Sprinkling Stardust in Ulaanbaatar

Hello and welcome to team Stardust's website! We are Helen and Victoria and we are over the moon to be able to be part of the Mongol Rally 2010!

NEW BLOG!

This blog's been fab but we have a shiny new one especially for the trip to which we can upload photos and tweet to and EVERYTHING. It's here: http://www.stardustmongolrally2010.co.uk/

 We go tomorrow and are a little overexcited. Estelle's all packed and sat outside raring to go!

Outstanding Items

Today I ordered mosquito nets and we are awaiting arrival of the following additional items:

- Haynes manual (checked and I have ordered the correct one - phew!)
- Camping equipment
- Mattresses

When we collect Estelle on Friday we will be equipping her with the following prior to departure:

- Sleeping bags, blankets and pillows
- Chairs
- Loo rolls, wet wipes and other 'sanitary' stuff
- First aid kit + sterile equipment kit + anti-nausea and antihistamine tablets
- Food and water
- Personal effects - bare minimum of clothing and toiletries/cosmetics
- Scrabble board and dominoes and a couple of books each
- Gifts for kids
- Other donated items (fleeces, blankets, gloves etc)

Paperwork still outstanding:
- Passports and visas are yet to return
- Still need to get IDPs
- Still need to arrange insurance for outside of Europe

I have just ordered a BIG SURPRISE for Victoria. I do hope she likes it!

We've Got Estelle!

It was quite possibly the most exciting day so far yesterday as we finally picked up our ambulance, Estelle from Foley Specialist Vehicles in Roydon. I cannot begin to tell you how amazing Paul and Stuart at Foley's have been over the past few months... here's some examples of how supportive they have been:

- They discounted the cost of the ambulance by £2k to us from £12k to £10k
- They worked out an interest free payment plan over 8 months for us so that we could monitor our outgoings against our fundraising and pull out of the purchase if we weren't going to be able to afford it
- They provided us with parking during all of this time
- They have advised on so many aspects of running a Land Rover and participating in the rally
- They fully kitted the ambulance with jerry cans, spares, toolkits, oils and fluids
- We have Paul's mobile number in case we break down!

One day I will have a Land Rover of my own and I know exactly where I'm going to buy it!

It was a VERY EXCITING but pretty gruelling day that got me into training for what we'll be experiencing over the next few weeks. At 7:30am I left Chichester for Brighton (31 miles) where I dropped off a friend and then drove up to Danehill (20 miles) to pickup Victoria. We then departed for Roydon where Foley's are based (73 miles) and then had an overview of the ambulance to help us should we break down. We learned:
- What to do if it's leaking oil
- All about the gear box and the transfer box and the oil levels
- That it doesn't have a distributor cap because it's a diesel
- About topping up the clutch fluid weekly
- That our jerry cans have a literage of 20 and the tank of 80 and what this means in miles
- That there are 2.5 litres of oil in the gear transmissions and what it takes to change the seals
- That if the drive belt goes it's more than likely there's a problem elsewhere

Following this, and resisting giving Paul and Stuart big hugs (well they were a bit covered in oil), we went off to Weybridge (58 miles) to drop the ambulance off at Pyramid Design where it will receive its Boots livery over the next few days. Victoria drove Estelle and I drove unusually slowly. This of course necessitated driving round the M25 and the ambulance is apparently quite wobbly in the lorry slipstreams. She's also very hot inside so this will be interesting!

Then it was back to Danehill (43 miles) and then home to Chichester (50 miles) so a total of 275 miles. On the rally we want to do 10000 miles in 28 days so 357.24 per day. It's going to be gruelling, as a lot of the time the roads won't compare to ours. But it's also going to be FUN!!!

Shewee

On the advice of the ladies at bookclub I just acquired a shewee + extension pipe each for Victoria and I. Amazon really does sell everything.

Less Than Three Weeks to Go!!!

Well, well - it's less than three weeks to go now and here's what we have left to do:

1) Pick up ambulance (next Monday!) and take for Boots artwork
2) Check on whereabouts of ferry tickets - CONFIRMED (have ref number)
3) Sort out out of Europe insurance (have done European)
4) Get food
5) Get camping stuff from Tom
6) Get mattresses from Sally
7) See Les
8) Do 4*4 course?
9) Receive passports/visas back from Visa Machine
10) Get Lonely Planet Guides from Tim
11) Pack clothes and toiletry essentials
12) Get things for kids
13) Get additional medicinal supplies from Vic's hospital contacts
14) Get Mongol Rally stickers for ambulance
15) Get IDPs
16) Set up Lou's pay as you go phone

 It looks like quite a long list, but I reckon we're on top of it. We think Vic now has all of her visas and I have been told not to worry about mine. Last week I had a Mongolian one, it was in the Kazak embassy and then the Russian one was going on. I think I'm just remembering how last time I applied for visas my passport had to be couriered back to me and arrived two hours after I was due to take off. Fortunately, that trip had been cancelled. We'll just have to blag it on the borders if there's a problem this time around.

