London to Mongolia in a rubbish 1989 Nissan Micra

A massive thank you once again goes to Jeremy Levine at our major sponsor cheapestcontracthire.com for giving us Dave, for paying for the repairs, for cheering us on at the start line and for the constant support on the road.

To Robbie at C Dart in Donington for pulling out all the stops to get Dave fixed in record time.

To Ian at Signs Direct for your stunning artwork and fine avoidance back window design.

To Daz at Tyre Express for giving us the Michelins that made it all the way.

To all those at Chirst the King college for your support and all our other sponsors.

To all of you that have kindly donated to one of our selected charites to really make this trip worthwhile.

To all of you friends/family and strangers that have buoyed our spirits with your support and prayers both on the road and at home.

To those in Ryanair who moved at short notice to arrange our leave. To John Lovick and Neil Gough for your support above and beyond the norm.

To Sonia at BALPA for your enthusiasm and support.

You may still donate to one of the charites for the next couple of months if you choose to, we hope you do.

Dave made it, Ed is still with us but will be staying with a Mongolian child unless he can manage to do a Lucan.

We start the process tomorrow of getting back to England. We look forward and hope to see you all soon.

To each and everyone of you thank you, without you we couldn't have done it.

We kept Dave in the hotels basement car park, we didn't get the chance to hand him over on Saturday so today on Sunday morning we took some pictures of him in UB before we he got handed over.

We had hoped to give some stuff to MAF, who work in Mongolia but their offices are closed for the weekend and we will be gone by Monday. Dave lays empty and alone in a car lot with other heroes of the class of 2007 after we did our photo shoot and went to Daves bar to do the paper work. both of us felt really sad today as we emptied him and walked away for the last time. I kissed the roof.

The car that left Dave's garage, became Dave and ended up at Dave's place in UB.

It's somewhat strange how attached you can become to a car, but he has taken on his own persona, when overtaking, we would often shout "Go on Dave", when one of us left to talk to a hotel or get directions, the other would "stay and watch over Dave", when the gas tank was low, "Dave is thirsty shall we get him a drink". It is because of this little cars ability and doggedness that we are here. Dave we love ya and hope you enjoying herding goats in your retirement years.

We have spent the whole of Saturday trying to organise a way of getting home, having been guided by our hero Dave to UB, getting out of the place is proving more difficult than we imagined. We have spent hours on the internet and running around and all over the city. We had originally planned to go by train to Beijing and fly from there.Hmmm. The train runs 4 times a week and there is not a single seat available this month.

Our only option to get there are to take a local train (13 hours) or a minibus to the Mongol border town. taxi to the border. cross border, taxi to nearest chinese town Erleen, then a 23 hour bus journey to Beijing. Great. The reservation I have with this route is that the bus is on a first come first served basis and there is no guarentee you may even get a seat. I dread the though of being stranded in some chinese border town for days. The only other option is get a minibus back to the russian border (5 hours). cross, then onto Ulan Ude to catch a train.

We have been looking at flights from all major russian cities and their is one company flying 737's via Kaliningrad who are quoting £125 one way from Samara on Sunday 19th and £200 from Omsk. Another is quoting £360 from Krasnoyarsk via St Petersburg. The advantage of this is there are many trains going east to west in Russia and and even if meant staying on for 4 days to Moscow their are tons of flights for around £150 - £200.

We did not realize how cut off UB really is, only a couple of airlines sold out months in advance and not a train ticket to be had. At least this way we are guarenteed to be moving in the right direction and can get home. The hotel receptionist helped us today to find a way out, there are 2 seats reserved by russians that may be available at 5 towards Irkutsk, there is nothing towards China. We are off shortly in she hope of getting out this evening.

We got up knackered at just after 8am after a few hours sleep, and hit the road down to the border at about 9. The countryside again was spectacular. Changing from more fertile green to browner green in the the heat, rolling hills and the deafening sound of millions of grasshoppers. Dave still barely alive hit the border town at 2.30pm.

Russia we loved you, and we got through the entire country without paying a single fine, thanks to the great bit of work by Ian at Signs Direct, as soon as the Police read why we were doing it they let us off, all other teams were daily getting money relieved from them.

The Mongolians shut the border at 6pm so we hoped it would be less time consuming than on the way in. The heat was intense and progress was slow. Some French lads were turned away at the border as they had lost an insurance form for their VW camper. I was getting worried as I had lost my customs declaration, listing what I was bringing into the country, and needed for exit. When our turn came after 90 mins or so, the Russian border guard asked me for my declaration, I shrugged my shoulders and handed over my passport with a $20 note in it, "you fill in 2 now". Result. Now the debacle of trying to get into Mongolia.

At least the Russians spoke English and would tell you what to do next. The Mongolians just stood around and left us with no idea. Most were also not ashamed at trying a bit of daylight robbery. A lady sprayed our car with some stuff, apparently in August to October they get the bubonic plague here. She demanded 50 russian roubles (about £1), but isn't this Mongolia what about mongolian cash. We paid, and were then told we didn't need to. Next I was taken into an office by a lady for another lady to photocopy the car registration document, when the lady who bought me in walked out, for the photocopies the other woman typed 500 into a calculator and said "You give me 500 roubles" (about £10). I said "what for" as another officious person walked in and she deleted the amount on her caluclator and gestured me out the office. Dear me, they were certainly playing on our naievity and complete lack of what to do, with no help or guidance from the Mongolians all milling around.

Eventually after some frustrating hours we got the all clear. One guy appeared who did speak English, there is an updated list for all of those on the Mongol Rally and when they arrive at any of the Mongolian border crossings. Of the 200 teams we had arrived 6th and as one team started in Vienna, we were the 5th team from London. We we greeted at the final barrier by some dirty looking currency trader. No tah mate. We had already changed $50 in whatever the Mongolian stuff is called. We have started referring to all the foreign curencies as rupeears.

I converted a couple of lads to the Albion and Mongolia beckoned.

We and more importantly Dave had made it into Mongolia only another 230ish miles to the capitol. The border town is how you may imagine poor and very run down, we picked up the good asphalt road and started the final fling. It was just after 6.30pm. The countryside is uniquely different here, We saw our first Gers, Nomadic Mongolian herdsmens tented homes.

There are a lot more cows and horses wandering across the road here than in Russia. The scenery was again stunning in the evening heat and we were loving it. We came across a couple of wild camels and took a picture, Ed quacked at one, who was squaring up to us and hissing, guess he had the hump.

As the light went it became a little trecherous. Mongolians seem content to drive with full beam on, and the lack of white lines on the road make it virtually impossible to see the road. After 4 hours or so we saw the lights of Ulan Bataar in the distance and felt this huge buzz of exitement. Before we left England, we didn't have much faith in Dave making it, and with the reducing road quality and Daves deteriation we would not actually dare to believe it, now we did, we would make it under our own steam, on one set of tyres, with 2 blown bulbs and an airfilter change, Dave had done it. On Friday he done his final stint of 393 miles before a less strenuous retirement job. We love you Dave.

Both Richard and I were gobsmaked by Ulan Baatar, we expected a few big buildings with some crappier outskirts or something. The City is huge a lot bigger than most we have been in, in Russia, it is also a lot more modern than we thought. Loads of neon, bars, clubs trendy looking eateries. A big Zara and Esprit shop we passed by. What a contrast to the drive in with goat herders living in Gers and hardly any towns.

Ulan Bataar is a throbbing place with trendy western dressed young Mongolians everywhere. We checked into the plush genghis Khan hotel. £36 each for a twin suite, we parked Dave up for the night in the basement car park. The Mongol rally organiser said we had to go straight to a bar called Daves place when we get here, but we are going to get some pictures of him today in UB first, before visiting MAF at the Airport. We had a lovely bit of Chinese food in the Hotel and decided to go out for few well earned beers. The Genghis Khan Hotel has a nightclub as part of the hotel, so we thought we would go there expecting it to be pants. My word, it was the equal of many UK clubs, great decor, good lights a DJ playing decent house music that can actually mix and hordes of trendy Mongolians strutting their stuff.

