Mongol Adventure

Martin will fly from Riga to London and then on to Inverness. He should be home this evening. Im staying another night in Riga and then making my way to Berlin and then Luxembourg. After a night in Luxembourg im off to Lyon for a few days and then back to Lux. Getting home a couple of days before going back to work.

Sorry, but there was no gprs in kz so was unable to keep the blog updated. The car died in kz. After all the problems in poland the car finally gave up. We have had a mixed time here, met lots scottish oil blokes that gave us a place to stay, got us drunk and had a great night partying in Aktobe. We left the next day and then the car died when we tried to botch it. We got a lift from two teams we had joined up with as the roads are totally mental in kz to the next city where we caught the train to Moscow. We slept in what can only be said a prison cell that cost 4 quid a night for both of us until the train left, which was 2 days later. The train is very full and we sleep in big open dorms. Its very strange, but there is no first or second class on this train. We have just passed Kazakh border control and now waiting for the Russian control to board the train. The train to Moscow cost £35 each and we will arrive on Monday afternoon to enjoy a MacDonalds in Red Square. After the food in Kazakhstan its the first time in my life that i can say im looking forward to American junk food! Lol. After moscow we get a train to Riga.

Russia was a bit crazy, we thought the roads in Poland were bad until Russia. The car has now got two burst rear springs, but is still driving. We will get them fixed in Oral hopefully! Been stopped 8 times by the police, but i think it was more to have a look at the mad car. Only once we had to pay a fine as Martin was speeding in a town. They wanted £25, but we only gave them £5.

Just now we are traveling from Moscow to Camapa. Hopefully today we will make it to Kazakhstan. The distance is only about 400 miles, but the roads are single lane, very poor and full of crazy truck drivers. This has made to going slow. Russia is a strange place and im looking forward to Kazakhstan.

The picture is taken in no mans land between Estonia and Russia. It took 4 hours to cross the border with 8 different bits of paper to be stamped. Got to St Petersburg and now heading to Moscow, the roads are so bad and the drivers are mental. Have now slepted in the car for three day and i stink. Tonight we stay in a hotel, i need a wash and a proper sleep! Lol.

A guy we meet at the russian border.

As you can see we have done a Blue Peter special on the distributor. We have added a heat sink, and a water cooler (modified back window washer). The car seems to be working fineish again and we have made it to Estonia. We have also just passed some guys in a red Panda, so have made up some time. A shower next and them Russia!

The mileage is now 44557. And the car is still holding out. After having to wait for between 8 and 10 days for parts we decided to botch it. We are now near the LT border and although Poland is a cool place we will be glad to see the back of it. Well it was never going to be easy in an 18 year old Panda. We also got a good mention on Talk Radio last night after we sent them a SMS.

We have to wait in the very south of Poland for a new distributor to be posted from Warszawa. It will arrive on Wednesday morning. It turns out that we are staying in a health resort town called Polencia, so we are going to relax and enjoy our time here. People in this part of Poland seem very nice and helpful.

Just. The little panda keeps cutting out and back firing. Its been quite eventful getting here. Was glad to see the border. Seemingly there are lots of fiat garages here! Lol.

Got to prague, the car is not to happy, its miss firing. Now at a service station about to see if we can see whats wrong. Oh the joys!

Well the last two nights have been crazy with the heat and running about getting all the last minute preparations together. We finally made it out of Hyde Park, down to the Euro Tunnel and are now in Luxembourg. We arrived here about 2 this morning. The car is over packed, so this morning before we go we have decided to off load some things here in Luxembourg.

Want to say a big thank you to Kenny and John for helping sort out the electrics and the radiator. And sorry it’s taken so long to blog this.

Then it broke down, problem with the inline fuel filter....... But it's now sorted :-) and he is on his way to London. Thanks to Alex from helping sort it out.

Martin is ready to go, with 42409 miles on the clock.

On Monday Martin took the car to get tuned, turns out the gasket was broken and was only firing on 3 cylinders. Dave Tennant pulled out all the stops and got it back running in 1 day. Thank you so much Dave. http://www.bitzmotorsport.com

Starting to get the car together, we were kindly donated from a Nairnshire Telegraph reader a rear window rack which we have adapted for the Jerry Cans and a roof rack which will carry the spare tyres.

Alfie from Highland Radiators has kindly donated us a fab new radiator for the car that should help further cool the engine. Below are a few pics.

Now have the video camera sorted - on our return the website will display a movie of our trip - www.flappo.co.uk

We needed a way to charge the video camera and mobile phones for the trip, I bought a Mini Inverter from Ebay.