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!

We've won the Lottery!

It might not be worth millions of pounds but we couldn't have been more suprised, excited and shocked if it had. Entry into the Mongol Rally 2008 is ours and i'm not sure we completely grasp the concept of driving the 10,000 miles or so into and across the middle of nowhere and hopefully arriving in Mongolia. Actually whereabouts is Mongolia? What countries do we have to go through - Russia? Iran? Azerbijan? Other countries we can't spell let alone locate?

Lots to organise and prepare I guess but for the time being i'll satisfy myself with looking at some of the crazy pictures on the websites and looking at exactly how far we have to go!

Some pictures of what we have in store can be foundhere:

http://mongolrally.theadventurists.com/index.php?mode=gallery