Posts
Well last night/this morning was probably the worst experience of the rally so far. We drove all the way to Kaunas, by about 11pm we went service station scouting, there were plenty to choose from, but they were nothing compared to the ones we found in Western Europe. They were mainly truck stops, all of them looked the same, they all had the shady bar in one corner, and plenty of lighting, the only problem is they also all had guards. So we didn't know if that meant we had to pay to stay there or not, we ventured into a stop at about 12pm and decided to sleep in the car again. After about 45mins I was woken up by a Lithuanian security guard, who seamed to just moan at us, we had no idea what he was on about, so we decided it was probably best that we moved on, 20mins down the road we pulled onto a small country lane, pulled over and went back to sleep, only now a huge thunder storm was overhead, and the rain from it continued for much of the day.
After a while of sitting in the back of the car, I noticed my feet were getting quite wet, then a puddle started to form in the rear passenger side footwell, as we were driving along I pulled up the carpet to investigate to find that I'm watching the road race by, because of a hole in the floor, luckily the hole has a plug that had come out, so as we went on the rain was seaping into the hole. After a bit of mopping up, I replaced the plug, and we continued on towards our destination.
The day then got so much better! We turned up at the border from Latvia to Russia, after 10hours of waiting, 3 vehicle searches, and a small bribe to the customs official (3 of my alcohol minitures, including a brandy I was saving for the finish line) we eventually found our way into Russia! Then came the fun of trying to get car insurance for driving in Russia. This involved alot of help from my language book, but after about an hour we had insurance and could set off into Western Russia and onwards!
Friday, 24 July 2009
Krakow to Kaunas, Lithuania
Well we awoke this morning in our travel inn room, after a bloody good sleep we got checked out about 11.30am, seeing as we only got settled into the room at 2am that same morning it did the trick.
We walked outside to find the car melting in the midday sun, it was 35 degree's C. The car is literally a greenhouse on wheels! This led to a day of extremely sweaty backs, but we plodded on towards our next Country, Lithuania!
We had a bit of a scare though, as we were going along the radio started turning on and off, after some frantic pulling the radio popped out, a bit of trial and error wire testing and the cause has been found, the radio wasn't earthed, for some reason the last 2 months it hadn't cared but now it decided to give us a panic that we might have another 8,000 miles with no music! After roughly an hour of the radio being down the topics of conversation turned from frankly inappropriate material to us trying to make dolphin noises....needless to say we're so relieved that the radio's back up and running!
One other music related story, we have only one cigarette lighter, so that runs all out power requirements from charging the walkie talkies, iPods, cameras etc...
One slight thing we over looked was the fact that when we need to charge our cameras, walkie talkies etc that we can't use our iPods to play music through the radio...so that leaves us with 2 options....local radio stations or CD's.
Local radio stations are only interesting whilst we try to figure out the lyrics to the foreign songs, so one of the other teams gave us a CD, now after listening to this one CD over and over again I can honestly say that it's going to be a long journey!
The CD playlist is a real mix, here are some of the tracks:
"Rolling down the river" - Cant remember the artist
"Baywatch theme" - I wake up humming this now!
"Simply the Best" - Tina Turner
"Why don't you like me" - Mika
"All shook up" - Elvis
"everytime we touch" - Skarda
Then this is followed by the entire black eyed peas first album!
Then to top it off "what's love got to do with it" - Tina Turner
Each song would be fine when listened to occassionally but constantly in succession, you quickly lose the will to live!
So anyway that's how it's going so far, we're currently running at about 12hours driving each day, which for the time being isn't to bad, but we are only on the 5th day....stay tuned!
We walked outside to find the car melting in the midday sun, it was 35 degree's C. The car is literally a greenhouse on wheels! This led to a day of extremely sweaty backs, but we plodded on towards our next Country, Lithuania!
