Unsuitable Rally Car - Nissan Micra - Mongolia
Discussion
Hello all,
This is a short post about a 1996 Nissan Micra and its preparations to get it ready to drive to mongolia in a few days time. The car had dramatically failed its MOT on mainly rust and emmissions but we have been able to bring it back from the dead so that it can have one last road trip.
The car is my wifes car and believe it or not it is her idea to do the mongol Rally as she has owned the car for the last 5+ years and doesn't want to see it just scrapped.
We are also doing this to raise as much money as possible for two Cystic Fibrosis Charities so it would be great if some of you would like to support us. The cost of the car, fuel etc is all covered so all money donated will go direct to the charities.
So as I have said the car failled badly, mainly due to rust. For the past few years the car fails on rust, gets patched and is good to go for another year. This year though the garage said it was terminal and totally uneconomical to repair. If you see the picture below, it does not look too bad.
This hole which you can see is actually a hole in a previous repair panel so what was underneath is considerably worse. Based on this hole I wasnt sure why it failed. I will pop up some more photos shorthly.
This is a short post about a 1996 Nissan Micra and its preparations to get it ready to drive to mongolia in a few days time. The car had dramatically failed its MOT on mainly rust and emmissions but we have been able to bring it back from the dead so that it can have one last road trip.
The car is my wifes car and believe it or not it is her idea to do the mongol Rally as she has owned the car for the last 5+ years and doesn't want to see it just scrapped.
We are also doing this to raise as much money as possible for two Cystic Fibrosis Charities so it would be great if some of you would like to support us. The cost of the car, fuel etc is all covered so all money donated will go direct to the charities.
So as I have said the car failled badly, mainly due to rust. For the past few years the car fails on rust, gets patched and is good to go for another year. This year though the garage said it was terminal and totally uneconomical to repair. If you see the picture below, it does not look too bad.
This hole which you can see is actually a hole in a previous repair panel so what was underneath is considerably worse. Based on this hole I wasnt sure why it failed. I will pop up some more photos shorthly.
Thank you all for the interest and it really would be great if some of you were willing to donate towards the CF trust.
The link below is to our fundrazr page.
https://fundrazr.com/campaigns/117GU8
So, back to the repairs, under the repair panel was the original sill panel which had seen better days. It seems that the problem was that there was nowhere for the water to go after the repair and the sill just rusted from the inside out.
After cutting it all away it was obvious there was more to be done. The box section which runs along that area has also rusted and had to be cut out a new section made.
So after removing all the rust there was a considerable amount of metal removed which was then replaced. which seems like a hell of alot of work for a car that might not make it to mongolia and let alone make it back. We did need an MOT though and wanted the car to atleast have a good chance of making it so the work continued.
Again if any of you are willing to doate to the Cystic Fibrosis Trust it really would be great. We have set a target of £1000 but it really would be great if we could exceed this target. Also just to confirm that 100% of the money raised will be donated to our charities, the costs for the car, parts, fuel etc are all being covered by ourselves and some very generous autofactors.
https://fundrazr.com/campaigns/117GU8
The link below is to our fundrazr page.
https://fundrazr.com/campaigns/117GU8
So, back to the repairs, under the repair panel was the original sill panel which had seen better days. It seems that the problem was that there was nowhere for the water to go after the repair and the sill just rusted from the inside out.
After cutting it all away it was obvious there was more to be done. The box section which runs along that area has also rusted and had to be cut out a new section made.
So after removing all the rust there was a considerable amount of metal removed which was then replaced. which seems like a hell of alot of work for a car that might not make it to mongolia and let alone make it back. We did need an MOT though and wanted the car to atleast have a good chance of making it so the work continued.
Again if any of you are willing to doate to the Cystic Fibrosis Trust it really would be great. We have set a target of £1000 but it really would be great if we could exceed this target. Also just to confirm that 100% of the money raised will be donated to our charities, the costs for the car, parts, fuel etc are all being covered by ourselves and some very generous autofactors.
https://fundrazr.com/campaigns/117GU8
Ok, So now that the repair job was done, it was on to the fun parts.
Roof rack and sumpguard.
As the car is a 3 door it is not easy to get a set of roof bars to fit so a decision was made to make one. The micra does not come with any clips or captive nuts for the fitment of a roof rack so the only option was to drill the roof.(This was filled with sealer after so should be ok!)
Ok, so like the repairs the amount of work gone into this rack will put the other teams to shame. Other rally teams will have pallets on the roof or just shopping rule. Ours as locations for water, fuel, tyres etc.
Once the rack was made, we then modified it again to fit a 20" light bar. The rack itself is very light as it is made from steel for office/school furniture which is very light but also very strong.
Also, did you spot the jerry can in the second photo? It is empty and washed out so dont worry but it doesn't look the best!
Roof rack and sumpguard.
As the car is a 3 door it is not easy to get a set of roof bars to fit so a decision was made to make one. The micra does not come with any clips or captive nuts for the fitment of a roof rack so the only option was to drill the roof.(This was filled with sealer after so should be ok!)
Ok, so like the repairs the amount of work gone into this rack will put the other teams to shame. Other rally teams will have pallets on the roof or just shopping rule. Ours as locations for water, fuel, tyres etc.
Once the rack was made, we then modified it again to fit a 20" light bar. The rack itself is very light as it is made from steel for office/school furniture which is very light but also very strong.
Also, did you spot the jerry can in the second photo? It is empty and washed out so dont worry but it doesn't look the best!
Yes, I imagine when set up correctly they really can be fun to drive. With our roof rack, camping gear etc. I dont think ours would be that good on the stages.
