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This is our on the road map...
Day 8 Saturday, 31 July 2010
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  at 15:26 on Gobi Car Get Baatard said went into vinnytsia this morning, found a shop called 'ford transit autoparts' and managed, unbelievably, to find a brand new universal joint complete with spline sleeve and everything we needed to simply bolt the old prop shaft back on. So now we've recovered the recovery truck, we're all back on the road, desperately looking for a laundrette and somewhere to shower. (We don't really want to use our portable shower yet...)-just left uman. |
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Day 7 Friday, 30 July 2010
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| at 22:17 on Gobi Car Get Baatard said we've run into trouble. Team 'the long and short of it' are driving a transit tow truck, and it's wrecked it's knuckle joint on the prop shaft. Me and olly removed the shaft but tomorrow morning we need to go and find a replacement at a scrapyard, or it might be back down to us and the ambulance. We were also with team nw4 badgers, but had to leave them at the border- they couldn't get in because they didn't have taken their full car reg documents. Still, bribed 2 policemen today and the Gobi car is without a single mechanical problem! Tough day tomorrow...
Sleeping in a layby tonight... |
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| at 16:50 on Gobi Car Get Baatard said First run in with a fat Ukraine policeman came today, result; Mrs fat Ukraine policeman gets a slap up meal tonight. Doug and I wont be havin a slap up meal after 'dropping' 17euros in a police car.
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| at 07:55 on Gobi Car Get Baatard said absolutely ridiculous traffic jam last night, means we pitched our tent some way short of the ukraine border, at a service station. 'The long and short of it' team that are with us have taken their truck to a local garage with a polish man to get some new wheel bolts, then hopefully we'll be on our way. Losing some time here... Also camped on an ants nest. Feeling a bit itchy! |
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Day 6 Thursday, 29 July 2010
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| at 18:29 on Gobi Car Get Baatard said horrifying tour, but very interesting. Certainly somewhere I'll remember my whole life. Off to somewhere happier now. Randomly met 2 more teams in auschwitz- so now we are all heading east with the aim of reaching the russian border on monday morning when they reopen after the weekend. |
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Day 5 Wednesday, 28 July 2010
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| at 21:29 on Gobi Car Get Baatard said slow 12 hours with cornwall to mongolia. Set up camp just outside krakow and are planning a quick trip to auschwitz before continuing. The guys we are with are really accommodating and going a bit slower will do the car a world of good prior to kazakhstan... |
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| at 16:22 on Gobi Car Get Baatard said the czechs have this weird rule where you have to have headlights on if you're driving, no matter what time of day it is. Country roads are amazing. We're with 'cornwall to mongolia' who have an ambulance that cannot do uphill driving. We'll see how long this lasts though. Saw some bloke cutting his lawn with a remote control mower... What's the point? |
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Day 4 Tuesday, 27 July 2010
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| at 23:03 on Gobi Car Get Baatard said why on earth do some teams choose to stay here for longer than a day? We've got kazakhstan to explore, so we'll be finding a more determined convoy tomorrow... We won the engine-cooked croissant competition by the way. The second challenge the Gobi car has won...@ |
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| at 20:54 on Gobi Car Get Baatard said ok so the teams we are with are- mad hatters, catch us if you khan, great canadian beavers, team fudge, and team cake or death. We're all out having an italian, and discussing where to go next... |
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| at 19:37 on Gobi Car Get Baatard said we got to prague losing track of the mongol convoy we joined, spent a few hours wandering around and getting irritated by tacky souvenir shops, and then after a few more hours driving round lost and looking for friends, spotted a new convoy heading out to a campsite on the outskirts, so we're now with a transit, a vauxhall agila, suzuki swift, a fiat brava, and another micra, who we met back at goodwood. We've also added 5bhp to the car by making a wide bore exhaust out of an old pringle tube! |
