From Astrakhan into Kazakhstan.

Time of writing, 4th August 2011,  9:55 pm.  (GMT+5 we think).  It has been a really really hard couple of days.   I'll try to give the highlights and the lowlights for the silver Suzi crew.

After meeting up with a number of other ralliers in Astrakhan and having a nice comfortable (discounted) night in a hotel we set off east in high spirits.  After reaching this region the temperature has been scotching and I have been really desperate for a swim.  On the way into astrakhan a sidestream (still a few km across) of the river Volga seemed very tempting.  I went for a quick dip but the bed was really silty and sloppy and the current was strong enough for me to not dare go too far out.  The amount of goat poo on the bank didn't help make it any more appealing either so I didn't stay in it long.  Hopefully I won't die of any kind of goat-poo related disease. 

We'd make cracking time into astrakhan by doing our all-nighter so we were hoping to reward ourselves by a beach day at the Caspian sea.   Unfortunately the one morning we a had spare the sun had hidden itself and it as blowing a gale.  We decided instead to hit the beach on the kazakh side of the border. 

The border crossing was relatively stress free as border crossings went.  With a couple of minor beuocratical misunderstandings we made it into kazakhstan.   It was painfully obvious that the region is significantly worse-off than the russian side.  Suddenly there are wild horses, camels, goats and cows roaming everywhere. The countryside is remote except for a few small dusty villages.  The road is decent at this point and we decide to take a detour towards the caspian sea to camp on the beach so we can have a morning swim.

As we came off the road we went into some sort of village and lots of locals came out to greet us.  They had no words of English,  we had no words of Kazakh (and painfully few even in russian). We managed to get through to them that we wanted to find the sea and one guy decided he was going to show us.  He squeazed into the back to share the one spare seat with Tim and gesticulated wildly to guide us around the cows, houses, barking dogs, sand-dunes and curious kids.  Eventually we reached the sea and another couple of locals showed up in their cars to see what we were up to.  While being a bit scared by all the random guys showing up they seemed nice enough and showed us where to camp above the high tide line.  Eventually they left us alone, (well after our guide asked for some money).  Unfortunately we hadn't at that point got any kazakh currency so he had to make do with 100 rubles (2-3 quid) and a packet of crisps!

Just when we had sucessfully pitched we saw this new white massive Toyota landcruiser with blacked out windows coming towards us.  It stopped...    We pooed ourselves just a bit expecting local mafia.  Then a bloke leaned out of the window and shouted "allright lads! How's it going?" in a Scottish accent!   It turned out he was living locally (we guess oil industry), he gave us some tips on roads etc.  Funny enough it turned out that the guys in the village were more like local mafia - caviar smuggling/poaching.  I guess they see themselves as fishermen doing what they have done for generations.

Anyway, it lead to a rather scared nights sleep in which huge grasshoppers bombarded the tent and every noise seemed to be a lurking local coming to rob us.  Nevertheless we woke up unharmed. 

We forced ourselves out of bed at dawn around 7am local ( 2 am GMT!)  and struck the camp.  Despite the sun not being fully up Tim and I decided to go for a swim ( we won't see the sea for some time!).  We tried to swim,  but after wading out for at least a Km the sea was not even over our knees!  I couldn't swim without dredging the sea bed with my beer belly.   Even Tim had difficulties and he doesn't have a beer belly.

As for the rest of today.  It turned out that our russian SIM card leaked credit in kazakhstan after receiving calls.  We met some of the same rallyers at a petrol station and compared notes.  (Kudos to the crazy guy doing it on a 125cc motorbike!).  Apparently the road we were planning to take is "the worst road in the world".  We figured it can't be that bad, we've driven though belgium already.

About an hour later we realised he was right.  First potholes appeared large enough to actually hide suzi inside.   It was better to drive next to the road than on the road.  At times it was better to drive next to the bit at the side of the road where other people have been driving!   Then the tarmac disappeared completely and we got gravel with gaps.  We bashed our sumpguard so many times but it appears to be holding.   The largest potholes must be over a metre deep and I've developed some good dodging ability.  Our speed varied from 1-5 MPH on the worst bits, up to about 55 MPH for the small stretches that we got real tarmac.  A really scary moment happened when someone screamed past in a 4x4 and flicked up a stone the size of a medium potato right at my face.  It badly cracked the windscreen and shook us up a lot. Hopefully it won't get bigger - we won't find a replacement! 

Also we realise that  no tarmac is much better than bad tarmac.  We only covered a few hundred Km today and don't think at this pace it is possible to meet up with Red Suzi at Aral.  We'll have to head north via Aktobe and the hopefully better roads.  Tomorrow maybe we'll find a trucker to ask about the roads. 

Best of luck to our other car, we don't know when we'll next meet up.  Still waiting on a text message.  Currently camped in a sort of deserty steppe by the side of a busy dirt track, sandy, grumpy, but hapilly beered. 

Moscow to Astrakhan

Written by Ralph.

