The morning started well, we woke up and hit the rest of my golf balls off the very tip of one of the mountains, which had awesome views in the morning.
Once we packed up camp we set forth towards UlanBaatar, we didn't expect to make it in a day, but we were so close we could taste the finish line!
Unfortunately we got 1km down the road and the strong stench of petrol filled the car, we stopped to check it out, and the petrol was flowing freely, we wasted a quarter of the tank just driving that little bit. After checking under the car we could see one of the hoses into the fuel filter was leaking. I had a look under the car and soon found that the pipe used was your ordinary hose pipe which has corroded away by the petrol, this pipe was put on the day before by our trusty welder/mechanic. Then on further inspection we found that the local mechanic from the previous town had broken the intake pipe on the fuel filter so it was unrepairable.
After about 1 minute thought we came up with a plan! We removed the fuel filter altogether, then to connect the two pieces of hose that run from the tank to the engine, we used the casing of a biro pen and some cable ties to join the two ends, this actually worked and we were underway!
We had the usual slow progress that we had encountered throughout the Mongolian road system. It's hard to explain how their roads work, at some point someone will have driven cross country to the next nearest town, and then using those tyre marks others followed, until that path becomes undrivable because it's to bumpy and pretty much ruins all cars. Once they get to that point they then start a new pathway opposite the old one, and so on and so forth, until you end up with 8 tracks all leading the same way and some being hell and others relatively speaking alot smoother.
Eventually the next casualty of the convoy appeared, the Jimny broke one of their suspension struts. The bodge fix involved splinting the strut back together. We used some of the aluminium poles off our roof rack base, some cable ties, duck tape and racket straps, then it was good as new!
As we progressed towards the finishing line, we did end up making a geographical error, we all started driving through some grassland to get to the tarmac'd road on the side of one of the mountains, the only problem with this direct approach was the 5 rivers in our way, and the very potholed grassy terrain, after scraping out a couple of times and zigzagging trying to avoid the rivers etc we decided to go back on ourselves, and low and behold there was a back road around the closest hill that lead to the main road. Then we were only 400km from UlanBaatar, but even on Tarmac we weren't going to drive through the night to get there. So we headed to the next nearest town, and from there we found a Gur camp to sleep in, the gur was $15 a night, and it might not be luxury, but it sure felt good after camping so much. It had a wood burner in the centre, lights and power plugs, then 4 beds around the inside of the gur. Comfy, warm and ideal for us all.
At dinner we all agreed that the following day would be a relaxing one, so we planned to head to the hit the hot springs spa some 60km away.
This turned into a bit of a farce, after driving there, and having to make it across some pretty mean ditches, we found that the spa was a recovery centre for Mongolians who'd suffered some illness's, so it was full of doctors. We must've looked very strange turning up an asking for sauna's and mudbaths that were quoted in someones tour book.
So we were a bit gutted because we were still tired and this 140km round trip ended up being a bit useless.
When we got back to the gur camp that evening we'd booked to go horse riding, so they had the horses waiting for us. They were average sized things, but stubborn as hell! For some reason the horse I was given wasn't happy unless he was galloping flat out! Then as soon as my horse would bolt so would the others trying to catch up! After about 30mins of trying to battle this horse to stop (Mongolian horses have been trained with absolutely no words for stop, so my incessent shouts of "Wooooohhhh" did nothing but make me look like a loon!)
All in all it was a good day, even with the disappointment of the spa, so we all went down to another gur camp down the road that had a restaurant, and tried some more Mongolian delacasies.
The next day we set off with high hopes, we'd been told that the next 400km were Tarmac all the way into Ulanbaator, which even with a fuel tank patched using soap, and a biro connecting our fuel lines would be fine to drive, and we'd arrive around lunchtime.
As it turns out they're still building alot of the roads into UlanBaatar, so it wasn't as direct as we'd have liked. There were plenty of more offroading sections that threatened to hurt the car even further. But then by 3pm we were on the top of a mountain looking down at the city of UlanBaatar! It couldn't sink in that we made it, and everyone was really excited and happy to have finally made it, but couldn't quite explain the feelings.
The journey was both a long and short one, we covered over 7,000 miles in just over 3 weeks. We travelled 11 countries, and after being pulled over more than 10 times by the police, we managed not to pay any fines or bribes with money, just items we had sitting in the car. We were the 50th car to arrive, and if we'd have not taken the day off to relax we'd have been the 8th team to arrive, so even though it's not a race, our Suzuki Swift lived up to it's name and got is there safely, and with only a little bit of stress haha.
