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Welcome to The Dorset Invaders' website! We are on our way! Please follow our progress below... Please support our two charities: http://www.justgiving.com/Henry-Comyn http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/TheDorsetInvaders
A huge thank to our two sponsors - Ivory Europe and the Present Finder. A little info on what we are doing... Last year we decided, rather foolishly, that we will attempt to drive 10,000 miles, across ten counties to reach Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. On our journey we will be covering some tough and challenging terrain such as the Ural Mountains and the Gobi Desert. We will be doing all of this in our highly unsuitable car, a 2001 Nissan Micra. We may be mad but the reason for us attempting this lunatic adventure is to raise a huge stack of cash for some hugely worthwhile charities. (We have pledged to raise £1000 but we would like to raise much more.) When we reach Mongolia our trusty steed will be sold so we are able to raise more money for charity. Please follow the links to the side for further information on our route, the charites, and corporate sponsorship. If you need any further information please dont hesatite to contact us.
Job DonePosted by Henners at 6th September 2010 at 11:13
We have made it! We rolled over the finish line on the 3rd of September at midday and fired off the bottle of champagne that we were kindly donated by the Bonds six weeks ago. As many of you may have seen we have not been on the blog for a long time so there is much for you to be updated on - including our 6 punctures and how the Micra carried 2 teams and 7 people's luggage over the finish line! Its a story of epic proportions so please forgive us for not updating the last two weeks all at once but I hope to have the whole story up very shortly so stay tuned. Thanks again for your continuing support!
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Log in to leave a comment. Somewhere in the desert,Posted by Lewis Hinch at 18th August 2010 at 03:29
Sorry for the delay since our last update...our last two blogs have been lost somewhere on the dodgy Kazakhstan Internet and finding Wifi is proving harder and harder. Well a lot has happened since the last update when we first reached Kazakhstan, but much of the news is not so good! The car is finally showing signs that Nissan Micra's were not designed for rally driving in the desert although in the early part of the desert we were convinced this car loved the sand! We have been suck in sand 5 times now and needed towing out by a team called Windy City Warriors twice. After our first tow out of the 10inch deep sand the car had it first real problem. The CV joint which connects the wheel to the drive shaft obviously got dislodged in the sand and that has resulted in what we think in a jamming of the joint with sand and stones. (In more non Mechanical Language, the wheel makes a loud and repetitive clicking noise when we turn any corners due to what we think is a rubbing joint). Even though we know NOTHING about mechanics and how a car works, two lads in our convoy are car mechanic lovers and they think the problem isn't a major one although we cannot fully know the extent of the damage without taking it to a garage. We have done a few running repairs and we pray the Micra will soldier on. The other cars in the convoy are also deteriorating with a spring in the 'windy city warriors' car braking clean in half and the 'Non toxic avengers' having basically no rear suspension! In the good news we are making decent time despite the awful and at times non existent roads. We also found a cows skull (horns included) and connected it to the front of the grill and it looks the business! This is what the Mongol rally is all about.... Log in to leave a comment. The Road of DeathPosted by Henners at 13th August 2010 at 05:04
Quickly writing this before we depart off on our way to Aral. After my last update we re-found the other part of our convoy as team cheese on toast had stopped inside Russia to add a sump guard to their car. With the A35 we continued through the border leaving Cheese on Toast and the Jenna Job. After a happy reunion we continued on our way to Atyrau where we knew of a Team that had been stranded there for the last week. We were also joined by another team - the Windy Wanderers - which the Jenna Job had picked up at the border. At Atyrau we had to sadly part ways with our original convoy as they were now all headed south to Uzbekistan and we were to continue through Kazakhstan, though luckily so where the Windy Wanderers so we still had a convoy of sorts! To 'celebrate' the split we ended up in the Guns and Roses pub - a 5 star pub which was amazing after so many nights on the road. Air conditioning, Free Internet and the most amazing burgers ever. We managed to spend a good 4 hours enjoying the luxury whilst we could! The next stage of the journey as one team kindly put it was on the 'road of death' from Atyrau to Aktobe. After some amazing smooth tarmac leaving the city we the road deteriorated into a sand bowl. The first time we attempted the road we were convinced that we had gone wrong so turned back - only to be told twice more that this track leading over sand dunes was the correct road. The track lead from a factory, over what looked like sand dunes, into the middle of nowhere. The soft sand was no issue of the mighty micra as we roared over it, although the sump guard has been worth its weight in gold. The only point of reference for us now was the rail road track and after following dirt tracks for a whilst we encountered the 'road.' On the plus side it was tarmac, on the down side there where potholes big enough to loose the micra in, lots of loose gravel and at some points the road disappeared altogether. After struggling with the road for a bit we decided it would be better for the micra if we