So, after the roof rack, the sump gaurd is next. When we looked under the car it was obvious that the fuel tank was exposed and may suffer on the rocky roads in Central Asia. To protect these we decided to use alloy plates.
The tankgaurd involved welding brackets to the body at the rear and bolting brackets through the floor at the front, Fitted bolts and plates into the allow section at the front of the rear seats.
This should hopefully protect the tank. It is a close fit by the rear beam but with the suspension at full travel there is a couple of mm of clearance.
So, after the roof rack, the sump gaurd is next. When we looked under the car it was obvious that the fuel tank was exposed and may suffer on the rocky roads in Central Asia. To protect these we decided to use alloy plates.
The tankgaurd involved welding brackets to the body at the rear and bolting brackets through the floor at the front, Fitted bolts and plates into the allow section at the front of the rear seats.
This should hopefully protect the tank. It is a close fit by the rear beam but with the suspension at full travel there is a couple of mm of clearance.
Firstly thanks to Pistonheads for the Car of the week!
We have been on the road now since Sunday and have just arrived in Turkey.
The car has been great, coping with 1000+Kms a day without issue. Yesterday it got a little bit of a treat and got to drive the transfagarasan highway. It was a little rough in places but a great road with great views.![](https://thumbsnap.com/sc/vgN8MojF.jpg[/img]</a> <a href="https://thumbsnap.com/I155ZTjk" Target="_blank" rel="nofollow">[img]https://thumbsnap.com/sc/I155ZTjk.jpg)
We have been on the road now since Sunday and have just arrived in Turkey.
The car has been great, coping with 1000+Kms a day without issue. Yesterday it got a little bit of a treat and got to drive the transfagarasan highway. It was a little rough in places but a great road with great views.
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!
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.
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!
Kazakhstan was empty but also beautiful many snow capped mountains and views over endless plains. Luckily we had no issues here as if we broke down there is nobody around! So after 3 days of driving across we eventually reached the Russian border and then the city of Barnaul. Nearly the same view for three days with many golden eagles soaring above or lifting up from the road as we drive along. Camping spots were quite boring and were normally where we just pulled off of the side of the road once it was getting dark. Kazakhstan is the largest landlocked country in the world and it was quite a drive to cross it.
The only place of note that we passed through on our journey was a town called Semey, which had a sad story. In 1949 the Soviet atomic bomb programme selected a site on the steppe 150km west of the city as the location for its weapons testing. The Soviet Union carried out hundreds of nuclear tests for many years, and the results have not been good. The people of Semey suffer from high rates of cancer and birth defects. You can even visit the anatomical museum in Semey, which apparently has a gruesome collection of babies and embryos with horrible deformities caused by the nuclear radiation. We didn’t pay the weird babies a visit – the museum was closed by the time we arrived and a place I wasn’t 100% sure about visiting. Had a nice Pizza in the town before driving out to find somewhere to camp. There have been no visible after effects of eating the pizza.
After another night camping in the middle of nowhere, we crossed the border into Russia and drove up to Barnaul in South Western Siberia. This was a proper hectic city but it had obvious signs of westernization including McDonalds and many other fast food outlets and malls. We met up with a Kiwi team here and planned to drive in convoy with them across mongolia, a few more people to push or dig might come in useful. We had our dashcam on in Russia, after seeing many 100s of youtube videos I was expecting the worst but they were not that badly behaved and I have no footage of note to share.
We had spoken to some French guys in Barnaul who were working near by and they said we were in for a surprise when we leave the city and drive out into the Altai mountains. Our drive out was delayed as the other team were stocking up on warmer sleeping bags etc. and also we stocked up on crisps and a few other bits. Our food supplies from the uk had been lasting well but we were getting a little bored of pasta and stir in sauces.
They were not wrong, the scenery was beautiful. Everything from the mountains, to the lakes to the clouds were all spectacular. There were many signs for outdoor adventure sports, white water rafting, mountain biking etc and I was a little disappointed that we didn’t have time to stop and partake in something. This really was a place you could picture Putin with his shirt off riding a horse or shooting a deer.
We used an app called overlander to locate a campsite which people had stayed at before. Most people who use the overlander app travel in large 4x4s kitted out with everything including the kitchen sink. The road to the campsite was steep, uphill and gravel so it was a challenge for our 1 litre cars and after a couple of attempts we made it to the top. Sadly though the top was an aerial mast, the trees were overgrown so there was no view and not a lot of space, we went a little further down the hill and pulled off to a small grassy area. It wasn’t long after we got out that we noticed this area had a large amount of used wet wipes and small wrappers lying around.. Hopefully us staying there for the night didn’t ruin some local’s love life.
We headed for the mongolian border next morning and were slightly apprehensive as we heard it can take hours and also we would have to say goodbye to the great Russian roads we had just been driving on. There were horror stories of cars being written off due to accidents and breakdowns. It wasn’t long after crossing the border that we saw the first victim but more about that later.
The border went as badly as most, on the mongolian side they were all due to go home and we were the last group they were letting trough. Due to an issue with our visa which had to be checked by the seniors we found ourselves at the back of the queue. By the time we were ready to have the car processed the computer system had gone down and they wanted us to come back tomorrow. The other team had already gone through at this time so we were left stranded. We said we were willing to wait.. (where else could we go, we had been stamped out of Russia and couldn’t go into mongolia so there wasn’t much more we could do. The other option was to sleep at the border until the morning.) They eventually conceded and stayed back and eventually the computers started working again, unsure how long it took but the official had time to go out, smoke a cigarette and return, try the computer again and then repeat for 4 times.