One thing about this place we noticed already was that people are not all so friendly as in Russia. A group of young drunk men, were playing the old herd mentality number, one told me to "go from seat we sit here" when I sat down. Fair enough. Then another was waving his arms for me to move when I was standing over 2 metres from any of them, I turned to him and said "I don't understand what you are asking for", a few of the "tough guys" started trying to square up, for daring to talk, apparently they don't like western men very much here. We were just minding our own business having a couple of beers. I wasn't to worried about it kicking off though as the many army clad security guys walking around the club had rather large tazer stun guns. We decided to leave as the lads were getting increasingly more drunk and idiotic and turned in at 3am.

We did not leave Irkutsk until around 7 in the evening. We had a bit of a lay in after the offroad experience, had a look around and then tried to find an internet cafe at around 2pm to do last blog. First 2 listed in lonely planet, on opposite sides of city centre, were now shut down, finally found one with the slowest connection imaginable. It took 4 hours to upload the pictures.

Leaving Irkutsk was rather difficult, we followed sign for Ulan Ude and other places and then you arrive at a sort of roundabout with 4 exits and no signs. Should be straight on then hey? No. We started heading heading out of town westerley on the road we came in on. Where's LNAV when you need it most. Drive back and pick another exit? still wrong. Third time lucky and we are on the right road.

Irkutsk is also another city that is blessed with really nice hilly and forest surroundings. As we left the city to head down to the southern tip of Lake Baikal, it was like driving in the swiss Alps, tight roads, up and down between thick pine forest. It was great to be driving here though we had a slow average speed. After a couple of hours we rounded a turning and saw Baikal, what a magnificent sight, It was approaching twilight and it is one of those moments that no camera could ever capture.

With still around 600 miles to go at this point, we were starting to think that Dave wasn't going to make it, he struggles to turn right and there was this funny burning smell coming form the engine to add to the blowing exhaust pipe note. We tried to deal with this as with all things by boyish humour and hope. We laughed about setting up a small memorial that said "Dave from Chesterfield dearly loved, 1989 - 2007" or erecting him in some town square alongside other great Russians "Peter the Great, Lenin, Yuri Gagarin and Dave".

Pressing on around the huge lake we lost the light and with a considerable distance to Ulan Ude, it was going to be another late one. We had decided as with many places before to try and get a hotel in the centre so we could have alook at the place in the morning briefly before leaving. We hit the town at around 3am and after a failed attempt to get a room in the best listed hotel in town (which is listed as best of bad bunch) we ended up in the Hotel Odon, listed as lacklustre. Lacklustre? it was the biggest hole either of us can remember staying in, certainly on this trip, it makes the moscow dump seem like the ritz. We had driven 392 miles and our reward was this disgusting scratchers gaff.

We head off from Krasnayarsk, pre warned by the Team Scraz lads that the roads turns to rubbish about 30km after Kansk, a military base town.

We picked up the M53 after the weirdest detour. Russians don't often do ringroads. So the sign took us through an industrial estate over the side of a petrol station forecourt and often you will come to a junction where there are simply no signs, so its the pot luck approach.

We crossed over the river and marvelled at the cities surroundings. Beautiful. Not long into the road to Kansk the hilly backdrop became slightly flatter. As we approached Kansk we passed a military airfield with Migs or Sukhois lining the apron and a few of them buzzing the tower overhead, we'd love to have a go.

Through and out of Kansk is probably the best way to see it. We didn't really know what to expect with this road warning or how long it may last. It was far worse and longer than we could possibly of imagined. It started of with about 20 miles of what can only be described as a motocross circuit, huge holes the size of your bath along with mounds of about 2 feet height all intertwined with stones, mud and cracked concrete. It was slow and Dave took another hammering in places.

When the road briefly interluded into standard pot holed tarmac we hoped we had made it, we hadn't even began. Beyond a little village the road just ends. there is no roads, it's mud with holes and mounds made by all the years of traffic, we went into a steep uphill clearing through a forest and the mud was boggey and over a foot deep, there were at least 3 other cars and a few trucks who had run grounded in the quagmire. I was driving, kept Dave in first and kept the wheels moving with frantic left/right/left/right movement on the steering wheel to keep the wheels moving and a few good wacks on the bottom of the car.

This went on for about another 20 miles and now the light was fading and we had no phone signal in this remote part of Siberia, the only thing on the map asides the countryside, was the M53 which was no longer a road.

Eventually we returned to an uneven tarmac surface and thought again we have made it. Again we were to be disappointed. We found the only exit off the roads that we could to try and pitch our tents, but it was swampy land, wet and full of bird size mosquitoes and Dave was also visible from the road. So we had to press on in the dark. The road ran out again and remained a bumpy gravel tack with large brick size stones, holes and mounds for over 100 miles.

We found a motel by the side of the track at 2am, they had no beds, so on we went, eventually at 4am and completely knackered we pulled into a petrol station and tried to sleep in the car. Which was just to uncomfortable, so we drove Dave behind the cashiers booth and pitched 1 tent, and both jumped in for a quick kip before setting off again on the road from hell. We had done 369 miles.

Dave had already been showing signs of steering or suspension problems with the hammering he has had. this was constant wack after wack, bottom grounding thumps, we were driving more in the hope he holds together, there is no other way there.

After what seemed an eternity the track/assault course turned back into road. At one point with still around 450kms to Irkutsk, we thought we would not make it, if it stays like this. We did make it covering another 342 miles.

Inbound Irkutsk was standard Russian roads, a mixed bag, but absolute sheer bliss after the preceeding 24 hours. We stopped off and took a picture of one of the many Lenin Memorials.

Rich took a turn at diving. Dave not only handles awful he sounds awful, slightly blown exhaust and pinking when idling. He has to hold on for another 700ish miles.

After our heroic efforts we hoped to find a room in Irkutsk, no mean feat. Everywhere we tried was full. We finally got a really nice room in a small boutique place inside an old soviet building. After a good nights sleep we walked around Irkutsk this morning, It again feels more European than cities in Western Russia, it is really nice with coulourful buildings but maybe not as beautiful as Krasnayarsk or as cultural as Tomsk.

Today we start the final Push around lake Baikal onto Ulan Ude, hoping to hit border on Saturday for Sunday arrival. This will be our last chance to write before Ulan Bataar. We have both loved Russia immensly, more than we could of imagined, because of the people and the natural beauty. People here think we are mad for doing this but they will bend over backwards to help you. It really is full of the good the bad and the ugly. We are both bitterly sad to be leaving this magnificent country of contrasts, we have both fallen in love with it, but we must.

Dave is knackered and sound knackered but still going. Rich and I are knackered but still going. Ed justs rests and merrily quacks away when he's not trying to escape.

At the second attempt we did it, again we had some difficulty in finding our way out of the city, but we found the P422 which rejoined the M53 after Marinsk. The road turned into a dirt track for about 10kms before Marinsk, which looked like a backwater town with not much allure.

We drove non stop to reach Krasnayarsk which we hit at around 10pm local time.

Instantly we both liked the feel of the city. As you approach the city the countryside is hilly and mountainous in the distance. The city itself, once beyond the outer suburbs, has a distinctly European feel to it in both architecture and ambience and the city centre is pretty and full of character.

Both Rich and I have thought the siberian/Asian Russia is a lot nicer and more like home than European Russia. It seems the further away from Moscow's clutches a city is, the more of its own character it retains. Less Soviet.

We went out for a bite to eat and when one of 4 guys hears us speak English, they all turned to talk to us. They said "We speak English because, we are pilots". Oh really how interesting.

All 4 guys work for TransAero flying cargo on the 742. They asked us if we new Sergey, a STN based captain who Rich flew with just before we left and who I did his RST in the sim about 6 weeks ago.
The guys had trained with him and some of the other Russian Ryanair lads.

