Unsuitable Rally Car - Nissan Micra - Mongolia
Discussion
Brilliant work guys, good luck on the rest of your trip. I run around a 1988 K10 Micra as my first car for nearly 3 years and it was pretty much indestructible having had just basic regular servicing. The whole thing was flimsy and there wasn't much to it but crucially it was put together well. These relatively early K11s seem much the same, I can almost guarantee it'll make it back and still keep going for several years!
Firslty, We have updated our blog which will give you the general ideas of what we have been up to. I will give you more of a motoring update in here.
So, we have covered just over 5000km and have reached Baku, a city with a strange mix of old and super modern on the banks of the Caspian Sea. They held the F1 here recently but it looks like it was just last weekend. Some of the crash barriers have been opened to allow cars to travel and not alot more has changed. Pits and garages etc all still in place.
Ok, so Martha (the Micra) has been performing really well. The roads to get here have been a mix of really good highway/motorways but once you turn off them you are lucky to have roads. Some really are 1st gear only. We are collecting a nice amount of flies on the lightbar (it will need a clean soon as some cities fine drivers if they are driving a dirty car).
Since leaving Europe we have driven through Georgia to reach Azerbijan where we are now. Georgia has been an interesting country to drive through. Below are some of the highlights - These cannot really be explained in photos.
1. Cows everywehere - walking across roads everywhere, including motorways which is not ideal at night. Also you have to try predict if they will move and what direction they might decide to walk in.
2. People walking across motorways - If there is a shop/services/melon seller on one side of the motorway and you are on the other, you do not have to wait until you see one on your side of the road, it seems perfectly acceptable to pull over and then cross 6 lanes of traffic to get what you want.
3. Also like the above, if you have driven passed the service station/tea shop/melon seller/your friend etc. It is again acceptable to reverse up the motorway. This doesnt have to be done on the hard shoulder and as long as you reverse slow enough everythign will be fine. This is also the case if you come across road works and dont wish to wait. Just reverse back to the last junction zigzaging back through the que of cars.
4. There is a mix of LH and RH drive cars in Georgia, It seems that anything Japanese is Right and anything German is left. This makes for interesting passing out manouvers and lots of swerving in and out to check for oncoming trafic. Also I dont think they are often aware of which side of the car they are sitting on so they will often pass and just clip your wing mirror or leave another lane between you and themselves.
5. There is no MOT tests in Georgia so therefore lots of smoke. There are quite alot of mountains and Ladas and old trucks all of which smoke so badly that you have to close all windows and vents - Martha has no AC so it gets very hot. On the topic of tests, I dont think there is much in the way of driving tests or even car insurance either.
6. Eveybody blows the horn, either to say they are passing or to say hi or just because they want to. In cities can be nearly continuous.
7. Road quaility, can be good, really good actually but that can lead you into a false sense of security. There will be patches where a 6" deep section of the road has been removed so that it can replaced but the workers have either moved onto something else or gone home. There will be no warning for this so a sump guard can be usefull. We also noticed in some cities that the roads are actually pre-cast concrete slabs which is fine except for the joins in the slabs. Anyone who has paving slabs know they move slightly over time. When this slight movment is a large slab you can easily get 6" steps or higher between slabs. This has the benifit of keeping the speed to a minimum but a gum shield would be usefull when driving over these.
8. Kerbs - Many cars both new and old in Georgia do not have bumpers. This I found strange at first and after speaking to a local and visitng a local town it became apparent. The Kerbs are about 9"s high so most cars catch on them. There has not been enough length left in parking spaces so people have to drive upto and "over" the kerb. It wasnt clear if the bumpers were removed intentionally or just left sitting on a kerb after picking up the family and reversing back one day.
9. Also they know how to load a truck and also cars to the brim.
Thats it for the moment, we will be crossing the Caspian Sea in the next few days and heading across Central Asia and that will bring its own motoring challenges.
So, we have covered just over 5000km and have reached Baku, a city with a strange mix of old and super modern on the banks of the Caspian Sea. They held the F1 here recently but it looks like it was just last weekend. Some of the crash barriers have been opened to allow cars to travel and not alot more has changed. Pits and garages etc all still in place.
Ok, so Martha (the Micra) has been performing really well. The roads to get here have been a mix of really good highway/motorways but once you turn off them you are lucky to have roads. Some really are 1st gear only. We are collecting a nice amount of flies on the lightbar (it will need a clean soon as some cities fine drivers if they are driving a dirty car).
Since leaving Europe we have driven through Georgia to reach Azerbijan where we are now. Georgia has been an interesting country to drive through. Below are some of the highlights - These cannot really be explained in photos.
1. Cows everywehere - walking across roads everywhere, including motorways which is not ideal at night. Also you have to try predict if they will move and what direction they might decide to walk in.
2. People walking across motorways - If there is a shop/services/melon seller on one side of the motorway and you are on the other, you do not have to wait until you see one on your side of the road, it seems perfectly acceptable to pull over and then cross 6 lanes of traffic to get what you want.
