Thanks!!!

A final few words and pictures for everyone who has supported us along our 10,124 mile journey from London to Ulaanbaatar.

Both Cedric and I were touched, encouraged amd extremely grateful for the level of interest and support that we receieved by everyone reading this website over all the 41 days we were travelling. In terms of sponsorship and in addition to the fantastic equipment donations that made our journey possible we have raised in excess of 1800 Great British Pounds for the two nominated charities, thanks so much to everyone who kindly donated. This is also in addition to any money raised by the sale of E'wn in Ulaanbaatar (which I can't imagine will be much given the state of him!). As we have mentioned before the trip provided us with an experience and an adventure much greater than we could have ever hoped or imagined, one we will take much more away from than just the ability to fix a fuel pump in the middle of a desert!

A couple of photos from the finish line to finish on although there will undoubtably be more info and details to follow in the next weeks!

Cedric, Rick, Oli and Paul at the Finish Line. Enormous thanks to Rick and Oli who we would without doubt have finished the rally some 500 miles short of the finish.

Cedric annoyed that the Finish Line Champagne is an Unidentifed Russian brand rather than his normal Veuve Cliquot.

Paul unable to wait any longer for a shower, so decided to use the aforementioned Russian Champagne instead of water.

The Final Week

Now that the Car has been delivered to it's final resting place and I have managed to wash off the 7 days of dust, oil, petrol and grime off my clothes and I, it is time to give a few more details about the ups and downs of the final weeks of the trip. Apologies for the long post!

It is fair to say we were both immediately amazed by Mongolia. Our first day in the country was filled with incredible scenery like nothing we had seen before. The driving was spectacular too, along fantastic dirt tracks (which constituted the main roads) over mountain passes and through lots of rivers. Navigation was tricky due to the lack of roads, you basically drove anywhere, following sometimes faint tyre tracks in the dirt hoping that they are going in the correct direction. At one point we asked a local for directions and ended up being invited into his Yurt to drink fermented Mare's milk with him and his family, not ideal for Cedric's delicate stomach!

Things were going well, we were making good progress and our fix to the car to re-route the fuel line into the fuel tank by going through the filler cap was working. Then came the Gobi desert and things started going wrong. Firstly, late one evening we hit a pothole. This wasn't a normal pothole but a canyon rivalling anything in America, that stretched the full width of the road, hidden from view until your fate was upon you. We crashed down into it and realised quickly that something had broken, something had fallen off the car. Something pretty important... we had just lost the engine. The hit had caused us to loose two engine bolts and the engine literally fell out of the car, almost onto the sand. Bugger! Thankfully we had two spare bolts that fit and some careful use of the car jack, a very big rock and a piece of wood and we managed to get it back securely in place, we had been very lucky!

The next day we hit it an enormous sandstorm and at the same time came across our first big river crossing. This was one very big river and right in the middle of it was truck that had got stuck trying to get across. In the limited visibility due to the sand we watched as other trucks failed to pull it out and pondered how to get out little car across. A local taxi driver showed us the correct route and with water almost pouring in under the doors we slowly made it across, few!! An hour later, things started to go wrong, the car suddenly started spluttering and then cut out. A water pipe had burst, spitting water all over the engine, normally an easy repair but not so in a sandstorm! However the car continue spluttering and eventually cut out again. All we could think was that the water had got into the electrics and broken something. A few hours of unsuccessfully trying to track the problem down and another team arrived and gave us a tow (we were 120 miles from the next town) until their petrol tanks developed a large leak and they had to leave us in the desert or they would also be stranded.

We were properly stuck, broken down with a problem we didn't understand in the middle of the Gobi desert, 100 miles from the nearest town, on a road which wasn't a road, more a collection of tracks. We tried to flag down every truck or bus that came past (2 in an hour) and after 4 hours we were starting to calculate how long we could survive on our food and water (4 days before it ran out we thought!). Then, like an oasis, another team in a Suzuki appeared on the horizon and sprinting across the desert we managed to get their attention. This was a miracle as not only were they driving the same car as us, Rick, one of the two guys in the car was a brilliant mechanic and diagnosed our problem as a broken ignition straight away. Ten minutes later we were back on our way in convoy with some new friends.

However it hadn't fixed the spluttering which got worse and worse. We spent most of the next day trying to fix this and came to the conclusion that the fuel pump was dying on us. No suitable replacement pumps could be found in the town so we carried on carefully, having to pause every few miles until it got too bad and we decided to try to build a new pump from the dodgy one we had bought and a windscreen washer bottle. It failed. At midday the following day we gave up on the fuel pump and were out of ideas, the engine had now seemingly seized and it wouldn't even turn over, let alone start. The rally was over for us, a very emotional time. Rick and Oli said they would tow us back to the nearest town so we could dump the car and fly to Ulaanbaatar. End of Rally, 400 miles short of the finish.

Then lady luck popped in to say hello and a last attempt to start the car whilst being towed worked and he coughed into action. The spluttering was still continuing and progress back to the town was slow but somehow Oli and Rick persuaded us not to quit but to carry on towards UB with them towing us all the way if necessary. They were crazy, abandoning their own route and plans in order to get us to the finish line, what amazing guys!

So on we went, very slowly, especially as early the next day the car wouldn't drive more than 10 meteres before cuttting out and we had to be towed for 60 miles to the next town where we would have a final attempt at fixing it. We were still 270 miles from UB and towing for that distance was out the question. We had three ideas, the first 2 failed after less than 5 miles but third and final idea (tying a fuel tank to the roof and using a hand pump to force fuel directly into the engine) worked. It hadn't stopped the spluttering but we were able to drive for more than 5 minutes without stopping.

We carried on in that fashion, filling up at petrol stations caused lots of odd looks as we climbed onto the roof of the car and filled our new fuel tank, but it was just about working and we were getting closer to UB. We had also noticed that the front suspension had snapped one of it's two springs and the front left CV joint was failing badly. The last 100 miles were driven very carefully indeed and it was only when we stopped the engine at the finish line (using the interior light switch which was how we started and stopped the car!) that we realised that we had made it.

