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This is our on the road map...
Day 27 Thursday, 19 August 2010
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Day 17 - Aralsk to TurkistanIn the morning we decided to actually have a look around the town we'd spent the best part of 4 days in, and went down to the old harbour. It was an odd feeling walking through such a large environmental disaster, wandering out past the rusting boats into the desert, knowing that 50 years ago the water would have been well over our heads. We thought that all the people who'd previously been employed in the booming fishing industry must have become policemen, such was the unnecessarily large size of the force in quite a... Read more ... |
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Day 21 Friday, 13 August 2010
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I've made it to Almaty after a ridiculous 25 hour train journey. Used most of my internet time sorting potential trains/flights/hitch-hiking to the finish line or home so not much time left for a proper update, will sort that later.In my haste to get the blog up to date before I've realised I missed out a few bits:Upon leaving Donets'k we developd our first warning light. It was the emmisions one, and we decided that a car with an engine as petite as ours only really emitted sunshine and rainbows so it probably wasn't a problem. I guess it's irrelevant now... Read more ... |
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Day 19 Wednesday, 11 August 2010
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Day 12 - Volgograd to AtyrauWhen we got up in the morning we consulted the map and realised just how far behing we were. To get to where we were supposed to be we would have had to have drived about 2000km in a day, which even on good roads would have been a hell of a challenge. We said goodbye to the Royal Horns girls, who were staying in Russia, and set off for Kazakhstan. After a short while ourselves and Team Shoeless were pulled over by the infamous Russian Police. They took V5s and IDPs off both of... Read more ... |
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Day 16 Sunday, 8 August 2010
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I'll warn you in advance, this is going to be a long one.When I last wrote we'd done 403 miles into Budapest, bringing the total up to 1210.Day 5 - Budapest to Sibiu We treated ourselves to a bit of a lie in and checked ourselves out of The Groove at about half 10. After eventually escaping the Budapest traffic we were on our way to Romania. For the entire motorway journey to the border we seemed to be stopping at alternate service stations to a convoy of Rally teams, each time we'd gone past the turning and decided to push... Read more ... |
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Day 15 Saturday, 7 August 2010
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Looks like the text updates haven't been working in a while. We're now in Aralsk. The car is dead but we are both fine. Huge amount to sort out at the moment so will fill you in properly later. If any teams are heading through this way and have spare seat it would be very gratefully received. Call me on +447816233320Rich ... Read more ... |
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Day 11 Tuesday, 3 August 2010
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 at 16:45 on Michael Schumongol said 8hr border crossing yest means behind schedule, pushing on towards astrakhan tonite.Russia much nicer than ukraine! Blog update coming,need wifi! |
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Day 9 Sunday, 1 August 2010
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| at 21:30 on Michael Schumongol said swam in black sea last night, drove in straight line for 10 hours today, cant read anything, russia tomorrow! Hot here, million mosquitos |
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Day 8 Saturday, 31 July 2010
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| at 07:10 on Michael Schumongol said moldova is stupid. Removed from ukrainian field early this morning by man with plough. Aiming to get past odessa today. Vodka same price as water. |
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Day 6 Thursday, 29 July 2010
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| at 23:16 on Michael Schumongol said slept in romanian man's garden last night so tonight hotel. Went to dracula's castle in transylvania, climbed 1480 steps to see lump of concrete. |
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| at 17:49 on Michael Schumongol said transfagarasan highway completely changed our opinion of romania, was amazing. Other romanian roads terrible. In convoy pushing on to constanta. |
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Day 5 Wednesday, 28 July 2010
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| at 23:47 on Michael Schumongol said currently in convoy with 6 other teams en route to transfagarasan highway.kindly helped on our way by locals after the main road was jammed earlier, but romania is still our least fav country thus far. |
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Day 4 Tuesday, 27 July 2010
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Day 0 - Travelling down to the LaunchWe were excited, a quick trip to the Pound Shop and we would be ready to go. James got in the car, crunch. Crap. "The gearbox in this is a bit 'vague'", he said. Well it was now. A plasticy bit that makes the gear lever put the gears in the right place (technical term) had completely boken. As a result we spent most of the three-hour journey down trying to avoid having to go into 5th, as getting it into gear was llke trying to move the gearstick around a maze, and... Read more ... |
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Day 3 Monday, 26 July 2010
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| at 11:48 on Michael Schumongol said what's the obvious thing to do - have a pint of course.mmmm pilsnery. |
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Day 2 Sunday, 25 July 2010
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| at 17:47 on Michael Schumongol said made good time today and found a very pleasant campsite by a lake, just having a beer in the evening sun.first day of really enjoying ourselves :D@ |
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| at 08:26 on Michael Schumongol said survived first night, slept in car park, now motoring to nurnberg! |
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Day 1 Saturday, 24 July 2010
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| at 19:55 on Michael Schumongol said arrived in dover, journey down smooth in convoy, waiting for 10pm norfolkline to dunkirk. |
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| at 12:17 on Michael Schumongol said gearbox fixed properly now, using water bottle lid. Thanks to the team who let us borrow their hacksaw! |
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| at 07:57 on Michael Schumongol said journey down to goodwood went reasonably well, managed to break 5th and reverse but appear to have fixed it by jamming a screw into something. Eating bacon awaiting festival of slow. Excited.@ |
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1 day before launch Friday, 23 July 2010
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| at 23:17 on Michael Schumongol said We have set up camp in Goodwood with the other ralliers, beers in hand. Bring on the launch tomorrow... |
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2 days before launch Thursday, 22 July 2010
4 days before launch Tuesday, 20 July 2010
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Three days to go. Three. For something I've been wanting to do for about four years that, suddenly, seems very soon. And yet here I am sat in the kitchen looking at vintage smoking jackets on eBay.Since the last blog I've had the last of my vaccinations, received the last of my visas, the car has been checked out, the suspension raised and we've planned a day-by-day route up until James departs; Goodwood - Brugge - Frankfurt - Klatovy - Budapest - Bucharest - Odessa - Melitopol - Taganrog - Astrakhan - Karaton - Bekdash - Turkmenbashi - Darvaza -... Read more ... |
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5 days before launch Monday, 19 July 2010
10 days before launch Wednesday, 14 July 2010
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In nine days time we'll be on our way down to Goodwood to camp out before the Festival of Slow Rally Launch. Which means in two weeks James and Rich will have packed up from horrible Jules Verne themed hangovers in a 13th century Czech castle and will probably be somewhere in Hungary. The car is currently in the garage having the suspension raised, the final sponsor vinyls are in the post, and most importantly we've ordered a horn that goes AWOOOOOOOOGA. John Fashanu at the press of a button.We've also had some news from a Rally Comrade that's made us very pleased... Read more ... |
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17 days before launch Wednesday, 7 July 2010
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A huge thank you goes out to Executive Futures for their help.Need someone recruiting? Executive Futures specialise in the provision of Recruitment and Selection Services for Management, Technical & Commercial positions in Waste Management, Recycling & Renewable Energy. ... Read more ... |
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We've been busy beavering away and now the car now has a roofrack bolted on, the air intake has been raised, a spare tyre is mounted to the bonnet, new speakers fitted, and the Rally and CNCF stickers have been applied. Next up, a suspension raise scheduled in for Monday and the car should be ready to roll! ... Read more ... |
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115 days before launch Wednesday, 31 March 2010
339 days before launch Wednesday, 19 August 2009
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