Back. Phew.

We're back in London! Praise the Lord. Spent the weekend marvelling at the wonder of all things modern and organised, like Waitrose, smooth tarmac, cold water and heating. For once I am more than happy to be on British soil. Our luck turned at the very end of the trip...we got thrown off the transiberian railway in the middle of the night, in the middle of nowhere after just 7 hours for not having a piece of paper that doesn't actually exist - some row has errupted between the rally lot and Mongolian customs which means they are not letting any rally people in or out of the Northern border in Mongolia. Little blighters. Anyway, enough enough.

A massive massive thank you to everyone and anyone who sponsored us, we made it and we've collectively raised nearly half a million pounds for charity. Muchos gracias. xxx

Magnificant Mongolia

Arrived in Ulaan Bataar on Thursday, whohay, yay, yippee, yeah!!! Sorry for not updating blog, but sim card died in all the dust and heat. Total mileage: 7660 miles, we came 40th out of 300! The far west of Mongolia is unbelievable, vast mountains, all about 3000m high, scattered yurts, thousands of wild horses, pristine, vast, open and welcomimg. Incredibly hard driving - on the first day over the western border it took us 15 hours to cover 40 miles...impossibly steep roads, car feeling like its going to roll any minute, deep trenches and ruts that lock the wheels, rivers to cross. Found a human skull just lying by the side of the road. Our slow going meant we had to extend our driving time to 5.30am - 8.30pm, which means we have about half an hour to put the tents up (except the damn op-up tent boys...grrrr), and occassionally we have enough energy to get the stove going. Strangely, even though we are driving in arduous conditions the cars are doing fine. Dust in the fuel ump of the Roo held us up for 2 hours, we needed to adjust the mixture as we climbed higher and higher and as the petrol quality went down, dust absolutely everywhere...ears, nose, eyes streaming all the time, in our food, inches of it in the cars. Didn't realise that Mongolia is the 3rd highest country in the world, so it gets pretty cold at night. We have our camping routine down to a fine art now...Ad and I can have the car packed in 30 mins. Had a messy night drinking fermented mare's milk...it tastes like a shot of stilton mixed with bleach, but makes a break from endless cup-a-soups. Now in UB, which is a mental place. We all miss the space and peace of the countryside we have been driving through for the last 6 days. Some highlights include comng across a horseman hunting with a golden eagle...he let me hold it - it weighed a ton and had a small black hood over its head to stop it flying away. Another highlight: being invited into a guur for a Mongol wedding then also, seeing a family moving house - 5 camels with the yurt packed up on their backs,goats leading the way, followed by cows then horses then dogs bringing up the rear. Dropped the Roo off at customs depot yesterday...a sad moment. She is probable going to be given direct to charity as she is in such a good state. Saw all the other carsa which are wrecks...can't understand how we managed to have a smooth ride. It was the finishing party last night, and today we prepare for the 6 day train ride toMoscow.CAnt wait to sleep, eat hot food and relax!

Low front

Crossed into Russia for the final time. We're now in the top right hand corner of russia which borders with Mongolia. We are in the same time zone as Perth. Weirdly the landscape looks just like Norfolk. We are eating Borsch soup and milk soup - a Russian stew-like broth which is very warming and Shashlyk which is sort of like a kebab made out of non-descript meat. The Kazak/Russian border was our toughest yet...6 hours, sitting in a small windowless room being ignored, hallucinating with tiredness, plus the meanest looking Alsation sniff searched our car twice...quite nerve-racking. We've perfected our 'border faces' - look serious, stare at the cockroaches on the floor and be polite but not friendly. Then after a 20 hour day we crossed the border only to check ourselves into the grottiest place I've ever stayed; dirty bed linen, no water just 2 bottles of brown water next to the tap and cockroaches. Then had the most disgusting breakfast yet...no eggs so Jon ordered Cutlets...always a mistake. Ad and I didn't touch them. After this much driving the tiredness we are all experiencing is like jetlag. The other day I could only manage 1.5 hours of driving, Ad had to do the rest...it becomes painful to drive and we hit potholes and only just miss cows wandering into the road. Onwards.

Total eclipse of the heart

Forgot to mention,as if enough good things didn't happen on my birthday, there was also an eclipse, which we only stumbled across because everyone in a cafe in Astana, Kazak were holding floppy disks up at the sun. Here is a picture of the weird shadows we saw.

Married to the family

Yesterday was a funny day. Got up a bit hungover from birthday celebrations (where we drank all f our bribes), then we continued the drive. By now the landscape is mainly flat grassland for as far as the eye can see. After about 4 hours we sopped for fuel in a small corrugated iron petrol station and went in for a coffee only to find a full blown kazak wedding party going on inside, 3 days and 60 bottles of vodka after the actual wedding. We were immediately asked to sit down and join them all. Huge platters of mutton arrived and we all had to do shots and toasts to different things. After much translation by Jon it turned out we had crashed a Kazak mafia wedding. They all wanted ther picture taken with us, and Ad gave them polaroids which they loved. Now heading to Semey where the nuclear bomb testing took place between 1940 and 1989. Not hanging around tho, and later today we hit Russia again for 2 days. Missing everyone back home...it feels like we've been gone for weeks and weeks now x x

A Kazak birthday

Currently north of India (this is the extent of our navigation skills at the moment, maps are completely redundant), heading towards the Mongol border in two days time. Am having the best birthday ever...this morning the boys drove one of the cars a short distance across the kazak steppe and ran a power shower from the cigarette lighter...10 mins of hot water after about 3 days without a shower. Then a weather worn old farmer appeared out of nowhere with a herd of horses and foals. Then Ad made scrambled eggs and did all the driving over the nightmare potholes and I sat and relaxed. Now we are sitting in a russian restaurant in Astana eating horse meat (No!) and salted watermelon. One of my best bdays x x x

Top 10 roadside sales

I'm sitting waiting for my washing to dry. Here is a list of the best things we've seen for sale on the edge of the road:

1. Rocking horses, garden gnomes and giant plastic Statues of Liberty
2. Smoked catfish
3. Bowl of boiled eggs and jar of mayonaise
4. Lots of lovely turnips, onions, carrots and gherkins
5. Wicker chairs and wicker swans
6. Honey in many different shades
7. Rocking giraffes
8. Brushes and broomes
9. Sunflowers
10.Industrial gloves