The relief was immense, we had pretty much given up on reaching the finish twice during the last week but had somehow got through. It is impossible to thank Rick and Oli (http://www.pop2mongolia.co.uk/) enough. Without them, not only would we not have finished but we would still be stuck in the middle of the Gobi desert trying to catch Marmots to have for dinner. Two fantastic guys that really got us out of a very deep hole and then nursed us to the finish line.

We will have more to add soon about the adventure and some photos will also appear showing us sporting some very dodgy facial hair, but now - time for another beer!

A word from the airport

First post since a long time... First of all many thanks to all of you for all your support and comments as they warmed our hearts and kept us going. Mongolia doesn't have much in terms of infrastructure so we couldn't give much updates but we will make up for the time lost.

So what happened? Well on the Monday morning we were meant to cross the Mongolian border, after 5 days of not eating, serious pain in my bowels and blood in my poo I simply wasn't able to leave my tent. Paul dragged me to the car and engaged in a 10 hours drive to the closest city. You know the story. That was bad. I was in dehydradation as everything I drank went straight through my body. And that morning I cried. Cried because of the pain, cried because I thought I would be forced to go home and cried because I tend to always end up in hospital and start to be tired of that. I would like to publicly apology for the panic created whilst we were trying to find a French / British doctor to talk to. I later found out that I was fully covered by my insurance which provided everything from 24/7 doctor access to helicopters. Lesson learned.

So after 3 days spent in the "infectious diseases" section of a Russian hospital (an isolated derelict building in the middle of the forest) I was back on track. They gave me shots in the bum every nights and oatmeal 3 times a day and that seemed to have done the trick (alongside the drop in my arm). Spending time in a Russian hospital is quite an experience which I only recommend if you are very sick. One interesting feature of being in the "infectious diseases" section is that visitors are not allowed to enter the building. So people converse via mobile phone whilst looking at each other through the third floor window. This is great. The hospital is clear of any cluter and doctors can focus fully on fixing people. It is fair to say that the doctors and nurses there where very switched on despite the apparences and did a good job with me. I owe them a lot.

So off we went to Mongolia, blowing into our fuel line every 100 miles or so. Straight from the border the landscape started to change into a mix of Alpine snow capped mountains, prairie and desert. It is quite dramatic and, to us and everyone we met, felt very special.

From that point onward a lot of things happened to us, putting both Paul and I a bit outside of our comfort zone on more than one occasion and pushing us close to abandon again. The full story is coming soon but I've got to catch my plane for now. All I wanted to say is that this was a real adventure, much harder than anything we've done so far, and we both are extremly happy to have done it. We have learned a lot from the experience.

Off to Beijing now.

They made it!

They have made it to Ulaan Baatar! The lads arrived at 3pm local time after a last minute fix to the fuel pump.

Well done Paul and Cedric.

Still going

The lads are now in Arvayheer which is 270 miles from Ulaan Baatar. They are both ok but still having big problems with the car and had to be towed the last 60 miles by another rally team. They are attempting one last fix of the fuel pump. If that doesnt work they may need to be towed the rest of the way!

So close...

The lads are camped about 400 miles from Ulaan Baatar. They are both well but unfortunately the car isnt. Lots of problems with the fuel/engine (?) which is causing big delays. They are trying to get the problem fixed so they can limp the final few miles to the finish line.

Made it to Mongolia

Arrived in Mongolia this morning. Landscapes breathtaking. Roads ok. Now in Olgi and heading onwards. Eating lots, all is well.

Back on the road

A few bugs are not stopping us. Back on the road, mongolia tomorrow. Military style planning now underway to complete our mission. Over and out!

The Life of E'wn

Whilst Cedric is spending another day with Helga (I think he is growing attached to her now) and I have some time I thought it was about time I gave an update on how our little E'wn is doing and what it is like to have driven him 8,600 miles across deserts, mountain ranges and the odd river.

It's hard to explain the experience of driving E'wn words.  Apart from the noise which I have mentioned earlier it really is seat of the pants driving but at low speeds (max speed is 60mph).   Keeping him on the road is a real effort since the steering wheel can turn almost half a turn in either direction before the wheels follow.  Add in the effect of a side wind litterally blowing us off the road (E'wn makes trucks look aerodynamic), and puddles on the road (seem to cause the car to veer off course drastically) makes keeping a straight line more like a Krypton Factor challenge.  Unlike most cars we don't have to worry too much about speeding, the needle we watch more closely than the speedo is the temperature gauge through feer of overheating. Through muliple scientific experiments Cedric discovered that to keep the engine temperature under control we need all lights off and the interior heating on full.  So yes, we spent 3 days driving across a desert with our heating blasting out.  As for entertainment whilst driving, well... there is the road and thats about it.  The radio won't work while the lights are on, luckily we can't have the lights on due to the heating, but unfortunately a bent Kazak traffic cop helped himself to my MP3 player so no music for us either.  Describing the ride as a little bumpy would be a slight understatement. Cedric and I are both smaller having lost several vertibrae over the last 5 weeks. 

Some of the minor problems we have had so far include...Drive shaft broken (the Helsinki hold up), leaking fuel tank (there is a petrol trail from London to The Mongolian border, if anyone lights it you see our route from space), coolant leak (on going and very irritating), unable to start (two hours of attempts failed to get him going, needed a tow.  Half a mile later he rawed into action), semi-blocked fuel line, almost lost the alternator (nearly fell off), exhaust snapped in two (now fixed with both Peaches and Pineapple tins), right back suspension pretty much dead, seat bolts snapped (yes, that was while I was sitting in it), front light falling out, various nuts and bolts lost or coming loose or about to fall out, oil & water in air filter box, flat tire, transfer box mount sheared, both wing mirrors fail to hold position... and there is more, I've just wiped them from memory.

So all in all he is doing quite well, keeping us entertained both on and off the road and is still going even if we temporarily aren't.  He certainly gets a lot of attention and at pretty much every petrol stop or town people sign/write rude workds in Russian on the car, look under the bonnet, gasp then laugh as they shake their head in bemusement and walk away.  This is coming from guys driving 1970's clapped out Ladas.  I just now hope we all have another 1,500 miles in us!!

