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Firstly apologies for the lack of contact other the rally, it was very difficult to find fast internet points, the trip was a great success so far we have raised over 4000 pounds for charity plus donating the car "Mongol Sally" to a local charity in Mongolia.
we would love to raise 5000 pounds in total for charity, if you were unable to donate before we left, please send me a personal message via facebook
It took us 27 days to complete the rally, the rally is not race however we were the 13th car to cross the finish line, out of 500 cars we were very happy with our position!
In total we drove 8545 miles from Lands End to the Mongolian capitol Ulan Bator driving through France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Czech Rep, Poland, Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and finally Mongolia.
Driving through Europe was quite simple, easy and regular road signs, well tarmac roads and petrol stations that accepted credit cards.
As soon we hit Ukraine Russia the roads we very poor, lots of potholes and a lack of sign posts!
How ever from Kazakhstan to Mongolia the real fun started, we had a total lack of roads, a lot was off road driving, average speed at times was 20 mph. Petrol stations sometimes did not have your type of fuel plus it was always annoying that you had to guess the amount fuel you needed to fill up your tank and paid up it up front!
The average day of the rally would consist of waking up with the sun, 6am cooking breakfast, washing, checking the car over and then packing away camp, we then would keep driving through the day until we hit our target for the day, if the roads were kind on a good day we would set up camp 30mins before the sun went down (normally a 12- 15hr day of driving), on bad days we drove through nights rotating drivers! (15 – 35hours of driving periods) In the evening we would set up camp, cook a simple pasta dish for us and any convoying cars, (being an chef, I used to trade cooked meals for locals beer and people to do my dishes!) after cooking every night we would make a camp fire, drink beers and catch up on the daily rally gossip.
Personally highlights of the trips were meeting all the interesting people on the trip!
In Kazakhstan, a local man was so angry about the film “Borat” it was his mission to show me the real Kaz a tell the world how untrue the film was! He serviced our car for free and introduced us to his family and friends, which was something special!
In Kyrgyzstan a local family invited us in to there Yurt for Lunch, lunch was mutton kebabs with ever rally-iers nightmare the dreaded Mares milk (horse or goats milk fermented) I had to down a pint of this horrible drink in front of their family, I had to leave to be sick but they loved my effort!
Mongol Sally reached Ulan Bator in a bad way, her rear suspension had gone, the rear right bearings were on the last legs, there was a hole in the exhaust plus there was 4 cracks in the wind screen, we strongly believe if the rally was another 500 miles the rear wheels would have fallen off!
Hopefully over the next couple of days we will add all of our photos and videos to facebook.
Check out Paul Cooking mongolia style at this Youtube Link http://www.facebook.com/l/;www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zr28vdGlPZA
Many Thanks Mongol Sally – Paul and Robert |
