We're in UB, who have thought it was possible ...

Ricky Balboa — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 03:40:30 -0400

apart from us of course, the car has been a legend, though we got through a few tyres, almost all punctures through the sidewalls, had none in Kazakhstan, but Mongolia is lethal for rubber it seems, so I'm glad our bonnet based rubber ducks didn't make it that far. Our last moment on the road wasn't quite on the road as we grounded out on an earthen road block but it only set us back by an hour or so and we made UB by lunch, last night the tent finally died when the wind tore it up and blew it flat, Dan took to the car while I hid under the remaining tatters, we just relaxing today in the Gobi Backpackers hostel and will deliver the car to the CDPF tomorrow, wicked!

Rock on people!

Ricky Balboa & One Man Band Dan

The Renegade Taxi

Mongolia oooooh yeah!

Ricky Balboa — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 01:29:18 -0400

Yep, we're in Olgii, in Wester Mongolia at the moment, and it's amazing! But to start the story from Barnaul, we bumped into a hippy en roiute to the border and he invited us to a hippy festival, so not wanting to appear ungracious we went along and after walking 10km up a mountain to camp above the tree line had a fantastic time with amazing views, unfortunatelt camaer batteries went dead. The Floristic show was mad flowers everywhere and somewthing along the lines of guinea pigs too! Next day we crossed into Mongolia at which point the tarmac ended but the track was good until the first village when it continued in a direction not quite suitable for our journey, so we pulled into a village and a local said follow me and we did at speeds faster than is quite polite crashing through puddles just trying to keep our guide in sight. We soaked a local policeman in doing so and he stopped our guide, we thought for a rerprimand ... but no ... he wanted in on the ride too! So we continued onwards until the tracks degraded to battlefield status and continued on our own passing over a mountain with little if anything to guide us bar marmots and lemmings, until from nowhere a motorway standard road appeared from nowhere and took us on to Olgii where we are now. So far one puncture and one grounding out in Mongolia, car is ok bar dodgy starter motor, may replace with spare or clean it up, probably full of dust from Kazakh deserts. Now in Olgii taking it easy as route to Khovd is flooded at the mo, so paragliding today instead. Khovd tomorrow with luck. Rocked out to Rammstein with locals yesterday ... apparently they like Rammstein ... it was the only guitar based music it seems they had.

Ricky B. & One Man Band Dan

The Renegade Taxi

Blimey oh Riley!

Ricky Balboa — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 11:18:19 -0400

Hurray, with the help of some Russian rockers we have found an internet cafe in a scanky estate in the middle of Barnaul! We've had all sorts of action in Kazakhstan, the roads were a nightmare and we drove much of the nothern parts on the desert to avoid the roads which was great fun and we only had to dig ourselves out of sand drifts twice, we've had camels and wild horses as well as a hegrhog type animal with huge ears. The people in Kazakhstan were great really freindly, we didn't get bribed once but I did give my sunglasses to a policeman and they suit him much better than me. Dan has had some abortive attempts with his paraglider, but is all in one piece though he did hurt his back helping a car out of a sticky situation. The driver was distracted by us and drove his car into an open manhole. But Dan has made up for his pain by increasing his alcohol consumption. We've spent many days in the desert and also one night on top of a mountain in with a massive storm opening up before us. I failed to erect the tent, Dan suceeded but put a dirty great hole in it on my side ... I slept in the car that night. In Shimkent we stayed in a cheap hotel which turned out to bare more resemblence to a brothel. This was fine a Dan seranaded the ladies whilst I took evasive action. In the morning refreshed we moved on but sadly overnight Arthur, Bob and Charlie have been hastened away from us ... we have reason to believe they have been trafficked into the Kazakhstani sex trade. I just hope that they enjoy themselves. Basically that's all for now, we're heading for Mongolia tomorrow. Rock on people, Ricky B.

The Renegade Taxi

Civilization?!?!

Ricky Balboa — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 06:55:02 -0400

Civilization my arse, I'm in Guryev, Astrakhan, and the bloody internet keeps falling over, so this time I'm writing this in Wordpad!!! and copying and pasting to the blog site! We've been away from civilization for a while ever since leaving Poland and our trolley pack campsite. We first camped in a field and were awoken by a tractor. The following night we camped beside a railway line in the tent for the first time. After that we entered russia and stayed in a motel for 7 quid each (classy). The we stayed in our mosquito ridden car after a late night border crossing, in the end I slept on the roof as the breeze kept the worst of the biting midges, etc. off. Of course we've had fun with dodgy cops, but our first run in was a speeding fine of 40 quid, we were doing 92 km/hr in a 60 zone, fair does but now we know how to work out the speed limit as they don't have circled numerals outside Europe. Since then we done well, a cigar here, badge there. However on reaching Russia things became more hassle with road blocks commonplace. Later we learnt that these check points are thngs to ignore, just smile or wave back, maybe look intensely in the other direction and just drive on through! We have been told this by a pair of scots returning home from pakistan.

As to borders we have had fun here to! At Ukraine all was easy, however at Russia we turned up at the wrong point on the border (not realising the tickets to be specific). We got our insurance and then were turned back by customs who said they'd turn a blind eye for 150 Euros (according to him it was 350km to the border post we needed), I told him were to go and we tore out of the border post in a cloud of dust, 30kms later we arrived at the correct border and passed through easily, but not before being told that we had be over charged by 103 dollars for the insurance, apparently the maffia operate that particular border crossing! Classic! Into Kazakhstan was much better, but a late night power cut slowed us down a fair bit so we ended up making friends with the border guards!

