Monday 27^th September

Met Ian and Andy at 9.00 to change the front wheel bearing which they discovered needed changing yesterday. Yikes! All the mechanics were banned from working on cars so we had to do it very quietly out the back and not tell.

We then meandered off for lunch with Toby. Found a very strange little restaurant where we had to mime what we wanted and sat chatting for so long that it was nearly dinner when we got back. Went out for a drink and chips with Alex. Then back to hotel to blog, which won’t work! Try again in Shymkent…

Sunday 26^th September

Took car around the corner to a garage organised by James Elliott who has no car but has flown his mechanic, Tony, out to fix this vanished vehicle. All we really wanted was an oil change, but the garage owner spent 4 hours buying the oil, which was a bit embarrassing because there was a queue, followed by a bit of angst, for the ramp we were already on. There was lots of friendly chat other than that. We decided we rather like hanging a garage getting our hands dirty. A local pulled up thinking Rachel worked there from the state of her hands!

Alex Harvey arrived today so he took us to the green market where we bought dried fruit with a bit of a haggle from Alex, luckily because they wanted to charge £20!, a green fur hat and a pot of honey for our porridge.

Meanwhile Andy and Ian were fixing the bits we couldn’t get done earlier with the promise of the most expensive beer on the planet, ie from the Intercontinental.

We all went out to an amazing restaurant organised by Jorges which had very ‘tastiful’ food and belly dancers! We all got up and danced, only realising later that the entertainment was laid on for another party. Oops!

Can't add photos. Sorry. but will keep trying.

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In spite of the rather lumpy tussocks under our tent, we slept quite well which surprised us. Had a nice stroll int Almaty, keeping to our times almost perfectly. stopped for coffee in a cafe at first time control and couldn't work out why all the organisers were hurrying us on, but supposed they wanted to get to the Intercontinental for a feel of civilisation and not hang around waiting for us. Well, 2 gin and tonics, which we felt we deserved after the rigours of claiming a room without a double bed which had presumably been booked for 2 years, cost £50! Ha. The Kazakhs know how to get rich.

Came down to transport cafe style breakfast room to be presented with a bowl of cornflakes with warm milk and a plate of rice pudding!? Well, we ate the pud and saved the roll and cheese she brought out next for our lunch. There are some days we wont get fat.

Oh! The car didn't start at all! Not even a little whisper from it. The battery under passenger seat so frantic efforts to get to it, hammer, screwdriver.... but it didn't respond to charger and pump light on anyway. We are slow learners, but learning. Suzy ran inside and found Xavier who asked for a hammer, bashed the starter and away we went. New name Saviour/Xavier. Only 5 mins late for time control. Started on hideously bad tarmac road. Problem in these parts is they let you on to the roads while they are still making them so they are ruined before they start.

Most cars toot their horns and wave as they pass, but we trundled a long wondering where all the other competitors were when a tooting car appeared beside us with young men in it. They started driving in front, slowing down, swerving from side to side, indicating for us to pull over, etc. We were afraid. We bolted the doors and wondered what to do when, eventually the 2 Bruces hove into sight and Suzy hit the horn. They realised we were in trouble and came as if to drive them off the road which did get rid of them. Phew. The first time we felt vulnerable. More Saviours.

Camping again tonight. No showers. Delicious Kazakh food and a rather sweet folk singing and dancing display slightly made up for it. After our scrub in Russia and Semey we still felt cleaner than we had for some time.

alarm went off at 6am. Took minibus to our main hotel for breakfast and left at our correct time. Amazing that we could get going when in England we would never have lifted our heads from the pillow. Another long drive, but in daylight today so we saw a little of Russia- big,big farming country over huge plains with the longest belts of treeds we've ever seen, or couldn't see because they went so far. Border control into Kazakhstan only took about 3 hours which was a bit of a relief, but the hotel in Semey was a bit of a surprise, although we shouldn't be surprised any more. We were on the 2nd floor but there was no 2 in the lift. Up, down, up, down, found a cleaner who sent us up, another who sent us down and showed us the stairs! Rachel's room enormous and bizarre, Suzy's palatial with velvet armchairs and a coffee table. Went out for dinner, but falling asleep in our soup.