---It all started yesterday (August-1) when we left Moscow at around 5pm (Kremlin area), with Red Suzi on our tail. They followed us for half the length of the main outer ring road (there are many many ringroads!). We took the M4, aiming for Tambov/Volgograd/Astrakhan and Red Suzi went for Nizny Novogrod. We parted our ways agreeing we would meet up again on Friday 10pm in Aralsk (Kazakhstan).

As we drove into the night we realised we had a long way to go to reach Aralsk in time. Since the roads were good (for Russian standards) it was decided we would continue till at least Volgograd. From Moscow that's a good 980km. And since we left at 5pm, we would be arriving at around 8-9am. Somewhere in the night we saw a van driving in front of us. Since it had blue plates we were afraid it was a police vehicle. as we got closer we realised it actually was a MongolRally ambulance!

Great news, we were not alone anymore. We pulled over at a cafe next to the road and had a chat with the other rally team. It was Team Rockrs; 4 guys and a girl, some Serbian, some Croatian. The blue plates on their ambulance were actually greenish Serbian plates. And they were heading for Volgograd too! A convoy was formed :) We drove in shifts of a couple of hours. One driver, one navigator and overtaking caller (right hand drive) and the third sleeping in the back. Slowly dawn was setting in and we realised the landscape changed a lot over those hundreds of kilometers. The land was reasonably flat and there were massive fields of sunflowers. At one of the petrol/leg stretch stops the ambulance told us they were going to need a "cat nap". Eventhough they have 5 people on their team, only 2 were drivers!? So we decided to part, giving them some resting time, as we headed further south. We felt good still and agreed we would steam on to Astrakhan.

Some time in the late morning we arrived in Volgograd and had a little break near a marketplace/shopping area. Finding a toilet however proved to be not as easy as it may sound. Being directed from one shop to the other, finally one was spotted inside a apteka (chemist). Unfortunately we were shouted away by a grumpy old woman. She probably didn't appreciate my mime with broken Russian to explain the desperation I found myself in. Many shops, bars and lots of humiliation later I went into a salon. With some hesitation they allowed me my much needed relief. Till this day I still wonder where the rest of Volgograd do their business..

Anyway, we continued our journey, in a blistering +35C. The area from Volgograd to Astrakhan was very unhabited, almost desert-like. To our surprise we saw a group of rally cars at a petrol station we stopped at. It was an Ambulance and a Yaris. We didn't team up as we really wanted to reach Astrakhan asap. Just before the city borders we got pulled over by a cop (the famous PDC, with their sticks). He told us we were speeding, which was clearly untrue since he didn't have anything to prove this. He was working his way to a bribe. And then all of a sudden a Rally Nissan Micra flew past us at high speed. The PDC waved their stick to have the micra pull over, but without success. The cop quickly trough the passport back in our car and ran to his vehicle to chase the micra. We wondered if this meant we were free to go... As the police car went across the horizon, we took off. Thanks Micra, for saving us the bribe :)

After a long and exhaustful drive (approx. 26 hours) we finally arrived in Astrakhan! By this time we caught up with that Micra to thank them. We teamed up and were driving through the city looking for a hotel. We saw a ParkInn, but thought it would be beyond our budget. But since we couldn't find any other hotel in this small city, we went back to the ParkInn to check their rates. On the parking lot we saw a whole group of ralliers. They were about to make a deal with the hotel to have us all staying there for half price. GREAT! We got a 2p room for only 2000rub (cheap!). Finally a good shower and some decent food... Time to catch up with sleeping!

Update from the team in Moscow.

Sorry to anyone that tried to contact us on our russian phone, when we left st petersburg it stopped working- maybe an internal roaming issue. (Russia's mobil networks consider different Russian states in the same way european operators treat other countries. 

At the time of writing we are all in a fantastic apartment in Moscow.  On the 22nd floor, a fantastic view over the city. 

The trip has been fairly eventful so far.  Red suzi got caught in a flash flood and drowned her electrics.  Thankfuly she came back to life after drying her out.   She also ripped open a tire on a pothole in Estonia but thanks to the guys RengasNet, Finland (rengasnet.fi)  red suzi now has a set of big bad-ass snow tires on the front.   They also had fun at the russian border where they would not trust Rich's passport photo was really him.  That is a story he can tell though!

The standard of driving seems to be getting steadily more eratic the further east we get.  In poland and the baltics we appreciated the use of the 'magic lane' we called it in which both sides of the road move apart to make a gap down the middle for overtaking purposes.  It was scary at first but we got used to it- nothing like being wedged between two lorries going in opposite directions.

In Russia they had more perminant magic lanes... in fact anywhere a car can fit seems to be acceptable including pavements, hard shoulders, grass verges. 

Anyway, everyone is okay and both red and silver suzi are back together.   The temperature here was about 28 degrees and will get hotter as we go on.  Apparently the temperature can hit above 40 celcius in the south and going into the kazakh desert.   I'm not sure how much civilisation we will have left, it seems like we have travelled a huge distance but we're only a 3rd of the way on the best roads.  The easy bit is over, the hard bit is starting. 