Eventually 8.500 miles later we were in.. in mongolia. luckily the other team had waited just after the border.
At the border we met another rallier (Trevor) who we had spoken to in Goodwood and also in Prague. He was doing the rally on a 125 motorbike. This time though he was in a BMW and a Russian registered one. I asked Trevor where his bike was and he limped over to the car and opened the rear door. Inside was his bike. Well part of it, there was a frame and a few bits of clothing I then continued to ask him what happened and he stood back and raised his top, he had a bruise from his shoulder blade all down one side in a lovely shade of reds and purples. He had been hit by a horse/he hit a horse. Basically he was going along on the road and there were horses walking on both sides of the road. He moved the centre and drove straight trough. This si something we did 100’s of times in the car without issue, this time for Trevor though one of the horses decided to make a run accros the road, directly infront of him and the last thing he remembers seeing was a brown flash and then down on the road. Luckily it seemed to just be lots of bruising and a bike in many pieces. In the true spirit of the rally though he wanted to finish and also wanted to get his bike there too so he bought an old 5 series and planned to drive that and his bike to the finish line.
After we crossed the border we drove about 20km and saw a Fiat Panda parked on a track parallel to the road. There was nobody around and we presumed they maybe were walking to the town which we knew was not too far from the border. As we entered the town we were chased down by a local on a motorbike who’s motive was to get us all to stay in his hotel. He said we just passed it and I had the suspicious feeling that he meant the small house on the corner with a ger outside and yes that was it. He promised Yak meat, local beer and vodka and a place to sleep all for $5 dollars each. We thought about it for a second and in the spirit of experiencing local life we all agreed why not.
The house was lovely and toasty and we were offered tea made with horses milk or yak milk, I am not sure if we ever found out.
After sitting in the warmth for ten minutes the guy came back in to get us and wanted us to go with him. With a little bit of broken English and hand gestures we understood that he wanted us to go lift the car that had broken down and put it in the back of a truck. We went to another locals house and found the owner of the Panda in the yard waiting on some locals to finish unloading an old soviet era truck. When it was unloaded we jumped in only to drive to the petrol station, firstly yes there was a petrol station, very small and only had benzene, which this truck was. V8 petrol. We were then on our way. The driver did not drive slowly on the rough roads and most of the time we were in the back hanging on by our fingers. The sun was also starting to set and the temperature was dropping fast. We hadn’t gone far before we had to stop, the truck had many water leaks and was starting to overheat. We pulled up next to a lake and after sometime the radiator cap was removed and water added. We had another 25 litre drum which was also filled, which we needed again in a short few kilometers when we had to repeat the exercise. At this stage we were wondering if we would make it at all. If it needs this much water empty how will it perform with a car on the back.
The truck was a simple flat bed with the bed about 5feet from the ground. The car although small was not something we would have been able to lift to this height. I think there were 6 of us in total but that would have still been too much. Luckily a bank was spotted beside the road and the truck reversed up to it. It was now just a case of pushing the car over and taking a run at it to get it up and into the truck. On it went without much trouble. After a few stops for water on the return 10km we eventually were back near the hotel. A similar bank was found and the car was unloaded onto some wheels and down to ground level. The issue was the drive shaft so the plan was to fix it in the morning.
We were glad to get back inside that night to the warm fire, the food and also the vodka. It seemed like we were an attraction for he locals and after the vodka had flowed the music started on an old Kazak 2 string guitar. The locals I think were disappointed when we were wanting to go to bed, I think they were hoping for longer night but after a long day we were happy to put our heads down. The hotel was one room, we got out sleeping matts and bags and found some space and got some sleep.
Over the next two days we drove around 700km, sometimes on dirt and gravel tracks, and sometimes on smooth tarmac. We passed through the towns of Olgii, Khovd and Altai, and camped by some yurts and then in the wild mongolian desert, where we were joined by two other teams. The sky at night was beautifully clear and the milky way was easily seen. It was obvious also that mongolia is putting a lot of money into the infrastructure with large well paved raods being constructed. Sadly though they were not all open to traffic yet. This may change the challenge of the mongol rally in a few years.
![](https://thumbsnap.com/sc/4LjTRNig.jpg[/img]</a> <a href="https://thumbsnap.com/Vlejklac" Target="_blank" rel="nofollow">[img]https://thumbsnap.com/sc/Vlejklac.jpg)
Burning yak/camel/horse/cattle dung on a fire. Burned pretty well too. No trees to be found in the desert. Our clothes had an interesting smell that night in our tents.
We knew that from Altai to the next big town of Bayankhongor there were no roads. For 270km we would have to drive Martha (the micra) off-road. We had heard rumours from other teams that this was the worst stretch of the entire mongol Rally. It had claimed the lives of many perfectly healthy and happy cars. Martha had been perfect so far, but we knew that she could die at any time. We resolved to stick together as a convoy of four cars, and set off on what we assumed would be the hardest, scariest and most adventurous part of our whole journey. We changed her front tyres for a couple of free Yokohama forestry tyres we had been given before we left and this was the time to try them out.
