After extensive reconstruction work on the car over Christmas, James picked up Mike Mike on the 28th of December and drove it home. As of Monday (25th January) the car has a full MOT, tax, and insurance for the next year. It is an incrediable feeling to have made Mongolia in the Morris, but even moreso that it survived its return journey and is still road worthy. I am enourmously proud of her!
 

The Morris has reached James at coordinates 51.5792,-1.4922 - click here to see the latest location
 

The two cars are now back in England and this afternoon the container has been opened to confirm that the two cars have not suffered too badly from the trip. The Polo was not squashed the Morris at least...
 

The Morris has reached Felixstowe at coordinates 51.965359,1.283645 - click here to see the latest location
 

The Morris has reached Bremerhaven at coordinates 53.817501,8.1115875 - click here to see the latest location
 

The Morris has reached Dutch Coast at coordinates 52.723671,4.0478778 - click here to see the latest location
 

The Morris has reached The French Coast at coordinates 50.17578,-0.8093867 - click here to see the latest location
 

The Morris has reached The Channel at coordinates 49.894421, -2.4641099 - click here to see the latest location
 

The Morris has reached Portuguese Coast at coordinates 39.808899,-9.8520803 - click here to see the latest location
 

The Morris has reached The Mediterranean at coordinates 36.21471,14.42104 - click here to see the latest location
 

The Morris has reached South Indonesia at coordinates -8.1854958,101.987 - click here to see the latest location
 

The Morris has reached Singapore at coordinates 1.165278,103.783611 - click here to see the latest location
 

The Morris has reached South China Sea at coordinates 23.300421,119.88 - click here to see the latest location
 

The Morris has reached Tianjin Port at coordinates 38.976667,117.785278 - click here to see the latest location
 

As has already been observed we have a slightly unfortunate final tally of Mongol Rally Cars - 1 to the Gobi Desert's score of 3. We lost the Morris and Polo to some spectacular suspension/steering failures - the Morris has had quite a sizeable hole torn in its engine bay (due to a failure of the bolts holding the shocks to the bulkhead, the infamous trunions are still solid). The Skoda had been suffering from electricity shortages since mid-Kazakhstan and having fought valiantly eventually fell having suffered from pretty well everything in the Haynes manual. The Lada may have rolled into UB under its own steam (setting off car alarms as it went) but it is suffering from a severe lack of power and has half as many drive shafts as it started with (obligatory 2-wheel drive until someone gets creative with an arc-welder).

The cars are now going in various directions. The Skoda meets the Mongolian government's requirements for the waiving of import duty and so is being donated to a charity auction. The Lada has disappeared to an interesting deal with a Kazakh man in a suit. The Morris and Polo have just been loaded (after a lot of running back and forth by Pete and Myself) into a Maersk container bound for Felixstowe (via Beijing) which we have been assured we can track online - the location page may keep working yet.

The Morris team are extremely grateful for the support from our sponsors. ESM Morris Minors, Newton Commercial and DSN Classics generously donated spares which have proved invaluable in keeping our car rolling and G&D's Ice Cream Cafe donated a large quantity of Ice Cream to aid in fundraising. Richard Chapman and his team at Manor Garage in Wantage did a stirling job of coaxing our Morris into as close a state to rally-prepared as is possible with a slightly decrepit chunk of British history. Evidence of the benefit of their work in servicing our engine came from the happy burbling of our tickover even after the Mongolian roads had ripped our front wheel off.

We would all also like to thank everybody who generously donated to our target charities. Our fundraising total stands are £2590.20 - well exceeding our target. The appreciation out here of the support the Mongol Rally attracts is incredible.

We are all beginning to wind our various ways home now so this blog will probably fall quiet for a bit. When I get back to the UK and have a moment of peace I will start work on turning this website over to a record of the trip including this blog, as many photos as I can get hold of and advice for people either doing the rally or driving long distance in Morris Minors.

Finally - thank you to all those who have been following our blog. Apologies for the gaps in coverage and thank you for your comments. Hopefully we have done a little bit to help slow the process of parents going grey...
 

The Lada has crawled into town so everybody has now made it to the Finish line. We're having beers in the conveniently located pub to celebrate before negotiating our various routes home...
 

The Morris has reached Finish Line, Ulaan Baatar at coordinates 47.921922,106.915255 - click here to see the latest location
 

Before I regail you with tales of our mongolian travels, let us observe a minute of silence for two fallen warriors- the great Morris and the majestic Polo.

