Back Home!!!

The Mongol Rally is officially over for us! Long Live Mongol Rally!

 We are both back home in blighty now, Joe arriving earlier last week and me myself arriving yesterday.Have a great mixture of feelings. Already missing Mongolia and all of the lovely people we met along the way, both locals, ralliers and especially the convoy! Saying that, am very glad to be at home where there is a steady supply of toast, milk, coffee and even a shower and porcelain toilet!

  We are also still taking donations for our charities, so if you are feeling especially genorous and want to show your appreciation and support then please feel free to donate!

  Lots of love to all of you!

 Az x

Mongolia and Ulaanbataar

Been a few days since the last entry and thought we might as well get up to another update!

 In the end, the police seemed to get bored of us. Handling 20 or so people and half a dozen vehicles does not seem easy, so they ended up just taking us to a car park outside a university and leaving us to our own! But still we reached Ulaanbataar with the car working and everyone in the convoy alive and well - except for the odd spell of slight sickness as to be expected!

 We have spent a few days at Ulaanbataar now and it seems to be a little big city. There are quite a few sites to see, such as the many temples, the huge Bhuddha statue and the various shops and that, but overall the city seems quite small at the same time. We have spent a lot of the time at the finish line and generally wondering around the sites and such and trying to get a bit of culture into us (as well as visiting some stip clubs :) ).

 

 It is now actually three in the morning and Joe will be leaving for his morning flight soon. I will be staying here a few days longer, hopefully getting a flight home in the next few days. WeI think we are going to miss Mongolia, but overall I think it is getting to about the time that we should be home now.

 Right, until the next update, which I promise will be a bit sooner!

 

Az

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

Wahey! We have finally made it to the city of ulaanbataar! Problem is, the convoy has been pulled over by police for standing on vehicles and such! 3 police cars and half dozen police, lets see what happens next!

More-golia!

Hey there guys!

 We have now made it to Altai! The roads here are absolutely appalling- the washboards are the worst, they just shake your car to pieces!

 The Convoy is one car down unfortunately, but we still have the lovely Charline and Darroch with us riding in the ambulance and van. The van is in bad ways at the moment and is currently getting repaired, so we should hopefully get it to UB.

We are now on the finally 1000km to UB and we have around three days to do it. May not sound much, but we have been making very slow progress since we got here as people are having major issues with their cars and we have had to do a few tyre changes ourselves. Still confident though!

 We are very dirty and manky but in good spirits as you can see!

Love you all!

 

Az x

 

Mongolia!!!!!

Hey guys

We havn't been updating as we ran out of credit first, then signal for the last 3 days! But we have now made it too Mongolia, still in convoy, we've lost one car to the conditions but still have 7, and a few more teams have moved in the we've picked up along the way. So after many wheel changes we are well on the way to Ulaanbaatar

 I've got to be brief but we can give a full update when we hit our final destination

So whilst we have been away we've crossed Kazakhstan through the capital Astana, crossed into Russia, then through the 48 hour border crossing where we slept inside of customs for a while into Mongolia. Only a few miles in we had an epic blow out! The tire literally shredded and as we were on a gravel road with a mountain one side and a large drop the other I was very happy to keep us on the road, when the tire blew we stated to spin out, so after a few sideway slides, turns and more sideways we came to a stop still on the road and alive! The camera died in an unfortunate miscomunnication of an accident but is covered on the insurance.

 

Now we are on some of the dustiest roads imaginable but having lot's of fun crossing rivers and playing dodgems (only a little)

 

More soon!

Keep on sending us messages for when we get some signal! 

, Kazakhstan

We are now in the lovely company of the convoy once again, along with team backflip and andrew in his ambulance! First night back with them was eventful as per norm. We managed tn stumble across a village, ending up in a police escort to the only hotel for miles. They even stayed overnight to watch over us! Also met some awesome american guys from peace core and made friends with the locals. Apparently, we are the largest group of tourists they have ever had! As a gift, the convoy got a wooden trough! Had some awesome kazakh food as well, they really like their mutton! Camped in a field in the middle of nowhere last night, had fun with the cars this morning, bit of car surfing and roof hopping. We even have 3 policeman hitching a lift to astana in the ambulance! Overall, kazakhstan is pretty bosh! Keep the free texts coming guys!

Province of Yaroslavl, Russian Federation

 

Fantastic news! The car was repaired thanks to a wonderful guy Dymitri and his wife, to cut a long story short - after offering him the car so that we could legally import it and leave it, he instead helped us get it fixed so we are back on the road again!

 

We have driven through the night and have somehow, after many hours, managed to make it into russia! We are now on our way to Volgograd on our journey to meet up with the convoy! Bosh!

Ukraine Days

Hey there guys,

 We are now coming to the end of what we think is our fourth day in the Ukraine, or what I like to refer to as the "Ukraine Days". Our unlucky streak here has continued, with us finding out that the Mass Air Flow Sensor that we need to replace will cost upwards of £600 and take 3-4 weeks to get here, which is just not possible. In light of this, we are working on getting the car imported to the Ukraine.

Now we have come up with a veritable plan B. We aim to get a train from Nikolyev to Kiev tomorrow night (an overnight train), then after a half day stop, get a four day train to Astana in Kazakhstan in order to meet up with the convoy. Unfortunately we can't order online because we have no fixed address and the tickets would arrive far too late, so we have got the nice receptionist at our hotel to write us a letter that we can hopefully pass to the ticket office with no fuss.

Oh yeah, did I mention the four day train will be in 3rd class!?

Lets hope his all goes well and with luck, we will be out of the Ukraine soon! Keep the texts coming, don't forget your names (gets well confusing!) and much love to you all! As a sidenote, if you want to make all this current misery worth it, feel free to donate to one of our causes using the links to the left!

Cheers guys,

Az xxx 

Nikolayev, Ukraine

Bad news I'm afraid guys. We have been told that the mass airflow filter is kaput and would take £600 and 3 weeks to repair. Trying to arrange car import to ukraine and train to russia and the convoy. Bad times but have to keep our chins up. Az x

Ukraine again - still stuck

We are still stuck in Ukraine, but the good new's is that we have finally found out the problem, (mass airflow sensor chip is knackered) the bad news is that we have to drive a incapacitated car at around 20mph to another city to find a Nissan dealership hopeing they have the part, if they don't we will have to dispose of the car and jump on a train to catch up with the convoy and ride with catch me if you Khan! Fingers crossed they have the part in tomorrow

Keep on texting!