We had thought the off-road driving would be very slow and rough but actually mongolia is quite a sandy and rather stoney country so the gravel roads and even fields were not that rough. They were bone shakers if driven slowly but if you were willing to increase the speed and bear the rattle until you were over 30 mph then it all seemed to smoothen out. The micra loved it. The only issue were large rocks or stones and when these were spotted and couldn’t be avoided the decision was often to “use the sumpguard” and not risk hitting a tyre off some of them. There were also some gravel tracks which snaked across the countryside. Picking the right one was often a tricky choice but on the whole they normally met back up near the next town, bridge or crossing somewhere. These tracks often moved over and back across other tracks and when one patch got to rough or maybe too wet in winter people just went around it. This created lovely flowing tracks and some with even slight banks on the outside of the corners. The micra loved changing direction on this and sliding from side to side at 50+ mph with very little grip. There was always the risk of hitting something large so it too a lot of concentration to avoid everything. Luckily we escaped without any damage and loved every minute of it. We had to change a front coil spring on one of the other cars, a fiat punto and luckily they had a spare and with the help of some ratchet straps as spring compressors they were back on the road. There were also a number of punctures but with towns about 150km apart it wasn’t too long before a new tube could be fitted or a tyre repaired.
We did however meet another team who had also been having a completely damage free rally and were now looking for a tow truck to get them back to ulaan bataar. It seems they hit a bump/step before a bridge which seemed to be such a jolt that it broke the engine mounts and the engine was now sat with a cracked sump about 4 inches to low and to the right. There was no obvious damage to the sumpgaurd so it was a tricky one to explain. Their rally was over and were just on a recovery mission. It did make us think about how we had been driving and also how we should drive in the future. It was also going to hurt the pocket as the best deal they could get was $600 to get the car the remaining distance to ulaan bataar. It wasn’t long before the flow of the roads or fields took over again and we were back to 60+ miles per hour driving across green plains.
As darkness fell, we pulled off the road with the three other teams and camped in the mongolian desert again. As mongolia is the least densely populated country in the world, we didn’t have to try too hard to find a spare bit of space!
The next morning we had a decision to make: try and get to Ulaanbaatar as quickly as possible, or detour for a bit more off-road fun and some sight seeing. Team Fiat to Believe it had a rapidly expiring visa so had to head straight to Ulaanbaatar, but the rest of us opted for a slower pace and some more exploring. It was felt that we hadn’t really been fully off road and there must be more challenges that we could take on. This you might think is stuipid being so close to finishing and wanting to do more than necessary but for us and the other teams it was more about being in mongolia and would we ever be back there to this ever again.
Next we ventured off-road looking for some hot springs. After taking a few different tracks, stopping to ask for directions at a village where I had a go at miming which didn’t give us any results! Then driving back on ourselves again, we found a strange holiday resort with a small pool of hot water. As this was day six without a shower for all of us, it didn’t take much time or much persuading for us to hop out of our dirty clothes and into the warm water.
One of the guys from the other teams had disappeared and when he returned, it was with an interesting story. Some nearby locals had insisted he visit their house to see their dead Marmot, drink their fermented horse’s milk and watch Titanic (unfortunately, not in English). Thankfully, we didn’t miss out, as the same locals followed him back to the pool and insisted we all drink the horse milk and come to visit the dead Marmot when we were finished in the hot spring. Another random experience.
After a bit more driving, we pulled over near some yurts in search of a place to stay. One woman invited us to stay in her Ger (mongolian yurt) with her and her two daughters for a small fee, and made us a very large meal of goat, noodles and potato. As we ate and warmed ourselves by the fire, she then tried to tell us the story (several times) of how her eldest daughter was conceived.
Despite the language barrier, her detailed mimes gave us a good idea of what had happened. Approximately nine years and nine months ago, a man called Michael had come to visit, stayed with her for two nights, got her pregnant, and then flew back to Germany and left her. He may also have visited Paris. We don’t know whether Michael is aware he has a daughter in the middle of mongolia, but if anyone knows a Michael (probably from Germany), who visited mongolia nine years and nine months ago, there is an angry woman looking for him.
On our sixth day of driving we reached Ulaanbaatar and entered the city. The country is very sparsely populated but nearly half the people live in the city. It was crammed and took half an hour to drive 500m. The government have been trying to reduce congestion by having a car free day and also trying to stop cars with certain regs enetering the city on a rotation system. The driving standard was not good either. The cars were 90+% hybrids. More Prius’ than you will ever see anywhere. I believe it’s due to the cold weather and it allows them to always be able to start the car in winter. They were everywhere and in forms I have never seen before, hybrid jeeps, vans and even mini buses.
The city was interesting, visited a few sites and museum and of course went to the Genghis Kahn statue 50km outside the city. A man responsible for 40 million deaths but also respected as the founder of a nation. There was only handful of people visiting this great statue even though it was planned and set up to accept 1000s.
The finish line for the rally is now officially in Ulan Ude in Russia but seeing as it’s the mongol rally we really felt like we made it when we were in mongolia. We also knew the road from Ulaan bataar to ulaan ude wa not too bad and the worst was over.
The only place of note that we passed through on our journey was a town called Semey, which had a sad story. In 1949 the Soviet atomic bomb programme selected a site on the steppe 150km west of the city as the location for its weapons testing. The Soviet Union carried out hundreds of nuclear tests for many years, and the results have not been good. The people of Semey suffer from high rates of cancer and birth defects. You can even visit the anatomical museum in Semey, which apparently has a gruesome collection of babies and embryos with horrible deformities caused by the nuclear radiation. We didn’t pay the weird babies a visit – the museum was closed by the time we arrived and a place I wasn’t 100% sure about visiting. Had a nice Pizza in the town before driving out to find somewhere to camp. There have been no visible after effects of eating the pizza.
After another night camping in the middle of nowhere, we crossed the border into Russia and drove up to Barnaul in South Western Siberia. This was a proper hectic city but it had obvious signs of westernization including McDonalds and many other fast food outlets and malls. We met up with a Kiwi team here and planned to drive in convoy with them across mongolia, a few more people to push or dig might come in useful. We had our dashcam on in Russia, after seeing many 100s of youtube videos I was expecting the worst but they were not that badly behaved and I have no footage of note to share.