After leaving Khovd, the four cars had a fun-filled day getting lost and stuck in the gobi desert. Troubles ranged from blow-outs, to deceitful maps, to pulling cars out of mud pits, and finally, to drowning in sand dunes while a dispairing Mongolian family tried to show us the way back to the road.

However, it was not until 100km out of Altai that things really went pear-shaped. The Lada had long been suffering from a failing alternator, and when it finally gave out, the Skoda and the Morris raced ahead to find a tow-truck, while the Polo stayed behind to keep it company.

When we reached Altai, we dispatched a rescue vehicle to tow the Lada, then set about finding a bed for the night. We had just succeeded in this task, when who should roll up but the lada ladies?!?!

The Lada had swapped batteries with the polo in hopes that both cars could make some progress before nightfall. This had worked well until the Polo's steering linkage exploded and the wheels ended up facing each other. Not so good. So the lada beasted on to send word for a flat bed.

While all this was going on, the front suspension of the Morris collapsed during a thoroughly anti-climactic pootle to the garage.

So we were left with two very broken cars, and not a lot of time or money. In the end, after a day of hassling and negotiation, we managed to fix the Lada, and load Morris and Polo onto a giant flat-bed bound for UB.

Pete, Jonas and Sarah travelled on the truck for two days, and got the cars safely into the UB container port. Meanwhile, Jimmy and Dom were bundled into the Lada and the Skoda, who are currently on the road to join us.
 

Well. Rather a lot has happened since the last update in Altai. The Morris made it as far as Altai with an ever increasing front left suspension problem. However, a short trip round the block from the hotel to the garage in Altai proved to be the last straw for the said suspension and the wheel decided to take a little walk away from the straight and true. An investigation under the bonnet showed that the shock absorber had completely sheared its bolts mounting it to the chassis of the car.

Meanwhile...

the polo was nursing the lada to Altai about 100km back as we feared that the Lada had a cracked cylinder, blown headgasket, and general engine brokeness. It was backfiring, and missfiring and producing next to no power (actually grinding to a hault as a result.) After a length of towing in the desert we decided that there might be a problem with the battery (as we had jump started the car at least 6 times over the last few days) we decided to change over the battery with the polo; this resulted in a very much alive Lada, back to her usual self. The polo also was alive with the lada battery (after a jump start) so we put the problem down to a broken alternator in the lada.

With both cars running we set off for Altai, planning to be there within the hour. However, the polo had other ideas and no more than 10 minutes after both cars were once again under there own power the left suspension linkage on the fron wheel of the polo slipped and fell apart, resulting in a knock kneed polo in the sand to the right of the road.

the car was now undrivable and needed to be put onto a flat bed to reach Altai.

James and the Lada Ladies set off in the Lada for Altai, leaving Dom and Peter in the polo with some vodka, beer, water and camping equipment. We hoped desperately that the charge in the polo battery would get us to Altai without running out of juice. We were very much on borrowed time.

arriving an hour later in Altai in the dark, we began desperately looking around for signs with 'Mongol Rally' written on them. Pulling up at the 'Mongol Rally autoservice' we tried to communicate with yet more signs and pictures. No later than 5 minutes after we arrived, the lada died with a flat battery.

That was rather close

The whole story cannot be written here as I have run out of internet time, but the update as of now (Tuesday, 2pm) is as follows

The Polo and Morris left on a flat bed for Ulan Bataar on Saturday with Sarah, Jonas and Peter on board. The Lada and The Skoda bathtub (AKA the Sherbourne Straglers) traveled on with Dom and James joining those cars respectively.

yesterday (monday) we made excellent progress for the first part of the day, but after a fairly severe knock the skoda also died. After consulting the haynes manual in the Gobi desert we were fairly sure than the knock sensor which cuts off fuel to the injectors in the case of a crash had been activated, leaving the car without fuel and unable to run. After another 50km of the skoda being towed by the lada over very tricky terrain the Skoda complained of funny steering and a burning smell. We stopped to discover that the rear axel had sheared its mountings on the right side resulting in the tyre being almost entirely skinned by the wheel arch. with the Skoda going no further either James and the Lada Ladies carried on determined to reach the town before night fall so that an additional flat bed could be found to rescue the boys.

at this stage the three of us remaing were no less than 20km from the town and the tarmac had begun. however, since towing the skoda the lada had been stuck in 4wd mode, increasing fuel consumption and decreasing the speed. Attempts to free the mechanism were futile. Thinking of it as not too much of a problem, we carried on, but shortly after the tarmac started, the Lada stalled and refuesed to start again.