So near and yet so far

Before I report on our adventures of the last few days (more adventure than we would ideally have liked!) I can report that Cedric is doing extremely well and is almost fully recovered from a pretty nasty stomach infection.  It is amazing what a needle in the bottom from an enormous and scary Russian Helga can do for the immune system but it seems to have ridden him of the little bugs that caused us a fright over the last 2 days.

After our Migration Card problems in South Kazakstan we headed quickly North for the Russian border hampered only by the exhaust pipe splittling in two resulting in the already pretty noise car making a horriffic racket.  Despite us both wearing ear plugs we couldn't stand it any longer and found a garage to weld the pipe back together.  I've seen the odd welding kit before, but never one like this Frankenstein contraption, plugging it in was achieved by sticking two bare wires directly into the mains, and winding it up to get it started.  Here's me thinking the sparks are only meant to fly after you start welding!  The youthful 135 yr old welder did an excellent job (without gloves and with some very dodgy glasses) and it seemed that our ears could be unplugged and we could continue in peace.  100 miles later, the ear plugs came out as the weld split... an excellent $40 that was!

Crossing the border into Russia we met a rally team driving a London Cab stuck in no-mans land between Kazakhstan and Russia.  They had left Kazakhstan but their Russian visa was yet to start and so they were stranded for 5 days in a 10m square section of what they deamed "Taxi-stan". They weren't helping their chances of finally getting into Russia by playing the National Anthem and The Great Escape at full blast each morning to the extreme annoyance of the Russian border guards.

At this point both Cedric and I had a "funny tummy" and had to have the odd emergency stop whilst driving, but nothing more than standard Travellers problems.  We drove up to Barnaul, a large town on the Edge of the Altai region of Russia in the car which was now sounding more like a Jet Aircraft than a 970cc Suzuki to such an extent pedestrians covered their ears as we approached.  So there was nothing else for it,  a tin of Peaches (minus the peaches) was moulded around the pipe, removing the odd decibel from the exhaust pipe and resulting in a nice caramelised peach smell for the next 50 miles.

Two days of driving and 500 miles later and on Sunday night we arrived at the Mongolian border ready to step foot on the hallowed Mongolian soil only to find it closed for the weekend. We camped there for the night with a few other teams and at this point Cedric's condition worsened.  Yesterday (Monday) morning it was clear that we had no option but to head back to a large town and find a doctor.  With Cedric in increasing pain and running to find a tree by the side of the road every half an hour we drove back to Byssk, 400 miles and 10 hours away to seek help.  It was at this point that the car and the weather decided to do everything in their power to prevent us getting there.  Firstly we were hit with the recurring problem with our fuel line which results in it temporarily getting blocked by some rubbish in the tank.  The engine doesn't like this and stops, the only current remedy being to disconnect said fuel line and blow, with the aid of a foot pump, the rubbish out of the pipe.  This happened twice on the drive back, both times in pouring rain.  Then we got our first flat tire of the trip... perfect timing!

Finally we arrived at Byssk, found a hotel and got a doctor who quickly carted us both off in an Ambulance to hospital.  Well I say hospital but it could easily have been a prison.  I will never complain about the NHS hospitals again whose floors are absent of rubbish and (at my last visit anyhow) there are no flies and unidentified rodents running around!  After much searching through a Russian-English dictionary (anyone know the Russian for diarrhoea?) Cedric was kept in overnight and given the magic injection and is now pretty much better, if a little lighter. 

As for what is next, we don't know.  We will see how Cedric feels tomorrow, work out the options and decide on a plan of action, will keep you posted...

(A massive thanks to everyone who has posted messages below and who we have been in contact with over the last few days, your help and support has been very much appreciated, we are both very grateful!!)

Update on the boys

Just spoken to Paul. Following a few days of stomach problems, they are taking a slight detour to a big town so Cedric can get checked out by a doctor to be on the safe side. It sounds like they have got the right medicine now but just want to speak to a doctor to make sure everything is ok. Will update blog when I hear anything more from them.

For Cedric's parents = Paul has his phone with him if you wanted to call him.

Message from the road

"In Russia, limping to Mongolian border. Car and us broken. Exhaust patched with a peaches tin. Fuel line semi blocked. Wish we could say the same for our bowels."

The Mythical Stamp

Another "magical" moment today as we spent 9 hours 14 minutes and 48 seconds (PJ's internal body clock is said to be more accurate than the latest atomic technology) at the police station trying to become legal again. Yes, we didn't tell anyone but we screwed up our legal situation once again. This time we had the immigration cards but we needed to register them within 5 days of entry and guess what... So big fuss at the police station of Taraz, a normaly quiet little town east of Almaty. It was a long day, the police needed a certified translator which was found in the nearby english school. Got 6 forms filled up, two warnings issued and then waited and waited for the mythical stamp to appear from somewhere. I'm glad to report that I did fall asleep in the process and that Paul is now quite far down his book. I'm also glad to report that the 6 cops that where in the room with us did the same. But the stamp materialized itself just before the closure of the Police station at 19:00 and everybody went home, thrilled that another day full of excitement went by. We are now officially legal. Officially legal but still in Taraz which puts a dent in our tight schedule.

So tonight, in order to celebrate, we went into a bit of a folly and ate Turkish doner kebab and pide. The tears where very close to be shed as this is the first time in 6 days that we actually know what we ate (roughly). Our other attempts at eating Kazakh, generally the result of random finger pointing at obscure menus, were all classified as failures (pasta in a ball of hot water, two salads for mains, ketchup and mayonnaise bonanza) apart from the one time when we crashed a local wedding party and got some delicious dumplings and a superb soup for free.

The adventure continues. The plan for the next few days is to try to get out of the country via the south east mountains and then back up to Astana. We will hide in the forest or desert (harder) for most of the time so there might be a bit of a blackout.

Assalam aleykum

The long way to the empty Aral Sea

This trip is now really turning into something magical and the smile on my face just doesn't fade away. So we left Uralsk or Oral and headed down South to see the Aral Sea which has been emptied by the Russians in the 50s to irrigate the North of the country. The road was good to start with but then disappeared. We just confirmed today with the locals that there is indeed no road to Aral at the moment but it is being built (shown as a motorway on our faithful map). So we ended up doing around 400km of sand trails, used by the local truckers. Averaging at best 30kph, dodging the potholes and blasting on the straights and banked corners. Absolutely awesome driving.

