Home again

We arrived home (Perth) late Thursday evening and started preparing ourselves for return to our normal lives, sorting through our gear and washing 'everything'. Its been an adventure for sure, one we will never forget, would we do it all again, yes we both agree we would.

Our plan for the next few weeks is to write up some more notes for the more interesting places we passed through and things we saw.  In the meantime, some photo's from the trip.

More people have climbed Everest than successfully completed the Mongol Rally......

On the road again (Kazakhstan)

Lakeside campsite (Kazakhstan)

Best bit of road 'ever'

 

Hope Hospice

 

We visited the Hope Hospice and dropped off our blankets (provided by QANTAS) and our medical gear. We also gave them medical supplies given to us by the French team (Nomadic Bogdans). The Hospice offers medical help to those with terminal conditions, they have next to nothing to work with, but offer at least something to the poor children of Mongolia.

 

 

 

The Finish Line

We made it, on the 13th of August we crossed the finish line covering one third of the worlds surface in a granny mobile, very tired, very dirty but extremely happy to finish in one piece.

The plan was to update the blog along the way but this just wasn't possible as internet access was poor to nothing, so we will now put all our notes together and write a summary of the trip for all to read. This we plan to do during the next few days.

We have 3 days in UB before taking the Trans Siberian railway to Beijing. Off to visit an orphanage tomorrow to donate our goods. The car has been handed in and will be sold at auction in the next few weeks.

Finish Line - the three cars

 Team WombatsKhan celebrate the end with their little Nissan...

On the Steppe

 Making friends with the local 'birds'

00Khan at your service sir

Kazakhstan / Russia

Kazakhstan

The longest we have stayed in the car, over 30 hours. We got caught up in the mother of all storms after leaving the border, so decided to pull over into a farm field and pitch tents for the night. The field was knee deep in mud, and the mossie situation was a joke, so we abandoned the camping idea, and agian decided our only options was to drive on. Both cars left the field caked in thick black mud, which made the first few hundred metres back on the road interesting.

Team Kangakhann then lost their exhaust, it snapped. We pulled into a closed truck stop to undertake some repairs (fencing wire.....) then carried on. Must say Ian's car sounds a lot better with a blowing exhaust pipe..

The storm then hit us, with fork and sheet lighening all round, which helped us see the road a bit i guess. WombatsKhan hit a couple of large holes testing the bash plate and our nerves. We carried on slowly for another few miles then decided thats was it. We found a truck stop, and made this our home from home. Both teams sleeping in the cars, upright - we slept surprisingly well.

We awake and set off around 8am on the 28th and head off, expecting to take two days to drive to Astana.

For lunch we pull over and make a sandwich and watch all the trucks go by, the very trucks we had spent ages overtaking before pulling over......In the late afternoon we pull over at what looks like a ramp for repairing trucks and cars, deciding to put both machines onto the ramp for a quick look underneath.

On the horizion we watch a heardsman tend his cows from horseback. It is a stunning place, hard but beautiful. The horizon goes on forever and the sky is black, blue and white with 'The Simpsons' clouds.

The heardsman slowly heads our way, after he sees Ian and Neil racing the cars back and forth through a large puddle to try and clean the mud off (thats what we said anyway). Finally the heardsman walks over and offers us a ride on his horse. Jo sort have gets pushed forward by the 3 of us, and the local chap picks her up and throws her on the horse. Many photo's later, and an offer of two cows for Jo we get her back...

The heardsman was purely interested in what we were doing, he didnt want anything from us. He spoke Kazak expecting us to understand. Again sign language got us through. He left we a single cigerate that we offerred.

The drive to Astana ends in the evening of the 28th July, the very day we made the hotel booking. Planning or just good luck - who knows.

I'm off now to see how Ian got on with the car repairs, we will then sample the local food and wine. Or next leg is across Kazakhstan to the Russian border, we expect this to take 3 or 4 days.

 

Russia / Kazakhstan Update

First stop was the 'supermarket' to pick up some supplies before crossing the border into Kazakhstan. We then drove the 100+ miles to the border and joined the queue, not really knowing what was going to happen, it was Sunday and late afternoon.

After what seemed like hours we moved to the Russian border, and just before going over a lady grabed the drivers (Neil and Ian) to take out car insurance for Kazakhstan (a scam i'm sure). Anyway we sat in a little hut and did the deal. Meantime however, both our cars moved up to the front of the queue, and Jo and Ruby got waved through, without the chaps. Next thing we see is Jo reversing the WombatsKhan car back over the border line, she didnt have a passport, Neil had them both. Jo was told to join the back of the queue, this now being at least 50 cars long.

After some classic driving and blocking Jo and Neil manage to get car across the car and truck lanes, ensuring we would be called forward first, and not have to go to the back of the queue again. It paid off as the nice Russian guard felt sorry for the Wombat team, and let us through, now some 10 cars behind team Kangakhann.

After a great deal of smiling and nodding we get past the Russian border formalites and join the next queue to cross into Kazakhstan.

Another 2 hours and we get called forward. The Kazakhstan border staff are very nice compared to the Russian side, however they speak little english, we get by with sign language.

Customs search the car, and we wave the big Wombat in their direction and behave like idiots, they get bored and wave us through.

After our first 10kms in Kazakhstan we both get pulled over by the police, more from an interest side of thing we think. They asked us what we were doing and where we were going, 'tourist' and going to 'Mongolia' seemd to work and they waved their AK-47's at us in a 'nice' way......

Russia Blog 3

Quick update before we head to the Kazakhstan border. After saying we'd never drive at night we had little option yesterday, we got half way through the Ural mountains we hit the traffic and had a choice of sleeping in the car, or carrying on. The owner of a truck stop offerred us space in the truck park for $100 a car, to sleep in, he was drinking Vodka and didnt seem very friendly, so we took to the road again. The trucks were really bad, overtaking us on the down hill bits, very frightening for us all.

The Ural's are beautiful, rolling hills with vaste forests of pine and what looked like silver bearch. Birds of prey, wild dogs about all the wildlife we saw. And we cannot forget the cows strolling along the road side, yes this was the main road......

We thought we'd see much more sign of the great Russian Military, but we actually saw very little, a few old tanks (WWII vintage) outside the bigger towns, and second hand gear being used on the farms. Most vehicles are imported now, there are a few Lada's around, but they look outdated and tired. Lots of Land Rovers and BMW's.

We witnessed two or three semi trucks on fire or had been on fire, brakes or engines overheating.

We arrive on the border after a hair raising 600 odd mile (1000kms) drive, over 14 hours. Both of us over the car. We still haven't falling out, and the car keeps going, albeit a little dirty now from the diesel fumes..

Russia blog update 2

A day best described as 'please pass me some clean underwear day'. Jo drove the Micra on some of the most challenging roads to date. Hundreds of trucks transporting everything from Walls ice cream to new Range Rovers ruled the roads in both directions, we saw a number of vehicle casualties on the side of the road. Truly is the land of Mad Max, we have never seen anything like it.

Ended up just outside Moscow in a small town with no english speakers, so ended up in a bar with a load of youngsters who eventually understood our mime for a bed and food, they the drove in front of us and guided us to a nice hotel in Klin. A quick meal next door and bed by 11.50pm.

Long day, but interesting....