We had a bit of a scare though, as we were going along the radio started turning on and off, after some frantic pulling the radio popped out, a bit of trial and error wire testing and the cause has been found, the radio wasn't earthed, for some reason the last 2 months it hadn't cared but now it decided to give us a panic that we might have another 8,000 miles with no music! After roughly an hour of the radio being down the topics of conversation turned from frankly inappropriate material to us trying to make dolphin noises....needless to say we're so relieved that the radio's back up and running!
One other music related story, we have only one cigarette lighter, so that runs all out power requirements from charging the walkie talkies, iPods, cameras etc...
One slight thing we over looked was the fact that when we need to charge our cameras, walkie talkies etc that we can't use our iPods to play music through the radio...so that leaves us with 2 options....local radio stations or CD's.
Local radio stations are only interesting whilst we try to figure out the lyrics to the foreign songs, so one of the other teams gave us a CD, now after listening to this one CD over and over again I can honestly say that it's going to be a long journey!
The CD playlist is a real mix, here are some of the tracks:
"Rolling down the river" - Cant remember the artist
"Baywatch theme" - I wake up humming this now!
"Simply the Best" - Tina Turner
"Why don't you like me" - Mika
"All shook up" - Elvis
"everytime we touch" - Skarda
Then this is followed by the entire black eyed peas first album!
Then to top it off "what's love got to do with it" - Tina Turner
Each song would be fine when listened to occassionally but constantly in succession, you quickly lose the will to live!
So anyway that's how it's going so far, we're currently running at about 12hours driving each day, which for the time being isn't to bad, but we are only on the 5th day....stay tuned!
Krakow, Poland
Hey People,
Soz this is only a short message, we're just at a Holiday Inn in Krakow, had a nice sleep and another rally team managed to be smuggled into the room, we all crashed out as soon as we hit the beds lol.
The driving has been pretty good going, until the Czech republic it was all motorways, so not much on the scenic front, but yesterday was by far the best days drive, we set off from klatovny castle in the Czech republic, then headed to krakow, which is a bloody long drive, we're averaging about 50mph at the moment, as it's practically all uphill. We avoided alot of motorways, and took the smaller roads, some of the scenery is amazing, the only downside was that I drove a solid 13hours yesterday, so the other guys are going to take up the next two days drive to Moscow.
All in all it's going well apart from a screw which went through one of the brand new tyres on the first night. Paul was settin up his tent at the service station we invaded, then he heard a "pssssss" turns out that a screw has found it's home in our tread and given us a slow puncture, we've got some tyreweld which is meant to patch up just that kind of injury so should do the job, in the meantime we're using one of the spares.
Soz this is only a short message, we're just at a Holiday Inn in Krakow, had a nice sleep and another rally team managed to be smuggled into the room, we all crashed out as soon as we hit the beds lol.
The driving has been pretty good going, until the Czech republic it was all motorways, so not much on the scenic front, but yesterday was by far the best days drive, we set off from klatovny castle in the Czech republic, then headed to krakow, which is a bloody long drive, we're averaging about 50mph at the moment, as it's practically all uphill. We avoided alot of motorways, and took the smaller roads, some of the scenery is amazing, the only downside was that I drove a solid 13hours yesterday, so the other guys are going to take up the next two days drive to Moscow.
All in all it's going well apart from a screw which went through one of the brand new tyres on the first night. Paul was settin up his tent at the service station we invaded, then he heard a "pssssss" turns out that a screw has found it's home in our tread and given us a slow puncture, we've got some tyreweld which is meant to patch up just that kind of injury so should do the job, in the meantime we're using one of the spares.
Departure Day!
Well we've made it! As I write I'm sitting in a restaurant near Dunkirk in France, awaiting the arrival of several of the other teams who decided to take the Dover to Dunkirk ferry.
All in all the rally has started off well, we camped over at Goodwood the night before the start, we got to meet quite a few of the teams that so far had evaded us, and also catch up with old friends, one American team had already managed to write off there car before we even arrived.
The next morning involved drinking plenty of water to shed off the fuzzyness from the night before, a bacon butty, a cup of tea and then we headed to the track to await the starting of the Mongol Rally 2009!