This being a desert it was very very hot and very very dry. Water consumption rose up to 4L per person per day. And we had to turn the heating on in order to keep the engine cooler... Think sauna but without the lake nearby. At about 23:00 we had to stop driving as it was becoming dangerous (could barely see the dead river crossings which can be a fatal mistake due to the drop) and front light failure (repaired by PJ in 34 seconds next morning). So we decided to camp! Where do you camp in a desert criss crossed by truck trails? In the middle of one such trail of course! In between the car and our Halfords warning triangle to be more precise. Never have we felt any safer. Thankfully all the trucks that passed by seemed to have missed us, although one track was maybe too close to my left foot. Anyway...

Off we went in the next morning, as refreshed as one can be sleeping worried about his life. We did managed to reach Aral in one piece though and then the Aral sea with the boat cemetery. Basically these boats who were once floating on a beautiful sea are now just rusted skeletons of a glorious past. It feels funny to walk on a sea bed. This, for us, was a magical moment. I think that the trip now really took an incredible turn and is everything and more of what we hoped for. The desert was a mentally very very hard moment as anything that goes wrong there can take a really bad turn. Driving in potholes so big that the car actually fit in them for 10 hours was indeed absolutely exhausting. But those are the incredible experiences which exceed all our expectations. And then seeing the dead boats... You get the idea.

It is fair to say that we now are both happy like maybe two or three hippos (and also very dirty but you get used to it).

Sand, sand and more sand...

Survived the road of death, 200 miles of deep sand and dust across kazak desert. Visited Aral sea after night under the stars. 100 miles north of Aral.

A Night in the Forest

Skipping back a few days we had a particularly interesting time in Russia, not from encounters with locals which normally provide us with more entertainment, confusion and rapid searches through a dictionary as one can in 5 minutes, but this time with a dark, spooky night deep inside an dense Russian Forest.

We had started out our journey from Vladimir, 180km east of Moscow with a bit of rather pleasent sightseeing and picture taking in the bright sunshine and mid afternoon we left heading east with the aim of getting a few miles under our belt and camping wild onroute. The journey started badly with some dodgy navigation thanks to our trusty Russian road atlas such that we ended up on some backroads driving through dense forest. By backroads, these aren't the type you expect from experiences in the UK, no these resemble more like off road moutain bike tracks with potholes large enough to swallow the car and still have room for a few large lorries for dessert. After an hour it started raining hard, then harder still until visibility of said potholes was lost and we were appropriately playing Russian Roulette with the steering wheel, hoping not to fall down any. Then the lightening started, no thunder, just lightening all around us. Several times it hit a field just to our right creating fireballs rising from the earth and making our hair stand on end. We were now also swerving fallen trees as well as potholes in the middle of the road.

Eascaping the lightening in one piece, we tried to find a hotel in the nearest town - all oddly booked up for the night so we had no choice to find a camp spot outside the town in the forest. Only by this time it was 9pm and dark. Half an hours driving and we took a tiny dirt track into the dense forest for about half a mile until it was clear, or so we thought, that no one had been there for a long time. Just as we were getting settled into our very dark, forest campspot and were tucking into some hot food, we both froze to the spot when we could suddenly hear faint music not too far away! Now, forgive me if I am weak and feable here, however in London I expect to hear heavy bass music late at night however 50km from the nearest town, deep in the Russian forest on a wet, dark night I don't!

It didn't take long for our fear of partying, drunken Russian mobsters on AK47 training in the woods to get the better of us and we packed up and speedily drove out and continued onwards in the darkness. We took another dirt track, then another until we were once again in the middle of... well... we had no idea as it was too dark and our tourches revealed nothing but trees and according to Cedric, potentially a Wild Boar nest! So in a moment of courage or more likely madness we decided to camp right there and crawled into our tent trying to ignore any odd or unusual rumblings in the dark forest for a well needed peaceful nights sleep.

Welcome to the Great Republic of Kazakhstan!!

Being forced out of our forest hidding place due to running out of Nutela, we made a last desperate move to the Russian border. After being stopped and fined twice by the local police for 1) overtaking where it is not allowed (PJ) 2) speeding (CL) we finally managed to reach a forgotten Russian outpost 30km north of Uralsk. Local police were friendly enough despite our obvious mistakes (filmed on camera). And even though they asked for $100, they let us go for 300 roubles.

Now, the border crossing: close your eyes and imagine a dusty western movie. Tumbling balls of weeds rolling down the main alley. A couple of rusty buildings squeeking in the wind. It is dry, very hot and there is nothing else for miles. Paul and Cedric are on one side of the street with their hands ready, too used to the action of drawing their papers. On the other side, 30 bored to death border guards are waiting, hands close to their trusty rubber stamps.

It took us 3 hours to close this one which is in fact an extremely good time. The other teams averaged 6 hours. All we did was:
- get there
- befriend a fellow motorist in order to fill in all the paperwork (in Russian)
- showed said papers and whatever we had (international driving license is a must)
- have everybody sign the car
- give a cigar to my new friend Milrn from the Kazakh border
- give 2 vodkas samples to another new friend from the customs checkpoint
- unpack and re-pack the entire car
- and off we went.

Absolutely amazing. Which made us think that the immigration cards might not have been needed after all. In any case we made sure the Kazakhs gave us one before we left.

We've now reached Uralsk (also known as Oral in Kazakh, watch the bad jokes) and are staying in the most magnificient hotel Russia built... 50 years ago.

Swimming suits are ready for the Aral sea.

Message from the road

"Hiding in forest 100km north of Samara - Ran out of Nutella - considering surrendering soon."

Law and Order

Post written from Yaroslavl' also known as Ярославль. Yes, I mean Ярославль. Now try to order food with that. Learning Russian is becoming a survival necessity for us. Since we found out the joys of living wild in the woods, with the bears and all, (yesterday's evening) we are keen on getting back to civilization. However, it is proving a little bit more tricky than anticipated. Communication is reduced to animal sounds (my very famous sheep impression got us some beef, it was good anyway). Russian Babouchkas are happy to help but the men usually dismiss us as the two clowns we really are.