Beforehand, when we arrived in Astrakhan we got totally lost looking for an unsecured wi-fi connection and were finally retrieved by a BMW Z5 who beckoned us to follow, which we did down the back lanes of Astrakhan at breakneck speeds until arriving at a smart house, where we were invited in and treated to tea and very nice it was too, none of that milky stuff, but lemon and cherry! So I tried a different food (well OK ... just a drink), so I may survive the desert crossing we have to come, apparently our scottish informants took 11 hours of solid driving to cross one section in their beefed up Landrover ad we are doing the same route ... so keep your fingers crossed for us, the car has been legendary up to date.

Anyway, enough from me,

Ricky B.

P.S. Kazakhstan is too bloody hot already ...

The Renegade Taxi

The Renegade Taxi.

Ricky Balboa — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 08:42:21 -0400

The Renegade Taxi. Poland was wet & boring, passed first real border & we like Ukraine, but not seen police yet. Ducklings all ok. Local girls 2!

The Renegade Taxi

Day 2 we reach Prague

Ricky Balboa — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 18:16:17 -0400

Hello people,

It's the early hours of Monday morning here in Prague and we arrived about 8:30pm having started out at 7:30am from a field in Belgium, the weather was nice up until Nuremburg and then I started to wonder if Noah was making a comeback, as the weather has been dire ever since. Disaster almost struck when Arthur (eldest ophan son of the surviving ducklings of the sorely missed Matilda mother duck) came detached during the storm, great skills at the wheel courtesy of Dan prevented Arthur from being lost to Germany, a similar incident occured later when Bob also broke free, but both are now safely on the dashboard, Charlie however remains strong in face of the dire conditions, but then again it is great weather for ducks!

We also had our first meeting with the Police when pulled over by the german border guards in a BMW and Audi TT, but all was cool, we got no trouble and all they got was soaked, but I gave them all a supporters badge for their trouble.

Heading for the Ukrainian Border tomorrow, to take on the might of the Mafia run police!

Keep your fingers crossed for us,

Ricky Balboa and One Man Band Dan

The Renegade Taxi

The Renegade Taxi Rally off to a great start Got lost twice in london and missed the boat.

Ricky Balboa — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 04:47:39 -0400

The Renegade Taxi Rally off to a great start Got lost twice in london and missed the boat. Reached Germany. Unfortunatley Matilda didnt make it

The Renegade Taxi

Chariity gig at the Firehouse in Southampton

Ricky Balboa — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 05:40:33 -0400

Thanks to all that showed up last night and made it such a classic evening, loads of thanks to all sorts of people:

The Bands: Valhalla, Roshambo & Plastic Toys ... great sets by each and every one, check them up on myspace or wherever you can find them, they're wicked!

The Comedians: Grant Sharkey & Alex Dawson, were up and running things close to the bone, and a great job they've did off things too, quite an education!

The Firehouse: Thanks to Jane & Iain for providing the venue free of charge and having the faith, also to Doorman Tom for looking after the taxi while outside on Double Yellows for most of the night!

Also thanks to Martin, who did the sound all night for a couple of beers, Scott Chalmers for doing photos all night (soon to be posted), Jean (Scott's better half) for manning the door, Tony for printing and applying the final stickers on the Taxi and Paivi (his better half) for pushing badge sales all night. Cheers to you all!

Finally and importantly we raised a grant total of £501.38p on the night, of which £250 is going to Solent Mind and the other £251.38 has now been paid to CAMDA using our just giving account!

Cheers people,

Ricky Balboa & One Man Band Dan

P.S. See you at the launch, Highbury Fields, London

The Renegade Taxi

The Final Countdown ...

Ricky Balboa — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 06:58:03 -0400

Things are all coming together now quite nicely ...

Fitted a steel sump-guard to the Escort on Thursday (so now it is bombproof) ... I say sump-guard but in reality it covers a whole lot more, why skimp when the supply of steel sheeting is plentiful I say! Thanks to Adrian at Badminston Garage for that one and a whole lot more, he's been a total legend!

Off-road tyres are being picked up tomorrow and fitted onto some new rims on Wednesday, still trying to find proper roof rack bars for a 3-door Ford Escort, but if I fail I have some similar ones which should be easy enough to convert.

I've got all my jabs done and am getting my travel insurance later on today, finally it seems that all is coming together.

Then on Thursday, We're putting on a charity gig in Southampton with three great rock bands and 2 classic comedians, it will be a wicked night so if you're in the Southampton area or know someone there then tell them to get along, entry is for the ridiculous price of a minimum £3 donation ... so get along! Full details of the gig can be seen at www.myspace.com/therenegadetaxi

Rock on people and see you at the Launch at the Nadaam festival in Islington on the 5th!

Ricky B.

The Renegade Taxi

Charity gig in Southampton, Thursday 3rd July 2008

Ricky Balboa — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 07:35:18 -0400

Just like it says on the title, I've organised a charity gig at THE FIREHOUSE in Southampton, everyone is invited and for a minimum donation of just £3 on the door you get three great bands from the Southampton area, these are: Plastic Toys (electro rockers playing a limited edition accoutsic set), Roshambo (an Indy band in all but name for they are much better that plain old Indy) and one other quality rock band yet to be confirmed in addition to this you also get two local comic heros who claim to be indentified as Grant Sharkey and Alex Dawson.

So come along, rock and be merry!

Ricky Balboa

The Renegade Taxi