Both sump guards are unscratched despite a couple of bumps on them already.  Hopefully they will hold out further.  Silver suzi is currently parked on the main boulevard up to the kremlin parked with Lamourginis, Maybach, Audis and other assorted mean machines (which will never make it out of moscow centre due to the Potholed roads).   We like to think Suzi does not look out of place :P

OK, a bit of sightseeing in Moscow then we head southeast.

Update from the road

It has been a crazy few days.  At the time of writing we are in a german hostel in 'limburg'.  The day before driving down to the launch we just finished the car after midnight.

The launch went less than smoothly, red suzi got caught in traffic and arrived barely hours before the launch.    We did a parade lap and got off to dover,  JUST in time for the ferry.   Oh and silver suzi quite liked to vibrate its HT leads off and try to run on 2 cylinders.   In fact it did just that before we got the the port.  So Tim jumped out in the queue, whacked open the bonnet and replugged it quick.   Security however obviously thought that he was stashing something illegal ad pulled us to search the engine compartment.

We made the ferry and drove through to belgium and finally to the netherlands to spend a night at Ralph's family house.   We see it as the last house of civilization.  The next morning we tried to fit the red suzi with some spring supporters (bits of rubber) but totally failed to get one of the back wheels off.  We tried hammers , bigger hammers,  jacks,  loose bolts and handbrake turns- that wheel will not come off.  It is rusted on so we have to take it to a garage tomorrow.  We need the wheel free for later! 

We drove on to germany,  did our first bit of off-roading and set up in a hostel.   We ate left over sandwiches,   boiled eggs and noodles and drank some beer in the outside covered area while it banged it down with rain.     

Setting off to goodwood!

Sorry for the quick blog but we have been so amazingly busy over the last few days.  We have the cars finished off and packed and today we drive down to goodwood, UK to the launch.  It might be quite late before we get there now, we are still loading up the car etc.  Nearly ready though!   Check out the pick!

Only 6.5 days left... and still so much to do! (Ook Nederlands)

---Voor Nederlands naar onder scrollen a.u.b.---

The Mongol Rally launch is closing in fast now! We are at less than a week from driving on the legendary Goodwood circuit, followed by heading east. 15,000 kilometers east!

As this is always the case, we are not just waiting around watching time pass. At this moment we are sorting official things like insurances and making sure we get appropriate press publicity. But besides that, we still have some work on the cars that we really need to do. Plus don't forget preparing camping gear, installing photo and video cameras and consolidating all our music playlists!

It's all coming together now, all those months of meeting, researching and working. We started with Rally ideas in October-2010, but it feels like it was last week. Time flew really fast.

It's already a good sign that both teams made their charity minimum of 1000GBP! A big thank you to all who donated already. If you didn't yet? Why not do it now!

Wednesday all Tools will be present in Sheffield and on Friday we hit Goodwood circuit camp ground!

Don't forget to check in regularly now, we will update almost daily!

---

Nederlands

De Mongol Rally launch komt nu snel dichterbij! We zijn minder dan een week verwijderd van het rondje rijden op het legendarische Goodwood circuit, gevolgd een ritje naar het oosten. 15.000 kilometer richting het oosten!

(vertaling: "Slechts 6,5 dagen tot de MongolRally ...en nog zoveel dingen nog te doen!")

Zoals dat altijd gaat, we zijn niet gewoon aan het wachten tot de tijd voorbij gaat. Op dit moment zijn we druk bezig met officiële zaken te regelen zoals verzekeringen en het krijgen van de juiste publiciteit. Daarnaast hebben we ook nog wat werk aan de auto's wat echt gedaan moet worden. Plus, niet te vergeten, het voorbereiden van kampeerspullen, het installeren van photo en video camera's en het samenvoegen van onze muziek playlisten!

Het komt allemaal samen nu, al die maanden van vergaderen, onderzoeken en werken. We startten met Rally ideeën in oktober 2010, maar het voelt alsof het vorige week was. De tijd is snel voorbij gevlogen!

Het is al een goed teken dat beide team hun minimum goede doelen geld van 1000 Engelse pond hebben opgehaald. Iedereen die gedoneerd heeft, enorm bedankt! Als je nog niet gedoneerd heb, doe het dan nu! Waarom niet?

Woensdag zijn alle Tools compleet present in Sheffield en op vrijdag laten we ons horen op de camping van het Goodwood circuit!

Vergeet niet dagelijk te kijken he! We zullen namelijk vrijwel dagelijks updates hebben nu!

Safe from the rivers and the dust.

Things are so very close now.  We leave in just 12 days and there is so much more yet to do.  Today we were working on the car a bit more,  the brakes are nearly sorted now- we just need a new nipple (oooh!) . The roof rack is now painted and complete.   We fitted a snorkel to the air intake on the car and raised it up to roof level.  Its not so much for crossing raging rivers but simply to try and get a bit less dust in there.  The previous air intake was around the wheel arch.  
On the to do list,   tyres,  sump guard, plugs and belts!