We have taken their details to pass onto Sergey as they were keen to catch up with him. Again it was quite a bizzare turn of events. In the morning we had a brief walk around the city. We both loved it and felt that it is a place that we would have liked to have spent more time exploring, but with the time constraints upon us, we had to crack on. From Tomsk to Krasnayarsk we covered 376 miles.

Its monday, and hopefully today, finally we will get out of Tomsk. Yesterday, we left Tomsk.

The road into Tomsk joins at the south of this small city, then skirts around the west and north before it turns into a b road due east to rejoin the M road bound Krasnayarsk.

We left yesterday around 4.30 in the afternoon, keen to crack on and put in a couple of hundred miles.

As we left, we both felt really sad to be leaving, neither of us wanted to, but we had to. Somewhere not far from Tomsk we must have missed the fact the road branched, We stayed on what we thought was the right road for over 40 miles when it suddenly ended in a poor run down village. We were gestured, when shown a map to go back. Eventually with the light fading we saw the right turn off, just 5kms outside of Tomsk. We elected with the light fading to get a cheaper place and hit the sack ready to go hardcore today.

We woke up this morning and went internet cafe number 1, half way through putting up the update a massive thunder storm started and the whole place went down, with 2 hours estimate to fix given, we trudge on to cafe number 2 where I am now writing this from.

Funny thing is, when we arrived in Tomsk there was a huge rainbow, when we left there was a huge rainbow, when we got back after our 3-4 hour country drive yesterday, you guessed it. Now we are actually keen to get out. It seems like ground hog day, all roads and rainbows lead to Tomsk

So next time we write, don't be suprised if eathquakes have cut off all roads out.

We are now off for another attempt to get out this place speak soon.

Only 165 miles today almost due north to the small city of Tomsk billed as the Oxford of Siberia, we have decided now that we have come this far in 2 weeks to have at least 1 full day off, maybe 2 to recharge, eat well have a nice bed and hot shower before we set off for the final push onto Ulan Bator.

Tomsk doesn't have very much in common with the architectual grandeur of Oxford, but it has a very similar ambience. Cool new coffee shops and trendy eateries. It is a student town though most are away for summer breaks. We parked Dave outside our good standard hotel and instantly Russian people start talking to us in English about what we are doing.

The map on the back of the car we believe has kept the police from fining us and has definately increased interest from the public. Every so often when driving someone who has been tailing us and has read "London to Ulaan Bator in aid of charity" and seen the map has driven past honked their horn and stuck their thumbs up.

The Russians in this place like Oxford seem very intellectual, well versed and conservative and English is spoken more here than other places. We spent the evening eating well and feeling fatigued, we spent the best part of 12 hours asleep.

We said Bon Voyage to the lads from Team Scraz as they were keen to head off away again. Doubt we will catch them again, though they have to be in England 6 days before we do. We wondered around the town today, bought a few bits and bobs and plan to go out tonight to a couple of bars. Tomsk is relaxed and feels very safe. It was recommended as a must see in The Lonely Planet guide. It is the ideal place to have break from it. Maybe we will stay another day and chill out maybe we will hit the road again tomorrow. For now its the first time we have both really enjoyed a restfull day off without having to go somewhere. Almost feels like we are on holiday.

It's sunday afternoon and we have decided to hit the road again. Last night we went out for some food and were told to check out a club/bar called Fakel. We didn't really expect it to be that good, but it was packed, the music was kickin the dancefloor was going off and as so many of the students speak English we were talking to loads of different people. Most people seemed suprised to have English people in their small city. We were even told by a group of vodka drinking Russian lads that we are mad for attempting to drive to Mongolia. people here are so friendly and interesting and all keen to speak with us to practice their English skills most of which is superb, we felt like celebrities, everyone wanted to talk to us.

We will be sad to leave. Tomsk has without doubt been the best place we have stayed in and the first place we have actually been able to chat to some of the locals. One guy offered to show us around the city and take us to watch a football match which we would of loved to do but we still have a fair way to go and have decided to crack on though we could easily stay here for a week or two if we could. We were texted by the guys from Team Scraz and warned not to drive when dark as 30km from the ringroad in Krasnayarsk (our next major city) the roads turns to the worst pot hole ridden example they have encountered. We will let you know how bad it, was assuming Dave gets there, in the next update, and put up a few pictures of this cool place.

So long fantastic little Tomsk, Farewell but hopefully not goodbye.

We left Omsk in the early afternoon, after a good lunch, good food has not been available on the road and we were not going to rush away when it was on hand.

Fortunately for us we got into and out of Omsk with relative ease, having devised a system for entering and exiting Russian cities. On the way in stop and ask for directions at first hotel or service station, on way out get reception to draw a map. This time it worked. We hit the road about 4 hours after the guys in Team Scraz who are on a much tighter schedule than us.

I kicked off first again, Rich prefers the second stint. We found the M51 with ease this time and for the first 200 miles or so it was the best continued stretch of road we had seen in Russia and it was a dream. Dave had taken a battering into Omsk and his steering is less sharp than it was when Jeremy handed over the keys. On this bit of road he was skipping along at 75mph with ease.

We have been in Russia now for over a week and we still have no idea as to what the speed limit is and there are no signs.

After 200 miles and as usual with no warning the road turned to rubbish. The Scraz lads had camped a few kms short of Novosibirsk and gave us instuctions on how we could meet them, with our average speed now down to around 50mph by the time we were in the area they'd stopped it had gone dark, so we elected to continue on to a motel signposted a few kms ahead. Now the mist dropped and when we hit a new piece of black tarmac road with no white lines, it was virtually impossible to see the road with the lights of oncoming traffic. The motel had no rooms left. So here we are again with nowhere to go, it's dark and dangerous driving conditions, so we were forced to continue onto the city 40kms away. Rich was now driving and he pulled in behind a big truck and followed him. We drove towards the city and Rich stopped at some military security point and the guard there was very helpful and told us how to get into the city. As we entered we could see the neon sign for the Hotel Sibir, who earler said they had no rooms available. We've learned this is often not the case, so we rocked up anyway and lo and behold they had a twin at 40 quid cheaper than they were quoting the cost as perviously. We had covered 476 miles.

We decided to go out for one as the main street Prospect lenin was across from the hotel. We wondered down the road and there was a closing empty Irish pub, across the road was a basement bar called Index with music playing so we wondered in and ordered a couple of beers. The place was virtually empty apart from a group of teenage looking girls dancing a few lads and a couple of girls eating. We sat down and the waitress wondered over to the 2 girls eating and must have told them we were English. Next thing the came up to us and started trying to talk which was more hand gestures and 1 word here and there, after our 10 minute quasi conversation, we decided to go home and said goodbye in English to the 2 girls who were sisters. One of the group of lads near to us heard Rich speaking English and started to talk to him. The other lads not realising he had spoke first all squared up to Rich as apparently in this country men who don't know each other don't talk to other men in general. They all stood down when he told them to.

Rich introduced him to me and he was completely fluent in English as he'd lived in London for 2 years. A few minutes later he asked us if we fancied going to another place that was busier, Rich and I were not sure if this was wise or not but he seemed Ok and well dressed and even though we were tired we said OK thinking it's all part of the experience.

We walked out on the street followed by a load of other lads, thinking we'd walk around the corner to anothr place or get in a cab. Up pulls a blacked out big merc and we are shepherded in the back with him. The driver was a broad muscular beefcake with no neck who was scary just to look at and the front seat was occupied by another big bloke called Sergey. We both started to wonder if this was a mistake. Who were these guys.

