In the next few days we will be posting more pictures and stories.. thanks for your patience.

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16 Aug 2008:  Mission Complete.  We arrive into the capital of Mongolia Ulaan Bataar at 3am Sat morning.  The last 4 days we have been flat out simply driving/sleeping on some of the hardest terrain and we still managed it in our Subaru thats about 2 inch off the ground at the rear… Today we rest and soon we will update the site with a revised blog and thousands more pics and videos. 

Thanks to everyone who has been keeping upto date with our journey, thanks to everyone who sponsored our team but more importantly the people who Donated to our 3 Charities,  We will revise the amount we have raised in total,  We aim to clean the car out today and hand it into the organiser who will be auctioning her off soon, we hope to raise around $3500 from the car itself and we also have a massive load of Equipment (sleeping/tools) we will donate to either be used or raise even more money.  THANK YOU.

11 Aug 2008:  Today we aim to get to Altay on the southern route which is meant to be the least bumpy… from what we have seen soo far its massivley bumpy!  our initial 100km into mongolia has seen us through some amazing scenery at the cost of some of the worst roads on earth!  we have around 1700km to cover and have been advised to allow a week, we only have 5 days to do it! wish us luck

10 Aug 2008:  WE ARE IN MONGOLIA… WOO HOO!  yes after queing at the last border for 6 hours we are her on Mongolian soil and man it feels great, Moral is down in our car but we aim to be in good spirits as its our last stint!!  dont worry everything is good between us but we have been in a box for 5 weeks… all good.  Also worth a mention is we are driving in convoy with Nik Sir Alan Sugars right hand man in the tv show the Aprprentice…  he is doing this on his own in a clssic citreon 2cv very brave man.  we have been in convoy as the roads here are very very bad and basically non existent, one van had an overheating problem and Niks Citreon would not make it up a hill so we towed him up we finally arrive in Olgii a small city near the border 5 days till Ulaan Bataar. 

9 Aug 2008:  What a pleasant surpise the border is closed but ‘Team Fit For Purpose’ who we met up with back in Turkey are here too…  after a quick hello and catch up we decide to drive back about 100km and camp next to a river and the Altai mountains… what a great place to be stuck in for the day!

8 Aug 2008:  The road from Novosoberisk to the Mongolian border is about 600 km but it still takes us a massive 16 hours to make the drive finally we arrive at the Mongolian border buts its late and closed,  we spotted a wee Mosque down the road so we park up next to the mosque and sleep over in the car.  we dont think the border will be open on sunday but its worth a look.

7 Aug 2008:  We where not looking forward to Russia at all but here in the south the people have been kind and the police have not stoped us once on the other hand we know many teams are having problems north and central.  Today we arrive into omsk late so we camp in the car again and jet off early doors to Novosoberisk.

6 Aug 2008:  Today we prepare for the drive to the Russian Border,  one thing about Kazak police is they are everywhere so after the first couple of road side stops we decide to just drive on past them,  this actually worked for about 30 stops but our very last stop does not pay off and are chased down the road, Hafiz gives up the chase and we are marched back to the office for some threats of jail, hand getting cut off oh and the $100 that will solve our issue,  so as we are not giving up any dollars that easy we fight to the bitter end to end the dispute and finally with the help of a very good letter written by my russian friend Vadim problem solved off we go the the border. 

5 Aug 2008:  7am and we are setting off toward Astana the new capital of Kazak,  its a long drive so we arrive late at night and manage to find a hotel near the town,  turned out well for us as the Sucurity guy was really nice and arranged for his friend to give us a tour of the city, we where also very hungry and finally after hours of touring we get back to have some dinner before its time to bed.

3 Aug 2008:  we are up at 9 for some breakfast and hit the road toward Krygistan, it took us a long long while to find the border but in the end we do and find ourselves having to deal with children at the border who do all the paper work and we are through nice and easy for a change!  By this time its dark so after a quick benzine fill up we are on the road and driving through the mountains at night, we stop over at a wee cafe for some Soup that consists of lumps of fat and a block of meat… its horrible but to be polite we down as much as we can… Ugh.  a few hours down the line we stop over for a sleep in the car, not only will we get some quality zzz”s but more importantly we will be able to appreciate the scenic mountains in some light.  Before we know it we are at the Border into Kazak.  We drive right through into Kazak’s old capital Almaty where we stop over for some food and chill.  We continue the gruelling drive all day into the night where we camp out near the main road on some very rocky ground but it was ok as we hook up the laptop to watch a dvd and get the munchies on the go nice.