looking under the bonnet we found a fizzing batter and decided to wait for things to cool before starting again. 30 minutes later and still no luck, Lada Lady 1 (nicole) and Jona (not to be confused with Jonas) hitched to town on a truck to try and get us a tow. The tow arrived 3 hours later and began (slowly) to move the lada to civilisation. The vibrating in the cab whhich had begun shortly after towing the skoda got worse and worse under tow, punctuated 5km down the road by a large bang, and a very bad smell. The rear drive shaft had severed itself at the rear CV joint. our truck driver/part time mechanic struggled in the fading light to remover the shaft and continue the tow. We arrived in town an hour later and were greeted by an adventurists rep who sorted everything out. we are now waiting for the lada to be fixed and the skoda to arrive on the flatebed before continuing to UB. What an epic few days!
 

The Morris has reached Altai at coordinates 46.3747,96.2557 - click here to see the latest location
 

The short story: We made it!

The long story:

On Saturday, we collected another rally-ist with a dead car, who was trying to hitch to Mongolia. We bundled him into the back of the Skoda and called him Yuri. But that’s not his real name.

On Sunday, the four cars made an epic journey through the stunning mountains of the Altai Republic to the Mongolian border. But not before being pulled over by the police and detained for driving without insurance. However, this only cost us an hour of driving time thanks to a handy broker-on-wheels who was summoned to our aid. We even managed to evade a hefty fine thanks to some discretely proffered whisky and cigarettes.

Monday was spent crossing the border. And what a border! 25km between the Russian border post and the Mongolian one. Complete with marmots. The Morris, Polo, and Lada all got through the crossing by 5pm (thanks to our carnets), but the Skoda – along with five other cars – was stuck in no-man’s land until morning for their documents to be processed. Cue a party in the immigration compound.

On Tuesday morning, the three cars with all the right stamps headed off into the steppes, with the promise that the Bathtub Boys would catch us up. And so we got our first taste of Mongolian roads. They are not kind. At first, we weren’t even sure if they were even there. Dirt tracks meandered off in all directions like silly-string, leaving us to choose the right path by compass. In some places, it proved wisest to abandon the marked paths all together in favour of the marginally less-bumpy ‘off-road’ option. And so we wended our merry way through the Mongolian mountains. We were re-joined by the Bathtub Boys whilst trying to ford a mountain stream. How ironic!

Of the four cars, the Polo definitely took the hardest beating. It lost its exhaust (two down – two to go!), its sump guard, and, finally, a tyre. We decided to call it a day, pitched camp by a river, lit a fire, and sang camping songs. Honestly.

This morning was nothing short of ridiculous. Just as we thought we were getting clear of the mountains, on the way to straight, flat, safe roads – the fuel tank in the polo ruptured. Then the clutch in the Morris broke. Then the polo lost first and second gear. Things were not looking good. Nevertheless, our broken little convoy managed to roll its way down into the town of Khovd, where, to our surprise and delight – we found a Mongol Rally check point, complete with mechanics, showers, and home-cooking. We’ll be stopped here for tonight while the Morris and Polo are given some TLC, and hopefully get on the ‘road’ to UB again tomorrow.
 

The Morris has reached Khovd at coordinates 48.020013,91.619797 - click here to see the latest location
 

The Morris has reached Mongolian Border at coordinates 49.7112,89.1999 - click here to see the latest location
 

The Mongolian border is getting very close...

We are now convoying with Jen and Nicole who are driving a Lada Niva and Adam and Charlie who are driving a Skoda Felicia. With a bathtub on the roof.

The road out of Almaty proved very easy to begin with - we set off fairly late having waited a long time for our Kazakh beauracracy to be stamped and ended up being given free use of a yurt not far up the road - Nicole's Russian proving very useful. Day-break revealed the vast Kazakh steppe and a large section of map that needed covering before various bits of paperwork expired. So we set off early and made a whole 100 yards before the Morris sprang a leak.

Having quickly established that the leak was water (and therefore thankfully not flammable) James and I set about some head-scratching. The flooded engine bay, large puddle on the floor and empty radiator all pointed towards our earlier efforts to fix the heating system in Istanbul. After much time spent trying to reinforce our handiwork it became apparent that in fact the Morris' slightly aged pipework had split in one place and a short length of rescue tape plugged the hole. Our original fix was apparently sound.