We had spoken to some French guys in Barnaul who were working near by and they said we were in for a surprise when we leave the city and drive out into the Altai mountains. Our drive out was delayed as the other team were stocking up on warmer sleeping bags etc. and also we stocked up on crisps and a few other bits. Our food supplies from the uk had been lasting well but we were getting a little bored of pasta and stir in sauces.
They were not wrong, the scenery was beautiful. Everything from the mountains, to the lakes to the clouds were all spectacular. There were many signs for outdoor adventure sports, white water rafting, mountain biking etc and I was a little disappointed that we didn’t have time to stop and partake in something. This really was a place you could picture Putin with his shirt off riding a horse or shooting a deer.
We used an app called overlander to locate a campsite which people had stayed at before. Most people who use the overlander app travel in large 4x4s kitted out with everything including the kitchen sink. The road to the campsite was steep, uphill and gravel so it was a challenge for our 1 litre cars and after a couple of attempts we made it to the top. Sadly though the top was an aerial mast, the trees were overgrown so there was no view and not a lot of space, we went a little further down the hill and pulled off to a small grassy area. It wasn’t long after we got out that we noticed this area had a large amount of used wet wipes and small wrappers lying around.. Hopefully us staying there for the night didn’t ruin some local’s love life.
We headed for the mongolian border next morning and were slightly apprehensive as we heard it can take hours and also we would have to say goodbye to the great Russian roads we had just been driving on. There were horror stories of cars being written off due to accidents and breakdowns. It wasn’t long after crossing the border that we saw the first victim but more about that later.
The border went as badly as most, on the mongolian side they were all due to go home and we were the last group they were letting trough. Due to an issue with our visa which had to be checked by the seniors we found ourselves at the back of the queue. By the time we were ready to have the car processed the computer system had gone down and they wanted us to come back tomorrow. The other team had already gone through at this time so we were left stranded. We said we were willing to wait.. (where else could we go, we had been stamped out of Russia and couldn’t go into mongolia so there wasn’t much more we could do. The other option was to sleep at the border until the morning.) They eventually conceded and stayed back and eventually the computers started working again, unsure how long it took but the official had time to go out, smoke a cigarette and return, try the computer again and then repeat for 4 times.
Eventually 8.500 miles later we were in.. in mongolia. luckily the other team had waited just after the border.
At the border we met another rallier (Trevor) who we had spoken to in Goodwood and also in Prague. He was doing the rally on a 125 motorbike. This time though he was in a BMW and a Russian registered one. I asked Trevor where his bike was and he limped over to the car and opened the rear door. Inside was his bike. Well part of it, there was a frame and a few bits of clothing I then continued to ask him what happened and he stood back and raised his top, he had a bruise from his shoulder blade all down one side in a lovely shade of reds and purples. He had been hit by a horse/he hit a horse. Basically he was going along on the road and there were horses walking on both sides of the road. He moved the centre and drove straight trough. This si something we did 100’s of times in the car without issue, this time for Trevor though one of the horses decided to make a run accros the road, directly infront of him and the last thing he remembers seeing was a brown flash and then down on the road. Luckily it seemed to just be lots of bruising and a bike in many pieces. In the true spirit of the rally though he wanted to finish and also wanted to get his bike there too so he bought an old 5 series and planned to drive that and his bike to the finish line.
After we crossed the border we drove about 20km and saw a Fiat Panda parked on a track parallel to the road. There was nobody around and we presumed they maybe were walking to the town which we knew was not too far from the border. As we entered the town we were chased down by a local on a motorbike who’s motive was to get us all to stay in his hotel. He said we just passed it and I had the suspicious feeling that he meant the small house on the corner with a ger outside and yes that was it. He promised Yak meat, local beer and vodka and a place to sleep all for $5 dollars each. We thought about it for a second and in the spirit of experiencing local life we all agreed why not.
The house was lovely and toasty and we were offered tea made with horses milk or yak milk, I am not sure if we ever found out.
After sitting in the warmth for ten minutes the guy came back in to get us and wanted us to go with him. With a little bit of broken English and hand gestures we understood that he wanted us to go lift the car that had broken down and put it in the back of a truck. We went to another locals house and found the owner of the Panda in the yard waiting on some locals to finish unloading an old soviet era truck. When it was unloaded we jumped in only to drive to the petrol station, firstly yes there was a petrol station, very small and only had benzene, which this truck was. V8 petrol. We were then on our way. The driver did not drive slowly on the rough roads and most of the time we were in the back hanging on by our fingers. The sun was also starting to set and the temperature was dropping fast. We hadn’t gone far before we had to stop, the truck had many water leaks and was starting to overheat. We pulled up next to a lake and after sometime the radiator cap was removed and water added. We had another 25 litre drum which was also filled, which we needed again in a short few kilometers when we had to repeat the exercise. At this stage we were wondering if we would make it at all. If it needs this much water empty how will it perform with a car on the back.
The truck was a simple flat bed with the bed about 5feet from the ground. The car although small was not something we would have been able to lift to this height. I think there were 6 of us in total but that would have still been too much. Luckily a bank was spotted beside the road and the truck reversed up to it. It was now just a case of pushing the car over and taking a run at it to get it up and into the truck. On it went without much trouble. After a few stops for water on the return 10km we eventually were back near the hotel. A similar bank was found and the car was unloaded onto some wheels and down to ground level. The issue was the drive shaft so the plan was to fix it in the morning.