3. Also like the above, if you have driven passed the service station/tea shop/melon seller/your friend etc. It is again acceptable to reverse up the motorway. This doesnt have to be done on the hard shoulder and as long as you reverse slow enough everythign will be fine. This is also the case if you come across road works and dont wish to wait. Just reverse back to the last junction zigzaging back through the que of cars.
4. There is a mix of LH and RH drive cars in Georgia, It seems that anything Japanese is Right and anything German is left. This makes for interesting passing out manouvers and lots of swerving in and out to check for oncoming trafic. Also I dont think they are often aware of which side of the car they are sitting on so they will often pass and just clip your wing mirror or leave another lane between you and themselves.
5. There is no MOT tests in Georgia so therefore lots of smoke. There are quite alot of mountains and Ladas and old trucks all of which smoke so badly that you have to close all windows and vents - Martha has no AC so it gets very hot. On the topic of tests, I dont think there is much in the way of driving tests or even car insurance either.
6. Eveybody blows the horn, either to say they are passing or to say hi or just because they want to. In cities can be nearly continuous.
7. Road quaility, can be good, really good actually but that can lead you into a false sense of security. There will be patches where a 6" deep section of the road has been removed so that it can replaced but the workers have either moved onto something else or gone home. There will be no warning for this so a sump guard can be usefull. We also noticed in some cities that the roads are actually pre-cast concrete slabs which is fine except for the joins in the slabs. Anyone who has paving slabs know they move slightly over time. When this slight movment is a large slab you can easily get 6" steps or higher between slabs. This has the benifit of keeping the speed to a minimum but a gum shield would be usefull when driving over these.
8. Kerbs - Many cars both new and old in Georgia do not have bumpers. This I found strange at first and after speaking to a local and visitng a local town it became apparent. The Kerbs are about 9"s high so most cars catch on them. There has not been enough length left in parking spaces so people have to drive upto and "over" the kerb. It wasnt clear if the bumpers were removed intentionally or just left sitting on a kerb after picking up the family and reversing back one day.
9. Also they know how to load a truck and also cars to the brim.
Thats it for the moment, we will be crossing the Caspian Sea in the next few days and heading across Central Asia and that will bring its own motoring challenges.
So, we are just over half way now, about 8000km completed.
Since my last post we have crossed Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and are now in Tajikistan. Since Azerbaijan the roads have deteriorated.
So below is my list of issues!
1. Road condition, roads have been so bad that people don’t use them and just drive on the dust and dirt on the side of the roads. There is also a road surface described as “washboard” which basically lots of ripples or rumble strips for miles. This shakes the car a lot and without power steering it is not long before your hands and arms go numb. Roads that are good which give you a false sense of security and then either there is a drain cut across the road or a pothole so large that you can’t drive around. On other roads a “quick rack” would be very useful to help us avoid the potholes.
Another enjoyable part of the roads is the wet tar, due to the high temperatures the tar in places is just wet, when you turn a corner the car just slides and it takes a second or two to realize why its doing it. Another downside to this wet tar is that when trucks pass over it they create a ridge due to the pressure they have exerted. Over time these ridges grow, some of which are high enough to strap along under our sumpgaurd with their sharp upper edge. These are to be avoided as much as possible as they would probably open the bottom of the car like a tin opener.
2. We have also encountered sand for the first time. We have a pair of Yokamama Gravel Rally Tires for the off road/sand. In Turkmenistan we took a detour from the main road to go to the gates of hell. This is a large crater which is on fire due to gas being released from below. It was created when the Soviet government were carrying out experimental digs for gas. They did find some here and it has been burning ever since. Anyway the tires did not get us through the sand. The sand was so soft that the car just sat on its sumpgaurd. We were however able to always reverse the cars out which cars with road tyres were unable to do without a push. Driving in sand is however very hard on the clutch, it takes quite a few revs when starting off due to the extra resistance. This is not good in Martha who has had 3 learner drivers in the time that we have owned her….
Better suited to the sand!
Petrol or Benzine as it is known. This was 6 $cents a litre in Turkmenistan as it subsided by the government. Tourists however have to pay a 7 $cents a km for the route you are going to take when you enter the country to try offset this difference. Some cars were given satellite trackers to ensure they stuck to the route and that the customs officials knew where they were at all times.
Benzine however was not available in Uzbekistan, it was only available on the black market. All the petrol stations are closed or replaced with LPG stations. Everybody, cars/buses/trucks run on gas. Either Propane or Methane. We are still not 100% sure why they do not sell petrol, if it’s a government decision but one local told us that it was because the companies could get more for it on the black market. So, by Black Market I mean little old ladies(with lots of gold teeth) selling petrol from water bottles on the side of the road. The problem is that you don’t know what octane the fuel is or how clean the bottles are etc. We have had to drive for nearly a week on this terrible fuel. After the fuel evaporates it leaves an oily substance like diesel.. maybe our car is multi fuel after all! We have had pinking problems though. The engine sounds like a diesel and has a metallic clicking/rattle. We have tried to find an octane booster but to no avail, luckily we have arrived in Tajikistan now where 70/81 and 95 octane are available. Hopefully we will hear the end of the worrying noise shortly.