We were joined shortly afterwards by the Bathtub boys in their Skoda. They are struggling with alternator issues (the brush mounting keeps melting which is an easy but regularly needed fix)

It wasn't long before the Lada started to struggle. As it was losing power and overheating quite spectacularly we flagged down a passing lorry in hope of a tow. They insisted on trying to fix the fuel system which also turned out to be leaking but to no avail. As cylinders stopped working and the radiator began to boil we gave up and hooked the tonne-and-a-half of Russian pig iron up to the Polo.

50km later (after a brief stop to allow the Polo's engine to cool off) in a strangely isolated garage with attached motel and cafe (serving excellent Plov) we had our worst fears confirmed - the Lada had completely destroyed its head gasket. Apparently in Kazakhstan this is rather more routine than in the UK and a fix was promised by lunch time the following day. We settled down to eat Plov, drink Beer, congratulate the Polo and make use of the showers.

Following day and all the cars were functioning again (mostly - the Lada still sounds fairly ropey). We struck north across the now completely flat and empty Kazakh countryside in hope of making some good distance with the daylight. It was not to be - with spectacular thunderstorms rolling around the landscape the Lada decided to part company with its exhaust. After a quick bit of struggling underneath and some work on my part with a hacksaw the exhaust is now in two parts - one on the Lada's roof and the other in the Skoda's bathtub. Again we set off making regular stops to cool down the Skoda's alternator.

By now the run to the border was getting very urgent. As we approached our planned stop for the night we were all stopped at a checkpoint where some paperwork tedium was followed by a warning for the Adam and Charlie: because of a missing stamp on an obscure form we didn't know about they would be arrested if they were stopped again before the border. We made the decision to drive from as early as possible in an effort to avoid the Bathtub boys being detained.

The scene the following morning after some absolutely terrible roads - Russian border, 9 very tired rallyists having had varying amounts of not very good sleep, 4 rather weary cars and a collection of very uninterested Kazakh officials in silly hats.

Leaving Kazakhstan proved fairly easy - Adam and Charlie escaped arrest and we were pushed on into no-man's land.

The area between borders in this part of the world is typically rather neglected - in this case a patch of scrubby ground largely occupied by a queue of cars. In this case some abandoned and ruined vans, bits of broken buildings and an outhouse long-drop added to the scenery. Having made a round of coffee on our camping stove two cricket bats and a set of stumps were produced from another rally car and we set about educating the locals in the subtleties of garden cricket. This attracted a lot of amused attention and passed the time very pleasurably - a proper beer to round it off would have been ideal... Having waited rougly 8 hours to be allowed into the Russian immigration compound we were ejected from the other side after 40 minutes of surprisingly easy Russian paper-pushing.

With the convoy back together we set off north into the rain-soaked Siberian countryside aiming to make Barnaul. Having been stopped short by night-fall (time zones are creating some confusion, we think we're 7 hours ahead of the UK at the moment) we set up camp for a brief sleep before setting off again. We are now in Barnaul and have spent one night here - an evening in the local restaurant became rather vodka-fuelled after we were joined by some excitable locals. We made it back to our hotel for a good night's sleep and a day of relaxation today. We will be back on the road again tomorrow for the drive down to the Mongolian border - we have been assured that the road is excellent and we hope to arrive tomorrow evening ready for the border opening on Monday morning.

As a convoy we make quite a sight - one very wobbly VW Polo in need of a full suspension replacement. A Lada Niva with no exhaust - as a result we can set off car alarms simply by driving past. A Skoda Felicia with a bathtub on the roof - this has confused a number of police officers and a Morris Minor which by the time the rest of the convoy has passed is met with expressions ranging from surprise to utter bemusement.
 

The Morris has reached Barnaul at coordinates 53.3478,83.7773 - click here to see the latest location
 

The Morris has reached Russian Border at coordinates 51.2096,81.1153 - click here to see the latest location
 

The Morris has reached Usharal at coordinates 46.1954,80.8670 - click here to see the latest location
 

The Morris has reached Kazakh Yurt at coordinates 44.0919,77.5605 - click here to see the latest location
 

This morning we walked to the most expensive hotel in Almaty, looking like common urchins in our tshirts and jeans to attempt to get our passports stamped with a migration stamp needed for stays in Kazakhstan of over 5 days. While we are waiting for them to be returned I set off accross the city trying to find a garage that would weld the Morris back together.

striking luck I have found a garage that will do the job for 5000 local, or about $34.

while I am waiting my English interpreter at the garage has offered me his computer at his office ?somewhere? to pass the time. How nice of him! All being well we set off for Semey this evening, possibly accompanied with a rather broken Lada Niva...
 

You drive Slow, or wings look like camels... mad gesticulating

Big Problem.