Slowly but surely hundreds of teams arrived, and they each had their own unique touches add to their cars, ranging from a Pink ice cream truck to a furry fire engine.
We managed to drive in a convoy of about 15 cars to Gant in Belgium, which at night was my first international driving experience, all went well though, and we pulled into a service station for some sleep at about 2am.
All in all the rally has started off well, we camped over at Goodwood the night before the start, we got to meet quite a few of the teams that so far had evaded us, and also catch up with old friends, one American team had already managed to write off there car before we even arrived.
The next morning involved drinking plenty of water to shed off the fuzzyness from the night before, a bacon butty, a cup of tea and then we headed to the track to await the starting of the Mongol Rally 2009!
Slowly but surely hundreds of teams arrived, and they each had their own unique touches add to their cars, ranging from a Pink ice cream truck to a furry fire engine.
We managed to drive in a convoy of about 15 cars to Gant in Belgium, which at night was my first international driving experience, all went well though, and we pulled into a service station for some sleep at about 2am.
Sunday, 21 June 2009
26 Days Remaining
Well after long deliberation, yesterday I walked down to the travel clinic in Russell Square. As it turns out my jabs for Rabies, Typhoid, Tick Encephalitis and Hepatitis B amount to the grand old bill of £414.00 not a small amount to stomach when in perspective your car only cost £500!
As I entered the clinic (which anyone who's been there will know, it's conjoined with an STA travel) I am told to sit down and fill out a couple of forms. So I take a seat and start writing down my travel history and other interesting family illnesses in boxes that are always designed to be too small for anyone's comments. Then through the plasterboard wall behind me I hear what can only be described as a loud thump, the kind of dull but resonating thump that you associate with either someone hitting the floor in dead weight or something similar, then to follow up the thump is a bloodcurdling scream. However, it didn’t stop there this was then followed by screaming and pleading all mixed with in the cries of a young child. As the noise reaches its peak the 12 year old girl comes bolting out of the nurse’s office, quickly followed by her father who's obviously limping from multiple kicks to his legs. He then tries to calm her down, but she had the level of fear where no amount of reasoning could calm her down, she was in a total state of panic. As the father tries to drag her back into the chamber of horrors she digs her heels in and somehow manages to drag herself as well as him away from the nurse’s office, it's at this point that the nurse steps out and says she can't possibly give the jabs as the child was so panicked. This left the father in a situation where his child needs jabs to go around South America, but now the professional refuses to give them, this left one last option take the kid outside to calm her down, then like any good parent would do, you bride the hell out of them to go and get it done, needless to say 5 minutes later the deed was done and this time without screams and a look of surprise as the girl realises it doesn’t hurt at all, and her public display of distress has actually landed her with presents of some kind at the end of the line. Win win you could argue for the girl. I could only watch as the mayhem unfolded in from of my eyes, and even though I'm fine with needles and jabs, it probably wasn’t the best confidence builder just before you head in yourself.
The tiny nurse was happy to give me the jabs, but before she'd even gotten the needles out of the fridge she obviously thought that she probably wouldn’t survive should I faint onto her, so she gave me two sugar cubes and a glass of water, and we were hot to trot!
On that note my jabs went surprisingly easily, I was a brave boy, I didn’t scream or cry and 3 jabs later I'm walking out of the clinic a lot lighter on my wallet and all for what can only be physically seen as 3 little plasters on my arms. I've got to go back next weekend, as well as a couple of days before I set off on the rally for the second & third round of jabs.
So all in all the fun of repetitively getting stabbed in the arms is costing me a small fortune, my only conciliation is that I should be immune to all but a handful of diseases during my trip! So here's fingers crossed I don't have to put any of these jabs to the test!