We were glad to get back inside that night to the warm fire, the food and also the vodka. It seemed like we were an attraction for he locals and after the vodka had flowed the music started on an old Kazak 2 string guitar. The locals I think were disappointed when we were wanting to go to bed, I think they were hoping for longer night but after a long day we were happy to put our heads down. The hotel was one room, we got out sleeping matts and bags and found some space and got some sleep.
Over the next two days we drove around 700km, sometimes on dirt and gravel tracks, and sometimes on smooth tarmac. We passed through the towns of Olgii, Khovd and Altai, and camped by some yurts and then in the wild mongolian desert, where we were joined by two other teams. The sky at night was beautifully clear and the milky way was easily seen. It was obvious also that mongolia is putting a lot of money into the infrastructure with large well paved raods being constructed. Sadly though they were not all open to traffic yet. This may change the challenge of the mongol rally in a few years.
Burning yak/camel/horse/cattle dung on a fire. Burned pretty well too. No trees to be found in the desert. Our clothes had an interesting smell that night in our tents.
We knew that from Altai to the next big town of Bayankhongor there were no roads. For 270km we would have to drive Martha (the micra) off-road. We had heard rumours from other teams that this was the worst stretch of the entire mongol Rally. It had claimed the lives of many perfectly healthy and happy cars. Martha had been perfect so far, but we knew that she could die at any time. We resolved to stick together as a convoy of four cars, and set off on what we assumed would be the hardest, scariest and most adventurous part of our whole journey. We changed her front tyres for a couple of free Yokohama forestry tyres we had been given before we left and this was the time to try them out.
We had thought the off-road driving would be very slow and rough but actually mongolia is quite a sandy and rather stoney country so the gravel roads and even fields were not that rough. They were bone shakers if driven slowly but if you were willing to increase the speed and bear the rattle until you were over 30 mph then it all seemed to smoothen out. The micra loved it. The only issue were large rocks or stones and when these were spotted and couldn’t be avoided the decision was often to “use the sumpguard” and not risk hitting a tyre off some of them. There were also some gravel tracks which snaked across the countryside. Picking the right one was often a tricky choice but on the whole they normally met back up near the next town, bridge or crossing somewhere. These tracks often moved over and back across other tracks and when one patch got to rough or maybe too wet in winter people just went around it. This created lovely flowing tracks and some with even slight banks on the outside of the corners. The micra loved changing direction on this and sliding from side to side at 50+ mph with very little grip. There was always the risk of hitting something large so it too a lot of concentration to avoid everything. Luckily we escaped without any damage and loved every minute of it. We had to change a front coil spring on one of the other cars, a fiat punto and luckily they had a spare and with the help of some ratchet straps as spring compressors they were back on the road. There were also a number of punctures but with towns about 150km apart it wasn’t too long before a new tube could be fitted or a tyre repaired.
We did however meet another team who had also been having a completely damage free rally and were now looking for a tow truck to get them back to ulaan bataar. It seems they hit a bump/step before a bridge which seemed to be such a jolt that it broke the engine mounts and the engine was now sat with a cracked sump about 4 inches to low and to the right. There was no obvious damage to the sumpgaurd so it was a tricky one to explain. Their rally was over and were just on a recovery mission. It did make us think about how we had been driving and also how we should drive in the future. It was also going to hurt the pocket as the best deal they could get was $600 to get the car the remaining distance to ulaan bataar. It wasn’t long before the flow of the roads or fields took over again and we were back to 60+ miles per hour driving across green plains.
As darkness fell, we pulled off the road with the three other teams and camped in the mongolian desert again. As mongolia is the least densely populated country in the world, we didn’t have to try too hard to find a spare bit of space!
The next morning we had a decision to make: try and get to Ulaanbaatar as quickly as possible, or detour for a bit more off-road fun and some sight seeing. Team Fiat to Believe it had a rapidly expiring visa so had to head straight to Ulaanbaatar, but the rest of us opted for a slower pace and some more exploring. It was felt that we hadn’t really been fully off road and there must be more challenges that we could take on. This you might think is stuipid being so close to finishing and wanting to do more than necessary but for us and the other teams it was more about being in mongolia and would we ever be back there to this ever again.
Next we ventured off-road looking for some hot springs. After taking a few different tracks, stopping to ask for directions at a village where I had a go at miming which didn’t give us any results! Then driving back on ourselves again, we found a strange holiday resort with a small pool of hot water. As this was day six without a shower for all of us, it didn’t take much time or much persuading for us to hop out of our dirty clothes and into the warm water.
One of the guys from the other teams had disappeared and when he returned, it was with an interesting story. Some nearby locals had insisted he visit their house to see their dead Marmot, drink their fermented horse’s milk and watch Titanic (unfortunately, not in English). Thankfully, we didn’t miss out, as the same locals followed him back to the pool and insisted we all drink the horse milk and come to visit the dead Marmot when we were finished in the hot spring. Another random experience.
After a bit more driving, we pulled over near some yurts in search of a place to stay. One woman invited us to stay in her Ger (mongolian yurt) with her and her two daughters for a small fee, and made us a very large meal of goat, noodles and potato. As we ate and warmed ourselves by the fire, she then tried to tell us the story (several times) of how her eldest daughter was conceived.
Despite the language barrier, her detailed mimes gave us a good idea of what had happened. Approximately nine years and nine months ago, a man called Michael had come to visit, stayed with her for two nights, got her pregnant, and then flew back to Germany and left her. He may also have visited Paris. We don’t know whether Michael is aware he has a daughter in the middle of mongolia, but if anyone knows a Michael (probably from Germany), who visited mongolia nine years and nine months ago, there is an angry woman looking for him.