We also discovered the famous Russian roads. Paul and I are now fully acustomed to our new size being respectively shorter by 9.71 and 8.42 centimeters. This slight compression of our backbone came free of charge from the Russian highway agency. We also nearly lost the alternator in the process, having shaken itself of its bolts in no time.

The best bit for the end: arriving at the hotel we discovered that we are in fact illegal in Russia. Not kidding, the border police somehow forgot to give us our imigration cards (for my Mom: not good). Any of the following can now happen:
- large fine by the local police
- large fine by the border police
- severe beating by the local police
- severe beating by the border police
- jail by the local police
- latex glove inspection by the border police (they like to vary the pleasures)
- not being able to leave Russia
- not being able to re-enter Russia (from Kazhakstan, mandatory to get to Mongolia)

Seriously now: if anyone as had a similar problem before, or knows someone who knows someone who can help us, please, please, please send us a message.

Spasiba
Ызфышиф

Onwards!

Drive shaft received and mounted, transmission box back to where it belongs and any other bolts we had left are now in the boot.

We are gooooooooiiiiiiinnnnnnng.

Russia here we come!
Russie nous voila!

Word from the Street

A drive shaft is apparently in Helsinki... Little UPS man in your brownish van: will you find the Holiday Inn West City?

Hope: The Vengeance

Back to the Lego section then for some more childhood therapy as the parcel will not arrive today but tomorrow thanks to UPS. Great website guys, you can pay for something that doesn't exist... One more day in Helsinki, it could be worse but the time pressure is on and we're starting to feel a little bit worried and broke.

Paul recomputed all possible routes accross Russia this morning, as a wake up exercise. It took him 5 mins 34 sec which is faster than Big Blue. We're going to have to give Saint Petersburg a miss, but it is not so bad as it can be visited rather easily during a weekend break.

Another BIG BIG thanks to Paul & Steve at Polden Autos, Ferndown, who stayed up late yesterday to wait for the little UPS man. He will turn up... today.

Activities for today: beach and modern art museum.
Stay tuned, I've got the feeling this is not going to stop here.

Hope Returns

Our fate is now firmly in the hands of a brown and gold clad delivery service called UPS. Today we removed the troublesome drive shaft that seems to have disintegrated over the previous 2,500 miles and have made arrangement to get a new shiny one delivered out to us here in Helsinki. Many thanks to Paul and colleagues at Polden Autos, Ferndown, Dorset once again for coming to our rescue and locating a new shaft for us, without this the rally for us would be completely over.

All we now need is UPS to get the thing out here to us, which hopefully will be by tomorrow noon, collect the bits scattered around the hotel's car park and put the underside of E'wn back together... what's the bet we will have a single nut and washer left over!

Right, time for some sightseeing!

Helsinki Again

Today, Paul and I went shopping! Not for food, no no, we've got 6 weeks worth of dried food in the back of the car awaiting 127 gallons of water to transform itself into a gigantic porridge. No, we were in the tool section obviously, looking like two mad men in search of an Allen key of size 7. This is because this morning, as we were preparing ourselves to drive to the Russian border, we discovered that the UJ joint of the drive shaft was destroyed (for my Mom: car dead). 7 being a non-standard size, we didn't find any. However there was a wide range of axes available. Being in Finland and all, buying an axe is part of your monthly shopping list. Paul must have seen the look in my eyes as he quickly dragged me to the Lego section trying to evoke happy chlidhood memories of when I was building crap rather than trying to destroy it.

That said Helsinki is a good place to be stuck in. Interesting city to have a look around and there is a very good nightlife. We went to the "Cuba!" club yesterday. It's a bit like watching a fashion show, only without the photographers and the designer clothes. Absolutely amazing. And I thought London was the place to go party... No, no, no, it is right here, in between 2 pine forests and a transfer box.

Genie mecanique: les croisillons de l'axe de transmission entre la boite de transfer et la boite de vitesse sont morts. On se fait envoyer la piece d'Angleterre. Cela necessite d'enlever la boite de transfer donc on va encore bien se marrer :-)

The Challenge Ahead

After one week on the road, having gathered new skills as mechanics, camped in somptuous locations and had a sauna like only Finnish do (with the cold lake nearby) we are preparing to enter another dimension of our journey. Russia awaits, ready to add new "social" challenges to an already surprisingly long list of mainly mechanical difficulties.

The tough times are ahead. We're not scared but the possibilities of, for instance, having to abandon the car, or be robbed (stories from a Finnish friend at the campsite yesterday: NO driving at night) are becoming real. If only that bloody car could do more than 300 miles without needing maintenance...

It is a good thing that we met 2 teams on our way. Both had SJs and both packed up after 23 miles. So we're doing good. In fact I quite enjoy working on the car on abandonned car parks or on dump sites. The petrol fumes makes it a very relaxing experience. I might have developed an addiction to it. Instead of being the Matching Engine Man, I'll just be the Engine Man.

Anyway, tonight is Helsinki, and we shall enjoy what the town as to offer.

Un petit pour la France

Salut tout le monde. Desole de ne pas trop ecrire en Francais. Mais bon comme ca c'est un bon exercice pour apprendre l'anglais. Bon alors etat des lieux:
- On est a Helsinki, demain on devrait rentrer en Russie i.e. fin de la partie facile et debut d'une autre dimension du voyage.
- Apres le non-demarrage (eau / huile dans boite a air), la fuite d'essence (necessite le demontage complet du reservoir), la voiture a developpe un nouveau probleme: drole de bruit et vibrations a 70 K/H. Nous pensons que la boite a vitesses manque d'huile.
- Super paysages, on a retrouve deux autres equipages hier soir sur un site de camping incroyable, dispose sur les bords d'un lac. Sauna et plongeon dans l'eau froide a minuit. Genial.

Voili voilou. Vu que demain on commence la Russie je ne sais pas si on aura trop acces a Internet donc ne vous faites pas de soucis. Merci pour les messages, ca fait super plaisir.

Les parents: je vous texte de temps en temps alors regardez votre portable.

The Arctic Circle and Rudolph

Our visit to Stockholm ended with a gentle stroll around the city before heading back to the car ready to head north, en route to the Arctic Circle. For once, thankfully, the drive was uneventful and we arrived at a peaceful campsite with very friendly owners. A quick meal on the stove and Cedric managed to locate and hopefully fix the potential problem with the failure of E'wn to start the previous day - water in the carburetor.

