Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
7 weeks since we left Goodwood we manage to finally make it to our original goal and finish line. What an epic journey!
Olgli, Mongolia
With Ambi gone there were only two brave soldiers willing to carry on the torch, both of whom have found themselves rather stuck in the back end of Mongolia. Though the vintage plane ride over epic scenery has more than made up for it. Tomorrow we head off early to barter for more plane tickets in the hope of securing a bargain passage to Ulaan Baatar. Hope the girls are surviving even with the lack of good company and that Chloe has found a cable car. That's all for now. The men
Almaty, Kazakhstan
Having spent 6 days in Almaty, we have finally managed to get Ambi a nice new home in Kazakhstan. She is in need of a lot of TLC and we bid her a fond farewell. Good luck Harry and JJ in getting to Mongolia via a mysterious city in Mongolia no one has ever heard of, or flown to before... - hopefully see you on the 10th! Laura and Chloe are off for a few days mountaineering and living like nomads before heading home on the 9th. Had a good couple of days with all the other Almaty based rally teams - hope you all get there. Thanks Ambi - what a trooper!
Korday, Kazakhstan
strolling through kazakhstan at a leisurely pace, stopping en route to visit another hospital via crazy spirit healers on the road side, appreciting kazak hospitality and family cow milking moments. Had to put a few officials in their places but easily done and spending another night under the stars. Ambi is a veteran of the push starts...as are we.
Karagandy Province, Kazakhstan
A fantastic four days in Bukhara's friendliest truck stop...consisting of countless kebabs which lead into bottles of Uzbeks finest vodka which lead into a sarcophony of English/Russian techno keyboard playing, courtesy of Mr Russia and dj Shiner. Ambi set off with a new lease of life for all of 2 starts, and by Tashkent she'd been bump started 6 times and had a broken clutch. Never to be defeated and assisted by 8 baton-waiving truck-stopping policemen we made it to Kazakhstan after 3 seperate tows and a 2km push. Beer o'clock.
Ashgabat, Turkmenistan
Currently on our 5th day in Ashgabat - we have well and truly seen everything and are really appreciating the 50 degree heat! Ambi came out of retirement on Saturday night to rush Harry to hospital with food poisoning - we were unsympathetic at first, believing he was just hungover. Sorry Harry! We have now made several attempts to leave Ashgabat and make our border crossing on the 17th but have so far failed and are potentially at risk of being deported. Ambi was involved in a minor crash, then decided she'd had enough and has now made several trips to the mechanics whilst we have been making trips to the British Embassy and a few 5* hotel swimming pools as well. Fingers crossed we are out of here, well on our way to Uzbekistan without having to cook more supernoodles on the side of the motorway, whilst waiting for a tow truck. Oh dear.
Ali Bad, Iran
Drove along a rainy coastline and trawled through towns until we opted to stay at some strange Ramadan fun park, full of dodgy loos and slightly over-friendly security guards.Â
Chalus, Iran
From leaving Tabriz we soon discovered Iranian road signs were non existent and that the very few that were there were all in Farsi...far from ideal. After taking a slight detour we ended up winding through a high mountain pass which was absolutely stunning though Laura and Chloe were too busy fighting the wind to pay much attention. After hrs of slow progress we stumbled upon the only bit of civilisation we'd seen all day, Kivi. This was an unexpected wonder and turned out to be the honey capital of Iran...apparently. The next morning we awoke to find Harry full of excitement, some would have likened him to a 2 month old puppy...it was his BIRTHDAY!!!!! Probably not the best place to celebrate one's 22nd...Iran being a dry country and it being Rammadam, but none the less we were determined to celebrate. Balloons were blown, pipe cleaner animals were crafted, hats were worn and even the odd gift or two were exchanged. Enroute to our birthday stopover we had a slight issue with the spare wheel...it fell off, luckily however it was rescued by a friendly mechanic who hailed us when we went back looking for it. A few more signitures on the ambulance and we were once again on the road. With it being such a special occasion we managed to rootle out a steak house and proceeded to tuck into a pretty good hunk of meat...life was good.
Tabrīz, Iran
after 4 1/2 hours of border crossing, too many hours in headscarves, some very friendly iranians, a minor crash on a roundabout and about 8 of us having to push ambi into the nearest petrol station, we have finally found a campsite and some much needed food (we hope...it is ramadan after all)!@
Trabzon, Turkey
After leaving the bustle of Istanbul we headed East until we found what we thought was the Swindon equivalent of Turkey. With no better place stay we pulled into the center of this industrial town to find a warm welcome from a local policeman who was offering his proffesional as well as domestic services....Chloe's eyes lit up! We solemnly ventured into town in search of a kebab but by chance met a man who's arsenal of weapons Rambo would have been proud of. After a bit of imaginative roleplay we we were granted access to the collection and can now safely say that we would back ourselves with a Desert Eagle .50.Moving on from guns, we went in search of fabled beach far far away on the coast of the Black Sea....alas, it was chucking it down when we got there and so the hope of finally ending our shower drought was thwarted....the girls are suffering. We drove down the coast in search of balls.