2 Aug 2008:  Early doors and we are on the road again, it feels good to be moving again and making progress we aim for the Krygistan border but its going to be a hard drive,  finally we find a hotel in Andijohn where we meet a kool Uzbeki guy and have a good chill. 

1 Aug 2008:  Day 3 in Tashkent and we have got our car and visa sorted out all in a nice smooth transaction,  we decide to stay another night before we make the drive through Krygistan.

31 Jul 2008:  Yesterday we left Bukara in the afternoon and made the drive to Tashkent but had to miss the awesome city Somarqand as we are in a rush to get our Kazak Visas before the weekend so we can continue the slog north.  We manage to get our visa applications in and find a good mechanic today and its now a wait for all to be sorted out,  gives us a few days to relax and take in the sights.

30 jul 2008:  Its another sleep in the car as we arrive late into Bukara and are tired to pitch tents again (car is uncomfortable but easy option) good thing is we are up at 8 and head into the town to take in some of the awesome history in Bukara, this place is amazing and worth some research on google.  After some touristy stuff we miss Somarqand and drive to the capital Tashkent.

29 jul 2008:  Today we plan to drive to Bukara a very historical town in Uzbek but we meet a french backpacker by the name of Marie and have a good chat over breakfast,  As we are going the same direction we offer to take her to gurdench,  was good to have new company for a while.  Quick stop in Gurdench and its a slog to Bukara again the roads are bad and its taking its toll on the car we need to make those modifications we had in mind for the suspension a little ealier than planned.

28 Jul 2008:  After another night in the car we leave early doors to hit the Uzbekistan border, this was another comical one,  First the kazak side take there lunch at 1pm then once we are through the Uzbek side take theres at 2pm… 4 hours later we are on the road but its now 5pm and another drive in the night in the middle ok nothingness.  We arrive into a wee town called Nukus  2am where we manage to find a cheapo B&B and crash out but not before waking all the guests ooops!

27 Jul 2008:  Its a hard slog to Benue Kazak as the the sun is burning & the roads are bad very bad, we are traveeling at 20mph and have 300 miles to cover so its painfully slow,  The car takes a beating in all the pot holes and rough road surfaces, for us we are constantly shaking in the car for 8 hours and to top it off we are in the middle of knowhere with no food and only very hot water due to the high climate, the carreads 40C its horrible.

26 Jul 2008:  After 6 hours of stupid and pointless stamps and paper work we are released and hit the road but only as far as Aktau city its late so we grab a hotel and plan to leave early doors.

25 Jul 2008:  For some reason the ship lets its Anchors down 10 miles to shore & we sit there for 8 hours so in total what should have been a 18hr journey ends up 48 hours to cover 200 miles! in honesty we where not bothered, we had been mucked around so much that we didnt care we just wanted to start driving again, also the Ship crew where a good bunch and very kind to us all shame about the officials at the baku port they are time wasters and losers!  We get off the ship and head to customs to get clearance before we can take our cars,  the sniffer dog was comical and the process was bizzare to say the least once through we grab our cars but are told we cannot leave till the next day as the guy who does the paper work is away home, annoying but we get on with it and camp out in the car compound inbetween train tracks,  that night was actually really good,  moral was high again and we had a nice camping experiance even if it was amongst running train tracks that would work throughout the night.

24 Jul 2008:  I have just woke up its 12pm & we are moving its slow but sure a nice steady 14mph accross the calm yet amazing Caspian Sea i rush onto deck to meet Hafiz & Asif aswell as the rest of the teams and take in the calmness, what a way to wake up. so we where meant to leave at 8pm the previous night and end up leaving at 8am ETA is 4am the nest morning but we are not too sure about that.

