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This is our on the road map...
Day 35 Friday, 27 August 2010
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  at 16:49 on The Yak Seat Drivers said 400 miles done, beached the car in a ditch, Mongol mash pulled us out and lost their rear bumper in the process. Then the mashsters got stuck in a river and had to be towed out by a truck. Later smashed another alloy, punctured the right rear and snapped yet another spring. But it's all worth it because tonight The Yak Seat Drivers and their Suzuki Wagon R + Special sleep in UlaanBaator!!! We'll save the 2.5 miles to the finish line for tomorrow morning... |
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Day 34 Thursday, 26 August 2010
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| at 12:37 on The Yak Seat Drivers said Found a hotel in Bayanhongor for a much needed shower, caked in dust after another 11 hour non stop power slide doing 50. Car has picked up a few more squeaks and other new noises but is still rolling. Today included my first ever bump-start (starter motor is dead) river crossing, all went well till ran out of revs 2/3 the way across and had to be towed out. Several local children had climbed into the passenger seat to enjoy the crossing and were trying to open the car door against the upstream flow much to their amusement. Good times! |
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| at 01:35 on The Yak Seat Drivers said Olgiy to Hovd was crazy, 8 hours of driving up untracked mountians accross vast plains and over huge rocks. Said goodbye to 2 tyres and one alloy. Stayed the night in the rally camp, couple of beers with the excelent chapeau nouveau guys. Yeasterday, hovd to altay 'roads' were better, sandy so lots of sliding about, all great fun. Camped the night a couple of km east of altay, nothing but mountains, empty plains and giant bugs. Aiming for Bayanhongor tonight, fingers crossed the cars can keep it together for the last 1000k to the finish line. |
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Day 31 Monday, 23 August 2010
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| at 16:00 on The Yak Seat Drivers said Into Mongolia!!! Staying in hotel Bastua in Olgiy with the mongol mash. Border took most the day, mongol side pc is still playing up, only 5 of 25 teams made it through, met the head of immigration and chief of Police while crossing, they laughed at the wagon r. Mongolia is pretty much as expected, insanely beautiful and a flat out rally stage. Loving every second!!! |
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Day 24 Monday, 16 August 2010
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| at 16:18 on The Yak Seat Drivers said 150k north of Almaty, camping in a massive valley under a see of shooting stars. Been an insane week what with the highwell from hell (aktobe to aral road), half the team getting arrested in Josali, a tiny nowheresville town near baikonour (Russia space centre), last night staying in a hotel where whole bathroom floor was alive and today taking a dip lake Qapshaghay Bogeni only to discover the 45 degree sand track we drove down to reach the lake was not one our cars could get back up (full blogs will follow), all the while the whole team has been decidedly unwell. It's sounds bad, it's actually awesome, kazstan in testing us, we are loving it!@ |
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Day 17 Monday, 9 August 2010
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| at 08:39 on The Yak Seat Drivers said ps, good lesson learned at the hotel atyrau last night... when trying to put the drinks on a room other than your own in an effort to avoid the bill it's wise to first check that the room number you quote actually exists. Worth remembering.... |
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| at 08:33 on The Yak Seat Drivers said having completed 800k due south and then east yesterday over 16 hours, we are today travelling due north 500k (effectively back the way we've come) to Oral. We have it on very good local authority that road direct to Aqtobe is a complete shocker so are taking a monster detour to avoid it. The road north however is excelent and progress is swift :-) |
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Day 16 Sunday, 8 August 2010
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| at 19:03 on The Yak Seat Drivers said just arrived in atyrau after easy border crossing . Have enjoyed a day of traditional Russian Big Macs and a pleasant dinner en route of chicken flavoured crisps and dubious tasting cookies. Camel sightings so far : about 60, customs officers at border requiring bribe: 3 |
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Day 15 Saturday, 7 August 2010
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Friday 30thWake in l'viv quick drive through the town and head for lunch in rivne, stop for lunch next to a castle in a small town near rivne, seems the while town is getting married and wedding after wedding arrives through lunch to take pics in the grounds of the castle. At 2ish we hit the roads (surface now better) for Kiev.Arrive in Kiev around 8pm to crazy rush hour traffic, the guide book advises there is 'no such thing as cheap hotel room in kiev' but it also mentions a couple of hostels that best fit our budget. An... Read more ... |
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Monday 26th.Breakfast at Colditz with Mongol Mash and Two Green Men. The three teams leave at 9ish in convoy heading for czech border. After a few kms along some winding and fun country roads we hit a dual carriageway.Having travelled nearly 900 miles without serious incident one team in our convoy (who shall remain nameless) lose a wheel from their roof rack while doing 75mph. The wheel makes several passes back and forth across the 2 lanes before coming to rest on the hard shoulder. No cars are damaged and no one is hurt. The germans however are not amused. We speed on towards pilsen.Shortly before the... Read more ... |
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Day 8 Saturday, 31 July 2010
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| at 18:40 on The Yak Seat Drivers said does anyone know Evan John Adams, John Robertson, Jason Koxvold? Found the exit portion of their border paperwork at Ukraine border. I'm on 0044 7790 908029 if you need this stuff.@ |
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Day 6 Thursday, 29 July 2010
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Day 2:Left ghent at 8. Where was the formula 1 hotel receptionist working that morning from? Mongolia. She refused the offer of a ride home. We headed east to antwerp. Belgium signposts sent us north heading to rotterdam, after much frustration, bad language and a 70k detour we arrived at eindhoven. Quick mission through the town to snap some pics of PSVs stadium we rolled on to duisburg. Dream lunch plan was for a tasty snitzel by a german lake, the reality was... Read more ... |
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Day 1 - Fantastic start at Goodwood, racing round the track at a pacey 15mph on a beautiful sunny day. Immediately lost on leaving Goodwood, 4 hours to dover meant we only missed our ferry by two hours. God bless the fine folks at NorfolkLine for letting on a later ferry for free. Arrived dunkerque at 10pm, rolled off the ferry 40 mins later due to broken bow door, can't really complain though when the original booking was only £14!!!! Left dunkerque heading for Ghent among a bunch... Read more ... |
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4 days before launch Tuesday, 20 July 2010
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On Saturday 24th July 2010, we’ll be setting off from the UK on the 2010 Mongol Rally. For anyone unfamiliar with this event, it involves driving a tiny, underpowered vehicle more than 10,000 miles from Goodwood in West Sussex to Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia. Countries en route include, France, Belgium, Germany, Czech Rep, Poland, Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Mongolia. Our team consists of an eclectic mix of 4 intrepid / foolhardy adventurers, with a virtually zero skill set outside of the office environment... Read more ... |
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15 days before launch Friday, 9 July 2010
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