The lad we'd met whose name neither of us could remember said he first needed to go and get some more cash. We had been driving for about 15 minutes when the car pulled down an alley in a dark car lot and another big flashy car pulled in full of shady looking young lads. They all got out their car and all the people also did in ours, including our English speaking host, leaving just me and Rich in the car alone. Rich turned to me and said we're done for (in slightly more floral language), they're going to kill us, shall we get out as well. My heart was racing, there was nowhere to run and where were anyway. It did look like the ideal place to dispose of someone as there was nothing or no one around. I said just stay in the car and see what happens we've got no choice. They were all bantering away heatedly in Russian. After a few minutes that seemed a lifetime with double the heart rate they all got back in their respective motors and with our normalising heart rates we we're then taken on a guided tour of our hosts constructions sites. He is 21 slickly dressed in smart Italian clothes and he is building modern glass fronted tower blocks in this city of old and shabby buildings. I was under no illusion now that this was a "new Russian". He even told us that you can get nowhere if you follow the laws in his flawless English. After our tour of his building projects, he whisked us to the club, paid for our entrance and gave us VIP treatment all night, everybody was shaking his hand, he was obviously the man about town and was introducing us to everybody.

What started off as as an innocent conversation after a goodbye in a bar across the road turned into initially one of our scariest ever moments then into a totally surreal experience. In the Long way round Ewan McGregor and Charlie Boorman had the same expereince in Ukraine when a random guy took them home invited all his mates round then pulled out his machine gun to show them and they thought, what on earth is happening here. This was our such time. We hit the sack at 4am wishing we had taken our camera in what by chance had turned out to be one of the weirdest experiences we had ever encountered. Our host was a complete Gentleman to us the whole night, more importantly we were alive but still keen to get out of there as soon as just in case he decided he didn't like us anymore.

We were glad to get up early and crack on, between Chelyabinsk and Kyrgan is the ugliest we had seen so far, but in this country of extreme contrasts beauty is never far away.

We hit the road east and were meant to turn north on the E30 about 16 miles before the Kazak border. When the road turned into a queue of cars and Russian border guards, we guessed we may have gone to far. We'll go back then.

We found the E30 which for a Russian B road was suprisngly good for the first 100kms, smooth and thoroughly indescribable views. The scenery is some of the best I have ever seen in my life. Simply breathtaking. The siberian lowlands consists of endless wide open expanses, lake and forests, with the visibility you could see for 20 miles or more. We got our first real sense of being utterly isolated. If Dave gave up the ghost we were in the middle of nowhere with no plan B. When we stopped you could hear nothing except the sound of crickets as the backdrop to the vast expanse.

The roads soon became crap. We hit a bit where they were laying new road and had to drive for 3kms or so on deep rubble. Other cars had grounded and come to a halt and were being pulled out by a Kamaz truck, I kept Dave in 1st and kept the wheels moving and he just plodded along trhough it with the occasional bottom scraping. We pulled over to give Dave a drink and this Petrol pump attendant was asking us for any English coin as he collects them. He was delighted with the addition of a £1 coin.

Moving onto now rubbish roads, we needed to find something to eat, which has become a real problem, there simply is nothing except service sations with maybe crisps and chocolate every 100kms. We found some rough looking truckers joint abour 120miles from Omsk, with the most vile hole in the floor toilet either of us had ever seen. We ended up ordering beef macaroni, we actually had no idea what we were ordering and went for the pot luck approach. We were joined by some completely drunk old woman who kept showing us a picture of some bloke, maybe her lost son or husband. She could hardly walk due to her alcoholic exploits. She sat down beside me and as I had left some of this rough meal, she gestured to eat it. We obliged and she was eating the remains of the tasteless fare as some bloke came along who new her to take her away. It was desparing for us both to see such a place and the hopelessness of this person.

Rich took control and we pushed on for the final fling. Just outside Omsk we got our second routine pull over at a police checkpoint, not bad as we've been through about 50 and other teams have been pulled loads. The policeman took one look at the car and then preceeded to draw directions on the bonnet. We asked for a picture and he obiged.

With another hour time change (now +6 from UK) we hit Omsk at 10pm and found a really nice Hotel, The Maritime on the River. Omsk is another city of contrast, crap and industrial on the edges which hides a bustling and architectually cool centre. Tonight we enjoy the semi luxury of a travel lodge style accomodation and a few well earned beers. Sometime tomorrow we start the march across Siberia, initially towards the largest city, Novosibersk and onto either Tomsk or Kemerovo where we plan a well earned day off. Today we covered 476 miles.

Our best laid plans to awake and crack on at 8am were fading with each glass of red. We all awoke around 10am and joined the M5 in convoy bound for, we hoped, Chelyabinsk.

After 10 minutes the Scraz lads decided to overtake a slow moving vehicle and cross a no overtaking solid white line. The road was clear but at the top of the hill the lads got pulled in by the old bill and cleared of about 30 quid. We drove past laughing.

After an hour of the daily dose of how not to drive, we started to hit the foothills of the Urals. Beautiful Scenery tempered with mans destruction of it. Both Rich and I were in one of the high periods. Its incredible the amount of frequent highs and lows you get doing something like this. Sun sining through the window, music blaring, windows open (except when passing one of the millions of Kamaz trucks with the black smoke blowing straight into Dave) life is great for now.

Having crossed over the Urals from European Russia into Asian Russia, Rich's favourite scenery so far we felt a sense of huge sense of achievement

Rich our Nav expert decided on a re-routing that looked sensible, rather than continuing on the M5 with heads due and north and slightly west (back on ourselves) to Yekaterinburg, we opted to go on the M51 which looked like it went through Chelyabinsk as one road. It didn't.

Soon we we were lost and going back and forth trying to find the M51 to Kyrgan. We spent an hour going back and forth more in hope than purpose.

Chelyabinsk I am told is the most poluted place on earth and has suffered nuclear accidents. It is without doubt the most grim place I have ever seen and I've seen loads. There is nothing to endear you to it. Everthings shabby, dusty, run down and with loads of billowing industrial chimneys, we both took pity on the poor souls who have to call this place home.

We were glad to find the exit onto the 51 and leave this place forlorn behind. We hit the road bound Kyrgan and very shortly realised we had had hardly any Russian roubles. You cannot find things such as cashpoints outside major towns and cities. The Scraz lads, having not got lost in the city were ahead and told us they had stopped at a certain Motel. We didn't realise it was a motel as we drove past it, by the time they had texted us and we knew we were 35 miles down the road. Never mind another one will show up soon.

Having been caught in this situation in Lituania, we were again at the stage when it had gone dark, we were desperate to stop and we couldn't find anything, added to this we had only 1300 roubles about £22, we were stuck. When the road ran out and turned into the worst pot holed mess we had experienced thus far we thought it couldn't get much worse, it stated lashing down. We couldn't buy food for fear of not being able to afford a room and hadn't eaten since the morning. We drove till about 1.30 am and eventually found some truckers motel, complete with an array of resident mosquitoes, but for just 600 roubles £11 we were grateful and could afford a truckers meal of chicken and mash potatoe and more importantly change a few dollars. We had done 472 miles

After our last blog and painfully slow conection speed, we left Samara at around 2.30pm trying to catch up with Team Scraz and to camp with them.

Leaving Samara I was driving and we saw at least 5 crashes on the 8 miles out of the city. The roads are 2 at best 3 lanes in places but nobody pays any attention to this. It's more like a formula 1 race where everyone is josttling into any slight gap to overtake any which way.

We started to see the first signs of the multi billion pound oil industry. Fields of oil pumping machinery in the undulating scenery compensated slightly for the horrendous driving. I even started driving like one. Up a hill with a slow moving heavy vehicle in front, I decided sod this and went on to the dirt track beside the road and bombed up the inside. If you can't beat em. We caught up with team Scraz in a mosquito ridden field a few KM's shy of UFA. We covered 272 miles.

