Here are a few pictures from the recce in Mongolia.
Tuesday, 29 May 2007
Monday, 28 May 2007
Hello just a quicky, because this is the last day in Beijing.
I'm realy glad that we got out here early because otherwise we would have seen
nothing of the city which would have been criminal ,sort of. If I can do it again,I'll post a few more photos of the city.
Tomorrow is our first day on the road, out to the great wall, which is
the start of the rally, then one more night in china a camp on the border.
Then we're on to UB (again) where we get a day off.
Will get back to you then.
Friday, 25 May 2007
UB to Altay and Back... Just
Well, we're back in Beijing again and have mamanged to join up with the rest of the crew. We all collected our cars from customs this morning; 140 cars, and every one started. A miracle. If I turn round now I can see all of them parked 15 floors below me.
The recci in Mongolia was well worth it. Apart from being really enjoyable, we got a good feel of what the conditions will be like next week. The roads are bloody awful, when they are not closed for repair that is. The tracks just fan out like streams in a river delta. All of them are usually ok except the most used one, that's normally a cross between a nomad ger and the recycling bin of a vodka shop. They do like a drop; but then it looks like a pretty tough life for a sober man to handle.
Despite all of the assurances, our local flight from Altay in the west to UB was cancelled without notice on the day. This left us with very few options; we could sit it out in the hope that the plane turned up the following day the 23rd; or Amran our driver/super-hero said he could get us back over 1000km in the 30 hrs we had before the flight from UB to Beijing.
After all of these months of effort the thought of missing the start of the rally was looming large. So we went for the super-hero 1000k in a Russian mini bus with a top speed of 85-90kph and the charicteristics of a series two land rover. All of that on 150k of good B road and the rest broken tarmac or dirt track. We made it in 23 hrs with one driver who had no sleep.
The recci in Mongolia was well worth it. Apart from being really enjoyable, we got a good feel of what the conditions will be like next week. The roads are bloody awful, when they are not closed for repair that is. The tracks just fan out like streams in a river delta. All of them are usually ok except the most used one, that's normally a cross between a nomad ger and the recycling bin of a vodka shop. They do like a drop; but then it looks like a pretty tough life for a sober man to handle.
Despite all of the assurances, our local flight from Altay in the west to UB was cancelled without notice on the day. This left us with very few options; we could sit it out in the hope that the plane turned up the following day the 23rd; or Amran our driver/super-hero said he could get us back over 1000km in the 30 hrs we had before the flight from UB to Beijing.
After all of these months of effort the thought of missing the start of the rally was looming large. So we went for the super-hero 1000k in a Russian mini bus with a top speed of 85-90kph and the charicteristics of a series two land rover. All of that on 150k of good B road and the rest broken tarmac or dirt track. We made it in 23 hrs with one driver who had no sleep.
Tuesday, 15 May 2007
Ulaan Baatar; bit of a dump, but bloody fantastic
Hi everyone,
Well, that's another of lifes little ambitions sorted.
Ulaan Baatar, or U.B. as we locals like to call it, is a right dump but what a fantastic one. The strongest infleuence until 10 years ago was the soviet union. With that lot leaving guite a few of their hang ups, and winters that would eat away at the fabric of any construction, the place looks as if it is just about to fall apart. But it is still a great place to visit.
Tomorrow we head west in our Soviet jeep. With guide, Esengul; very pretty, and driver, not so good looking.
We are Driving SW for 4 days, some of the time on roads we will be using in the austin, but for the most part hoping to visit different places.
We fly back to U.B. on the 22nd and return to Beijing late on the 23rd.
Well, that's another of lifes little ambitions sorted.
Ulaan Baatar, or U.B. as we locals like to call it, is a right dump but what a fantastic one. The strongest infleuence until 10 years ago was the soviet union. With that lot leaving guite a few of their hang ups, and winters that would eat away at the fabric of any construction, the place looks as if it is just about to fall apart. But it is still a great place to visit.
Tomorrow we head west in our Soviet jeep. With guide, Esengul; very pretty, and driver, not so good looking.
We are Driving SW for 4 days, some of the time on roads we will be using in the austin, but for the most part hoping to visit different places.
We fly back to U.B. on the 22nd and return to Beijing late on the 23rd.
Monday, 7 May 2007
Not Long Now
Right two days to go and I think I might be getting just a bit nervous,or exited I'm not sure which but I'v got that hollow empty feeling that I get when something big in my life is about to happen.
I fly to Biejing on wednesday,meeting Ed there on the thursday. The plan is to do a recce along the Mongolian part of the rally using a jeep hired from a local tour company.We should be able to cover about half of that section in the time we have available.
I should have something a little more interesting than plans to tell you about by then...
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