Most recent twittering:

Check  out the Where are we now link  for our last reported location!

We have photos on flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/silkroadtaxi/

And even more photos on flickr! http://www.flickr.com/photos/jarcon123/

02 September 2009:

Queuing on the Russian border at 8am on the Monday morning were about 30 rally teams.  We finally got processed and were allowed into the 30 mile stretch of No-Mans land between Russia and Mongolia at 3pm.  The Mongolian border closes at 7pm…the math just didn’t add up to things working out right.  Arriving at the Mongolian border crossing we discovered it didn’t matter what time you got there, the Mongolians weren’t allowing anyone in.  The Adventurists had organised for the cars to be imported into the country, and while the Mongolian government was happy to let all the people into the country, the cars were proving more difficult.  So they decided in their infinite wisdom to keep all the cars in a compound overnight.  Just nearby was a very small village where the border guards and their families lived. Some enterprising Mongolians living there saw a business opportunity, and started selling Korean beer to thirsty ralliers out of their living rooms. So the result was that there were about 80 people and 80 crates of beer all stuck at the border post for the night.  You can probably guess the outcome. (I don’t think the Mongolians had ever been to Brighton on a Saturday night).  What followed was one of the best nights of the trip.  Much beer, cooking over camp stoves, chatting, and some terrible, terrible dancing (which was caught on camera…pictures may be published) happened through out the evening.  We also met some very cool people, as apart from the Czech Out party, this was the first chance we had to spend time with other teams. The highlight of the night has to be when 4 ralliers climbed the 4 very very tall guard towers with flares and set them off simultaneously…it makes for some very pretty pictures and some very very annoyed border guards.   The border guards came storming out of their houses at various point during the night to tell us to be quiet…it didn’t work very well!  Things finally wound down and most people slept in their cars. 

The border opened at 9 the next day and by mid day one of our cars had been processed…unfortunately having two cars that have to stay together meant we were there until 5pm, which is when they processed the 2^nd one.  By the time we left most of the other cars had gone…and luckily for the 15 or so cars coming through the border from Russia that day, the Mongolians decided they didn’t want a repeat of the previous nights party and processed everyone else through as fast as possible. 

This was by far the longest border crossing…coming in at a total of 33 hours.  Once clear of the border we set off in convoy with the Daihatsu Boys for Olgii.

Next update: Crossing Mongolia

23rd August 2009

Back in the USSR! Well nearly... After the long border crossing from Kazakhstan back into Russia, we were keen to get out of the flat, monotonous steppe scenery so we pushed on through Barnaul and into the Altai mountains. The Mongolian border closes over the weekend so we had a few days to enjoy the mountains - certainly worth it since they are beautiful. We found a couple of wonderful rivers to swim in and a second set of friendly Russians offered us booze. They were not about to take 'no' for an answer!

We shared a campsite with an Italian team who were taking part in a different charity rally to Mongolia. They were driving an enormous IVECO jeep, so while sitting around the campfire that night we extracted promises from them that they would tow our cars out of trouble if we ever got stuck in Mongolia. Cant hurt to have an extra ace up your sleeve...

We spent Sunday night camping with several other teams on the Russian side of the Mongolian border so that we would be ready and waiting for the border to open on Monday morning. Beers were opened, vodka bottles were passed around and it turned into a bit of a party complete with flares waved from the top of a fur-covered fire engine. No joke!

22nd August 2009

If you have been following twitter, you will have seen that we arrived in Ulaan Baatar a few days ago. Since we didn't manage to update much while on the road, we will be filling you in in installments now...

Leaving Astana turned out to be much more complicated than we first imagined. Something to do with us not having the correct number of stamps on our visa, which would have caused lots of problems trying to leave the country. Having been brushed aside by the immigration police who were supposed to be able to supply us with the correct stamps, we contacted the British Embassy to help us out. After a large amount of negotiation between the embassy and various departments of the Kazakh beurocracy we found a travel company who could sort us out.  Just when we thought we had got all the paperwork done and were driving out of the city, we realised that one of the passports was still missing a stamp, so we had to go through the process again. All in all it took an extra 3 days.

Having finally gotten out of Astana we high-tailed it to the Russian border.  The plan was to get through as fast as possible and push on for the Altai mountains for the weekend.  As with all best laid plans, the border was super busy, with hardly any staff working.  The two cars got seperated in the queue by only 5 cars but it resulted in a 2 1/2 hour difference in being processed.  Meanwhile Ed was busy sleeping off a bottle of vodka.  The car in front of us heading out of Kazakhstan was full of very friendly Russian blokes who took a shine to Ed.  This led to an awful lot of Vodka being drunk.  This made the time pass much quicker (even with the aid of a bottle of booze, Ed's tongue refused to produce the rolled 'r' sounds required to speak Russian) but it meant he was incapable of dealing with the paperwork to cross the border and Kate became the registered owner of one of the cars for a brief period (no-one seemed to notice or care). 

We thought our 9 hour border crossing was bad, but while waiting in no-man's land between Kazakhstan and Russia, we ran in to another rallier from South Africa who was stuck there for 4 days. A slight mix-up with his visa dates meant that he wasn't allowed back into Kazakhstan, but could not go in to Russia either.

Tune in for the next installment: the Altai Mountains of Russia.

3rd August 2009

Another update from The Silk Road Taxi Team.  I week into the rally and we have made it through the Czech and Slovak Republics and into the Ukraine.  A few of the highlights from the last week include camping next to a beautiful lake in Slovakia, near the Ukrainian border about 3 days ago.  We then crossed our first 'proper' border, into the Ukraine.  3 1/2 hours in the baking sun and we made it through.  Unfortunately we saw our first team falter.  They were travelling on a temporary V5 and were refused entry.  Last heard they were heading back to bratislava to have to correct documents DHLed to them.

We are now in Odessa, having driven over 1000Km from the border in two days.  It doesn't sound very far but a lot of the roads are very bad and we spent long periods of time driving at 30mph.  One of the few times we managed to get up at any sort of speed we got clocked by the police doing 92kph in a 60 zone (oops).  A 30 Euro fine later and we are on our way.  At least we had insurance sorted (that in it self was epic and took over an hour to find and sort out)

We are heading out of Odessa today along the black sea coast in search of a nice beach and a swim.  After that we head to the Russian border.

We will be trying to twittering from now on so keep an eye on the home page

21st July 2009

Just a quick update for those that are following us.  We are currently in the Czech Republic having survived the CzechOut party in Klenova Castle last night.  Had an amazing night fuelled by free gin (The people behind the bar figured they had enough to last until 2am...it ran out at 10.30! We may have had something to do with this...) 

Cars are still working fine, only a few minor hiccups...mostly the windscreen wipers stopping working in a thunderstorm...in the dark!  Heading to the Slovakian border today..aiming to get to Odessa in the next couple of days. 

Promise to put pictures up as soon as we can, but now we are off in search of more Czech beer and some goulash (can't leave Czech without having some)

Distance: 1050 MIles

Morale: High

Weather: The sitting in beer garden kind

Kate

20th July 2009

Video of start up here:

18th July 2009

The start of the rally was at Goodwood motor racing circuit. We hung out until 3pm with the other teams, there were a LOT of other red suzuki swifts! Some nutters were trying it in a Hilman Imp and a Morris Minor . The rally began with a lap of the race track.  Dave Harris put in a sure-fire record lap only to have it spoiled by cross dressing South Africans. Ed drove the lap without using his hands. Now headed for Dover to Dunkirk ferry and then Amsterdam to pick up Dave and Kate!

Short clip from lap: www.youtube.com/watch

(Update by Neil the homecontact monkey)