London to Mongolia in a rubbish 1989 Nissan Micra

London To Mongolia. Nothing to it.......

Sun, 12 Aug 2007 10:37:57 +0200

Thank You

Sun, 12 Aug 2007 10:33:25 +0200

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.

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Bye Bye Dave

Sun, 12 Aug 2007 10:32:17 +0200

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Daves sad end

Sun, 12 Aug 2007 10:12:10 +0200

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.

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The difficulty in getting home

Sun, 12 Aug 2007 10:07:24 +0200

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.

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Go on Dave my son

Sun, 12 Aug 2007 10:05:11 +0200

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The last waltz

Sun, 12 Aug 2007 09:50:15 +0200

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.

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Worlds deepest and largest freshwater lake

Sun, 12 Aug 2007 09:41:30 +0200

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Beautiful Baikal not so Ulan Ude

Sun, 12 Aug 2007 09:31:38 +0200

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.

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Please Donate

Thu, 09 Aug 2007 10:55:12 +0200

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Ed tries the Lord Lucan in Irkutsk

Thu, 09 Aug 2007 10:52:56 +0200

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Lombard RAC rally is for wimps

Thu, 09 Aug 2007 10:49:26 +0200

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End of the Road

Thu, 09 Aug 2007 10:23:39 +0200

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.

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Tomsk to Krasnayarsk

Thu, 09 Aug 2007 10:15:47 +0200

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Escape from Tomsk bound Krasnayarsk

Thu, 09 Aug 2007 10:04:26 +0200

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.

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Tomsk

Thu, 09 Aug 2007 10:01:29 +0200

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Please Donate

Mon, 06 Aug 2007 07:46:47 +0200

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87 Miles to nowhere

Mon, 06 Aug 2007 07:40:53 +0200

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.

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Dave and Ed's Fly/Drive

Mon, 06 Aug 2007 07:31:46 +0200

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Tomsk a well earned break

Mon, 06 Aug 2007 07:29:31 +0200

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.

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Road to Novosibirsk

Mon, 06 Aug 2007 07:26:15 +0200

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Nutty night in Novosibirsk

Mon, 06 Aug 2007 06:49:15 +0200

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.

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Good food in Omsk

Mon, 06 Aug 2007 06:39:32 +0200

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Please Donate

Thu, 02 Aug 2007 07:12:18 +0200

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onto Omsk - Siberia

Thu, 02 Aug 2007 07:08:31 +0200

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Sibir

Thu, 02 Aug 2007 07:02:57 +0200

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.

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Over the Urals

Thu, 02 Aug 2007 06:57:06 +0200

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Over the Urals

Thu, 02 Aug 2007 06:44:06 +0200

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

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Continuing East to Ufa

Thu, 02 Aug 2007 06:39:31 +0200

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.

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Samara / Where's Ed

Thu, 02 Aug 2007 06:38:22 +0200

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