Extras!

We've ordered a number of extras for the ambulance as follows:

- An iPod player and speakers (hopefully it'll charge my phone too) - not strictly speaking of medicinal use but it will certainly help keep us sane

- £500 of spare parts

- £100 of tools

- 2 jerry cans and fastenings

- Additional security for the doors

- Extra lights

WE PICK HER UP A WEEK ON SATURDAY! Boots have come through with the most amazing artwork too but I can't show you that at the moment as we only have it on pdf right now - we'll take some pics as soon as she's 'done up'!

Today's Progress

I paid the vehicle deposit last night, ordered travel insurance for us both today and sent a signed copy of my internet banking statement (Russian visa office apparently needing a SIGNATURE! Gah!) to the Visa Machine. Oh, and we booked ourselves on the 1945 Dover to Calais ferry as this seems the most popular (in the survey of two teams that I have conducted on Twitter).

I also ordered the following items:

- Maps of Europe, Russia, Kasakshtan and Mongolia
- A First Aid Kit and a sterile equipment kit
- A Leatherman multi-tool
- A compass
- Mountain whistles for us both (WHY?!)
- A big bottle of insect repellent

We no longer need sleeping bags - we both have one good enough to take. I looked at mosquito nets and torches on eBay but became a bit overwhelmed instead so I emailed Tom the Bodyguard for advice. He'll know best.

It's been ages...

Wow. Only 38 days to go! It's been donkeys since I last did an update and wow, has a tonne of stuff happened!

1) Visa applications are in. Russia is causing me a few tussles with me being self employed but hopefully these will pop out in time.

2) Fundraising continues but a massive £5,000 donation from Alliance Boots (WELL DONE VIC!) has made a colossal hole in the £10K (+spares etc) ambulance bill as has some very generous contributions from parents at Victoria's school and some entrepreunerial chums of mine.

3) We pretty much know what route we are going on, but need some maps and to book Estelle (that's the ambulance) on the ferry. We need her measurements for that. They are incoming.

4) We were going to pick Estelle up last week, but due to parking availability we'll now get her when Victoria finishes the summer term on July 10th - two weeks before we depart from Goodwood! She'll come equipped with spares, jerry cans, a bolt, tow ropes and, the most essential item of all, an ipod player.

5) I've bought some pajamas because it's going to get nippy at night.

6) We've had all sorts of helpful advice from previous adventurers - about stashing cash for the 'fines' and not driving on Eastern European roads at night, and that phones might get stolen (Loula has given us an old pay as you go handset and SIM for emergency back up).

7) Food can be a problem later on in the journey I have been told. So far our shopping list includes: ginger cake, monster munch, noodles, muesli, soya milk, peppermint tea, tinned tuna, tinned cannelini beans, balsamic vinegar, lemons, tinned peaches, tinned pineapple, gallons of water. And a walnut whip.

8) I'm a bit worried about my hair.

9) We went to the Afternoon Tea in Notting Hill and as a consequence of what I heard there I will be taking a sports bra.

10) We're also taking disposable knickers. Not the horrid paper ones you get when you get a spray tan or a massage, just cheap cotton ones from M&S. We can't be thinking about laundry. Victoria's come up with the rather ingenious idea of packing all the clothes she doesn't want any more and discarding them en route.

11) Wet wipes. And a shovel. That's all I'm saying.

12) Lovely Sallie will be sourcing us mattresses for the back of the ambulance via her marvellous bed shop in Bognor.

13) Bodyguard Tom will be donating a carefully chosen kit of camping equipment including (I HOPE!) a JET BOIL!!!

14) Vic also wants a mosquito net.

15) And we'll need some decentish sleeping bags.

16) I need to pay the refundable (WHEN we get there) vehicle deposit. Which I will do when I have finished this.

17) We also need to sort the travel insurance. A job for me tomorrow!

18) We need to get our IDPs.

19) We need to find something to bribe people with (probably cigarettes) and also something fun for kids along the route.

20) I have updated the site with my t-shirt size and, less importantly, the ambulance's details.

It's entirely possible I have forgotten something, but more soon!!!

Bank Account

Hurrah! Thanks to Victoria we now have a bank account for sponsors to pay into towards the cost of the ambulance - a whopping £10,000! Here are the details:

Sort Code - 402317 
Account Number - 51262653
Cheques payable to The Mongol Rally

ANNOUNCING BOOKSWAP

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