(friendly Kazakh mechanic describes Morris Minor Suspension 'issues')
 

After over 5000 mile, the Morris was showing signs of wear. As Sarah has said, we spent today getting the suspension seen to by highl ammused Kazak mechanics.

I am pleased to report that the front suspension is now a tiny bit Mitsibishi Pajero after a brilliant botch job this afternoon!

The shocks have also been topped up with oil hopefully meaning less action for our sump guard...against the tarmac.

Tomorrow however, we need to have the bonnet catch welded back together as a particularly enthusiastic mechanic tried to close the bonnet, but instead broke some welds and bent rather lot. Bugger.

more updates on the health of the old girl as and when we know more!
 

Let the Borat jokes commence.

After a truley epic day's drive, we reached Almaty on Friday evening. We have ended up spending the weekend in this somewhat stunningly located city (totally surrounded by mountains!) in order to patch up Morris and sort out our immigration stamps. These stamps are somewhat important, as some Ozzie friends of ours discovered when they tried to get on a flight without them, and were turned away from passport control. Ooops. In other news, we may have picked up another Ozzy as part of our convoy - if his car get s fixed!

We have spent today pootling around between garages getting our shocks and suspension sorted out. Hopeflly this should last us to Mongolia! With luck, stamps should eb done tomorrow, and we'll be on our merry way. Our aim is to get to the Russian border by Friday.

In the mean time, we are making the most of the good food and drink Almaty has to offer. Tonight going to try and take a cable car up to a pretty view.

Which means I should get off the internet, or tehy'll leave without me!
 

The Morris has reached Almaty at coordinates 43.2482,76.9510 - click here to see the latest location
 

The Morris has reached Shymkent at coordinates 42.3592,69.5375 - click here to see the latest location
 

Sorry you have heard very little from us since we left Ashgabat. Our travels have been as follows:

After we left Dom in Ashgabat, we powered through Turkmenistan (hereafter known as Absurdistan for it's lack of ATMs, excess of sand and rogue cammels) to the border.

We then had the easiest border crossing ever into Uzbekistn - just one hour! At the border, we ran into some Thunderbirds, and some very unfortunate South Africans stuck in no-man's land because their Uzbek visas didn't start until October! Not cool.

Once in Uzbekistan, we found our way to Buckara - which was so stunning that we were forced to spend the next morning there looking around all the amazing old buildings and eating good food. It's a hard life.

The next stop was Samarkand, then onto Tashkent, where we spent last night with the intention of crossing the border into Kazakhstan today.

Hopeing to get to Almaty sometime tomorrow in time to meet Dom, and also to get our cars looked over before we hit the off-road-on-road farce that is northern Kazakhstan.
 

The Morris has reached Samarqand at coordinates 39.6716,66.9700 - click here to see the latest location
 

The Morris has reached Bukhara at coordinates 39.766667,64.433333 - click here to see the latest location
 

The Morris has reached Turkmenabat at coordinates 39.0971,63.5837 - click here to see the latest location
 

The Morris has reached Ashgabat at coordinates 37.8620,58.7551 - click here to see the latest location
 

Seems like a good deal's changed since we last saw an internet connection. The drive to Baku took two days rather than the one we had hoped for - seems all the roads in Azerbaijan are either rubble or in the process of being turned into it. We did manage to find a very remote but upmarket hotel to break the journey. In spite of the rumours about the trouble in Baku we think we may have taken the rally record for the least time spent there. From arrival (with no city map) through navigation using only sense of direction to the extremely well hidden port and on to the ferry took 6 hours. Tickets were rather expensive and the ferry was really very strange. The ageing Russian railway transporter is very short on amenities - we spent the mercifully short journey (20 hours) in the company of an interesting assortment of passengers. Our arrival in to Turkmenistan was not exactly a smooth process - border control is both complicated and expensive. Cue hand waving and very protracted games of charades. Having escaped into Turkmenbashi we found a slightly incongruous but very comfortable hotel. Our drive from Turkmenbashi on the coast to Ashgabat was expected to take a day. At the end of the first day of driving having spent a lot of time trying to work out the complexities of buying fuel and bouncing along yet another terrible road through the scorching desert we found ourselves in the middle of nowhere. Rather than risk any night driving we decided to pitch camp having been assured that there is no problem in rural areas. We sat around our camping stove as the sun set cooking a strange but filling meal. We rose at the crack of dawn to a stunning desert sunrise and prepared to set off. Our first serious mechanical problem followed - the Morris refused to start. James and I rolled our sleeves up and settled down to some diagnostics. Over an hour later and with oil up to my elbows we had narrowed the problem down to the distributor and had replaced various components of it to no avail. With the sun now rising fast and the desert getting very hot we admitted defeat and produced our tow-rope. We then had the fun of the Polo towing the Morris for 100km on pot holed roads before spotting a small garage/scrap heap. We parked up outside, exchanged "salams" and I set about trying to explain ignition problems in snatchs of Russian, English and more charades. It turns out most of a Morris Minor distributor is strangely similar to that of Lada and after some deft blows with a hammer our trusty Morris roared back into life. The huge group of very friendly and now grinning mechanics refused any form of payment, settling instead for photographs of themselves with the car. And the encouragement we take from the experience is that we had identified the problem part - we just didn't hit it in the right way... Strangely a motorway sprang into being shortly after this garage leading into Ashgabat - after a fast and easy drive we find ourselves in the business suite of a very grand five star hotel (which we can't afford) before setting out to find accomodation in our price range. In the immediate future we have reliable information that there is a good British ex-pat pub near here somewhere. Next job is to make it to the border before the end of Monday when our visas expire.
 