Cars in Uzbekistan – They are all Daewoo or Chevrolet, this is because there is a very import tax on cars. Daewoo opened a a factory here in 1996 and is now taken over by GM who build Chevrolets here. There are so any lacettis, all taxis etc. and also Damos Vans., small, less than 1000c workhorses. There are of course a few soviet era Ladas and trucks left. Those who have got a car here are lucky as many peoples form of transport is a bike or a donkey. Donkeys are still the workhorses of the country, working in fields, hauling materials on building sites or just transporting a family. There are many donkeys. Apolgies for the bad photo.. I will have to dig out a better one.
4. Writing on car, we have had writing on our car for months now, it really started in April when people wanted to leave us good luck messages. The car has been washed a number of times since and none of these have faded. They are now nearly all illegible. This is due to the sand in the deserts, the poor car has been sandblasted overt the last couple of weeks with more to come. The temperatures are 40+ degrees and we do not have aircon but due to the dust we don’t wind down the windows. The dust gets everywhere and after 30 minutes or so you are trying to drink a couple of liters of water just to wash it all down. Outside every shop the ground is wet. We are in very dry countries but somehow people always seem to have water to “wet down” the area outside restaurants or shops to try keep the dust down. On the topic of dust, I did check the air filter, it was not too bad so I gave it a few bangs to get the heavy stuff off and popped it back in for another few thousand kilometers.
Pretty dry here too.
Tajikistan car parts market. Today in a search for another Gerry Can I went to a local market. The place was massive. There were two parts to it. A car/Truck parts section and a hardware household section. It was about 1km by 1km and had everything. There were about 40 shops which had everything a local Halfords would stock. I am unsure why so many were selling the same items but I guess competition is a good thing.
So that’s it for the moment, we are currently in Dushambe and heading off to drive the Pamir highway tomorrow. That will be a test for both us and the car!
Since my last post we have crossed Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and are now in Tajikistan. Since Azerbaijan the roads have deteriorated.
So below is my list of issues!
1. Road condition, roads have been so bad that people don’t use them and just drive on the dust and dirt on the side of the roads. There is also a road surface described as “washboard” which basically lots of ripples or rumble strips for miles. This shakes the car a lot and without power steering it is not long before your hands and arms go numb. Roads that are good which give you a false sense of security and then either there is a drain cut across the road or a pothole so large that you can’t drive around. On other roads a “quick rack” would be very useful to help us avoid the potholes.
Another enjoyable part of the roads is the wet tar, due to the high temperatures the tar in places is just wet, when you turn a corner the car just slides and it takes a second or two to realize why its doing it. Another downside to this wet tar is that when trucks pass over it they create a ridge due to the pressure they have exerted. Over time these ridges grow, some of which are high enough to strap along under our sumpgaurd with their sharp upper edge. These are to be avoided as much as possible as they would probably open the bottom of the car like a tin opener.
2. We have also encountered sand for the first time. We have a pair of Yokamama Gravel Rally Tires for the off road/sand. In Turkmenistan we took a detour from the main road to go to the gates of hell. This is a large crater which is on fire due to gas being released from below. It was created when the Soviet government were carrying out experimental digs for gas. They did find some here and it has been burning ever since. Anyway the tires did not get us through the sand. The sand was so soft that the car just sat on its sumpgaurd. We were however able to always reverse the cars out which cars with road tyres were unable to do without a push. Driving in sand is however very hard on the clutch, it takes quite a few revs when starting off due to the extra resistance. This is not good in Martha who has had 3 learner drivers in the time that we have owned her….
Better suited to the sand!
Petrol or Benzine as it is known. This was 6 $cents a litre in Turkmenistan as it subsided by the government. Tourists however have to pay a 7 $cents a km for the route you are going to take when you enter the country to try offset this difference. Some cars were given satellite trackers to ensure they stuck to the route and that the customs officials knew where they were at all times.
Benzine however was not available in Uzbekistan, it was only available on the black market. All the petrol stations are closed or replaced with LPG stations. Everybody, cars/buses/trucks run on gas. Either Propane or Methane. We are still not 100% sure why they do not sell petrol, if it’s a government decision but one local told us that it was because the companies could get more for it on the black market. So, by Black Market I mean little old ladies(with lots of gold teeth) selling petrol from water bottles on the side of the road. The problem is that you don’t know what octane the fuel is or how clean the bottles are etc. We have had to drive for nearly a week on this terrible fuel. After the fuel evaporates it leaves an oily substance like diesel.. maybe our car is multi fuel after all! We have had pinking problems though. The engine sounds like a diesel and has a metallic clicking/rattle. We have tried to find an octane booster but to no avail, luckily we have arrived in Tajikistan now where 70/81 and 95 octane are available. Hopefully we will hear the end of the worrying noise shortly.