Wednesday 22nd September Oh my God we have never been so cold, ice on our blankets and rumours of it being -12C! Several people have hypothermia. However we changed the spark plugs yesterday, yes us all by ourselves! And the car was firing on all cylinders. We queued in number order at the border and queued and queued and it took 7 hours ugh! So we eventually got all the way through at 3.30pm and then had 700km to drive.It was very beautiful, such a contrast to Mongolia driving through woods and beside an amazing river with people fishing. This was completely mad. We said to each other we can do this if we share the driving and so we did but arrived exhausted at 2.30am- to be told that the hotel hadn’t allocated rooms. There was a lot of hand waving and frustration and we got on a minibus to take us to another hotel in the complex. In to bed at 3am after finally getting to scrub some of the filth off, even though we had dreamed of long hot soaks in delicious baths… not in these prison cells!

Sunday 19th September A late start and a short day, but tight time so we went pretty fast, for the old girl, to Khovd and made our time by 2 minutes. Trying to claw some back after our rotten day on Friday. Yet another beautiful day. Wow this country is magnificent. At our pretty campsite in the sun we lay around being idle and trying to make Suzy’s petrol stove work, to no avail and now we are all rather frightened it might blow up. Very relaxed, noisy, boozy dinner as we have day off tomorrow in camp.Not sure what we’ll do other than wash our knickers.

Today was declared non competition which was a huge relief as the car was not a bit well. Simone Ayeris worked on it for about 3 hours fixing the axle, the pin had sheared off, and straightening up the spring in order to thread the new pin through. He also cleaned up the oil pump cap which was leaking. We hit the road at 11.30 and had a beautiful drive over roads which felt less bumpy because we were in less of a hurry, but we still had to make it into camp for a passage control. We travelled through stunning mountainous scenery, totally unpopulated with black jagged volcanic hills surrounding us as we were on the plains between. It is very high, about 6000ft so cold and sunny. A lot of deep sandy patches on the road which we managed to plough through on our trusty off road tyres, which have been commented on a lot, until the last and most spectacular where we finally ground to a halt. As luck would have it, there was a landrover waiting to pull us out. But we did fell a little bit silly. Not as silly as the South Africans who started their car this morning and, for the first time in history it started first try but was in reverse, shot back and onto someone’s tent, and they were in it! A bit of a rude awakening. Fitted new spark plugs which did mean we flew! Finished our day at Teel River with a glass of wine, or two, watching the sunset with Craig and Nicky.

Friday 17th September What a day… We woke up so so cold. Our feet like ice blocks. The condensation in our tent and on our sleeping bags was frozen. Mongolia can be very bitter, but we were trying not to be! Then the car wouldn’t start! We missed our time as we were towed around the carpark trying to bump start and eventually got going half an hour late. We stopped to help Biddy and Bill Bolsover who had worn out a wheel bearing but ours didn’t fit. While we rummaged for that discovered oil all over Rachel’s foot and trousers…the oil pump cap was leaking oil in through the clutch pedal hole! Passing a stationary car, smiling and waving they shouted back, “Your bumper’s fallen off!” In disbelief we leapt out to see indeed it was hanging off and as we tied it it up Suzy said, “ hang on, the spare spring has disappeared!” oops. A little further along realised front wheel bearing a bit loose. That was easy to deal with and feeling pleased with ourselves rushed on to attempt to still make our final time control of the day. It was pushing it and had to average 30mph over really rocky, corrugated, potholed, dreadful roads when suddenly we heard a terrible sound from the rear wheel. The axle had slipped! Paddy Judge was our saviour and on his 2nd attempt at banging and strapping we limped into to town for fuel and were led to camp by Simon Ayeris arriving at 11pm, too late for a shower! Very tired and sad.

Thursday 16th September Early in the day we had three river crossings. Ah. The first one was not a huge success as we stalled on exit, but managed to get started again. At the next one we had a “you go”, “no you go” with John and Henry Raker who we persuaded to do the gentlemanly thing and lead us through. We couldn’t pull ourselves out though and the Rakers carried on. Huh! We did mention it to them later…Luckily loads of Mongolians were there to help Suzy push. For about 300 more km we travelled over dreadful bumpy hard roads, endlessly crashing around swerving and braking all day, so exhausted but every time Rachel relaxed at the wheel we crashed into yet another rock or hole. We eventually arrived at camp by White Lake (Tsagaan Nuur) in the freezing cold. What a shock after being so hot before.