We awoke in the glorious sunshine of Samara to find our talking Duck Ed, missing off his perch in the front of Dave. Ed was given to us by Rich's lady Jana, to be given to a Mongolian child if we make Ulan Bataar. Ed had other ideas, after a bit of frantic searching we found him down on the beach trying to pull some other birds of the non feathered variety. He was dragged by his beak kicking and screaming and after getting his wings clipped is back on his perch, once more bound for his new home in Mongolia.

We set off early doors at 8.30am and drove through the day on a real mixed bag of roads, sometimes smooth and nice, other times barely controlable.

We stopped in some random town and were looking at the MIG aircraft proudly sitting by the side of the road.

Passing through some villages it feels like you have gone back a century or so. Ramshackle shacks with dogs, chickens and cows roaming around freely in the road.

We hit it big time today I put in the fist 300 miles and then Rich took over. We hit the bridge over the Volga in the evening. The stench of the fumes was sickening. The Russian driving becoming more outrageous each day. death is around every turn. Russians pay no credance to the brow of a hill or blind bend, they just go, if soemthing comes towards them they pull in, even if abeam another car and force them onto the dirt at the side of the road. The amount of times we went over a hill to be faced with a car coming at us head on. Crossing the Volga. Rich got pulled in for our first Russian checkpoint Police tug. The copper asked "Documents". Rich pulled out his licence and said with his native Kent charm. "I don't understand mate its on the back window what we're doing" the copper soon gotr bored and waved us on.

Again made the same mistake as Moscow. Driving into Samara, a big Russian city with no map, and no understanding of their language proved to be frustrating. We were helped by a lady who guided us to an a £185 night hotel. err no tar. With the help of my wife, we found a much more affordable Hotel the Aznat in the centre of Samara. We had smashed our previous record and done 530 miles in a day in 15 hours.

Samara is a beautiful old city on the banks of the Volga which has beaches. Hordes of trendy Russians in what feels a bit more Tenerife than Moscow. We sat at the bar and were talking to a really nice guy called Valerie, who makes a mean Long Island Ice Tea. Got a text from Jeremy asking how we are doing which was thoughtful.

Today we contiue east. Will hook up with the Scarz lads later. The other 2 teams Moon Unit and Fido are heading south into Kazakstan. Its 3O something degrees the sun is shining, Dave is dancing along. All turned out nice again.

Heading out of Moscow in the late afternoon, we picked up the M5 bound for Samara and later Chelyabinsk. The roads were some of the worst thus fas as it was lashing it down. After 140miles. We pulled off down a track behind team Scraz. behind some trees and had our first go at camping. We were accused of being the 5 star campers, as we each had our own 3 man tent, airbeds, pillows. etc. After a a glass of red and a few tinned heinz meals we hit the sack ready for the big push tomorrow.

Rich and I spent the day, looking around Moscow, did the Red square, Kremlin thing, the architecture in this part of the city is stunning. Moscow is an ecclectic blend of ultra modern, artistic masterpiece and ugly worn out.

In the afternoon we hooked up with Jay and Dave from Team Scraz and 2 other teams who had thus far convoyed together. Adam and James from team Moon Unit Alpha and Dan and Toby from team Fido.

Dave from Scraz is an Everton fan, someone's got to be, and he had contacted the Everton supporters club Russian branch, who's head Pavel had sorted him out an apartment and was doing a city tour.

After a nice bit of grub in an authentic Russian Restaurant, Rich and I were deliberating as to who would go with Jay from team Scraz to pick up our car from the Hotel Moscow and follow a cab to where they were staying and we would stay for the evening with the other teams. As neither of us could be arsed, it was rock, paper, scissors. I lost, which would later turn out to be a huge blessing in disguise.

With our car Dave moved to his new home. Jay and I walked down to meet the others in a Bar called Yak-Nuk, 8 Mongol Ralliers and 6 of the total 11 Russian Everton fans amassed round a long table. 7 of the ralliers had no idea of the carnage that awaited them. having lost rock, paper, scissors I made what would turn out to be a great decision by not going near the Vodka.

7 ralliers, where egging me on. "How can you come to Moscow and not drink Vodka" etc. I have had the previous misfortune of believing I could drink Vodka with Russians when visiting my in-laws, what starts out great always ends in tears, but these 7 all thought it was a great idea to knock back one after another interspersed with large jugs of beer. Many bottles later. The decision was made by one of the Russians to head back to our apartment.Jay had by this time lost his English phone and camera somewhere between being sober and out of the game. The Lonely planet guide says thats when drinking neat vodka, it often just sneaks up on you.

We walked out. I was fine after just a few beers, Rich was gone, Jay was completely gone. James threw up for the first time of many and everybody was now feeling the full effects of their previous Bravado.

We walked across a park towards the Hotel Ukraina, and Rich was the first to disappear, it would end up with everyone, disappearing. Rich and I were at the back of the group. Rich was right behind me, I walked down some stairs following the crowd. Turned round and Rich was gone. I told a couple of the other Vodka'd up lads to wait for a couple of minutes as Rich was gone. I was legging around a busy part of the city shouting for Rich. He didn't appear. A couple of minutes later, I went back to where the others had been. Rich was there being man handled by a dodgy looking Russian guy, pulling on his coat. Rich was slurring back. and the crowd had disappeared completely.

So here was I with a well gone mate. No idea of what the address is and the only contact number we had was of a phone that had been lost. Rich didn't even know which city he was in at this point and it was now that my losing the rock, paper, scissors and vodka abstinence paid off. I had remebered walking down a hill from the apartment passed the World trade centre and along the River past the Russian Parliment building.

I could see the top of the parliment building a flag in the distance, So I walked 30 minutes towards it, dragging a stumbling wing man behind me and retraced my steps along the river, passed the world trade centre and into a few different apartement blocks until we found the cars. From there it was the choice of 1 of 2 doors, I couldn't remember which one except it was on the 6th floor and as you walk out the lift the door is to the left and is burgundy.

I gave Rich a bunk up and he clambered up through a first floor window and into the lift. He reappeared saying the door is brown. It was the other entrance. I was pretty livid the pack had walked off and left us behind, when we had no way address. It had taken me an hour to get me and Rich there, the walk to the bar took 15 minutes. It was 3am and after shouting and trying random door bells as there was no way in this block. We pictured them all sitting around drinking booze and us out in the street, eventually we said this is pointless and headed over to our car for an uncomfortable nights sleep.

Just as we were about to drop off in the car, from behind it appeared Pavel. " What the hell are you doing, where is everyone". we asked. "Those who are left are over there by the door" he replied. We wondered over and Dave complete with Everton shirt was asleep and snoring in the gutter. he was with only Adam and a still throwing up James from team Moon unit. Toby, Dan and more importantly Jay with the apartment key had all been lost and where now in Moscow in the early hours out of their trees.

Pavel had taken the guys into a supermarket and had been attcked by a security guard with an iron bar, because he walked in with a beer and the shop accused him of pinching it. The other somewhere around here had managed to lose the pack. As i was the only one with a working phone, I took the sim card of the other Adam and put it in mine to contact Jay's non English phone. He passed the phone to the taxi driver who spoke to Pavel and soon enough he was back. He had been driving around Moscow for an hour and a half off his head trying to recognise something. We all got in the apartment with Toby and Dan still missing and no means of contact.

Next morning around 7am the door buzzer goes. Its the lads. Turns out they had been stopped by the Police for walking around drunk in the road, they were bundled into a a cop car and taken to a cash point and relieved of an amount money they are not sure about by the Police, who then dumped them in a side street, to be awoken by some guy kicking Dan as he slept on a stairwell outside some flats.

And the Moral of this little tale is one I had already learned the hard way. NEVER EVER drink Vodka with Russians you have been warned.

Rich left on his own to drive to a local village 1km from our roadside motel to try and cash some dollars. He went into a tented market and everyone was gathering around Dave and having a look as he was the only car there. He then got offered by someone to show him where the bank is, so Rich had a Russian in Dave guiding him to the bank.