Cars in Uzbekistan – They are all Daewoo or Chevrolet, this is because there is a very import tax on cars. Daewoo opened a a factory here in 1996 and is now taken over by GM who build Chevrolets here. There are so any lacettis, all taxis etc. and also Damos Vans., small, less than 1000c workhorses. There are of course a few soviet era Ladas and trucks left. Those who have got a car here are lucky as many peoples form of transport is a bike or a donkey. Donkeys are still the workhorses of the country, working in fields, hauling materials on building sites or just transporting a family. There are many donkeys. Apolgies for the bad photo.. I will have to dig out a better one.
4. Writing on car, we have had writing on our car for months now, it really started in April when people wanted to leave us good luck messages. The car has been washed a number of times since and none of these have faded. They are now nearly all illegible. This is due to the sand in the deserts, the poor car has been sandblasted overt the last couple of weeks with more to come. The temperatures are 40+ degrees and we do not have aircon but due to the dust we don’t wind down the windows. The dust gets everywhere and after 30 minutes or so you are trying to drink a couple of liters of water just to wash it all down. Outside every shop the ground is wet. We are in very dry countries but somehow people always seem to have water to “wet down” the area outside restaurants or shops to try keep the dust down. On the topic of dust, I did check the air filter, it was not too bad so I gave it a few bangs to get the heavy stuff off and popped it back in for another few thousand kilometers.
Pretty dry here too.
Tajikistan car parts market. Today in a search for another Gerry Can I went to a local market. The place was massive. There were two parts to it. A car/Truck parts section and a hardware household section. It was about 1km by 1km and had everything. There were about 40 shops which had everything a local Halfords would stock. I am unsure why so many were selling the same items but I guess competition is a good thing.
So that’s it for the moment, we are currently in Dushambe and heading off to drive the Pamir highway tomorrow. That will be a test for both us and the car!
Good stuff! Enjoyed reading that!
We had similar issues in Uzbekistan in 2013, petrol seemed to be available back then but diesel was black market only. We ended up in a farm shed buying diesel stored in hundreds of 2 litre coke bottles - took ages to fill the tank with what could really have been anything... The mighty Doblo was pretty smoky but otherwise fine.
Watch the temperature gauge on those Pamir passes and get ready to spend hours in first gear!
We had similar issues in Uzbekistan in 2013, petrol seemed to be available back then but diesel was black market only. We ended up in a farm shed buying diesel stored in hundreds of 2 litre coke bottles - took ages to fill the tank with what could really have been anything... The mighty Doblo was pretty smoky but otherwise fine.
Watch the temperature gauge on those Pamir passes and get ready to spend hours in first gear!
Pamir Highway..
So we left Dushanbe and headed for the Pamir highway. Before we left though the owner of the hostel/guesthouse we were staying at said the car will not make it. He showed me photos of some English guys and their Subaru forester, which they brought to the mechanic to have raised. When asked why the car wont make it he just shook his head. His son recommended that we go as part of an organised group in a landcruiser and collect our car back in Dushanbe in a few days. We needed to get to kyrgastan and the Pamir highway was virtually on the way so we headed off. The car was again Pinking, although we had topped up our tank with 95 the fuel must never have mixed so once the good fuel was gone the noise returned. We also managed to buy some octane booster from a Total Lubricants garage. I tried everywhere the day before but nobody had any. Also the girl behind the counter had studied in America for 3 months so her English was perfect and even had an American accent.
Ok so off we set, the road started off ok, there was some mountains and also a lake to stop at a viewpoint. After taking a couple of photos we headed on further up the mountain and saw another couple of mongol rally cars pulled in, a VW camper and a Suzuki jimmy jeep. We had a few words with them and pulled out. They passed us not long after as Martha (micra) struggles on hills especially with a full tank, jerry can, water can and all our gear and camping gear and enough pasta and sauce to make any Italian restaurant proud.
The roads however did start to get worsen as we started dropping into a valley and checked the map quickly, we were now looking across a small river to Afghanistan. At this point we were listening to the second series of Serial and it seemed surreal that Afghanistan is just there, villages, people etc. just going about their daily business.
Afghanistan village
As it is not safe to camp anywhere along the border we asked a local if we could camp at their house. This ended up with us meeting many people, young and old and eating their fruit from their trees and also drinking lots of tea. Also the landowner then went on to tell us that he was a photographer and gets paid sometimes for taking photos. After many hand signals he eventually sent someone to get the photos, these were of the army, the Tajik army in many different group shots and poses with artillery. At least we knew he had friends in the army so we should be safe there.
Further along the road there was a small town and we spotted the teams from earlier walking along the street. They had stayed there the night before in a small guesthouse. They then told us that the VW had broken down, I asked if there was anything they needed, they were looking for a ratchet strap and luckily we had a spare. We drove further up the street and the VW was there, parked on what looked like a small oil slick. What seems to have happened was that the gearbox mount had broken and then the gearbox was able to move which eventually caused the casing to crack. They wanted the ratchet strap to pull the gearbox down and hold it in position. The plan was then to fill it up with oil and rive it back to Dushanbe. The seemed resolved that that would be the end of their rally and they would organize to get eh camper shipped back to the UK. The camper was on a Cali registration and looked very nice, possible too nice for the roads of the Pamir highway.