used the dirt track with the soft sand beside the road. To begin with this was great fun, roaring across the stepp with a huge dust cloud bellowing out from behind us but the driving was tough and being constantly chucked around the car shortly lost the amusement factor! But we did manage to take some great videos with Lewis driving and me hanging out the window. After camping for the night in the middle of nowhere - literally nowhere, the scenery looked to same in every direction - we continued along the road - mostly spent on the dust tracks and occasionally nipping onto the road when it looked good enough. I managed to get the car stuck in soft sand but we managed to get out under our own steam though blew a lot of sand in every direction. Shortly late we were beached on a sand ridge with both front and rear wheels of the ground - Lewis and I just picked the micra up from the boot and pushed her over the ridge so no real problems! Arrived in Aktobe late last night and checked into a hotel. Feeling very dusty as it managed to get everywhere - a shower was much needed! Log in to leave a comment. Atyrau, KazakhstanRecieved by SMS at 11th August 2010 at 05:21
Log in to leave a comment. Trabzon, TurkeyPosted by Henners at 6th August 2010 at 11:09
Rıght, sınce the last update from Serbıa we have drıven straıght through Bulgarıa to Istanbul as the roads were practıcally no exısıstent and there ıs not an awful lot to see there! We drove for 17 hours from Belgrade to Istanbul wıth a few stops along the way for food and boarder crossıng. We arrıved at Istanbul at about 1.30am and we stayed wıth some frıends ın the compound were I used to lıve. Many thanks to Fıona and Andrew for lookıng after us so well durıng our stay. We spent Tuesday lookıng around Istanbul and then we set off for Trabzon early Wednesday mornıng. We dıcıded to take the coastal route along Northern Turkey to Trabzon but ı turned out to be a bad choıce. The road was wındıng and we barley got out of 3rd gear.Much of the narrow mountaınous roads were not properly surfaced and the route was slow. However. the vıews were spectacular and we eventaully made ıt to Trabzon late yesterday evenıng. We met up wıth 3 other teams all on the same ferry and we plan on convoyıng wıth them to the Kazak boarder. The ferry ıs expected to leave at 5 today and take 12 hours across the black sea, so ıf all goes well we wıll be at Kazacstan boarder by tuesday. Overall the car ıs doıng us proud ın the 115 degree heat and all ıs goıng to plan....although we hear all the problems start ın Russıa!
Log in to leave a comment. Belgrade, SerbiaRecieved by SMS at 1st August 2010 at 07:48
Log in to leave a comment. Lots to tell!Posted by Lewis Hinch at 29th July 2010 at 22:17
So its been a while but we are still around... So we headed down to the Czech party on Monday afternoon and found many cars along the way heading to the big party. We all had an amazing night in the old castle and everyone shared their stories of the journey so far. The next day we hit Prague which was only a 3 hour drive and we found an nice cheap hostel with secured parking. However as we were driving along the Micra made its first sign of tiredness and the clutch started to jam! Lucky it was just above the biting point so we could still change gear even though the pedal would not fully come up. We did make it to the hostel eventually. We headed into Prague that afternoon and found thousands of Polish football fans in the city for an international friendly, the atmosphere was incredible. In the evening 5 other rally cars came to the hostel and we all squeezed the cars into the ridiculously small car park! That evening with 4 other lads our age we decided to tackle the famous Prague bar crawl through the centre of the city...we survived to collect the free t-shirt (although some fellow Mongol travelers didn't make the whole crawl!!!). Prague is an amazing city and we would definitely go back. The next day we had to wake up most in the hostel trying to find the person that had blocked us in in the car park (we eventually got away after a grumpy man still half asleep moved his car!) We headed down to Auschwitz to have a tour as we both had want to visit in the past. We found a cheap clean 3 star hotel right next to the camp and got a real bed! The tour in the morning was fantastic and the scale of the horror was unbelievable. Today after leaving Auschwitz at about mid day we planned on driving to Budapest. The clutch and gears still seemed dodgy but we took our time and then luck came our way! During the most incredible storm with lightening, thunder and heavy rain we decided to pull into a petrol station until it cleared only to realise the bulb in the front left light had gone. We did however have a spare in the car and we tried to replace it but without any luck. As we were stood there with our heads in the engine a Slovakian man came over, took the bulb and instantly replaced it without saying one word! We also (in sign language) showed him the jamming clutch and he said in some weird language what we interpreted as ''big problem''! So he got some tools out of his car, pulled a few wires, kicked a few tyres, banged the pedal, and then he just said 'good'. We think he is now the finest Mechanic in the world! We brought him a drink and we were on our way. The clutch cable needed tightening and it is as good as new. We only drove for 5 more minutes as the weather is appalling and now we are in a hotel in a deserted village in Slovakia about 3 hours from Budapest. Right, I think your fully up to date. Stay tuned for the next update!
Log in to leave a comment. Lesser Poland, PolandRecieved by SMS at 29th July 2010 at 13:01
Log in to leave a comment. Central Bohemia, Czech RepublicRecieved by SMS at 27th July 2010 at 11:47
Log in to leave a comment. Pilsen, Czech RepublicRecieved by SMS at 26th July 2010 at 11:48
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