As I entered the clinic (which anyone who's been there will know, it's conjoined with an STA travel) I am told to sit down and fill out a couple of forms. So I take a seat and start writing down my travel history and other interesting family illnesses in boxes that are always designed to be too small for anyone's comments. Then through the plasterboard wall behind me I hear what can only be described as a loud thump, the kind of dull but resonating thump that you associate with either someone hitting the floor in dead weight or something similar, then to follow up the thump is a bloodcurdling scream. However, it didn’t stop there this was then followed by screaming and pleading all mixed with in the cries of a young child. As the noise reaches its peak the 12 year old girl comes bolting out of the nurse’s office, quickly followed by her father who's obviously limping from multiple kicks to his legs. He then tries to calm her down, but she had the level of fear where no amount of reasoning could calm her down, she was in a total state of panic. As the father tries to drag her back into the chamber of horrors she digs her heels in and somehow manages to drag herself as well as him away from the nurse’s office, it's at this point that the nurse steps out and says she can't possibly give the jabs as the child was so panicked. This left the father in a situation where his child needs jabs to go around South America, but now the professional refuses to give them, this left one last option take the kid outside to calm her down, then like any good parent would do, you bride the hell out of them to go and get it done, needless to say 5 minutes later the deed was done and this time without screams and a look of surprise as the girl realises it doesn’t hurt at all, and her public display of distress has actually landed her with presents of some kind at the end of the line. Win win you could argue for the girl. I could only watch as the mayhem unfolded in from of my eyes, and even though I'm fine with needles and jabs, it probably wasn’t the best confidence builder just before you head in yourself.
The tiny nurse was happy to give me the jabs, but before she'd even gotten the needles out of the fridge she obviously thought that she probably wouldn’t survive should I faint onto her, so she gave me two sugar cubes and a glass of water, and we were hot to trot!
On that note my jabs went surprisingly easily, I was a brave boy, I didn’t scream or cry and 3 jabs later I'm walking out of the clinic a lot lighter on my wallet and all for what can only be physically seen as 3 little plasters on my arms. I've got to go back next weekend, as well as a couple of days before I set off on the rally for the second & third round of jabs.
So all in all the fun of repetitively getting stabbed in the arms is costing me a small fortune, my only conciliation is that I should be immune to all but a handful of diseases during my trip! So here's fingers crossed I don't have to put any of these jabs to the test!
Thursday, 11 June 2009
36 Days Remaining
Well a good chunk of the remaining travels has now officially been booked!
The story goes like this....
After a few fruitless searches online for some flights which had flexible conditions (so I have the option to change the dates if need be) I had started to get a bit worried! The flights from Japan to the West Coast of the US, then from New York back to London, were all batting in around the £2000 mark, now that completely blew my travel plans out of the water. As I was walking past the STA travel in Victoria, I thought, what's the harm in going in and asking them?
So I sat down and a guy called Charlie proceeded to try and understand my travel plans, this involved then alot of fine print checking and investigations on the conditions of various packages and deals. Eventually he decided that round the world tickets and such like were no good to me, and I wasn't flying out of the UK and I wouldn't need to return to Japan.
This left only one remaining options, searching for individual flights and connections, all in all after much button pressing and 45mins of pondering, he came up with a solution! In his words "I've got some good news, and some bad news"
I figured hit me with the good news first, so "the good news is I can do both flights for only £850 there or there abouts"
So, I'm sat there thinking that's affordable, and fits in my budget of the sub £1,000 I was hoping for!
Then there's the bad news, "you've got to have a stop over somewhere!"
So instantly I remember my 12 hour stay at an airport in Hawaii and the brain numbing boredom of watching CNN on repeat as they followed Obama on his campaign trail....but least they had biscuits and fruit juice!
So I say "how long is the stop over?"
The reply "4 days?"
I have a sudden thought that that's not so much a stop over but more like a mini-break, the only question was what back water dismal destination would it be? Somewhere in Siberia perhaps?
"it's a 4 day stop over in Tahiti?!?"
My response whilst having a grin that went the entire circumference of my head "and there's a bad side in this situation where?"
Needless to say I'm booked and ecstatic to be adding Tahiti to my list of destinations this year! WAHOOOO!!!!