Rich kicked off inbound Moscow, we left at about 1pm after a good kip. It was cold, raining and windy. The roads were still awful and the overtaking still dangerous, we actually did one overtaking manouvre around a truck and we thought we could see all the way into the distance, there was a dip in the road we couldn't see. This massive orange truck appeared in front of us and I thought we aren't gonna make it, Rich pulled in just as the thing went past, our heart rates had likely doubled, I will leave what was said as the lorry passed inches by to the imagination.

We came up behind another lorry and the joint decision was that 50mph average was better than death. We will leave out the overtaking for a bit.

Some way down the road Dave was getting thirsty, so we pulled into what looked like a museum petrol station. Wind up petrol pumps and a shop that used an abacus as a till. Weird thing here is you have to pay for petrol up front so you have no idea how much to order. Once you do they set or wind up the pump for the amount bought, in our case 10 litres. and then that amount will be delivered regardless. If you over estimate it will gush out the side of the car. So we are having to conservatively guess how much fuel we need.
We were chatting to some lovely children who spoke some English at the petrol station which made up for the disgusting hole in the floor toilet, we were both gagging at the smell.

Pressing on towards Moscow and about 40 miles out the road suddenly changed into British style, lovely smooth dual carriage way. One thing we had both noticed was the amount of car crashes we had passed, there are loads here.

We hit the Moscow suburbs with no room no map and no Russian language skills. A good combination, we drove around who knows where and eventually just stopped the car and got out to seek help.

What is amazing about Russia is the people, they are so willing to help and kind. We went into an entrance, turned out to be a bookshop and a guy with broken English tried to find something in a guide book. Then a young lady called lina, who speaks really good English offered to help. They spent an hour on the phone and speaking with friends who were looking on the internet to try and find us something. Eventually they said threre was a place nearby that was cheap, and we could follow a cab to get there. Lina jumped in the cab so that she could help us to check in. There was a funny moment, as our car was parked in front of the cab. Lina said we will come by you and you follow us. We hadn't seen which car she was in and the cities traffic is like London, a car drove passed and hooted his horn, something many cars do in Moscow anyway. We pulled out hard on it's tail and started to follow. After a few minutes, I said "Are we sure this is the right Car", Rich said No "we could be following the wrong car I habe no idea what she is in, anyway he knows where he's going even if we don't", we were cracking up laughing at the prospect.

It turned out it was the right car and after some aggresive driving to stay on the cars tail we pulled into the Hotel Moscow, an ex soviet grey bock that hadn't admitted decorators for decades. Rich had driven 268 miles.

We paid the £50 for a room with no hot water, and after some more forms were showed into our dwelling on the 11th floor. Floral carpets and wallpaper a knackered bed overlooking a contruction site, marvelous.

We got here at about 10pm local and with our failed expoilts at trying to drive in and spot something, were happy for anything. A quick cold shower and we headed off for the city. it's quite modern with loads of neon lights in the centre. We found a 24 hour buffet thing and ate at 12am as we hadn't eaten since breakfast. After our cold and overpriced food, we got a cab to a bar Rich had seen in the Lonely Planet guide the Karma Bar on Ulitsa Pushkenskaya. It turned out to be a good choice, walking down this weired back alley, we went down 2 flights of stairs into a basement. It was full of good looking young guys and girls and was obvioulsy quite trendy. We blended right in! A few beers later and it was back to fawlty towers at 4am. Today we are going to see the city. red square, the Kremlin and all that, meet up with Team Scraz and 2 other teams, spend a night with the Russian Everton supporters club (team Scraz contact), and spend the night on the floor of their apartment. Tomorrow we crack on towards Samara.

After our very early houred arrival we found an internet cafe for the last installment of the blog and left Daugavpils bound north for the town of Rezekne before turning east for the border. The roads, whilst still rubbish in places, were mainly empty and the daytime countryside in Latvia was stunning, we had made contact with team Scraz and they were an hour ahead of us, we hoped to catch them at the border.

Just after Rezekne we stopped down a track for the now customary ham roll with sweet chilli sauce, our 25 min turnaround on the roof of the car and tried to sort the car out a bit, put on our new money belts and marched on towards the border. Just as we we passing a village about 10km from the Border town of Zilupa, we could see ahead of us what looked like 2 Mongol Rally Micras on the side of the road. It was the lad from the channel tunnel Ed, who took the wrong bag and the other car in the their tandem attempt. They had been pulled by the Police. We drove past honked the horn and waved and they pulled in behind. We all stopped about 1 mile down the road and there was much shaking of hands, sharing stories and having a good laugh for a few minutes. They were bound for Moscow before heading south for Kazakstan. We were now the lead car in a trio going for the border, about another 2km down the road, the man with the stick stands in the road and waves us in. I was driving again. It was the old bill once more. He takes a look round our car, starts laughing with his colleague and then shows us his speed camera in his patrol car. we were doing 74kmph. He showed me his Latvian highway code book as well, I knew I should have got one of these before we left. It showed that driving through a built up area, the limit was 50kmph, I think. But we were on a country lane. Anyway after a few minutes of not understanding what the other was saying he also thrust our documents back and I assume he said in Latvian "sling your hook".

A few more kms and we were at the border at around 5.30pm local, what a rigmarole. Firstly Latvian customs, some bloke who likely hasn't smiled in decades, asks us for documents, gestures to me to get out and open the bonnet, which I did. then without even looking in it, slams the bonnet closed and aggressively waves us through the first checkpoint. We joined the queue for the next bit behind the other 2 teams, some bloke in a booth, we are asked to fill in a landing and exit card and then just wait for about 1 hour 45 mins, with no idea why. Eventually he lifts the barrier and we move up to this other set of barriers with the Russian border crowd and we have to take everything out of Dave for them to look through, then put it all back in. Then the rigmarole and burocracy really starts, we have to go to a money changing place change dollars for roubles, pay 120 for something, we have no idea what it is. then go into this booth to buy some insurance, no mean feat when neither speaks the others language. What we are insured against, again we have no idea. After a fair while and with the insurance documents in hand and some slip we bought for 120r we have to go to get another form, once this form is complete we are sent to another booth, to fill in another form. With all these now done its back to the barrier where the car is for the man to key in all the info and go ballistic with his rubber stamp. From arriving this had taken 5 hours. It may not sound to complicated but when you have guards waving you away in Russian and absolutely no clue as to what you have to do, it was a challenge. Eventually the barrier lifted and we thought we were in Russia, we were in fact heading to another barrier. This time she just wanted one of the bits of paper and we were in.

We planned on driving for a wee while as we still had around 400 miles to Moscow. For whatever we wrote about about Polish and Baltic roads, they were clearly bonze medalists in the Olympic crap roads competition. This was a whole new ball game. Massive 1ft squared holes in the road, tarmac turning into gravel and the whole ride was bone shaking, poor old Dave.

It was raining, dark and dangerous. I managed about 117 miles when we found a Motel at almost 2am. It took us ages to get the room. I kept the telling the lady I speak no Russian and I do not understand but she just kept talking at me. We eventually put some money on the top and after a few more forms we had a place. They love their forms here. The room was fine but the water had sulphur in it and the whole bathroom stank of rotten eggs. Daily total was 220 miles.

Awakening at about 11.30, We decided to try and put the photos on Richs camera onto the laptop, so we can get them on the web, We could not get his memory card reader to work, after over an hour of faffing about, we thought sod this, we'll buy another one.

Rich choose the first sector.

As we started off Dave had his first fault, a failed indicator bulb. Dave after over 1000 miles, you're out of order. We bunged in a new one and he was right as rain.

The drive into the rain lashed Warsaw was slow. It's big and busy, we got lost asked a taxi driver, who guided us to the write road and eventually picked up the city transit north bound Bialyastok. Just as we hit the nothern suburbs we stopped for a bit of lunch on the roof of the car, it had been slow progress. It was 4.30pm and we had done around 75 miles in 3 hours.