Stay tuned for the China, Japan & USA segments of my trip.
Once we packed up camp we set forth towards UlanBaatar, we didn't expect to make it in a day, but we were so close we could taste the finish line!
Unfortunately we got 1km down the road and the strong stench of petrol filled the car, we stopped to check it out, and the petrol was flowing freely, we wasted a quarter of the tank just driving that little bit. After checking under the car we could see one of the hoses into the fuel filter was leaking. I had a look under the car and soon found that the pipe used was your ordinary hose pipe which has corroded away by the petrol, this pipe was put on the day before by our trusty welder/mechanic. Then on further inspection we found that the local mechanic from the previous town had broken the intake pipe on the fuel filter so it was unrepairable.
After about 1 minute thought we came up with a plan! We removed the fuel filter altogether, then to connect the two pieces of hose that run from the tank to the engine, we used the casing of a biro pen and some cable ties to join the two ends, this actually worked and we were underway!
We had the usual slow progress that we had encountered throughout the Mongolian road system. It's hard to explain how their roads work, at some point someone will have driven cross country to the next nearest town, and then using those tyre marks others followed, until that path becomes undrivable because it's to bumpy and pretty much ruins all cars. Once they get to that point they then start a new pathway opposite the old one, and so on and so forth, until you end up with 8 tracks all leading the same way and some being hell and others relatively speaking alot smoother.
Eventually the next casualty of the convoy appeared, the Jimny broke one of their suspension struts. The bodge fix involved splinting the strut back together. We used some of the aluminium poles off our roof rack base, some cable ties, duck tape and racket straps, then it was good as new!
As we progressed towards the finishing line, we did end up making a geographical error, we all started driving through some grassland to get to the tarmac'd road on the side of one of the mountains, the only problem with this direct approach was the 5 rivers in our way, and the very potholed grassy terrain, after scraping out a couple of times and zigzagging trying to avoid the rivers etc we decided to go back on ourselves, and low and behold there was a back road around the closest hill that lead to the main road. Then we were only 400km from UlanBaatar, but even on Tarmac we weren't going to drive through the night to get there. So we headed to the next nearest town, and from there we found a Gur camp to sleep in, the gur was $15 a night, and it might not be luxury, but it sure felt good after camping so much. It had a wood burner in the centre, lights and power plugs, then 4 beds around the inside of the gur. Comfy, warm and ideal for us all.
At dinner we all agreed that the following day would be a relaxing one, so we planned to head to the hit the hot springs spa some 60km away.
This turned into a bit of a farce, after driving there, and having to make it across some pretty mean ditches, we found that the spa was a recovery centre for Mongolians who'd suffered some illness's, so it was full of doctors. We must've looked very strange turning up an asking for sauna's and mudbaths that were quoted in someones tour book.
So we were a bit gutted because we were still tired and this 140km round trip ended up being a bit useless.
When we got back to the gur camp that evening we'd booked to go horse riding, so they had the horses waiting for us. They were average sized things, but stubborn as hell! For some reason the horse I was given wasn't happy unless he was galloping flat out! Then as soon as my horse would bolt so would the others trying to catch up! After about 30mins of trying to battle this horse to stop (Mongolian horses have been trained with absolutely no words for stop, so my incessent shouts of "Wooooohhhh" did nothing but make me look like a loon!)
All in all it was a good day, even with the disappointment of the spa, so we all went down to another gur camp down the road that had a restaurant, and tried some more Mongolian delacasies.
The next day we set off with high hopes, we'd been told that the next 400km were Tarmac all the way into Ulanbaator, which even with a fuel tank patched using soap, and a biro connecting our fuel lines would be fine to drive, and we'd arrive around lunchtime.
As it turns out they're still building alot of the roads into UlanBaatar, so it wasn't as direct as we'd have liked. There were plenty of more offroading sections that threatened to hurt the car even further. But then by 3pm we were on the top of a mountain looking down at the city of UlanBaatar! It couldn't sink in that we made it, and everyone was really excited and happy to have finally made it, but couldn't quite explain the feelings.
The journey was both a long and short one, we covered over 7,000 miles in just over 3 weeks. We travelled 11 countries, and after being pulled over more than 10 times by the police, we managed not to pay any fines or bribes with money, just items we had sitting in the car. We were the 50th car to arrive, and if we'd have not taken the day off to relax we'd have been the 8th team to arrive, so even though it's not a race, our Suzuki Swift lived up to it's name and got is there safely, and with only a little bit of stress haha.
Stay tuned for the China, Japan & USA segments of my trip.