A long day behind the wheel on Wednesday (Day 5) moved us into the Arctic Circle, suitably marked by a huge sign which Ew'n posed nicely in front of (pictures to be posted asap). We were soon to be presented by another sign welcoming us to Lapland - I hadn't realised that a visit to Santa was on cards. Even more appropriately we got our first encounter with Reindeer strolling along the road on a supposed suicide mission. At first the odd one or two, followed by more and more until we were brought to a complete halt by the crazy animals who didn't seem to notice cars hurtling (or trundling in our case) towards them! With the problems with the car so far the last thing we wanted was to spend an evening pulling Rudolph out of the front grill. Eventually we arrived at a huge campsite late in the evening, had a tasty bbq and did some more work on the car until almost midnight. It wasn't darkness that brought us to a halt as it didn’t get dark at all - we could see perfectly well to try to connect up the two spot lamps which half worked - we only managed to get one to function. Sleeping proved difficult as it was almost complete daylight outside, the sun was only just below the horizon even at its lowest. We camped next to a lake once again and when the morning came around, the temptation was too great to resist and we dived into the pretty cold water for an Arctic Dip!

Thursday (Day 6) saw us move east inside the Arctic Circle heading into Finland. The day started badly with an increasing smell of fuel, one we had noticed previously but now it became to strong to ignore and at one stop late in the day a glance under the car showed us the problem - fuel was dripping from the tank. We drove around a town in North Finland called Rovaniemi looking for a new fuel filling tube which we felt was the possible problem, a place more famous for being the traditional home of Santa! Unfortunately Finnish helpfulness was not of the same standard as Swedish and so at 8pm in the evening in a dusty car park with no tube to hand we embarked upon the large task of removing the petrol tank to try to locate the problem. Inhaling half BP's worth of Petrol fumes in the process we got the tank off the car and found what we suspected to be the source of the leak, a rusted Fuel Gauge fitting. A full tube of Araldite around the fitting was our only solution and we still have fingers crossed it will work. We finally got the tank refitted at close to midnight, started Ew'n up and he fired into action, free of the smell of fuel - unlike us! We found a campsite that was still open nearby and bumped into another 2 rally teams as we were putting the tent up at 1am in complete daylight.

Friday saw us put our fix to the test as we headed south into Finland and luckily the majority of it seemed to have worked... all apart from a few drips now and then which we may have to live with. We had a great evening last night (Day 7) camping with two other teams in perfect surroundings, rowing and swimming in a lake and taking a midnight Sauna - a very Finnish day!

Arctic Swim

Day 5 Indal - 1812 miles

It's cold.

To celebrate we cooked half of a very fresh salmon on the barbecue. Never a salmon has been so tasty. We then set off to sleep but the sun is always up and you're body just doesn't know what to make of it. So we ended up half awake and half asleep all the time.

Hunting for Dummies

Day 4 Indal - 1379 miles

Always fancied hunting but never got around buying a gun / do not like walking in the woods? The reindeer is for you. With a survival instinct clause to suicidal and a great enthousiasm for open roads, the reindeer makes an easy target. All you need is a bull bar or a fully comp insurance policy with guaranteed no claim bonus and you are all set. Their meat is ok if not excellent. Enjoy!

Cultural Learnings of the Great Republic of Sweden

Parental Advisory: you must be 18 or over to read this.

Yeah, so, about my friend from the boat, let's call him Manuel. So Manuel and I started chatting nicely, being from the same part of the world and all. And obviously I got to ask him what he was doing around here. So Manuel explained he was on a Fish & F**k trip. The principle is simple... At this stage half the boat was already in shock and little kids started crying. But we went on merely for another half hour, him spilling the details out, me nodding obviously in complete understanding of the reasonable ethics behind his trip. Thank God we weren't crossing the Atlantic.

Partying in Sweden: as many of my male friends have already asked themselves the question many times: does Sweden live up to its reputation? Well, if you can move your arms and feet at a rate faster than, let's say, 100 times per second, in complete random directions, then you should do great here. However, for the mere mortals like the rest of us, more practice will be necessary. Having said that I can confirm two very important points:
- very friendly (and helpful) people
- beautiful girls

First 1000 miles completed

Two long days in the car have put one thousand miles under our belts and got us to Stockholm in one piece and feeling pretty pleased with our progress. E'wn hasn't completely behaved himself and is trying his best to confuse and baffle us at every opportunity. His biggest tantrum to date was yesterday morning when we awoke after our first night under canvas feeling very happy with ourselves to find that he refused to get out of bed and start. We pretty much tried everything to cajole him into action, dismantling carburettor, Spark Plugs, repeated attempts at starting but no matter what we did he refused to wake. After two hours of attempts we ran out of ideas and accepted a friendly Danes offer to tow us to a local garage for them to have a look. However E'wn obviously didn't like moving under someone elses steam and fired into action almost immediately. Very confusing indeed - our only guess being that he doesn't like sleeping when parked on a slight angle, he prefers a stable bed like all of us!

The previous day we departed the Ferry from Harwich and discovered the fault with the radio was only that it didn't work when we had full headlights on, half beam & radio works perfectly, full beam.. nothing! No radio at night for us then! We travelled through Holland, Germany and boarded a second ferry of the day into Denmark. Cedric had a very interesting chat with some crazy Swiss guys heading on a fishíng trip where they explained the true reason for their trip was fishing for something other than fish! We found a great campsite and proved that we can put the tents up in under 2 seconds and made our first alfresco dinner which was nicely accompanied by a bottle of red, very satsifying!

After Monday mornings problems with waking E'wn up we drove North from Denmark over the 9 mile bridge into Sweden - a truly impressive sight and we made use of E'wns lack of speed to fully appreciate the structure. We flew through South Sweden only being halted briefly by a suspected Radiator leak which turned out after half an hours to be some water falling from the bonnet onto the hot radiator producing some suspicious steam and drips under the car - yes we are paranoid! Arrived in Stockholm at 10pm to find what looked like a rather nice hotel on a boat but the worst hotel room ever, we could barely both stand in the room at the same time. Dashed our for some food and randomly found a packed pub with some crazy ABBA wannabe cover band playing, a appropriate welcome to Sweden!

