Stranded in Mongolia

Crossed the border 4 days ago, but it's not been easy going since. The first full day we drove for 100km until the road vanished completely into an endless nothingness. After careful consultation with the illustrative Mongolia map in the lonely planet it was decided that backtracking was the only option. When we made it into a town there was a festival on because some big Mongol General was in town. Naturally we were invited to sit at his table to watch the dancing and wrestling tournament. We finally dragged ourselves away and made it to the first 'city' Ogli (probably about 30,000 people).

Tried to leave town yesterday, but car broke down shortly after setting off. The Unlikely Lads gave us a tow back in and it was straight to the garage. It was only minor really, the fuel pump was blocked, the vacuum pump on the distributor had fallen off and the boulder sized dent in the sump had broken the oil pipe up to the driveshaft. It's potentially fixable, but we're still waiting. In the meantime we're investigating the cost of loading it into a lorry to Ulaan Bataar and the cost of motorbikes to ride alongside. Should only be 4 days drive to UB, but not sure when that'll start.

In the meantime loving Mongolia, one of the most amazing places I've visited. Loads of teams passing through as well so there's plenty of fun.

Travelling with Alex from team 241, website is as follows, might be some photos going up http://www.241mongolrally.it/

Almaty

It's been a while. After the last message we got offered a lift in Istanbul by the guys from Perseverance, who we hitched with through the whole of Turkey and Azerbaijan. We arrived in Baku to find one of the weekly ferries to Kaz was leaving that day, so we jumped at the chance and got the prone to sinking ferry. After 16 hours at Kazakhstan customs we were finally in Kaz. Since then we have spent 68 hours pretty much continuosly on trains to arrive in Almaty. Still trying to find somewhere to stay but I'm sure we can sort that. There's even some chat about the Opera tonight? Check us out.

I'm meant to be back at work on Monday, so don't know where we go from here, but I'm sure something is sortable and we've come so far it would be a huge shame not to make it.