So we've made it-sort of. The night before last we were in invited to stay in the house of a cafe owner whilst still on the russian side, he was a really nice guy and we've been told he has already put up a framed picture of us. When we arrived at the border we saw two other rally cars that had been abandoned-which was a pretty worrying sight. We were told that as long as our cars were on the list we would get in fine. And then there seemed to be a problem, we had no idea what was going on, and after much confusion including a meeting with a representitive from the wrong rally we were told that we'd have to leave the car and stay in a nearby hotel for the night. At this point the head of the CDPF turns up, he forces us to drink through 2 bottles of vodka and then took us out to a local disco. We were assured that the next day he would recieve a document and that everything would be fine. The next morning we were invited to have breakfast at the family house of another CDPF rep, it was brilliant to be invited into a typical house we were supplied with milk from about 5 different animals, forced to take snuff and supplied with yet more vodka, all before 11oclock. We then got to milk a goat and get beaten at basketball by local teens. After politely turning down the offer of internal organs we headed to the Sukhbaatar customs office where it was established that we were more or less buggered. Long story short mongolian customs aren't letting any cars though the northern border at the moment. by this time the team normalski nomads had arrived at the border too, we had the choice of waiting for something to change or leaving our cars at the border and riding to Ulaanbaatar in the Pink Ladies' Range Rover. So 8 of us piled in and 5 bumpy hours later along with several Vodka stops we made it to the city. We've been told that the charity will definatly recieve the car. It was a shame to not be able to drive the last stint, but we have driven to Mongolia.

So now we have our flights booked, an absolute bargain at $800, flying from UB to Beijing and then onto London Heathrow arriving at 17.15 on the 11th. All we have left to do is ride camels, wrestle with locals and buy some lovely boots.

Hopefully when we get back we'll be able to fill in the missing periods in our blog. See you soon guys.

xx x xx x xx

200km from the mong border, we can nearly taste sweet success. Roads have been tough and beautiful. cross tonight, camp out then do the final stint

today's the one rainy day we've had so couldn't see the eclipse. Making great time roads good. Hope to be in mongolia in the next 2-3days. X

had a great day sightseeing in astana yesterday. A well needed rest stop. Split up from the boys today-they're goin south and we have our sights on ulaanbaatar. Still with lance in the micra. 2 cars means better pace. We think we'll be able to hit semey by tomoz night. X

made it to astana last night. Goin has been slow due to convoy car probs. Spent last night in a kazakh niteclub. Tomorrow we hit the road towards semey. X

Hi everyone, we're in Qostanai today. After leaving the hotel in Oral we got to the other side of town before the Hi-Lux boys decided to break down, so after a trip to a local garage we were on the road. Things have got a bit wild, we saw camels and eagles. Whilst taking a rest at the side of the road a local pulled over to talk to us. As it turned out Boris was heading the same way as us so he said he'd guide us on the terrible roads. We camped by the side of the road, as it turned out Boris used to be in the Red Army and is now involved in a slightly illegal occupation. Good guy. He made us get up at 4 in the morning and hit the chalk and sand road, first Boris got stuck and had to be towed and then the golf. We've got some wicked footage of that. We got to Aktobe where we decided to play some menu roulette, namely pointing at a random word-normally one that sounds slightly phallic and seeing what you get. We ended up with mutton spine stew, which was nice. We hit the road again and camped out on the steppes. Its amazing to wake up and see nothing but the fields. Then we put in a hardcore day of driving we must have done about 700km. And decided that we'd earnt night in a hotel, we managed to get some food at midnight and much drinking followed. As it turns out Lance-the 34year old northerner that has been convoying with us was violently sick over pretty much everything, including a Kazakh woman celebrating her birthday. Not really responsible tourism. The golf is beginning to suffer a bit now, it has the least ground clearance of all the cars in the convoy, when the roads get bad we scrape the bottom of the car almost frequently and as such we've gained a nice rattle, probably from the Catalytic converter. But for the moment she is still running beautifully, and touchwood, we've had no breakdowns. But all in all its been a great few days. Much Love Tom and Phil

After a few really long days of driving, hot nights sleeping in the car and very little food we've reached Kazakhstan. Last night we hit the border, it took over three hours to do both sides and could be described as somewhat shambolic it was the most easy going to date. Interestingly enough whilst driving in that general direction yesterday we met a French convoy making a similiar trip to us-the border seemed to take them longer.

Once we were through we had a bit of a cook by the side of the road and then camped a few km down the road. Now all the way through Russia everytime we settled down for the night we were afraid locals would hassle us, the police would tell us to move on etc. etc. But this morning we awoke to beautiful sunlight a flock(?) of about 20 horses just coming for a look, and when the farmer drove past he just honked his horn and waved.

 The Kazakhs are really very friendly and welcoming, its in the running for the best country that we have been to.

So right now we are in a four star hotel in Oral, just been in the sauna and now im sitting in a bathrobe. I know this will sound like a rubbish claim but it looks as through we're actually gonna get two full meals today.

So looks like well have a couple of beers, a good nights sleep and then hit the road to Aktobe tomorow.

 Much Love

Tom and Phil

after a couple long days of driving and nights sleeping more or less rough we're on our way to the kazakh border. Missing showers and cool water. X

Hello from Belgorod everyone. Firstly I would like to apologise for not blogging anymore but we haven’t had many chances. I think the best place to start is the Ukraine border crossing, after taking the wrong road and simply arriving at a roadblock, we managed to get back on the e40 and find the actual border. It was pretty intimidating, -broken English, women with guns, requests for large amounts of drugs but we got through in about two hours. It was a real culture shock; the roads to L’viv were some of the worst that we have encountered. And when we got to the city things got worse, my phone wasn’t working, we had no sat-nav, and no money and we hadn’t eaten for quite a while. We stopped at a McDonalds to distress but couldn’t work the Ukrainian ATM, there were some lads parked up next to us who were howling with laughter about us driving to Mongolia. Needless to say we got out of there sharpish. We just drove occasionally stopping to ask for a hotel, in the end we found a small town called Busk. At this point everything turned out brilliantly, we had a bed for the night, food, and there were even a group of scaffholders from Stevenage, we spent two days in that town. And learnt that you don’t touch the local Vodka.

 

I’d love to go into more detail but we’re running out of time on the internet. We met up with Team panda, Ulan battered and top gun camped in Kiev. Panda and Top gun stayed in Kiev us two teams drove to Kharkiv. Night in a hotel then over the Russian border. So much for it being easier than the Ukrainian one. None the less here we are in the best hotel in town drinking with Kazakhs and Slovenians, and facing freezing cold showers.

 

We’ve had some real high moments and some real lows, but we’re determined to keep on truckin’. Thanks for all our support.

 

Onto Volvagrad.

Tom and Phil