While on the topic of right vehicle for the Pamir highway there are quite a number of large trucks that traverse the narrow road thorough the valley. They are mainly Chinese trucks, either Chinese reg or also local reg. The make is Shackman and they were mainly large rigids with additional trailers. They were high and looked the part. We were not far from china at this point so I suppose Items coming into central alias had to come over land.
The Pamir highway itself was stunning; White capped mountains, turquoise Blue River from the melting snow even including rapids and the tricky road for the affect. The road surface helps as you have to go slow which gives you time to absorb the surroundings. It took us about 5 days to complete to Osh. IT was hard going at times but was worth it. No mechnical issues but we were travelling quite slow with a lot of mechanical sympathy. We camped most nights apart from one night in a Soviet Sanatorium. Also one night we managed to camp in a field and woke up to a wet tent in the middle of the night. The streams down from the mountains couldn’t contain the water from the melting icecaps and it overflowed into the corner of our previously dry green field.
We had to negotiate a small river also which the car did in its stride. There was also the Wackan valley which after speaking to many people said the scenery is similar to the rest of the valley so we stayed on the Pamir highway across the high level passes. The highest was 4600m. There was one gravel section where we had to let the car run back for a better run at it but apart from that it was without incident.
The Pamir highway crosses through an autonomous region of Tajikistan and because of this there were many police checkpoints. In recent years people have reported bribes being needed but we sailed through most of these with some short explanations. The highway also crosses the border from Tajikistan into Kyrgyzstan and this border was interesting. Firstly the Tajikistan side, which was at 4000+m and was a selection of random buildings, doted around. The first guy in the first building wanted to pieces of paper for the car, one was cert to say it disinfected prior to entering Tajikistan, we dis not have the piece of paper. He was not put off and said for 88 somuni we could go .We were skeptical and he showed us other mongol rally cars certs which they had gotten when entering the country. I agreed that we could pay him but we would need a receipt, which I had written, and he signed. This made me feel it was a little bit more legit.
The second building was customs, the guy here wanted our passports and 10$. We dug our heels and said no and that we paid the $25 charge when entering and we would not be paying any more money. He couldn’t explain what the money was for so eventually just gave us our passports back. Next hut/building involved entering pas all the rubbish, old generator engine and all sorts into the back of a cabin. The guy here was super friendly and was from the transport police. He wanted 3 pieces of paper, which we should have got when we registered previously. Registration previously involved writing down our details and the car details into large ledgers and waving us on. Maybe after talking about Connor McGregor or Man united. We said no that we would not pay the money but he said in very bad English and lots of signaling that we would have to back to Murgab, many hours drive away to register and then come back. We said we had registered but he was just after the money.
Initially he wanted 200 simony 25$ approx. and we said no. We said if we gave him any money we would need a receipt. He suddenly couldn’t understand any English so I took a receipt from my wallet for fuel and showed him that. He was getting quite aggravated. I started to write out the border post, the car reg, our names and date. Before I could finish it he reached over my shoulder and scribbled it all out. He was not happy. He said we couldn’t leave the country. I said that’s fine and that we will camp at the border. He had his bed in the cabin and I asked/gestured if I could sit on it and he said ok. I then took out the lonely planet and started reading. He now got the point that I was willing to wait and that might mean talking to any other rallies’ who arrive and that might reduce his money making potential. He stormed out of the room and after a bit returned and said that we could pay 88 Som and that would be us finished. There was no phone reception at the border post as if there was I would have at least threatened to call the embassy to ask them or at least ask for a transport to be able to see if this was genuine. I still plan to email the embassy to ask them what the charge was for.
So that was it, we were out of Tajikistan and headed for Kirgizstan side was back down nearer sea level so we had to drive for nearly an hour on roads in no mans land, no tar just rocky rough trail. Kyrrgastan side was a lot less hassle and after they managed to electricity we were able to enter. We started to see Japanese cars here and German cars. Again the road was very scenic and we got the first sightings of hurts and the nomadic way of life on rolling green pastures. In Tajikistan the cars were all either Opel or soviet Ladas or old trucks now e had all sorts. They do however modify the cars. The cars are all raised on either extended springs or welding 2 springs together. This helps for road clearance but also for the loads they are carrying. There was one landcruiseer entering at the border which had 13 people on board plus the driver and all their bags on the roof, luckily it was 5l petrol.