23 Jul 2008:  We get up a little late around 10am & drive straight to town where we need to find the Port to get our ship, it should be a doddle as there are daily ships to turkmenistan so we try our hardest to get there quick but we are not having much luck, Luckily a kind bus driver tells us to follow him and he takes us all the way,  As we approach the entrance we bump into the other scottish team (Micheal, Dice & Ben) who run down to meet us, at first we are really happy to see them but then it hits us these guys where 5 days ahead of us so why are they still here!?  Turns out there are 4 teams already here camped out in the car compound and have been for upto 9 days!! in short the AZE Customs will not let us thorugh as we dont have a Visa for Turkmenistan (they told us we could get it upon arrival!) so these guys have been trying hard at the embassy each day to get either a Visa or Letter of invitation but 9 days later no luck and more stress, News soon spreads that there is a ship heading to Aktua Kazakhstan at 6pm so we all head to the ticket office to get booked onto it, this means a change in game plan and having to use our single entry visa into Kazak but we got to do what we gotta do to keep moving.  Further bad news the guy at the ticket office is not letting us have a ticket so after much shouting and losing tempers we pressure him into getting us onto that ship job done we have got our tickets and are on the ship for 7pm due to leave at 8pm. Its 10pm and we have not moved an inch, I think everyone was please to actually be on the ship that we still manage to have a good time on deck & manage a late noodle party, Having fallen asleep on deck i awake at 6am to find that we are STILL in Baku i mumble some Prophanities and stroll to my stinking cabin.  Ship journey is meant to be 18 hours!

22 Jul 2008:  Its early doors as we jet off to Azerbijhan its non stop to the Capital buku where we plan to book our ferry to Turkmenbashi, Turkmenistan.  We drive for a long long time and finally arrive into baku around 11pm as we cant find anywhere decent to pitch our tents we opt to park in a top hotels car park and kip in the car.

21 Jul 2008:  So far our impression of Georgia is not looking to good after the Police chase & then we see 3 guys my grandfathers age having a punch up in the middle of the street where they had parked there Spanking mercedes Oh almost forgot to mention the part where we drove through a Tunnel toll that costs about £1.50 thing is we never had any local currency so it took an argument & pleads of help to get out of it luckily it worked but then Hafiz & I where chased into the car by some ravage dogs (bites = Rabies!!) now that was comical watching me dive into the passengers door and jump staright into the drivers seat Dukes stylee!  So its 1am & we finally arrive into tiblisi where our contact Victor awaits our arrival, After meeting up and having a bite to eat we get sorted out with some quality sleep   We awake at 9 to take our car down town to get the damage cuased by the truck sorted, we simply drive in and 3 hours & £45 later we have our car back looking brand new..ish! good job and very kinf od the mechanic to squeeze us in.  We treat Victor to dinner for his awesome help & can say that gerogian food is amazing also to note we managed to meet a few locals throughout the day & can say that after chatting and getting the locals thoughts georgia looks like its coming good & tiblisi is an awesome city well worth a visit and did i mention the food was brilliant!? Aubergine & Walnut paste! mmm

20 Jul 2008: DISASTER!!! Whilst we wait in the shocking queing system at the georgian border a truck driver takes the front QTR off our car.  ZA: Whilst Hafiz & Asif where sorting the paper work out at the border i was sat in the car edging forward to get to the front for the exit… all was going crampt but good till a truck driver decides to squeeze his way infrontof me, it was a nightmare I couldnt do a thing not drive back or to my right or forward I was stuck there having to take it all in.  I punched the horn but soon realised almost everyone else was anyway.  Once the truck driver realised and stopped the front bumper came crashing down to the ground & all I could think about was if the engine & radiatior was damaged so i jumped out and had a quick look before i got a hold of the driver, I cant type how that chat went but overall it was looking bad, there where about 10 guys against me and even the cop, to my releif I spotted the guys and hurried them over, Asif was taking pics and films whilst Hafiz was talking to the cop and i was shouting at some dirty git in a vest who seemed to nosy in and shout some stuff, couldnt understand him and im sure he couldnt understand what I was telling him!  After the formals we took a good look at the situation and to our releif we are glad to say that its all costmetic damage, we got the bumper strapped on and in Tiblisi, Gerogia we will go about getting the bumper on properly and the indicators/window washers sorted too… So its all good & its not over yet we are still going very strong but check back in a few days to see the pics, trust me it looks awfull!  We arrive in Georgia and its a 400km drive to Tiblisi in some poor visablity and windy mountain roads on route we witness a wierd police chase that stops and starts a few times and finally the driver being chased just about takes us out the game from behind before the police car loses control and crashes down a ditch upside down!! Hafiz & I look at one another and decide to floor it to Tiblisi where a kind smile awaits us… we cant wait! 