We picked up the comedy express road north, and watched the latest installement of "Polish deathwish". We were overtaken on a single carriage way road by one car who was been overtaken by another, 3 wide and with traffic coming in the opposite direction. By now our 24 hours in Poland was enough, beautiful country but not great for driving.

Passing Bialystok, on towards a lovely little town called Augustow, with lakes and a nice town centre. we would like to have stopped. We had updated our position on the Mongol Rally website in Warsaw, but we were slightly behind the teams doing our direction, due to the late departure in Prague. We crossed the Lituanian border, and drove passed the longest queue of Lorries I have ever seen. It was literally 5-6 miles long to cross the border back into Poland. Chin up.

The one thing we noticed about Lithuania instantly, apart from the even crappier roads was the lack of lighting, it was was so black you could hardly see anything. We heard that team Scraz, one on our route had stopped in Kaunas for the night. That was 165km from the border, we'd make it that far.

Somewhere about 20km from Kaunas the road went into a diversion, we followed the signs, took a right diversion sign toward Kaunas (no lorries over 8 tonnes) and I was doing 55mph on the tarmac when it without warning turned into a potholes dirt track, it was about 5 miles of 20 mph in the pot holey mud, until it turned into tarmac again. The road joined onto the northern edge of the city.

They have had some serious downpours here recently as many roads were flooded. After asking in a petrol station where to find the E262 towards Daugavpils in Latvia, we headed on for a bit more. It was now around mignight. We drove passed the turning for Kaunas airport 500m to the left, so we sopped for a quick photo or 3 as both Rich and I have flown there with Ryanair.

On towards the town 1/3 of the way to the border, Ukmerge. we planned that would be our stopping point. It was raining the roads were rough, it was pitch black and you got this real sense of being in the middle of nowhere. Ukmerge was big enough to make it onto our map but was not big enough to warrant any accomodation. So now really knackered it was onto the next town 2/3 of the way from Kaunas to the border and 60km in front of us. They had one guest house but it was firmly locked at 1.45am.

We were both now exhausted and would of happily camped if it were not blowing a gale, raining and freezing outside. Onwards, hardcore towards latvia. We crossed the border at 2.35am. Daugavpils was another 17km.

It's a much larger place and we new we'd find somewhere, we had to as we could hardly stay awake. Entering towards the city we could see a big blue HOTEL sign in the centre. I got to a junction that I thought was a fork going left and right over a bridge, with the hotel just the other side. as I turned left, the blue light went on behind me. It was the Latvian old bill, like some sick joke, with the hotel a couple of hundred metres away. I had been pulled. At this stage I was considering abuse or assault on the officer, for nothing more than the guarentee of a bed, even if it's in a cell. I actually grovelled, saying sorry. "yes of course sorry" said the angry looking copper. He showed me a Latvian highway code and I had gone through a no entry sign and was suppossed to go around a road island rather than cut the corner to get on the bridge. He eventaully just gave us our passports back and said "you go". Yes sir, no sir, 3 bags full sir.

We got into the hotel at what we thought was 3.30am EU time, turns out Latvia is 2 hours ahead it was 4.30am. We had done exactly 500miles in 14 hours on dog awful roads. Now this was hardcorre. Today we march on the Russian border. bring it on.

I cabbed it up to Rich's side of Prague having said goodbye to Lena in the city centre. We had spent 24 hours in Prague and wanted to get in a few hours that evening. After a bit of deliberation as to which way way to go we decided on heading east then northwards towards Wroclaw and then on towards Warsaw. We found our way out of Prague easier than we had our way in, and joined the road dual carriage way toward eastwards. The roads were now getting more bumpy. The dual carriage way suddenly ended with no warning into a T junction, we were now on single carriage way bumpy roads.

Passing through that part of the Czech republic the countryside is beautiful. We hit the polish border after a couple of hours and into Poland. The roads we rubbish and winding and the overtaking going on around us was at times frightening. Towards Wroclaw we passed a petrol station that had caught fire, there were burnt out cars a few ambulances and fire engines and hordes of locals looking on, as we passed over the brow of a hill someone overtaking was heading straight at us on our side of the road. I hit the brakes hard and stopped as there was a 6 inch curb beside us and the idiot Schumacher wannabe just pulled in with inches to spare.

After witnessing a few more comedy overtaking manoeuvres, we hit Wroclaw, which was a fair size, and Dave didn't like very much as it is nearly all cobbled streets and loads of tram lines, it was very bumpy.

In the town, I was driving, Rich and I both saw something on the road, I asked "what's that" thinking it was a can and Rich thought it may of been a stone, I tried to put it under the middle of Dave. Only when we were on it we saw it was a Hedgehog rolled in a ball. As Dave it sitting low at the back he didn't pass underneath as hoped, we heard the sound of the poor little thing as he went under the back. I was gutted I had killed a Hedhehog.

Picking up the E67 towards Warsaw, we swapped drivers and Rich took is go, somewhere southeast of Lodz we had had enough and decided to find a hotel. Except there were none. We were guided by some bloke in a 24 hour bar, towards one place that looked so dodgy and seedy, that we elected to continue. Eventually after over an hour we found a nice place about 100km south of Warsaw at 3am. A glass of 1 of our 3litre cartons of Tescos Red wine and we hit the sack. We had done 318 miles in just over 8 hours and were knackered.

We got into the venue, a fair few had made it, I didn’t notice the lads from team Scraz who are doing the same route, hope they made it, it was a riotous crowd drinking beer to some dodgy Jazz band. Hmmm great. I think we would have won the award for most civilized night in Prague, a truly stunning city. We went off to a lovely restaurant called Kogo and in light of our imminent feasting on fermented horse milk and pickled testicles, I went for the beer and seafood risotto. Rich and Jana joined us with an old friend from Ryan air Jordi, who was night stopping in Prague, bound back for the huge party.
Jeremy had texted to ask if we were well and had made it, again thanks to you Jeremy for your continued support, you have been amazing without you we wouldn’t have been here for sure. Deep down though I reckon you’re slightly jealous. You maybe a high flying manager but you really want to be driving to Mongolia in a banger. Go on admit it.
Most of the party was now outside on the street, we stayed for 10 minutes drank an awful watered down warm beer at pants party number 2 and went off in our party of 7 to the old town for a couple of night caps. That maybe the lat time we will see any ralliers till we reach the end, assuming we get that far.
It’s now Monday lunchtime and Rich and I are going to spend the afternoon with the ladies, before we extricate ourselves from the thumb prints and again become the big tough global adventures, if we're still allowed. We head off at 6pm for about a 6 hour stint.

I awoke at 9am and within an hour we were showered, coffee'd and frickadella sandwiched up for the long drive ahead. As we left at 10am the Irish Lads car was still there with no signs of movement, I wonder if they’ve awkon yet. Rich elected to drive first and we set off toward the 122km to Frankfurt, loads of the public, were honking horns and one young lady was leaning out the window taking pictures of our wheels.
A good sing a long to Simon and Garfunkel in the warm sun and we passed Frankfurt with 220km to Nuremburg. Rich seems to have a habit of picking the wrong sectors, as again we kept hitting traffic jams. We were having a laugh with a some lads in a red micra in the outside lane, we were on the inside as we kept passing each other a few times in the slow traffic with V signs as we did.
Just before Nuremburg, we re-fuelled swapped over and I took the wheel. Driving from east of Nuremburg the scenery was stunning, beautiful countryside and forest and now only 280 kms to Prague. We new we were near to the Prague turn off, but we suddenly bought up the fact that most teams cars had names and ours didn’t. After a few lame attempts, I suggested Dave. Richard said yeah we’ll call it Dave, after Rodney. we were cracking up as we drove passed the Prague slip road. On up the motorway for a bit before we turned round, at least we now had a name for our motor.
Crossing the Czech border was easy, we had completed one half of all the flags on our bonnet and the car had behaved flawlessly. We still had 180kms to Prague and arranged to meet Rich’s girlfriend on the city limits. We arrived on the edge of the city around 6pm and around 450 miles later, we again got lost and had to stop for them to find us as we got caught in a 1 way system. Jana turned up with some of her family and we headed to their place, Rich and I were looking at the map on the back of our car, considring the monumenatal effort it had took to do over 800 miles in 27 ½ hours. London to Prague was nothing it was just a soeck at the beginning of this huge red line. I think we now realise what we signed up for, can we come home now.
My wife had flown over and had traveled up with some friends to meet us. We emptied Dave of essential items, and team 24 the road split temporarily to become team 2 4 under the thumb, I went of with Lena Dima and Sasha and we arranged to meet later for the HUGE Prague party.

