So we've all been back home for some time now, and cramped, damp nights in the Lada already seem like a distant memory. I'm still disappointed that we didn't get to see Mongolia but I know we made the right decision in coming home when we did, in fact there wasn't really any sensible alternative. We have a lot of photos still to show you all, and we should be able to get these online fairly shortly hopefully. All that is left really is to reflect on an amazing adventure and to thank all of those who helped us along the way. From everyone who helped us raise over £1200 for charity, to Earnvale Consulting, Telivo Internet solutions, Prior Engagement, Aleutia compters and Marcus from TangoGPS who put their own time and money into our rally. Also everyone who helped us along our route, with a massive thank you to Tom and Gail O'Brien without whom our time in Astana would probably have been a lot more miserable! Keep an eye out for photos appearing both on this site and on our own website over the next week.

Finally regarding our little Aleutia computer which faithfully travelled with us, it was a great little machine which really stood up to a battering from harsh roads and Chris's driving! Its GPS capabilities really saved our bacon several times as we battled our way into, out of and through numerous badly signposted cities. TangoGPS is a great bit of software which worked beautifully, all we would've liked is for Google maps to actually cover the Ukraine properly! Not that i blame them for just wanting to ignore the place!

Team Earnvale Racing 2008 - we gave it a damn good go, in the end our trusty mare was just too old and tired and had to be taken aside and shot.

We've had a couple of very nice days in Istanbul and are now only a few hours away from getting onto our flight home. Istanbul is a lovely city and we've had a chance to look around and experience the lifestyle a bit which has been very nice. We've done the open top bus tour of the city, seen the blue mosque, been shopping in the grand baazaar, been to a turkish baths and sampled the local food and drink. The only downside has been the prices, which are Londonesque in most places. Oh, that and the damage our digestive systems seem to have picked up somewhere along the way!

We're all looking forward to unwinding at home for a bit and doing some serious storytelling! See you all soon

i've seen peoples suggestions about visiting somewhere else before we return home, actually tom was way ahead of you and suggested we fly home via istanbul and take some time to see the city. we're booked onto a flight at 3am on wednesday 6th, then leave istanbul for london on the 8th. any suggestions about what to see and where to stay would be very welcome.

we'll be seeing you all again very soon, we'll have our stories ready!

team earnvale racing 

It would appear that we've now come to the end of what we're renaming the kazakhstan rally. The car has some engine issues which will take several days at best to fix. We don't have sufficient time to get through russia again and we don't want to risk blowing yet another head gasket in the wilds of mongolia. Off to look at flights now. Thankfully we've had a brilliant time in kaz and will go home with some great memories

After getting another new head gasket we left astana only to have boiling coolant still. We're giving the garage until tomorrow to fix it otherwise we're donating the car to a local orphanage and flying home. Sadly we just can't risk our transit visas running out while we're in russia

This morning Chris and I were taken into the Russian embassy to apply for our transit visas to get us back into Russia. We're hoping we'll have these back by 5 today. The car is still in the garage but should also be done today, and looks like its not going to cost very much which is great! So we're hoping to be back on the road tomorrow morning. We'll have to make it to the Russian border by the 3rd when our visas will start, then we've got 3 days to get to the Mongolian border or we'll be kicked out the country. Everyone in Astana has been brilliant, we were given a tour of the city by Tom's driver and got to see the sights. We also got to hang out in the embassy and meet everyone there which was fun. We're their 2nd team in 2 days as Ryan and Sophie stopped in yesterday to have tea with them and went to an orphanage. They're en route to Tajikistan and have also had some car problems in Kazakhstan. Things seem to be going well and hopefully we'll be on the move again soon

We made Astana today, but not in the way we would've liked. We got to within 30km of the city then broke down, with the familiar problem of boiling coolant. We couldnt get the car to start again, and it was 45 degrees in the sun. Luckily of all the places we couldve broken down Astana was the best as we got in contact with Tom who came out in his embassy car and towed us into the city. An experience certainly, no police could stop us when being towed by a car with red plates on it! We've dropped the car in a garage to see how bad the problem is, and tomorrow morning we're heading to the Russian embassy to try and sort out Chris and my visa problems. Provided we can get everything sorted within a few days we should be able to carry on, but if we're looking at more than about 4 days its likely that our rally is over and we'll be headed home. But at least right now we're clean and being looked after fantastically well and getting to see the city of Astana!

in the wilderness of kazakhstan. This place is really cool, enormous and mostly empty. Seen a lot of wild horses. Going to camp out tonight

through the border into kazakhstan. Was quite eventful, they wouldn't believe iain m was the guy in his passport photo. Kaz seems flat and empty but nice

getting near the kazakh border. Slept in the car again last night. Weather has cleared up. Having some braking issues but should be fixable