19 Jul 2008: So our first night of camping not bad considering its a beach off the Black Sea note to self though… when camping sleep with the sun so that means sleep early wake early otherwise you will cook in your tent!  Was nice to wake to the sound of the ocean scrap breakfast its clothes off and straight into the Black Sea for a swim and some water soccer!!  in the afternoon Zaheer decides to sunbath on the beach while Hafiz & Asif get some work sorted in the car by fitting in a device that will let us plug in our pc/elec stuff to charge (good for the desert)  job donr 4 hours later and Zaheer walks back all red and very badly burnt (i didnt think it would happen to me but it hurts!!) off we go to Hope the last city before the Georgian border.

18 Jul 2008: after spending the night in the car at another service station we are up early doors to start on the journey to the coast we arrive into samsun and decide to drive to the next wee city for some lunch, here we get some food and manage to make some well overdue calls back home to the family…  The wee guy who was looking after our car at the car park refused to take any money from us which was very kind of him so we manage to slip in some money and ask him to buy his kids a wee present… Soon after we get some good news that team Fit For Purpose are stranded 80km west of Trabzon in some camp site and have a 21st party planned finally we get to hook up with some teams so off we head to tirebolu.  After a few confused looks by the locals when we play charades to find the camp site we finally make it and whey hey happy days a chance to share some stories with fellow rally’ers!

17 Jul 2008: Istanbul was awesome but we had spent a day longer than intended so we decided to miss out Ankara & Cappodocia and drive north to Samsun where we would drive the coast.  Usually back home we can estimate time at 1mph = 1min one thing we have noted now no matter what we estimate it usually takes double that time so progress is slow but well we are getting there! 

16 Jul 2008: Todays game plan was to start off at 9am for a good breakfast before we take ın some of the tourısty attractıons… Its not to be as we wake to a huge thunder storm tho ıt was nıce to watch from the roof top; around 2pm we fınally leave the hostel once ıt has come to a calm but only manage to make tıme for a sıght seeıng tour ın both parts of the cıty check out the pıcs to see some of the awesome archıtecture ın ıstanbul.  we plan to check some local places out 2mrw before we make a move east.

15 Jul 2008: After a good nıghts rest ıts tıme to hıt the streets of ıstanbul & what a surprıse wıth all the hıstroy and old archıtecture ın the cıty; ıts a far contrast compared to the hustle and bustle on the streets and the amount of people mılıng around and cars goıng ın all dırectıons overall though thıs place ıs specıal.  Istanbul has a great deal of hıstory behınd ıt and judgıng by ıts geographıcal ımportance ın the polıtıcal world ıt looks lıke there ıs more hıstory to be made ın the future.  We spend the day takıng ın the sıghts ıncludıng some ancıent burıal shrınes and the amazıng Blue Mosque we also get a chance to make prayer at the Mosque and have a few mıns peace.  To check out ıstanbul we would need atleast a week to take ın most of what ıs on offer here.  Of course we try the local food Shısh kebab… thınk ıt tastes better at our local Kebab Mahal!!

14 July 2008: Silk Road Express theme tune The Prodıgy, Clımatıze…

14 Jul 2008: Reached Turkey by goıng through an exhaustIve process of border clearance.  Reached Istanbul the followıng morning and managed to get a B&B for a couple of nights… oh man we need rest!!  We wıll try to meet up a couple of other teams here…

13 Jul 2008: Left Romanıa for Bulgarıa and went straight to a city called Varna after sleeping a nıght in the car.  Roads were not too bad bad theose pesky truck drıvers were a paın the neck as they tried to overtake you around the bends!!  Stopped by the police twice cos of speedıng and havıng too many stickers on the car, me thinks it was a fix and they wanted some crispy US dollars… but we managed to blag out of this.  Generally, Bulgarıa was a nice place and the people were great.