Wednesday 15th September

We were sent off from UB Sukhbaatar (Parliament) Square with great fanfare by the mayor and a brass band. We hit the road and the road hit us with pot holes in the tar big enough to lose a car in but not big enough to give any warning. Only one time trial on a pretty straight but quite bumpy dirt road. Not difficult but some people did get lost. How? We had to overtake a hay lorry on the wrong side through the thick grass coming down a steep hill, but hey, it was nothing! Then a long straight tar road all the way to Kharkhorin where we queued for fuel for a mere hour then walked around the ruins of the oldest monastery in Mongolia. The Russians destroyed them all in the forties but they are trying to rebuild now. Beautifully windswept and eerie. Then our turn to get lost finding the yurt!. We tried 4 before we finally found our rather amusingly quaint accommodation…1 room, four beds and a kiddie table and stools. Lucky us we are not sharing like others because we are ‘the girls’.

Ulaan Baatar

This morning we worked on the car in the hotel carpark with Andy and Ian. Suzy greased all the nipples. We cleaned out the ball joint but realised the ball joints on steering arm were stiff too so changed the whole thing. Philip Woodhouse had kindly given us the name of a sugar friend who we contacted, a charming man called Temuujin who showed us the city and the cashmere factory shop,and took us to a delicious local restaurant. we then had an amazing experience seeing traditional Mongolian dancers and a contortionist! Off to the desert again tomorrow so blogging might be difficult...

Erenhot to Sainshand

Spent hours crossing the border from China into Mongolia queueing in seperate drivers and navigators queues with bits of paper that sometimes we were told to hand in then we were told to keep, always being told to HUSH! eventually navigators went through and drivers back to the cars for inspection and more queueing. Luckily we were relatively quick and before we knew it were on a really tough time trial on rough dirt road that went on and on and on for 200 odd km! We made all the times which we were pretty thrilled and surprised by. When we could look sideways and not at the road ahead (Rachel) or at routebooks, GPS etc (Suzy) we saw mile upon mile of flat open desert with only groups of camels or horses, some cattle, sheep or goats to punctuate it. Finally we reached the campsite near Sainshand which was a bit tricky to find so we arrived over the hill when most of the rest came by track, or truck... Camping was interesting especially as it was right by a busy railway with huge diesel engines pulling 30 or 40 trucks. This morning was a beautiful sight through sore dusty eyes of the sunrise over the Gobi followed by more successful time trials on more dirt road, another 200 km. Poor car doesn't know what hit it, or it hit in some of the bumps, but is holding up wonderfully with only a little problem with a ball jopint which we can fix. In Ulaan Baatar now, more train noise but a welcome bed for 2 nights. Phew! Seems we are coming 15th in Vintageant category. Wow! certainly didn't expect that, but it is early days....

Now on the border with Mongolia having driven on to the plateau yesterday and had amazing views that stretched for miles and miles. On the outskirts of Erenhot there was a Dinosaur park with life size bronze statues of every dinosaur you can imagine dotted in the fields around us-surreal! Going to start the desert today which is a bit scary - lot of stories from last time about how hot it is and how easy to get lost! Camping tonight - if we get there!! in Sainshand

First day of the rally and we were off at 6am after a hideously sleepless night. Could have been excitement but the pneumatic drill outside our room didn't help! We didn't get lost at all but did have to assist with some motorway reversing for our friends! Got to the Great Wall which was beautiful through the roar of trucks, and then drove through mountains and then lush collective farms with happy smiley people all along roadside. Suzy got roughest road to drive. We thought roughest street in China. But she did it like a farm girl. Ah. Nice beer (or tea) at Daihai hotel! What an achievement. Yay! Let's hear it for girls.

We arrived in Beijing on tuesday via Copenhagen. Denmark was flat and soggy looking! Beijing is humid, smoggy,sweaty and noisy so we jumped in a taxi to the summer palace which was serene and beautiful with boats on a lake. Yesterday we collected our car from the warehouse. It was so exciting to see it. It hadn't changed but it did run out of fuel on the way to the service station. So embarrassing but we made new friends in all the people who stopped to help. And then some in the long queue for fuel. Gotta fix the brake today. Ian and Andy offered to help. Phew! Scrutineering today and Nigel's up to his practical jokes already....