On our sixth day of driving we reached Ulaanbaatar and entered the city. The country is very sparsely populated but nearly half the people live in the city. It was crammed and took half an hour to drive 500m. The government have been trying to reduce congestion by having a car free day and also trying to stop cars with certain regs enetering the city on a rotation system. The driving standard was not good either. The cars were 90+% hybrids. More Prius’ than you will ever see anywhere. I believe it’s due to the cold weather and it allows them to always be able to start the car in winter. They were everywhere and in forms I have never seen before, hybrid jeeps, vans and even mini buses.
The city was interesting, visited a few sites and museum and of course went to the Genghis Kahn statue 50km outside the city. A man responsible for 40 million deaths but also respected as the founder of a nation. There was only handful of people visiting this great statue even though it was planned and set up to accept 1000s.
The finish line for the rally is now officially in Ulan Ude in Russia but seeing as it’s the mongol rally we really felt like we made it when we were in mongolia. We also knew the road from Ulaan bataar to ulaan ude wa not too bad and the worst was over.
Apologies to those wondering what has happened the car. I will follow on from our time in mongolia.
In the last update we were in Ulaanbaatar and left to drive North into Siberia to the finish line in Ulan Ude. The rally now finishes here for a number of reasons, mainly mongolia now has better cars than those which partake in the mongol rally and don’t want any more reject cars and also Ulan Ude is a major stop on the Trans Siberian railway so shipping a car back to Europe is easy from here.
mongolia is the largest importer of hybrids (no cold weather starts). Photo was just of an office car park.
If you want to have your car scrapped it has to be shipped to Europe and scrapped in Estonia, likewise if you want your car again then you have the option of driving it out of Russia, back to Europe or to have it shipped back and collect it from the depot.
All along our original plan was to have the car shipped back and scrapped but after the workmanship that went into making the roof rack and sump guard and also the fact we have not had any issues with the car at all it seemed to good to scrap. We weighed up all the options and discussed who would actually use the car if we shipped it back to the UK? It is a 21 year old Nissan Micra, no power steering, 120+ thousand miles and may in the future become a classic (people wanting the car they learned to drive in or their first car?) This may be the case but as we are continuing on travelling we would have to pay somewhere to store the car in a gamble that it would be worthwhile. So in a last attempt to find a solution we advertised Martha online and in the mongol Rally forums and found a team who were driving to Ulan Ude also but they had damaged the sump of their fiesta near the finish line. It was a zetec fiesta with a alloy sump and basically there was a mounting plate left, very useful if you wanted to inspect the big ends.
They hadn’t booked flights and needed a form of transport so that they could all get back to the UK. After some messaging we arranged to meet them in Siberia and give them the car. As to what would happen the car when they got to Europe was to be discussed later but for the moment Martha would get to live on and drive another 6,500 km.
We headed after filling in the Tax book, making the change online with the DVLA and giving them a receipt we said goodbye to the car and wished them on their way. We thought this might be the last of them but we did hear from them again and not because the car had broken down. More on that to come.
There was a benefit on having the car driven out of the country, this saved us the cost of shipping. I will try to explain: When doing the mongol rally you have to pay a deposit of £1000 which is to ensure you don’t abandon the car somewhere and is then used to cover the shipping cost if you and your car arrive safe and sound at the finish line. Even if you do abandon the car the owner is normally tracked down by the country as all details are recorded when entering a country and if you try leave without the car there can be trouble. This was our biggest fear when we handed over the car as we would now have to leave Russia without a car. Fingers and toes crossed.
So by allowing them to drive the car back to Europe meant that we would be able to have our deposit returned to us after they take a photo of the car beside a European road sign with a newspaper. This should mean the car is in Europe on certain date and place. This was fine and the guys were happy to do this when they left Russia.
Trail left after an unlucky car in Russia.. Not us so dont worry.
We headed East on the Trans Siberian Railway to Vladivostok where we were due to get a flight over/close to North Korea to South Korea. If you want to read our review on the Trans Siberian railway check out the blog post on our website. It does involve drunk gold miners with pen knives.
We left Russia without an issue, customs stamped our passports with no mention of the car. We thought this would be the end of the car paperwork but not just yet…
The other team was not so lucky, they arrived at the border just after we had left Russia and the officials were not allowing them to leave as the owner was not with the car. They had a tough time and after a number of hours contacted us for our help, sadly we were not in Russia (and about 15,000km from them but we did write stating why we were not with the car and also that we could not collect it. Photos of our exit stamps etc. Also included a note of medical nature stating that we couldn’t return again, luckily Seoul had printers and internet cafes. ) This seamed to do the trick and they were allowed to leave.
What happened the car? Well actually we are not sure. We presume was scrapped, it was left in Estonia in a yard for scrapping so we can only presume…
It was a great experience and the car, Martha, performed perfectly with no issues for us or for the guys who drove her back to Europe. Without doubt a perfect car for doing the trip in.
Or is it? Micra estate, same reliability with a little more space, would be better if traveling with 4 people!.
We have written a number of blog posts on shaneandgeorgia.com which include our tips, What the Rally really cost? And Is the adventure dead? Please head over and take a look. Especially will be usefull if you are planning on taking on the rally.
You can also keep track of our recent travel there too. We are still on the road. Thank you all for reading.
In the last update we were in Ulaanbaatar and left to drive North into Siberia to the finish line in Ulan Ude. The rally now finishes here for a number of reasons, mainly mongolia now has better cars than those which partake in the mongol rally and don’t want any more reject cars and also Ulan Ude is a major stop on the Trans Siberian railway so shipping a car back to Europe is easy from here.
mongolia is the largest importer of hybrids (no cold weather starts). Photo was just of an office car park.