11 Jul 2008: Romanian Truck drivers are CRAZY!! As Romania does not have any motorways yet we & the rest of the cars/trucks/buses are having to use a single lane system for over 300km we start our journey at 7pm the previous eve & after about 50Km one thing has struck as… Romania is a replica country of Pakistan The smells, The little villages, the roads the system is all very much the same and we are loving it here.  We drive through from the border to Arad, then onto Deva where we stop over for a half hour break at 12am after this we decide to keep going but only last another hour before we call it quits and stop over at some services for a break seven hours later we awake to find ourselves parked in the most amazing place deep in the mountains, it had been dark so we had no idea.  We continue our drive to Sibiu the capital of culture 2007… I cant say enough about this place we only stopped by for a few hours but it was awe inspiring so far Romania is looking awesome.  We drive onto Translyvania now count dracula has a few castle and we opt to see the most scary one so thats in a wee place called Bran as we arrive at 6pm we manage to get a really nice hotel for cheap owned by this kool German guy called Hans & we even have our own Chef on 24hour call… we could stay here foir a while but its not to be we must leave 2mrw after visiting the castle. 

10 Jul 2008: We are up early doors to see some of the city before we jump into the car and head towards Romania, Budapest has lots to offer unfortunatley we dont get a chance to do anything before we have to get some brunch and hit the road,  we have been in some amazing places so far and not had the time to explore them,  Plus using the motorways is getting boring and its not giving us any taste of the culture.  We arrive at the Romanian border at around 7pm the plan is to drive straight to Transylvania and its a long drive…

09 Jul 2008: Today will se us drive from the czech rep into Bataslava, Slovakia for a few hours to get some Dinner in the city centre before we continue into Budapest, hungry.  looking forward to this part of the EU as its much cheaper than the previous city’s and we here the Scenery is special! Today was the first day we all felt more relaxed and able to enjoy the driving and generally enjoying what we can on the move.  I think we would like to come back to Bataslava at some point to enjoy the place more.

07 Jul 2008: Up early doors (11am) to get ready to hit the road again but before all that we had to empty our car and repack to balance the weight of all our stuff and food,  3 hours laterwe are on the road to Prague.  Arrived late into prague but managed to get into town for some food and a well deserved chill.

06 Jul 2008: Drove into Calias @ around 2am decided to make a pit stop and catch up with some sleep in the car,  11 hours later we woke and hit the road for Stuttgart, Germany.  managed to blag a nice hotel and worked hard to get breakfast included but still managed to miss it  Stuttgart is an awesome city but can be hard to navigate in the city with a car!!

05 Jul 2008: Early start @ 3am to head from Edinburgh to london where we will be meeting most of the teams taking part in the rally for our big send off at 4:30pm,  The festival was brilliant we where all buzzing and getting excited for what lies ahead must admit its a scray prospect of what we are getting ourselves into here!

04 Jul 2008: So this is it its nearly time to make some moves to the big send in to london, We have got everything packed into the car so its a meal with the families in the evening before we jet off at 3am to Highbury Park.

03 Jul 2008: check out: http://mongolia.charityrallies.org/en/naadam this is what is planned for the 80 teams leaving from london… worth a look, we cant wait!

03 Jul 2008: Wee hick up in the matrix we cant seem to get the ‘donated so far’ figures refreshing so its stuck at £675 the good news is that we are doing good on the donations front but its not near our target of £10k We remind you this money is purely for the charities (see charity tabs for more details on the charites we support) Please make a wee donation it will go a long way to help people who suffer from cancer & to help Places2be a charity set up to help children who need a better standard of living across britain.

02 Jul 2008: The car has passed its M.O.T health check today with flying colours, Much of this credit goes to Hafiz who has got us a good working car & has prepared it for this trek. The Eibach stiffer suspension springs where fitted & the car is driving much better, with the extra weight & tough roads we face in Asia its going to help us reach our target. Thursday going to be a big day we have to get the car back into the garage for a few final touches & get our kit packed into the car ready for friday. The plan is to leave the burgh around 2pm & drive to london ready for the Nadaam festival to see us off from centrel London.

