While I suffered from heat stroke and spent the day watching National Geographic in Bishkek, Tom and Blake went for a day hike up to the glacier.
Kazakhstan, on our way to Russia. A stop off for petrol and Blake makes a new friend.
Party in the SJ!!
Bad roads
More bad roads
and they went on......
Camping in Kazakhstan.
It was freezing and we had very little warm clothing so a fire was a must.
Early morning start, few tasks were forgotten!!
The Ipod charger which kept breaking leaving without music. My attempt here to fix it lasted at least a day!
A familiar site throughout!!
Camping in Siberia, again freezing. (Don't buy cheap sleeping bags from Argos and expect them to actually keep you warm)
Go North's Citroen was with us in spirit!!
Brunch
The car was steadily falling apart, the cable tie and bungee cord supplies were taking a battering.
Supermarket in Bernaul, Russia. Our last big stock up of food. It had a deli counter and we got a cooked quarter chicken each, best food we had eaten in days!!
Team Bird, first rally car we had seen in 600 miles. They had lost a rear wheel and axle a few days earlier that had flipped up and dented the ide of their car. They had then spent two hours looking for it in the surrounding countryside.
We found a convoy of ralliers just before the Mongolian border in another amazing camp site.
Team Touchy who we had convoyed with back in Germany
Rob and Duncan in the 1964 Morris Minor which had done so well.
The drive to our final border.
Although mostly tarmac there were a few areas of bad roads.
The final fill up in Russia.
At the Mongolian border and its Dinner jackets all round in honour!
Polly the 2CV
Blake making tea, again....
The official line between Mongolia and Russia. This was next to the guard hut (a falling down shed on the middle of a wind swept baron hill in No mans land.
Becky and Caz in the ball dressers adn Uzbeki army hats
Team Bird's battered SJ (that is where their wheel and axle broke off and flippe dup on itself.
We stay with a Mongolian family just past the border
Rob and 'Mum'. She had 17 children, her youngest a 4 year old girl and she was 65.
The Mongolian Godfather and duncan
The family
Their Yur. They are Nomadic so regularly move home, literally by putting everything on a truck and finding a new random bit of land somewhere in Mongolia.
One of the cars from this years rally which had been given to the family, they were still trying to get it to work.
The Canadian's car we saw at Hyde park with the fold up tent on the roof, another one which had been left to the family.
Becky makes a new friend....
The small little girl, Blake gave her a shelter box T shirt, Dan and Steve from Team Touchy gave her a singing Kuala bear teddy and she found a tennis ball which she was amazed by.
The convoy ready to move out.
Despite being nomadic and relatively poor, there was quite a lot of satalite dishes
The minor having serious power issues. Resulted in us towing them up an extremely steep hill.
Team Touchy's broken leaf spring
A supermarket that had Waitrose plastic bags!!
Team Touchy's welded leaf spring
The main road
The main road again
Two teams who had lost their cars who were travelling with the official film crew bought a motor bike and side car and a mini bus. They also got full length coats, boots and 'Biggles' style flying goggles.
The rain hits Mongolia, the roads get really really bad.
A local with a Mongol Rally SJ, he was less than helpful.
We found this on the main road, fortunately there was no one in it, we ran into the family it belonged to a mile up the road and gave them a lift to the next town.
Our camp after beaching the car into the river bed and stalling it. Bit of a desperate time with the possiblity of being permanently stranded in the desert on the cards.
Emptying the car of some of the weig
4 hours later, both of us exhausted, hungry and thirsty. We had pushed the car out the river bed and up one of the sand dunes giving us enough room to bump start it.
The two Mongolians we found in the middle of nowhere who took us back to the main road and saved our lives.
Rejoining the convoy after our harrowing experience
Tyre change for the James and Sian's Nova.
Our last day and we find 200 miles of tarmac, couldn't believe our luck. Then we caught up with where they were still building the road and endured 4 hours of really bad roads to the end.
Polly the 2CV's chassis was slowly snapping in half. the front wheels were moving through the firewall into the actual car and dragging the gearbox with them.
James makes his last refill to take him to the end.
We discover our missing number plate. We weren't going back for it!
Our missing exhaust
Sian getting some air!!
Me filling up the SJ for what felt like the thousandth time
The last supper.
We leave the washing up and the plates and the pots......for someone, anyone else!!
Our faithful mascot which made it all the way (although a little battered and a little dirty)
Sian takes control of the SJ for a while.
After 6 weeks of driving east we finally see our desitination on the horizon.
Without doubt the best Police check point so far.
The final battle through rush hour in Ulaan Baatar!
We arrive to a welcomed complimentary pint at Dave's Place.
The majority of the Gobi desert and me
The other teams welcome us!
A slightly leaning SJ, the bad roads of the last day had been the final straw. The suspension had officially gone.
The emptying of the SJ
The kit to go to the charity
The bad roads and rubbish suspension had seen everything in the back pretty much destroyed.
The Nova also gets its final clean
I missed out the Netherlands
Outside Dave's Place and a few other successful teams
and Polly the 2CV makes it despite the chassis being in two halves.
Sian and James in their final moments
Blake and I have our farewell pictures.
The car lot where we leave the cars for charity.
A short message to the next owner
Some of the slightly more unfortunate cars.
We rolled over exaclty 9000 miles from home to the parking lot.
Each notch in the dash board represents 1000miles.
Duncan and Rob make it in the Morris Minor two days after us.
Along with James and Matt in the red Micra
The main square in Ulaan Baatar and the Genghis on his horse
The final night and we dine out in style.
Coffee and Croissants for Breakfast in Rome, the last stop off before our final farewells.