Pulling out onto bayswater road, in a long line of Logo’d bangers, my mobile rings, a rather stressed sounding Sonia from BALPA, had had all sorts of difficulties on the underground and was now outside Lancaster gate tube station, a quick 180 swimming against the tide of our compatriots and we met with the lovely Sonia and her hubbie and proceeded down a side street where she took a fair few pictures of us and our steed. She said that we are going to have an article in the next Log with a couple of page follow up in a later edition. After giving the pair a couple of cans of our free case of extreme energy drinks, sponsor supplied, we tried to find our way back onto Bayswater road, a few wrong turns later in the pouring rain we were in Fulham with no clue as to where we were going.
As I had taken responsibility of the camcorder work on the start line and Rich was the official photographer, I asked him how many shots he’d got, er I forgot. Never mind, my wife had taken a few, so we’d have to use them, (below).
With the heavy traffic it took us around 2 hours 45 minutes to get to the edge of London in the stop start traffic. thanks to the expert help of our man in London once man he guided us by mobile to the A20 bound for the M20 and Folkestone. We were now around 1 hour 25 mins from our tunnel crossing and wondering if we’d even make it there.
Bolting down the M20 at a lightning 65mph, we passed hordes of other ralliers, a customary hoot of the horn and a wheey and we in Folkestone with 40 mins to spare. the actually said we could go on the earlier train at 17.20, result. We drove on and in our little bit with 4 cars there was another rallier in a newer shaped Micra he’d only bought on Thursday, due to similar engine troubles with his old chariot.
David the driver had a funny tale to tell, he was asked by his comrade in miles, to stop at his house, as he wasn't there and to pick up his bag in the garage. They had just realised in Folkestone that he had in fact picked up a bag belonging to his driving partners house mate, that contained such rally essentials as a kite, a pair of size 11 boots an umbrella and assorted bric a brac. The tunnel was really quick and we were soon in France.
As we now needed gas we pulled into the first petrol station to be greeted by Jack Osbourne sitting on the roof of his Fiat panda, doing a piece on the design of French petrol pumps or something similar, complete with his huge 4x4 support vehicle, traveling doctor and back up. Guess that’s 1 team guaranteed to make it.

We joined the road towards Bruxelles and soon we were in Belgium, we passed a few ralliers with the customary honk and wave, when passing a red Citroen 2cv, a rally favourite, we honked the horn and the 2 lads did a Mexican wave thing which cracked us both up.
Now getting slightly hungry we decided, to try and get some grub and some Euro’s, it seems Belgium is the land with no cashpoints. We joined fellow ralliers Dillon and Chris and rather than going hardcore and eating locusts and grass we opted for the Pizza Hut express.
On toward Bruxelles, I was now driving. Rich had done the bit down to Folkestone and he was now the nav man. Having been around Bruxelles a few times, I was aware there are many potential wrong turns, but hey we are paid to navigate around Europe and we had a full colour AA road map and route finder print outs. What could go wrong. We realised something might of when we started to approach Charleloi almost due south of Bruxelles, when we need to be going east and slightly North.
We elected to just follow the sign towards Liege and then try and find the road back towards Aachen and Koln. We managed after our scenic trip of Belgian motorways and now with he time about midnight local we crossed into Germany.
I said to Rich “ We haven’t seen any rally cars for ages", not surprising with our detour, when literally 20 seconds later we could just about make out the shape of what looked like a 2CV in the distance, as we got within a few hundred metres, we saw the UK plates, it must be, ever closer and we could see it was the same one we’d passed at the start of Belgium, driving past I honked the horn and the both the driver and his half asleep front seat passenger, sat up and did the Mexican wave thing and a large wheey. We were now again in high spirits and cracking up laughing.
Koln came and went and we found the road towards Frankfurt, we decided to turn it in around 1am as we were now hanging, we saw a sign for a petrol station with a motel 20 kms ahead, that’s where we are stopping.
A couple of lads had elected to kip in their cars for a few hours. We were now willing to pay anything for a bed for a few hours. Up to the Motel and a couple of Irish lads in one of the rooms were knocking back spirits and leaning out the window chatting to us. We elected to hit the sack straight away. It was now 2am local. We had done 375 miles.

After 2 months of hard work, countless stressfull engine calamities and a pants party, we were finally off to do this thing called the Mongol rally. We had to be there between 9-10am and it's a 45 min drive from rich's. We'll leave at 9.15 then. Fluked our way all the way to Hyde Park without a single wrong turn and with a little bit of help from our man in London on the mobile (Rich's dad David), we entered into hyde Park to be greeted by the sight of varied colourful wrecks and some rather rough looking drivers, Rich and I decided who ever felt the effects of the previous night the least should drive first. Right then Rich your driving. We joined the long queue for the admin tent to get our official mongol rally stickers, a free case of this Extreme energy drink, from one of the official sponsors and some other varied bits. We were joined in the line by Jeremy from the cars donor. Cheapestcontracthire.com. He had just returned from a soiree in sunnier climes, and he hadn't even shaved, I mean really Jeremy. He was telling us his tales of various mad driving adverntures that make the Mongol Rally seem slightly tame, the mans done everything. Next came my Dad and step mum caz, Friends Matt, Zoe, Jeff and Maskura, My mum, sis Hannah and brother in law Charlie and Rich's parents David and Mary. Quite a crowd was packed into our bit of Hyde Park, we got a lot of praise for our rear windscreen map made by Ian at Signsdirect-uk.com, everyone loved it. We had great difficulty in getting our badly designed Mongol rally Stickers onto the car, but thanks to Matt at least the bonnet one looks good witht he doors being rubbish. After some announcements and some Mongolian folk music thing that sounded like drowning cats in a bag, the drivers were called to assemble in their hot rods for the off. I was slightly disappointed that Sonia from BALPA hadn't turned up or Robbie from C Dart whithout whom we wouldn't even be on the start line. Some Lads pulled a great stunt they had a mini smoke machine in their car and everyone thought they were on fire. After much hooting of horns and general bravado, we were off, it was great to have so many of our loved ones and our un-official third member of the team, Jeremy at the start line. We were out the exit behind a couple of mad Aussies and off down Bayswatwer Road.

Friday afternoon, i set off bound for Rich in Kent in monsoon like conditions, coupled with the rush hour throng and the journey took the best part of 4 1/2 hours from East Midlands. Good News was the car behaved herself. Arrived at Rich's parents for a hearty meal and the two of us were off with my wife and a few good friends to pants party number 1. The party was billed as huge by the organisers. the only thing huge about it, was the venue. An assorted bunch of weirdo's, us included, were congregated in a warehouse thing on brick lane drinking Fosters and watching Jack Osbourne disco dancing. A couple of lads thought it would be a hoot to take there trousers off and we were chatting to various Ulaan Batar wannabes. Some American lad was telling us of his route through Iran and then Afghanistan. Nice bloke, doubt he's coming back alive. After a few hours we had enough and decided to head back ready for off tomorrow.

Having now left home for the road and having linked this blog to my website, which I cannot now enter as software at home. i realise this BLOG site only has the ability to read from the bottom upwards. A touch inconvenient, apologies.