The Morris has reached Turkmenistan at coordinates 38.9619,56.3874 - click here to see the latest location
 

The Morris has reached Baku at coordinates 40.3719,49.8652 - click here to see the latest location
 

The Morris has reached Rural Azerbaijan at coordinates 40.5982,47.1686 - click here to see the latest location
 

The Morris has reached Small Town Georgia at coordinates 42.0274,43.5383 - click here to see the latest location
 

We've had a lovely weekend in Georgia. Jonas played grease-monkey and fidled about with the Morris for a morning, while I helped/hindered. I now know what a drive-shaft, diff, break-shoe, and grease-nipple do/mean!

Yesterday afternoon, we were invited to a lovely local family's house and fed lots of good food and coffee, and generally had a good time. Gerogians are incredibly friendly and hospitable people!

Jimmy's been discharged from the hospital today, and so we're hitting the road again now. Hoping to get to Baku by tomorrow evening.
 

A lot's happened since we last checked in!

We spent 2 days driving across Turkey and the Black Sea Coast, which was beautiful and non-eventful for the most part. Except that Jimmy's tummy went a bit squiffy.

Two nights ago, we headed off the main road 30km from the Georgian border, and found a gorgeous campsite by a river. We also met the German-Turkish family who owned the land and gave us many fresh hazelnuts, then invited us in for coffee! We whiled away the evening chatting to them, with the invaluable help of Dom's German translation skills.

Yesterday morning when we got up James felt worse, so the same kind Germans ran him down to the local clinic to get antibiotics and some fluids. They then bought us a delicious lunch - completely restoring our faith in the milk of human kindness - and sent us on our way.

We spent 4 hours crossing the border into Georgia. Fun times.

Despite being freshly fed, watered and medicated, Jimmy's tummy got even more squiffy - to the stage that we decided he needed a doctor. At this point, we descended into farce.

We were staying in a hostel outside the town of Poti, across the hallway from a Georgian champion boxer! When we communicated the situation to the hostel staff, they summoned an ambulance for us, and the boxer offered his services as an interpreter. Except he didn't speak English. The rest of our evening involved a soviet hospital, ultra-sounds, exursions through the city in a thinderstorm, phone calls to Russian friends*, medic friends** and a lot of charades. It is best retold orally, and accompanied by a glass of wine/beer.

In the end, it was concluded that Jimmy has gastro-enteritis, and will be staying in the hospital until Monday. So we've moved into a hostel across the street, which is also an eco-lodge! - and are preparing for a fun-filled Georgian weekend.

Jimmy is looking perkier by the minute, and both cars are running fine.

Over and out.

*Thanks Hal and Nu!

**Thanks to Andrew and Richard!
 

The Morris has reached Poti at coordinates 42.0961,41.7055 - click here to see the latest location
 

The Morris has reached Hopa at coordinates 41.3161,41.3362 - click here to see the latest location
 

The Morris has reached Black Sea Coast at coordinates 41.1448,37.2770 - click here to see the latest location
 

We had our first semi car problem this morning, though thankfully it did not count as a breakdown (as there is £20 riding on the first car to go, a breakdown is classified as a still stationary car one hour after the bonnet has been raised).

After a long day yesterday, with delay being caused by visa collection (we now have a full set of Azerbaijan visas) we pulled up at a fuel station near Gerede and spent the night in some hotel like rooms in their basement.