I'm sure things won't go entirely smoothly so we'll have to wait and see, but for now I'm like a 6 year old on Xmas eve! I'm flipping crawling the Walls!
The story goes like this....
After a few fruitless searches online for some flights which had flexible conditions (so I have the option to change the dates if need be) I had started to get a bit worried! The flights from Japan to the West Coast of the US, then from New York back to London, were all batting in around the £2000 mark, now that completely blew my travel plans out of the water. As I was walking past the STA travel in Victoria, I thought, what's the harm in going in and asking them?
So I sat down and a guy called Charlie proceeded to try and understand my travel plans, this involved then alot of fine print checking and investigations on the conditions of various packages and deals. Eventually he decided that round the world tickets and such like were no good to me, and I wasn't flying out of the UK and I wouldn't need to return to Japan.
This left only one remaining options, searching for individual flights and connections, all in all after much button pressing and 45mins of pondering, he came up with a solution! In his words "I've got some good news, and some bad news"
I figured hit me with the good news first, so "the good news is I can do both flights for only £850 there or there abouts"
So, I'm sat there thinking that's affordable, and fits in my budget of the sub £1,000 I was hoping for!
Then there's the bad news, "you've got to have a stop over somewhere!"
So instantly I remember my 12 hour stay at an airport in Hawaii and the brain numbing boredom of watching CNN on repeat as they followed Obama on his campaign trail....but least they had biscuits and fruit juice!
So I say "how long is the stop over?"
The reply "4 days?"
I have a sudden thought that that's not so much a stop over but more like a mini-break, the only question was what back water dismal destination would it be? Somewhere in Siberia perhaps?
"it's a 4 day stop over in Tahiti?!?"
My response whilst having a grin that went the entire circumference of my head "and there's a bad side in this situation where?"
Needless to say I'm booked and ecstatic to be adding Tahiti to my list of destinations this year! WAHOOOO!!!!
I'm sure things won't go entirely smoothly so we'll have to wait and see, but for now I'm like a 6 year old on Xmas eve! I'm flipping crawling the Walls!
Wednesday, 10 June 2009
37 Days Remaining!
Wow well it was an interesting weekend, and I think for the first time it really hit home just what we're undertaking!
Team Swift ventured down to the Breacon Beacons in South Wales for some off roading fun with the other ralliers on this years Mongol Rally.
It was an extremely wet weekend, but that did nothing to dampen the spirits and indeed thirsts of our fellow ralliers!
The weekend consisted of an off road track, alcohol, music, dancing and a whole load of hand break turns! Perhaps not all that the same time mind you, that would be unsafe....
The car did get stuck at one poitn but a couple of equally interesting cars managed to drag us out and to safety, and luckily the car is undamaged, or at least it seams!
There's plenty of photo's of the weekend on my facebook & flickr pages so feel free to check them out, and I'm sure there'll be more to follow in the near future as events unfold!
p.s. My new boots stood up to the challenge and as such were indeed water & mud proof and a perfect fit! I'm most happy with them! I'm waiting to pick up the Selkbag so that'll be cool to try out!
Team Swift ventured down to the Breacon Beacons in South Wales for some off roading fun with the other ralliers on this years Mongol Rally.
It was an extremely wet weekend, but that did nothing to dampen the spirits and indeed thirsts of our fellow ralliers!
The weekend consisted of an off road track, alcohol, music, dancing and a whole load of hand break turns! Perhaps not all that the same time mind you, that would be unsafe....
The car did get stuck at one poitn but a couple of equally interesting cars managed to drag us out and to safety, and luckily the car is undamaged, or at least it seams!
There's plenty of photo's of the weekend on my facebook & flickr pages so feel free to check them out, and I'm sure there'll be more to follow in the near future as events unfold!
p.s. My new boots stood up to the challenge and as such were indeed water & mud proof and a perfect fit! I'm most happy with them! I'm waiting to pick up the Selkbag so that'll be cool to try out!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)