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| at 07:59 on Gobi Car Get Baatard said the czechout party last night was absolutely awesome. Based in a castle, with a couple of stages and a dance tent, we ate free hog roast, bratwurst and pork and stuff, and drank gin and ginger. Just waking up in the world's noisiest campsite, with over 300 other teams here... No idea what the plan is today, but we're looking for a new convoy. We've overcome the problem of our boot not shutting properly, by smashing it with a hammer. That repair is dedicated to hoddy and buster, summer duties on hms gloucester, who would be proud of our repair work! |
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Day 3 Monday, 26 July 2010
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| at 16:20 on Gobi Car Get Baatard said FIRST CRASH! But don't worry, we're all good. Involved us just stopping in time to avoid crashing into let's get ready to mongol, only to get shunted by team 55! Their corsa took most of the damage and were lucky not to lose their windscreen with their roofrack sliding all the way forwards- we now have to kick the boot to make it shut properly! Not far to travel for the czechout party now! |
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| at 11:18 on Gobi Car Get Baatard said just left after a casual morning of getting stuff cleaned at the campsite, quick bit of shopping too. It's raining but we're going to see who's engine cooks the best croissant from here to klatovy in czech republic. Made an adjustment on the clutch this morning- think olly's lap yest ** some text is missing ** |
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Day 2 Sunday, 25 July 2010
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| at 19:36 on Gobi Car Get Baatard said pitched up close to wurzberg, at a campsite next to the river main. Very idyllic. A restaurant and a bar too?
The Gobi car has been fantastic despite only averaging 230 miles per tank. Still suffering from my experience in a micra on nurburgring... |
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| at 13:34 on Gobi Car Get Baatard said our team, team 55 and team let's get ready to mongel (we lost the other team somewhere in belgium) have been at the race track most of the day, and taken on some of the finest supercars money can by. The Gobi car was awesome and even gained a position on team 55 despite starting 30 seconds behind! We weren't so good against the ferraris and corvettes, but the porches couldn't handle us, probably distracted by the tennis racket strapped to our roof rack! Olly is about to take his lap after applying plenty of gaffa tape on bodywork defects, and a crash needs to be cleared from the track... Major repair work maybe required tonight... But I've never seen spectators laugh so much!
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| at 06:11 on Gobi Car Get Baatard said Slept in a roadside services car park just outside of klon for the last few hours, but now we've been rudely awaken by the polizei who have taken our passports for the moment... We didn't really expect this so early on... |
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| at 01:40 on Gobi Car Get Baatard said Odometer reading 146517. First fuel stop since goodwood. Not the best economy! Olly's powering through, may need to look at our aerodynamics in the morning, try and improve our economy. Anyway, belgium's boring, lets go to holland. |
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Day 1 Saturday, 24 July 2010
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| at 23:27 on Gobi Car Get Baatard said met up with teamfiftyfive and team backflips and flipflops, and team lets get ready to mongol. The aim is to get to the nurburgring in germany. First of the night shifts and i'm getting my head down, olly driving. 100 miles left in the tank before a refill. Cars in this convoy- corsa, micra, kia rio and ancient fiesta. Let's do it! |
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| at 20:19 on Gobi Car Get Baatard said missed the ferry, re-booked for 9.30, time now for some dinner? Oh look there's a burger king! |
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| at 16:56 on Gobi Car Get Baatard said on our way to brighton to see what sort of european maps might be available. I know this may seem controversial to some people, but we found out just after chichester that we have the potential to get lost quite easily... |
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| at 15:36 on Gobi Car Get Baatard said Odometer-146285. And it's go, go, go. Spectacular driving on the opening lap from olly almost killed me as i climbed out of the window and onto the roof. But everything is working and heading east. Olly's geography, I've realised is not up to scratch. Tried to go west to dover and couldn't think for the life of him why would need to go east to brightn?! 4.5 hours till our ferry. It has just occured to me that the seats are not very comfy...@ |
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| at 12:00 on Gobi Car Get Baatard said oh dear, not even on the grid and the radiator's leakin. Cue emergency radiator change- yes we were carrying a spare- and it looks like all's good. What else could go wrong now?! No more coolant leaks please... |