This morning we woke up to pea soup fog outside and realised that we were high up in the mountains. The Morris refused to start shortly afterwards, presumably as a result. However, shortly after the fog lifted, with the help of some head scratching and spraycan petrol we are back on the road enjoying the stunning Turkish countryside.
 

The Morris has reached another section of Turkish highway at coordinates 40.8680,32.6116 - click here to see the latest location
 

Sitting for the fourth morning outside our hostel in Istanbul, all of us are beginning to get rather restless and keen to get back on the road. Without Azeri visas Dominic & I pushed ahead in the polo presuming that we could get to Istanbul before the weekend and get our visa application processed before the weekend. After completely failing to make up any time while away from the Morris (due not entirely to bad roads in Romania and Bulgarian beach resorts) the Polo had made up no more than half an hour over the others by the time we passed into Turkey. Over the weekend we have had a wonderful time chilling out and for Dominic and myself a less wonderful time Trotting around Thrace looking for, and failing to find the Azeri consulate. After thee hours we located it in leafy suburbia (complete with armed security gaurds at most corners) we spent a further 3 hours perfecting our visa application before being told we were to wait another day before collection. We were not in the worst situation by any means though - a Canadian team we meet at the consulate were told that it would take 3 days to process!  

Applying for visas is really rubbish. IG#28072009431#IG

This morning we are packing the cars up and re-assembling the roof racks. We also need to test that we haven't totally broken the morris's coolant system as we replaced the cockpit heater valve yesterday. More news on that later from a few miles down the road! IG#28072009433#IG

James

 

apologies for neglecting to mention the status of the polo during our brief parting of the ways! I have only just received the comments from previous entries asking about their progress. both cars have kept individual tracks on their progress while apart, which we will upload on our return.

having reunited in turkey, I'd like to assure all readers that we have no intention of splitting up from here on in, and that all future blog and location updates will be pertinent to both cars.
 

on friday, we crossed the border into Turkey. In a desperate bid to get to the Azeri embassy before closing for the weekend, we sent dom and jimmy in the polo to the next border along, which was a faster road to istanbul. however, our cunning plan failed, as neither car had it's registered owner present at the crossing. This led to three fun filled hours for Morris in no-mans-land while we waited for jimmy to find a fax to send us written permission t drive it. This he did with a felt tip pen, which caused the border guards to fall about with laughter. In the end, we got in on pure comedy value.

the convoy Re-grouped on the other side - by this time we had picked up some ozzies and three chaps in a suzuki swift - and we hurtled to istanbul. after getting spectacularly lost in the centre, we arrived at our hostel well after dinner, so are stuck here until Monday, when the consulate Re-opens. No complaints here!

no complaints from the hostel staff either. Apparently having a battered old car parked up front is good for business. The restaurant manager has lured in many customers with the promise of selling them our morris after dinner!

we shall spend the weekend being tourists and spending far too muchmoney on good food before downing our rallys hats again on monday.
 

The Morris has reached Istanbul at coordinates 41.0055,28.9800 - click here to see the latest location
 

The Morris has reached Turkish Border at coordinates 41.7146,26.3593 - click here to see the latest location
 

The Morris has reached Motel by nature, Moteë by name at coordinates 42.4320,23.8508 - click here to see the latest location
 

The Morris has reached Lugoj at coordinates 45.6817,21.8978 - click here to see the latest location
 

Apolopgies for going in-communicado for the last few days. Apparently our phones don't like connecting to South Eastern European internet...

So, on Wedesday we drove all the way down Hungary and into Romania. Apart from being rather aggressively accosted by Romanian wind-screen cleaners at the border, we had no problems. We also met up with a Scotish team in a big green monster, one of who was called Muir (first name) - he and Jonas immediately bonded.

Romanian cities are ridiculous. Once you get into the center, sign-posting seems to bcome optional, so we spent a fun hour negotiating Arad - only managing to drive out on a disused tram-line. That evening we made it to Lugoj - a very pretty city indeed. I recommend it. Yesterday morning, we got up at six a.m. so that we could get to Sofia by 3 to pick up Pete. And it's a good thing we did. Apparently, the Romanians have decided to rebuild their roads. All of them. At the same time.

En route we picked up a blue rally car with a boat strapped to its roof.It took us 7 hours to reach the ferry crossing into Bulgaria. there, we met a lovely British couple who told us how to navigate sofia - where they said the motor-way suddenly melted into cobbled back-roads with no warning. They were right. Their directions were so good, that we managed to find Pete just as dusk was beginning to fall. Apparently, he had never been happier to see a Morris Minror.