The road from Osh to Bishkek in Kyrgastan is easily the best road so far. It has flowing third gear bends on a slightly dowhill so even a 1l micra can seem sporty clipping the apex and drifting out wide. Would definitly like to drive it in a performance car someday but sadely it is not the easiest to get to. Much of the road has many gravestones or momerials to people who have died and we saw a number of either incidents or aftermats of crashes on that drive. Also it goes through a tunnel of death, the air inside the tunnel is so bad that even at normal speed it makes your eyes water. There were a number of deaths there a few years ago when a car brke down and people were trapped inside in the tunnel.
Kyrgastan seemed to be most western country we have come across in a while and had lots of items like ATMS’s western food etc. After the Pamir highway we spent a day in one place to get ourselves ready for the next part and also to give the car a check over. The only issue I found was a loose bolt in the rear tank guard. This is due to the rear tank guard catching on the axle when on the bump stops and we did use the bump stops quite a bit recently. We still had an annoying rattle in the front which we have had since the UK so I thought this might be antiroll bar linked but all looked good. There was another team of rallies in the hotel we were staying in and they had used a garage the pervious day that changed their fuel filter, pump and cleaned their tank out. All from the water bottle petrol.
Petrol on the Pamir Highway
I drove to this garage which was just a yard surrounded with buildings, there was a separate gorge depending on what you wanted done, there was the electrical guy, the gearbox guy and tire guy. The gearbox guy had a pit so I asked if we could take a look. I tried to explain what I wanted to check and the guy Eric nodded. He then took hold of the front wheel and gave it a shake, he was not the biggest of guys but after two or three push and pulls he had the back tyres scrapping on the car, he was literally moving the whole car with his force. There was however no noise, the pry bar then cam out and he checked ball joints, antiroll bar mounts etc. but no movement anywhere, all ok. Eventually after some more rattling we discovered it was the brake caliper that was rattling. Everything is tight and in place, it just seems that there is too much play on the shoulder bolts and the slider part. Its all safe just very noisy on gravel or rough road. After I got the Internet back in the guesthouse I checked it up and it seems quite common on micras. The solutions is either new caliper, copper grease every 1000 miles or to shim the bolts, many recommend taking a slice from a coke can and wrap it around the bolts to take up the slack.
So we also drive to Bishkek and couldn’t find the hotel with the directions we had so stayed in a random local guesthouse and hit the road next morning early. We then got to Kazakhstan. Straightway the cars improved, lots of high-end Lexus jeeps and even some Barabous merccdeds and Aplina BMW’s. They have oil, gold and other natural resources here and the goverentmet are happy to let foreign investment in at a price. Again there are an equal amount of people without here too. So the city of Almaty was an important stop as we were able to go buy a McDonalds and also went to a hard rock café here. Before hitting the road again. Ahead is two nights camping before reaching the Russian border and then a couple more nights before reaching the mongolian border. 5-6 days then driving across mongolia on the none existent roads… fingers crossed.
So we left Dushanbe and headed for the Pamir highway. Before we left though the owner of the hostel/guesthouse we were staying at said the car will not make it. He showed me photos of some English guys and their Subaru forester, which they brought to the mechanic to have raised. When asked why the car wont make it he just shook his head. His son recommended that we go as part of an organised group in a landcruiser and collect our car back in Dushanbe in a few days. We needed to get to kyrgastan and the Pamir highway was virtually on the way so we headed off. The car was again Pinking, although we had topped up our tank with 95 the fuel must never have mixed so once the good fuel was gone the noise returned. We also managed to buy some octane booster from a Total Lubricants garage. I tried everywhere the day before but nobody had any. Also the girl behind the counter had studied in America for 3 months so her English was perfect and even had an American accent.
Ok so off we set, the road started off ok, there was some mountains and also a lake to stop at a viewpoint. After taking a couple of photos we headed on further up the mountain and saw another couple of mongol rally cars pulled in, a VW camper and a Suzuki jimmy jeep. We had a few words with them and pulled out. They passed us not long after as Martha (micra) struggles on hills especially with a full tank, jerry can, water can and all our gear and camping gear and enough pasta and sauce to make any Italian restaurant proud.
The roads however did start to get worsen as we started dropping into a valley and checked the map quickly, we were now looking across a small river to Afghanistan. At this point we were listening to the second series of Serial and it seemed surreal that Afghanistan is just there, villages, people etc. just going about their daily business.
Afghanistan village
As it is not safe to camp anywhere along the border we asked a local if we could camp at their house. This ended up with us meeting many people, young and old and eating their fruit from their trees and also drinking lots of tea. Also the landowner then went on to tell us that he was a photographer and gets paid sometimes for taking photos. After many hand signals he eventually sent someone to get the photos, these were of the army, the Tajik army in many different group shots and poses with artillery. At least we knew he had friends in the army so we should be safe there.
Further along the road there was a small town and we spotted the teams from earlier walking along the street. They had stayed there the night before in a small guesthouse. They then told us that the VW had broken down, I asked if there was anything they needed, they were looking for a ratchet strap and luckily we had a spare. We drove further up the street and the VW was there, parked on what looked like a small oil slick. What seems to have happened was that the gearbox mount had broken and then the gearbox was able to move which eventually caused the casing to crack. They wanted the ratchet strap to pull the gearbox down and hold it in position. The plan was then to fill it up with oil and rive it back to Dushanbe. The seemed resolved that that would be the end of their rally and they would organize to get eh camper shipped back to the UK. The camper was on a Cali registration and looked very nice, possible too nice for the roads of the Pamir highway.