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| at 10:04 on Gobi Car Get Baatard said we've just realised there is no clearance under the rear arches. Infact the wheels have gone through the rear arches. Well, hopefully we'll get to goodwood... |
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| at 06:38 on Gobi Car Get Baatard said suddenly remembered we hadn't booked the ferry last night, but we just managed to book ourselves onto the 8pm to dover. Mum says i can't go to goodwood until i tidy my bedroom. So it's an early start today... Olly's still asleep. So lazy... |
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1 day before launch Friday, 23 July 2010
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| at 12:04 on Gobi Car Get Baatard said work has finally finished, the car will be fully packed this afternoon, and then it's time for curry and beer! |
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102 days before launch Tuesday, 13 April 2010
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So a lot has happened. Olly went mad with his mods, so there is now a trucker's air horn on the roof, a full-beam reversing light (might come in handy during the night), some snazzy but currently redundant switches in the dashboard, lots of rally-style holes in the bumper, and we've also fitted a pretty strong sump-guard. A few pieces of maintenance too, and we're nearly there. A brand new ipod stereo came in the post over the weekend (I'm sorry, but that is DEFINITELY needed!), and we also deadened the sound in the car by putting some lovely felt... Read more ... |
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141 days before launch Friday, 5 March 2010
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The Gobi Car returned to the south last week, and is now a 2-seater! Many mods have been made, spare parts acquired- and you may notice we have a flyer designed that will be er... flying around with all our info on it! The car will be heading down to Havant in the next week or so to have some of the main sponsors' logos printed on it. Time is of the essence now- with just 2 of us, there is much work to be done! ... Read more ... |
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174 days before launch Sunday, 31 January 2010
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Today the Gobi car (a lovely red Nissan Micra, donated by Hutfields Garage, Botley) has been driven to Shropshire, where it will undergo major surgery. Namely, bull bars, guards, extra fans, roof rack and a full re-stock of extra engine hoses, filters, fluids, wheels & tyres... and then the interior will be re-designed to accomodate 2 men and 40 days supplies... In the next 2 weeks the car will look very different from the day we picked it up! ... Read more ... |
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205 days before launch Thursday, 31 December 2009
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We are finally back from our six and a half month deployment in and around the South Atlantic. Mongol Rally plans are now in full swing... We have aquired two more sponsors... (That makes three then!) We have found a car, even more letters being sent out to potential sponsors, charity money coming in, and we've been so busy with it all Doug hasn't even had time to trim his beard. Top stuff top stuff top stuff, nice.
... Read more ... |
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276 days before launch Wednesday, 21 October 2009
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WE HAVE OUR FIRST SPONSOR! Who have very kindly agreed to buy our car!!!
Massive thank you to John and Cathy at 'Creamore Mill Wood Turnery' – which, by the way, is possibly the best wood turnery and interior & garden design company in the world!
Also, website's taking shape, new team logo, more letters being sent out to potential sponsors and we’re both feeling very positive about the whole thing, Doug’s even trimmed his beard...
...Time for a cup of tea
... Read more ... |
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293 days before launch Sunday, 4 October 2009
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Since we are doing this rally un-supported, with no back-up team, and well, no-one to help us should we injure ourselves or get shot at, we've just managed to book ourselves on a first aid course in January! Great stuff!
... Read more ... |
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301 days before launch Saturday, 26 September 2009
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Hey hey! So what's happened? Well, if you look on the left hand side of the page, there is a 'sponsor me' button, which takes you directly to our 'justgiving' page, and that's where you donate all the money you want to sponsor us with!
There is an incentive to donate more though- Both of us have agreed that if 100 people donate £10 or more, we will undergo a "surgery-free sex change" for the launch at The Festival of Slow at Goodwood! Please make this happen! This will include a full body wax (except for those very private areas),... Read more ... |
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