If you want to have your car scrapped it has to be shipped to Europe and scrapped in Estonia, likewise if you want your car again then you have the option of driving it out of Russia, back to Europe or to have it shipped back and collect it from the depot.
All along our original plan was to have the car shipped back and scrapped but after the workmanship that went into making the roof rack and sump guard and also the fact we have not had any issues with the car at all it seemed to good to scrap. We weighed up all the options and discussed who would actually use the car if we shipped it back to the UK? It is a 21 year old Nissan Micra, no power steering, 120+ thousand miles and may in the future become a classic (people wanting the car they learned to drive in or their first car?) This may be the case but as we are continuing on travelling we would have to pay somewhere to store the car in a gamble that it would be worthwhile. So in a last attempt to find a solution we advertised Martha online and in the mongol Rally forums and found a team who were driving to Ulan Ude also but they had damaged the sump of their fiesta near the finish line. It was a zetec fiesta with a alloy sump and basically there was a mounting plate left, very useful if you wanted to inspect the big ends.
They hadn’t booked flights and needed a form of transport so that they could all get back to the UK. After some messaging we arranged to meet them in Siberia and give them the car. As to what would happen the car when they got to Europe was to be discussed later but for the moment Martha would get to live on and drive another 6,500 km.
We headed after filling in the Tax book, making the change online with the DVLA and giving them a receipt we said goodbye to the car and wished them on their way. We thought this might be the last of them but we did hear from them again and not because the car had broken down. More on that to come.
There was a benefit on having the car driven out of the country, this saved us the cost of shipping. I will try to explain: When doing the mongol rally you have to pay a deposit of £1000 which is to ensure you don’t abandon the car somewhere and is then used to cover the shipping cost if you and your car arrive safe and sound at the finish line. Even if you do abandon the car the owner is normally tracked down by the country as all details are recorded when entering a country and if you try leave without the car there can be trouble. This was our biggest fear when we handed over the car as we would now have to leave Russia without a car. Fingers and toes crossed.
So by allowing them to drive the car back to Europe meant that we would be able to have our deposit returned to us after they take a photo of the car beside a European road sign with a newspaper. This should mean the car is in Europe on certain date and place. This was fine and the guys were happy to do this when they left Russia.
Trail left after an unlucky car in Russia.. Not us so dont worry.
We headed East on the Trans Siberian Railway to Vladivostok where we were due to get a flight over/close to North Korea to South Korea. If you want to read our review on the Trans Siberian railway check out the blog post on our website. It does involve drunk gold miners with pen knives.
We left Russia without an issue, customs stamped our passports with no mention of the car. We thought this would be the end of the car paperwork but not just yet…
The other team was not so lucky, they arrived at the border just after we had left Russia and the officials were not allowing them to leave as the owner was not with the car. They had a tough time and after a number of hours contacted us for our help, sadly we were not in Russia (and about 15,000km from them but we did write stating why we were not with the car and also that we could not collect it. Photos of our exit stamps etc. Also included a note of medical nature stating that we couldn’t return again, luckily Seoul had printers and internet cafes. ) This seamed to do the trick and they were allowed to leave.
What happened the car? Well actually we are not sure. We presume was scrapped, it was left in Estonia in a yard for scrapping so we can only presume…
It was a great experience and the car, Martha, performed perfectly with no issues for us or for the guys who drove her back to Europe. Without doubt a perfect car for doing the trip in.
Or is it? Micra estate, same reliability with a little more space, would be better if traveling with 4 people!.
We have written a number of blog posts on shaneandgeorgia.com which include our tips, What the Rally really cost? And Is the adventure dead? Please head over and take a look. Especially will be usefull if you are planning on taking on the rally.
You can also keep track of our recent travel there too. We are still on the road. Thank you all for reading.
Edited by 91Cooper on Sunday 10th December 11:50
Edited by 91Cooper on Sunday 10th December 14:24
James2593 said:
Excellent write up. Lovely to read over a beer.
I've always wanted to do the mongol rally, sadly friends that are interested don't have the couple of thousand notes spare to do it. I fear when the time comes, life will have changed and I no longer have the time to do something like this.
I can only imagine the happiness that your <£300 car with ratchet straps holding the front suspension in place and tennis balls inside the rear springs coughs into Ullan Battar (sp?) after many nights in a tent by the side of the road and teeth shattered by poor roads. If they can even be considered roads. What an adventure.
Hi James, I've always wanted to do the mongol rally, sadly friends that are interested don't have the couple of thousand notes spare to do it. I fear when the time comes, life will have changed and I no longer have the time to do something like this.
I can only imagine the happiness that your <£300 car with ratchet straps holding the front suspension in place and tennis balls inside the rear springs coughs into Ullan Battar (sp?) after many nights in a tent by the side of the road and teeth shattered by poor roads. If they can even be considered roads. What an adventure.
There are always teams who are looking for people to take part. If you do a search fo mongol Rally 2018 you are bound to find someone who has a car but looking for passengers. The more passengers you have the more some of the costs reduce when split.
It has been a great trip and we would definitly recommend it. We had a great time but were lucky/unlucky we had a great car. Lucky becuase we made it with no issues and had a great trip but also unlucky as we didn't have any breakdowns or got stuck anywhere, all of which would all add to the adventure. (a team did finish in a moris minor and had many more stories!)
Thank you all for the kind words and if you want to read more about our trip or just to read the mongol Rally tips just pop over to our blog.
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