While on the topic of right vehicle for the Pamir highway there are quite a number of large trucks that traverse the narrow road thorough the valley. They are mainly Chinese trucks, either Chinese reg or also local reg. The make is Shackman and they were mainly large rigids with additional trailers. They were high and looked the part. We were not far from china at this point so I suppose Items coming into central alias had to come over land.
The Pamir highway itself was stunning; White capped mountains, turquoise Blue River from the melting snow even including rapids and the tricky road for the affect. The road surface helps as you have to go slow which gives you time to absorb the surroundings. It took us about 5 days to complete to Osh. IT was hard going at times but was worth it. No mechnical issues but we were travelling quite slow with a lot of mechanical sympathy. We camped most nights apart from one night in a Soviet Sanatorium. Also one night we managed to camp in a field and woke up to a wet tent in the middle of the night. The streams down from the mountains couldn’t contain the water from the melting icecaps and it overflowed into the corner of our previously dry green field.
We had to negotiate a small river also which the car did in its stride. There was also the Wackan valley which after speaking to many people said the scenery is similar to the rest of the valley so we stayed on the Pamir highway across the high level passes. The highest was 4600m. There was one gravel section where we had to let the car run back for a better run at it but apart from that it was without incident.
The Pamir highway crosses through an autonomous region of Tajikistan and because of this there were many police checkpoints. In recent years people have reported bribes being needed but we sailed through most of these with some short explanations. The highway also crosses the border from Tajikistan into Kyrgyzstan and this border was interesting. Firstly the Tajikistan side, which was at 4000+m and was a selection of random buildings, doted around. The first guy in the first building wanted to pieces of paper for the car, one was cert to say it disinfected prior to entering Tajikistan, we dis not have the piece of paper. He was not put off and said for 88 somuni we could go .We were skeptical and he showed us other mongol rally cars certs which they had gotten when entering the country. I agreed that we could pay him but we would need a receipt, which I had written, and he signed. This made me feel it was a little bit more legit.
The second building was customs, the guy here wanted our passports and 10$. We dug our heels and said no and that we paid the $25 charge when entering and we would not be paying any more money. He couldn’t explain what the money was for so eventually just gave us our passports back. Next hut/building involved entering pas all the rubbish, old generator engine and all sorts into the back of a cabin. The guy here was super friendly and was from the transport police. He wanted 3 pieces of paper, which we should have got when we registered previously. Registration previously involved writing down our details and the car details into large ledgers and waving us on. Maybe after talking about Connor McGregor or Man united. We said no that we would not pay the money but he said in very bad English and lots of signaling that we would have to back to Murgab, many hours drive away to register and then come back. We said we had registered but he was just after the money.
Initially he wanted 200 simony 25$ approx. and we said no. We said if we gave him any money we would need a receipt. He suddenly couldn’t understand any English so I took a receipt from my wallet for fuel and showed him that. He was getting quite aggravated. I started to write out the border post, the car reg, our names and date. Before I could finish it he reached over my shoulder and scribbled it all out. He was not happy. He said we couldn’t leave the country. I said that’s fine and that we will camp at the border. He had his bed in the cabin and I asked/gestured if I could sit on it and he said ok. I then took out the lonely planet and started reading. He now got the point that I was willing to wait and that might mean talking to any other rallies’ who arrive and that might reduce his money making potential. He stormed out of the room and after a bit returned and said that we could pay 88 Som and that would be us finished. There was no phone reception at the border post as if there was I would have at least threatened to call the embassy to ask them or at least ask for a transport to be able to see if this was genuine. I still plan to email the embassy to ask them what the charge was for.
So that was it, we were out of Tajikistan and headed for Kirgizstan side was back down nearer sea level so we had to drive for nearly an hour on roads in no mans land, no tar just rocky rough trail. Kyrrgastan side was a lot less hassle and after they managed to electricity we were able to enter. We started to see Japanese cars here and German cars. Again the road was very scenic and we got the first sightings of hurts and the nomadic way of life on rolling green pastures. In Tajikistan the cars were all either Opel or soviet Ladas or old trucks now e had all sorts. They do however modify the cars. The cars are all raised on either extended springs or welding 2 springs together. This helps for road clearance but also for the loads they are carrying. There was one landcruiseer entering at the border which had 13 people on board plus the driver and all their bags on the roof, luckily it was 5l petrol.
The road from Osh to Bishkek in Kyrgastan is easily the best road so far. It has flowing third gear bends on a slightly dowhill so even a 1l micra can seem sporty clipping the apex and drifting out wide. Would definitly like to drive it in a performance car someday but sadely it is not the easiest to get to. Much of the road has many gravestones or momerials to people who have died and we saw a number of either incidents or aftermats of crashes on that drive. Also it goes through a tunnel of death, the air inside the tunnel is so bad that even at normal speed it makes your eyes water. There were a number of deaths there a few years ago when a car brke down and people were trapped inside in the tunnel.