Summary to date:
1117 miles completed
3 car scares (radio, failure to start, water leak)
1 night under canvas
1 bottle of wine consumed

Stockholm

Crazy swedes, excellent partying. Car refused to start this morning, required a tow. Send your suggestions for potential bug fix. Thanks!

Stockholm

Day 3 Stockholm - 1104 miles

We woke up this morning only to find that the car wouldn't start. After 2 hours of trying every trick we knew and sucking energy from the battery of a fellow camper we threw the towel. We took an offer for a tow to the nearest garage. 30 meters later the car started... All it needed was a good old bump start. We later found out that the air box was full of water hence the difficulties.

We pushed to Stockholm in what ended up being a long day (524 miles). Stockholm is a nice city if not extremely lively. But then again it was Monday. We did see some fit bodies and crazy dancing though... see cultural learnings of the great republic of Sweden.

Camping gear first test

Day 2 Nysted - 575 miles

Mainly motorways today. We took heavy rain as we arrived to the camping site but it cleared off quickly. This is our first night of camping so all the gear gets tested:
- 2 seconds tents check: it really works and was one of our most appreciated piece of equipment of our journey. While other teams took up to 30 minutes to get ready (not good under rain or in a sand storm) we are done in 4 minutes. Merci Jean-Luc & Francoise!
- Trangia stove check: another great piece of equipment. Boils 1L of water in 3 minutes at sea level (we found out that it takes much longer at 2500m). We used it nearly every day. It is also very economical in terms of fuel as we didn't use much more than one liter of paraffin for the entire trip.
- Dried food check: good but you need to get the amount of water right. Some bits didn't get re-hydrated too well either. All in all we preferred the "food in a bag" type which only needs heating. Having said that the dried food is light and propose a greater variety of meals so not a bad buy all in all. We also tried the NASA frozen ice cream. I do not want to be an astronaut anymore.
- Thermarest mattresses check: smaller and more comfy than a carrymat, the Thermarest also isolate you from the ground which means warmer nights. This got very useful in Mongolia where the nights were really cold (i.e. forced to sleep with full on thermal underwears and polar vests).

We also had a bottle of french wine which made us both experts in any socio-econo-political subjects for the night.

The journey in pictures

Day 1 Harwich - 108 miles

Over the coming days I'm going to try to retrace our journey with some pictures. We took a lot so there will also be a separate web album.

First, obviously, is the departure. Lots of emotions went through our minds as we were heading for the unknown:
"6 weeks off, a complete break from the life I know. Why don't I just go to the beach like everyone else?"
"Do they sell Nutella in Mongolia?"
"Will my mankini look good on pictures?"
etc

You get the idea.

Day 1 was all about getting to the ferry in Harwich (not far from Ipswich!). And obviously I forgot to turn the lights off on the car park in front of my flat... So the battery went flat. As we were pushing the car to bump start it people asked us where we were going. You should have seen the look on their face when we said "Mongolia". With hindsight they were right too...

Jacqui: this first picture is for you. Paul heart was clearly sad to go away for 6 weeks.



Happy like 2 hippos as the radiator of a BMW in the queue blew up in a big bang. It feels good to have a clean reliable car...

And They Are Off

Start day finally arrived with Hyde Park filled with the sights and sounds of over 200 cars and several motorbikes ridden by some very crazy guys - it really was a spectacle. The last minute preparations and panic failed to occur and we had time to chat fora couple of hours to those who came to see us off. A real thanks to everyone who did come down - it really was great to have such fantastic support. Those present had the chance to sign the car and chose some very appropriate words of advice to add, one of my favourite being "Hope is not a management tool!"

Even in all his new attire E'wn was undoubtedly outshone by some amazingly decorated cars, although I'm not sure how a telephone box or a bath on your roof is really going to help the effort to get to Mongolia, maybe I'm missing something here.

The start got underway at 1pm and we headed out of Hyde Park through the impressive start gate onwards to Mongolia...well actually it was straight into a series of traffic jams tying to weave our way out East towards Docklands where we stopped to pick up Cedric's luggage. The atmosphere of the departure carried on through central London and we had some good chats with curious drivers and fellow adventures through open windows as we drove around Parliament Square. The main topic seemed to be "Which way is Dover? which was fine - but we were heading to Harwich!

Irritatingly our radio stopped working after only 8 miles, very annoying but somehow I suspect we are going to encounter much more serious problems than just that!

Some pictures will appear on the site soon.

Disaster Averted!

Phew! What we thought might be a broken front differential, knackered Transfer Box and screwed prop shafts has turned out to be nothing of the sort and E'wn is now fully functional and vibrationless ...well almost!

After a visit to a garage and many calls to two very friendly guys in Ferndown, Dorset (Paul and Steve from Polden Autos - thanks for all your help and advice) we found the problem to be a leaking radiator hose (not an oil leak), a mis-aligned prop shaft and a loose bolt on the Transfer Box. All these combined to give us the scare on Sunday but a test drive this morning after fixing all the mentioned items filled us with renewed confidence in E'wns ability to get through the miles ahead and provided us with futher familiarity of his underbelly.

Therefore mechanically at least we think E'wn is ready for the trip, he might not be the best looking jeep in the car park - but that is to be solved tomorrow when he is booked in for a full makeover - photos will be added in due course!

Mechanical Disaster

Disaster struck this morning as I was handing over the Suzuki to Paul for our last 5 days of preparations. I had noticed during the past few weeks that good old Ew'n developed vibrations in the 10 MPH zone. But today these were too strong and noisy to be ignored. Paul opened the bonnet and all I heard was "oh my god". Oil everywhere. Further analysis led us to the conclusion that our front differential is not oil tight anymore... This didn't explained the vibrations tough so we removed the front drive shaft to see if we could isolate the problem, only to find that it is coming from the linkage between the gear box and the transmission box. We think the CV joint is dead but will confirm that tomorrow with a proper mechanic. Another surprise found this morning is that our front right wheel bearings seem to be on their way out too. Oh joy... The realisation that we did indeed buy a true piece of crap is sinking in... 10,000 miles to go... If only there was no desert to cross.

