Altay, China

Sadly have left the ambulance as its got suspension problems but jumped in with the rest of the convoy. Bit of a squeeze but going well.

Central, Sri Lanka

Just helped wash and then rode an elephant, awesome! Off on a 4 day tour of the country. Today we go the old capital city and endin ** some text is missing **

Western Province, Sri Lanka

I have made my way to Sri Lanka to meet Zara and relatives. Having a great time and trying to get a visa for India tomorrow. N

Astana, Kazakhstan

Grabbing dinner before heading off to the club with the chef. I managed to blind order a kebab at lunch but at the same place so all I've done is increase the odds of getting something weird. Fortunately i left a good tip at lunch, hopefully they'll take pity on me. The club im off to later is called fashion club, I'm sure I'll fit right in with beard and flip flops. Jimjam

Astana, Kazakhstan

In a restaurant full of Kazaks over the road from the hotel. It is the most expensive steak house I've ever seen, I'd want most of the cow for £60 especially when it doesnt even come with chips. On the plus side I've been approached by 3 rather attractive young ladies already. I'm fairly certain its my dashing new beard rather than anything untoward. Jimbo

Astana, Kazakhstan

After sight seeing this morning I am now at the airport flying to Abu Dhabi this evening! Sad to leave the rally but unfortunately there was no way I could continue! I'm going to keep updating the blog regardless at least until Jim gets back to London! N

Astana, Kazakhstan

still in Astana, been round to see all the sights. Its basically just a brand new shiny city so only interesting for half a day. Impressive though.

Oral, Kazakhstan

Sadly the truck has died (well almost)!  The prop is about to go again, the rear diff is about to go and the gearbox and engine are leaking and whining - not to mention the knackered front suspension.  Even if the mechanics here understood what was wrong and we had the money to fix it new issues are occurring on a daily basis and we can't afford to keep fixing it!

We've decided since we're in a town with an airport we're going to try and get rid of it legally so we can leave the country without getting arrested.  We then plan to fly to Astana (capital of Kazakhstan) where we'll spend a couple of days.  Jim is planning to head to Semey or Barnaul to hitch with other teams but Nick is unsure as cannot easily fly with sleeping bag, tent etc as stupidly bought over-sized kit!  

We're spending another night in Oral tonight and then will speak to DHL in the morning about shipping some gear to UK and then go to customs to enquire about leaving the truck.  We hope to fly to Astana tomorrow evening and have night out and see the sights.

Very gutted that the adventure with the truck is over but we started getting problems on day one and never thought we'd get as far as we have. 

West Kazakhstan, Kazakhstan

Had a fantastic morning but sadly our prop is going again amongst other things and think the truck may die here! We'll see in the morning! On a massive downer this evening! We sadly heard today that there has been a rally team crash causing one fatality and leaving two critical! It puts things in perspective and our thoughts are with their families and loved ones!

Astrakhan, Russian Federation

We made it to Astrakan about 10pm last night after an extremely hot ride dodging wild fires! We thought we'd get a hotel with a few other teams before hitting the border. Really nice rooms but we got ripped off big time on food. We passed a McDonalds last night and is the first I've seen since Belgium, gonna get breakfast and then hit the border - wish us luck.@