Motor-way hotel last night. Today we go to Istanbul. Jonas is now armed with a Turkish t-shirt to charm the border guards.

Over and out for now!
 

The Morris has reached Györ at coordinates 476855,176417 - click here to see the latest location
 

The map works now - using a computer in Hungary to remove a single out of place apostrophe from our database now means that you can see our location section for a trace of where we have driven so far. Today has been largely uneventful. We have covered a lot of ground, making it all the way across Austria and into Hungary. And we picked up some Canadians in gold honda 4x4 which has even less grunt up hills than our trusty morris, so we decided to convoy with them to give our egos a boost. We assume we are near the back of the pack, since everywhere we stop people say Oh! there are more of you just round the next corner... Tomorrow is the big push across Hungary and Romania, so that we can pick up Pete (our comrade from Mission Mongolia) in Sofia on Thursday. Will we make it? Or will Pete be left stranded in an unknown city? Can you feel the tension mounting? Tune in tomorrow to find out whether Pete survives the trauma of the international arrivals terminal. I've been sitting still too long. Jonas suggests I rhapsodize about the beautiful country side, but I think I will let you wait for the photos. On a final note, the Austrian petrol stations make good cheese and ham toasties.
 

yesterday afternoon saw all the rally cars converge in a muddy field in the Czech republic for the long awaited czech-out party. and what a send off it was! much free gin, beer, and tea, as well as a top rate wash-board band. Hilarity ensued.

this morning we bid a sad farewell to our convoy as they set off for the ukraine. Currently driving through the most stunning countryside you could wish for on the way to turkey.
 

The Morris has reached Klenova Castle at coordinates 49.3342,13.2288 - click here to see the latest location
 

The Morris has reached Wurzburg at coordinates 49.7792,10.2420 - click here to see the latest location
 

having powered on through until three a.m. last night, we finally pulled up at a service station outside Gent, where we stumbled upon about twenty other rally teams, and made camp with them. In the rain. In the dark. with beer!

we got up at 7.30 this morning with the noble intention of crossing belgium and most of germany today. Our plans were foiled by a detour through central Brussels. In convoy with two other teams affectionately known as Charlie and the Death Wagon. Much fun with two way radios No chocolate or beer stops.currently cruising down a german autobahn.
 

The Morris has reached Germany Somewhere at coordinates 49.9492,7.9325 - click here to see the latest location
 

The Morris has reached Gent? at coordinates 50.9620,3.8657 - click here to see the latest location
 

The Morris has reached somewhere near Ghent at coordinates 50.9688,3.8407 - click here to see the latest location
 

The Morris has reached service station car park at coordinates , - click here to see the latest location
 

The Morris has reached james at coordinates 51.0422,2:5230 - click here to see the latest location
 

The Morris has reached Goodwood Circuit at coordinates 50.8591,-0.7539 - click here to see the latest location
 

The Morris has reached S'oton at coordinates 50.9320,-1.3990 - click here to see the latest location
 

The Morris has reached Newbury at coordinates 51.5502,-1.2943 - click here to see the latest location
 

After much messing around with bungy cords, spare tires and trying to water-proof loo rolls we are off! And only a couple of hours later than we'd hoped... Having made an essential stop for lunch (ham 'n cheese) we are now meandering down the A34 in the general direction of the south coast, Sarah at the wheel. We're getting used to life in the very slow lane...
 

Morris to Mongolia would like to say a big thank you to G&Ds for their contribution to our general japery.

On Saturday last, Jimmy and Sarah headed off to the Cumnor Parish Fete, armed with 20 litres of Oxford’s best ice-cream and a large scoop. After twenty nail-biting minutes as the intrepid duo hurtled round the ring-road as fast as the little car could go (so as not to melt our precious cargo) we arrived at the Cumnor vicarage.

The stall was set up at 2pm, and hilarity ensued as the pair took turns running back and forth to the kitchen freezer to scoop out more cups of ice-cream. By 2.30 – most of the ice-cream was gone.

At the end of a very long, pleasant English summer day at an English church fete, Morris to Mongolia took home £110 from our ice-cream sales. This should easily get us through Turkmenistan!

Thank you G&Ds, and thank you to the good people of Cumnor for their sweet teeth.
 

Richard Chapman and his team at the Manor Garage have worked their magic and we have taken delivery of our shiny new Morris - now with working electronics, brakes, clutch and handbrake amongst other things...  

We are hugely grateful to everyone at the Manor Garage - not only is the car now driving like a showroom model (almost) we have also learnt rather a lot about (attempting) self repair.