we got to astana by seven and had a drive around in mad traffic, losing a car in the process. (Astana, Kazakhstan)

Submitted by petegriffin on Fri, 25/07/2008 - 7:37am.

we got to astana by seven and had a drive around in mad traffic, losing a car in the process. After finding them we checked into another hotel. We played some more menu roulette in town, met some more friendly locals and ended up in a club. It was a very good night and we got in a few hours ago at six am. The hilux has some leaf spring problems and is trying to have then fixed today so we might have another night in astana and hopefully see some sights today. Our car is doing ok, we need to remove some of our broken leaf spring and hopefully well be fine for the next week or so to get into mongolia.

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Date	Message
15 weeks 3 days ago	Al, Stephen and I have no arrarrived in Seoul. We landed at around 6am and then took the train into town to find it full of policemen and the centre closed off, it would appear to be South Korean independence day and there's a huge party happening in the main square. We checked into a Best Western hotel which is going to be my last bed before going home, very strange. read more »
15 weeks 4 days ago	Half of the convoy has left. Tom, dyson, chris from the hilux and paul from the outer mancunians have gone to the airport to fly home via beijing. We had a really good and different day yesterday. After sorting out flights we went to one of the cdpf projects and played some sport with the kids, we had some more yaks milk and then headed out to the mongolian bbq. We had the mancunians, a canadian rallier and another team from the uk with us. We had another night in the night club with the philipino band and had some local vodka, again. Al, steven and i are flying to seoul tonight for a wind down with hopefully a bit less vodka.
15 weeks 6 days ago	We went to the cdpf this evening to have our official welcome. We recieved a really amazing plaque and a fortune telling game. The evening was really good and put the whole rally into perspective seeing where the cars go. Weve had a meal in bd's the mongolian bbq restaurant. The food was really good and cheap and they cook it for you flamboyantly in front of you. Weve just flipped a coin and it looks like a couple of us are off to seoul.
16 weeks 1 day ago	We woke up this morning and headed for the border, about ten km from the border our throttle cable broke completely. After a bit of bodging the gun had to be driven using a piece of string through the window to accelerate. We went to the wrong border town first and then back to the correct border. We got through to the mongolian side to find we also couldnt get through and parked up with the rest of the rally cars. We got a lift with a local women who has been sorting out ralliers, she insisted we eat at her house and is acompanying up to UB. We ate at her house and got through two bottles of vodka chatting to a couple of border guards who are jumping in with us on the trip to ulaan bataar. Weve made it.
16 weeks 2 days ago	After a good days driving we are now about a hundred km from the mongolian border. Were camped up on a hill overlooking a lake with a fire going and possibly our best view so far, a good last night is on the cards. We stocked up on beers in an ulan ude supermarket and have a lot of food left to cook up. Well be at the border in the morning, lunch time at the latest and are still a bit aprehensive about whats happening but keen to get there.
16 weeks 3 days ago	We had an early start on the road and after fourteen hours, meeting a russian guitar playing singer song writer and some more bad roads were through irkusk and camped up at a truck stop in the middle of nowhere. Weve made great progress and could by at the border by tomorro night if we resist one more swim in a freezing lake. Were on the final page of the map now and have under six hundre km left before we tackle the hand over at the border!
16 weeks 3 days ago	After another night staying at the garage we have the car back, a new set of leaf springs has been fitted and they even replaced the oil cap i 'misplaced' a few days ago. The town was really nice and even had a subway restaurant! The people in the garage were really helpful and are keen to find out how we get on over the next few days, sergey the service manager even showed us to a supermarket and then out of town. We drove through kansk last night and camped up in a field hoping for an early start.
16 weeks 5 days ago	Bad news for the shogun. After a whole day in the garage the mechanics need to do some welding in order the fit the new springs. Were now having another night at the mitsubishi garage. The clock is now ticking on our russian visas, if were not out of the country by tuesday we get an extended stay at mother russias pleasure.
16 weeks 6 days ago	We woke up after a wet night and set off hoping to get as far as possible. We drove for a few hours before one of the guns leave springs fell off. We drove on into krasnoyorsk and spotted a mitsubishi dealer. They checked it out and said they need to source some parts, possibly second hand. Were now camped on their 4x4 test track and hopefully itll be sorted tomorro afternoon. Looks like we wont quite make mongolia by the weekend but at least the car will be in better shape for them when we get there.
17 weeks 20 hours ago	We finally managed to drag ourselves away from barnoul at around six yesterday. Weve left the hilux to take on the west of mongolia and the 'gun and panda are heading through russia to enter mongolia in ve north. We reached the brilliantly named novirsibirsk by eight thirty this morning and now were heading out of town east aiming for krasnorsk.