Mongolia

As depature date approaches I'm coming across more and more information about our destination that both intruiges and scares the life out of me. Here are some interesting facts about Mongolia that I certainly didn't know:

- Half the 2.6m population live in tents.
- It is the 4th most sparsely popualted country in the world with 3.9 people per square mile this compares to London at 12,335 people per square mile.
- Livestock outnumber humans 8:1
- Literacy is at 98%, UK literacy rate is 99%.
- In 2005 Donald Rumsfeld was given a horse as a present on a visit, he apparently left it behind ...what a shame it wasn't the other way round.
- The capital city is Ulan Batar, or Ulan Bator, or Ulan Baatar or Ulaan Baatar, or Ulaanbaatar??
- There is 1,581km of paved road in the entire country. We will be covering nearly 2000km within Mongolia.
- Gerbils are considered wild animals and infact the common pet Gerbil originated in Mongolia. They became so numerous there that the Mongolian people could no longer sleep at night because the gerbils were constantly running on their squeaky little exercise wheels (http://my.athenet.net/~hoffmann/biog4.html)
- The most popualar local drink is "Airag" or fermented Horse Milk.

We can smell it

Today, in between two lines of C# and an Excel spreadsheet, Paul and I suddenly realised that, yes, we are indeed leaving in less than 3 weeks. The excitment was just unbearable and Paul set out to buy everything he could muster from the closest outdoor shop while I pondered which swimming suit I would take for the journey. The crossing of Kazakhstan appears to be the most challenging part of our route so far.

Stardom!!

Just as I had lost any hope of being rich and famous and joined Accenture, our little outfit is starting to attract a lot of public attention:

Check out this post and visit Foxy's Den if you want to laugh so much that you end up peeing on yourself:
http://foxsden.wordpress.com/2008/06/18/mongol-rally/

Our claim to fame on Rika's incredible ladies (wait... there's a joke there... something green, ha ha ha):
http://incredibleladies.com/0-Home/Updates-2008.html#_19th_June

And we even made it on MySpace:
http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=210060698&blogID=407852295

Stardom might just be a couple of thousands of miles away... in a broken vehicule... with 10 litres of French wine as sole survival food as indeed, in a brief moment of pure genius, we cunningly decided to eliminate any water from the trip to avoid the risk of contamination. Ray Mears didn't see this one coming, did he.

In Demand

Yesterday I woke up only to find out that our very large female fan base spammed us over the night in order to get some nice pictures of the adventurists. When I say "very large" I mean the base not the females. Anyway, here we go for the mug shots:

Cedric, aka Z, in full body armour. Some people would say it is to protect the tarmac from his innovative way of driving.



Paul, aka PJ, has brought Britishism to the highest places in the world since 1977.

Sponsorship Drive Launched

Progress getting ready for the trip has been steady. Passports are somewhere between the Mongolian and Russian embassies trying to get the relevant stamps, camping equipment has been acquired and we are thinking about how we are going to get back to the UK.

Most importantly we have launched our sponsorship drive, attempting to raise at least £1000 for two very worthy and relevant causes - Mercy Corps Mongolia and Hope and Homes for Children, more details on both of these charities can be seen on the main page.

We would very much welcome any kind of sponsorship, obviously donations but also any people or organisations who would like to take advantage of the bodywork of our vehicle for some advertising. It is very likely that the rally will obtain significant press coverage and indeed the rally has already featured on the BBC and in national newspapers, footage of last years rally was made into a documentary shown on Channel 4. Please contact either myself on Paul.L.Jackson@gmail.com for more information.

The Official Test Drive

Our mighty 4x4 decided to stop working Thursday, 7 hours before the ferry to France for the first official test run.

A quick call to the AA showed that they couldn't do anything about it, apparently the timing belt had slipt 3 teeth. So ferry was missed and Friday was spent taking the car apart. It turned out that the timing belt was fine (thanks AA) but one of the carburator's butterfly valves had got stuck.

All fixed, rushed to the (new) ferry, which turned out to be 4 hours late due to bad weather and then spent another 90 minutes in the water waiting for a berth. The beautiful stench of the English Channel was combined with that of everybody onboard vomitting resulting in an aromatic arrival into Calais. Ultimately reached home Saturday evening after a series of traffic jams but most importantly "E'wn" had suvived his biggest test yet!

Thefollowing days and nights were spent fitting new seats, fixing the transfer box, cleaning the cooling system and many more engineering feets. Came back to uk Monday night with what can only be described as a new car, a car ready for the rally and with 1,500 miles under its camshaft.

The Official Route

We have finally settled on a route that we will aim to follow during the trip. Following the points mentioned previously the map on the left shows where we think we will go.

Not sure if that is actually where we will end up, but hey ho - time will tell!

We will try (if technology and connectivity allows it) to add an indication of where we actually go!

A car is born...

After much frantic ebaying, success was finally achieved and "Ew'n" was purchased for the bargain price of £536!

The Suzuki SJ410 with a 970cc engine that has driven over 130,000 miles over the 23 years of its life will carry us 10,000 miles further from London to Mongolia.

Which Way to Mongolia?

Reality has started to bite and a quick glance at an Atlas has reveled a plethora of potential routes we could take.

Options:
The Crow Flies Route - Germany, Poland, Belarus, Russia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia

The Ewan M Route - Follow in Ewan Mcgreggors tracks on his Long Way round (don't know what they are, but Charlie carries a bit of weight and so I'm sure we'll find them)

The Cold Route - Scandinavia Over the Baltic, Russia, Mongolia

The Dodgy Route - Serbia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Georgia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and lots more Stans.

The Very Dodgy Route (aka - not a chance) - Serbia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and lots more Stans.

Decision:
It must be something to do with us being born on the shortest day of the year that the attraction of driving into the Arctic in the summer and across vast landscapes of nothing but lakes and mountains was too much and we plumped for heading north. Other key objectives of the journey:

Go into the Arctic Circle - in July, will the sun set?
Avoid Moscow - too busy
Go through Kazakhstan - are they really all like Borat?
Visit Lake Baikal - contains a fifth of all the worlds fresh water, a sight we have to see!

More details need to be flashed out but this has to be a starting point!