01 Jul 2008: D-day is getting very close & we are no where near ready… got much to do with little time & we are working flat out lets hope we all goes well & we get time to spend with our families before we leave (friday 4th july 4pm)

29 Jun 2008: Today has seen our car get a wee bit oif a face lift courtesy of Stu @ www.stickermonkey.co.uk the car is looking sweet with all the stickers to represent what we are doing why we are doing it & when plus all the sponsore have a mention on the car to.

28 Jun 2008: We would like to give a big thanks to Colin from CostCo, Edinburgh for all his support in providing us with camping equipment & some tools for the car, Colin also gave us some kids backpacks filled with school accessories for us to hand out to children in mongolia So thanks Colin & all @ costco we salute you all for your kind generosity.

27 Jun 2008: A big thanks to Matt from Border books shop in Kinnaird Park, Edinburgh, who has provided us with several guide and reference books. Matt we Salute you.

22 Jun 2008: Over the last month we have been stock pilling all the bits & bobs we are going to take on our trip… wow its huge… its enought to fill a transit van! not to worry though we have Hafiz on board every household in britain should have a hafiz built in Hafiz has sourced some metal poles and mesh (from edinburgh council’s back door Sshhh) and with the help of performace auto trix he will be making a roof rack for our scooby… looks out for pics.

17 Jun 2008: We have got all out visas but we only need a visa for China now which we may get in Mongolia on our arrival

11 Jun 2008: Kazakh visa has been stamped so 2 more visas remaining. We are on track to set off for Fri 4th July. We will keep you all posted of any further advancements.

10 Jun 2008: Handed our car into Performance Auto Trix who will be pimping our ride. these guys are going to be rally preparing our car so we can take on the dodgy roads kinda like what you seen on Ewan Mcgregors long way round… Pot Holes galore.

08 Jun 2008: A bit dissapointed with the donations we have raised but we musn’t give up hope!!

06 Jun 2008: Second round of Rabies & Hep B vaccine injected in our bodies. I feel great!!

04 Jun 2008: Got the normal tyres changed over to rally tyres for checking them out. A big thanks to Stevie Falconer who own City Mobile Tyres, see Credits page. Got the visas for Azerbaijan now and now RUVisa are processing visa for Kazakhstan… that’s 3 more visas to get. Sterling job guys!!

31 May 2008: First round of rabies vaccine to be taken… ouch!

30 May 2008: Got 3 visas now, 4 to go.

12 May 2008: Sent off passports and visa applications to a RuVisa (visa management company) for processing. They have a challenge in their hands to get all the visas on time, but we are confident that they will meet our expectations.

30 Apr 2008: Think its time to start working on getting our visa’s its going to be tough but we gotta do what we gotta do.

03 Feb 2008: Started work on the first release of our website. It would be good to hear your feedback as its our first venture into web site building

19 Jan 2008: Started to plan our route. We picked the southern route as it was more challenging which involves travelling through a few massive deserts & taking in some mountain ranges while we are at it, we will drive right accross europe into Turkey from here we will head up to Azerbijan and cross the capsian sea into Uzekistan, we will visit some more Stan places before we head north to Russia & into Mongolia.

11 Dec 2007: im pleased to say we have bought our car… Its an old 98 Subaru impreza, took a while to find the right car but she looks perfect for the job & the drive back from Newcastle gave us ample opertunity to test the 4×4 all wheel drive thingy… it works!

15 Nov 2007: you know its not easy buying a car, We have sifted through the autrotrader web site looking for something thats going to make it to Mongolia in one piece, so we have narrowed our selection down to a Subaru Forester, Impreza or a Toyota Corrolla (we can get the parts for these cars in most parts of the world!!)

31 Oct 2007: Its official we are taking part in the Mongolia Rally, Just got word back from the organisers that we have successfully registered our team… now we have to buy a car!!

It would be good to hear your comments & messages of support while we are driving like mad men across the world, Simply click the comments tab on the right ->