic guided tour of the camp, it was amazingly shocking. We're on our way to Budapest. We will update you more when we have internet. We're eating up the miles...1547 done! Many to go...

Central Bohemia, Czech Republic

On our way to Prague, great night last night at the CzeckOut where the gin was flowing freely...Found some cars heading down to Turkey so will hopefully be traveling in a sort of convoy later.

Pilsen, Czech Republic

just cruised into the czeck republic and hit our first pothole...On route to the czeckout party

Update from Germany

Well we're still alive and kicking and making good progress.

After meeting many fellow rally teams on our ferry we decided to head to Leuven (the home of Stella beer!), i think we all underestimated the time it would take to get there and we didn't reach Leuven until 2am by which the city was dead and the team we planned on meeting were spread all over Belgium! We pulled over into a side road and slept in the car (we better get used to it because it will prove a regular occurrence!).

We set off this morning at 6am and headed for Gottingen in Germany. After spending 45minutes in a petrol station due to not knowing that the belgians pay for the fuel before putting in the car! We eventually worked it out and named the pump we wanted fuel from  only then for a dutchman to nip infront and steel our 30 liters of petrol! We did get the money back eventually! Many road works, diversions and getting lost a few times we arrived at Tony Batcup house (Henry's uncle) and enjoyed a fantasic meal, the last for a while.

Planing to head to Nurmeburg tonight and then onto the party in the Czech Republic tomorrow afternoon.

Check out our new photos in the gallery section. 

Over and out from the Invaders