Kyrgastan seemed to be most western country we have come across in a while and had lots of items like ATMS’s western food etc. After the Pamir highway we spent a day in one place to get ourselves ready for the next part and also to give the car a check over. The only issue I found was a loose bolt in the rear tank guard. This is due to the rear tank guard catching on the axle when on the bump stops and we did use the bump stops quite a bit recently. We still had an annoying rattle in the front which we have had since the UK so I thought this might be antiroll bar linked but all looked good. There was another team of rallies in the hotel we were staying in and they had used a garage the pervious day that changed their fuel filter, pump and cleaned their tank out. All from the water bottle petrol.
Petrol on the Pamir Highway
I drove to this garage which was just a yard surrounded with buildings, there was a separate gorge depending on what you wanted done, there was the electrical guy, the gearbox guy and tire guy. The gearbox guy had a pit so I asked if we could take a look. I tried to explain what I wanted to check and the guy Eric nodded. He then took hold of the front wheel and gave it a shake, he was not the biggest of guys but after two or three push and pulls he had the back tyres scrapping on the car, he was literally moving the whole car with his force. There was however no noise, the pry bar then cam out and he checked ball joints, antiroll bar mounts etc. but no movement anywhere, all ok. Eventually after some more rattling we discovered it was the brake caliper that was rattling. Everything is tight and in place, it just seems that there is too much play on the shoulder bolts and the slider part. Its all safe just very noisy on gravel or rough road. After I got the Internet back in the guesthouse I checked it up and it seems quite common on micras. The solutions is either new caliper, copper grease every 1000 miles or to shim the bolts, many recommend taking a slice from a coke can and wrap it around the bolts to take up the slack.
So we also drive to Bishkek and couldn’t find the hotel with the directions we had so stayed in a random local guesthouse and hit the road next morning early. We then got to Kazakhstan. Straightway the cars improved, lots of high-end Lexus jeeps and even some Barabous merccdeds and Aplina BMW’s. They have oil, gold and other natural resources here and the goverentmet are happy to let foreign investment in at a price. Again there are an equal amount of people without here too. So the city of Almaty was an important stop as we were able to go buy a McDonalds and also went to a hard rock café here. Before hitting the road again. Ahead is two nights camping before reaching the Russian border and then a couple more nights before reaching the mongolian border. 5-6 days then driving across mongolia on the none existent roads… fingers crossed.
I feel very nostalgic reading this, you've taken the same route that we did except that we went through Turkey and Iran rather than through Azerbaijan and Georgia.
I remember the hideous fuel you mention which comes from milkbottles - I remember it smelling strongly of onions and nearly asphyxiating us because it just wouldn't burn! Our car was incredibly down on power due to the terrible fuel and the altitude and we crawled over that 4600m pass.
I would have full confidence in your little Micra to make it to mongolia and then all the way home again. They are by far the most successful mongol Rally car of all time.
I remember the hideous fuel you mention which comes from milkbottles - I remember it smelling strongly of onions and nearly asphyxiating us because it just wouldn't burn! Our car was incredibly down on power due to the terrible fuel and the altitude and we crawled over that 4600m pass.
I would have full confidence in your little Micra to make it to mongolia and then all the way home again. They are by far the most successful mongol Rally car of all time.
Interesting read.
With regards to bribes, you're braver than I by simply refusing. I'd be tempted to simply comply to spend as little time at these crossings as possible.
How did you find Turkey? We crossed into Turkey from Greece earlier this summer and didn't really like the looks we received from every passing car. I think I heard somewhere that some of the mongol cars were robbed at the roadside in Turkey?
Upon trying to cross back into Greece the same evening a customs official "lost" our V5 and we ended up leaving without it and crossing into Greece on a photocopy where we had a replacement sent out.
With regards to bribes, you're braver than I by simply refusing. I'd be tempted to simply comply to spend as little time at these crossings as possible.
How did you find Turkey? We crossed into Turkey from Greece earlier this summer and didn't really like the looks we received from every passing car. I think I heard somewhere that some of the mongol cars were robbed at the roadside in Turkey?
Upon trying to cross back into Greece the same evening a customs official "lost" our V5 and we ended up leaving without it and crossing into Greece on a photocopy where we had a replacement sent out.
carreauchompeur said:
Brilliant. I've read a few books about the mongol Rally and it's one of my dreams. Have visited a few places over that side and it's incredible. Scenery, stoic, decent people and crazy roads!
Enjoy. Ulan Bator is an absolute smorgasbord of eating!
Enjoyed many of the food offerings in Ulaan Baatar. So many to choose from and it was just what we needed after many days crossing mongolia. Enjoy. Ulan Bator is an absolute smorgasbord of eating!
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