And that’s it. Mongol Rally 2018 has been officially completed and we are now rally veterans! What an adventure it’s been and what can I say about our little car. I haven’t gotten along with him much but Freddie is now and will remain my favourite car of all time. He’s taken us over mountains, deserts, seas and terrain that has crippled countless other Rally cars and big 4x4s that we’ve wizzed past along the way. 10,000 miles of pure adventure and lifelong friendships made. We have been so lucky with the people we’ve met both in convoys and locals along the way who have restored faith in humanity! We left Ulaan Bataar yesterday with afk and @cunningstuntsuk in the evening which was a relief as it was horribly polluted and the traffic was awful. Decided to head on through the night and get through the final tricky border - got messed about a bit which I was getting angry about - bloody wetbags - but after a thorough car check and losing our gifted salted fish and ram horns from the roof rack, we were through at about 5am. Slept in the car for about 3 ours and then pushed on to Ulan Ude. Got here about 13:30 and took the pictures! All that’s left is squaring the car away and then heading back, but first a good night out with some lovely and crazy people. @theadventurists thank you for coming up with this mad adventure, it does exactly what it says on the tin. #mongolrally #mongolrally2018 #complete #noreallyhowdidwedothat
Hello! We are now in Ulaan Baatar the unofficial and in previous years finishing point of the rally! What a couple of days it has been! We left the hotel in Altai and had about 100km more of good roads, then it ended... abruptly. From there it was 2 and a half days and 500km+ of trying to get back on the main road from the dirt, rocks, stupid cows and bone shattering terrain. Some of these tracks shake the skin off your bones and how the car stayed in one piece I don’t know. Quick bodge on the roof rack with my slack-line to keep it held down and many moments of cringing at horrible sounds, swearing and wooping followed. It was nerve racking as hell but a lot of fun drifting sideways and acting like a rally driver! One of the cars we were with had a real time of it, folded their front end in and set the air bags off, dropped the sump guard and cracked the windscreen. We managed to help out at the campsite that night and got it sorted best we could, they have also made it! 2 lovely nights of wild camping under the stars with stories, campfires and beers. I’ve butchered this explanation but I’m tired and in need of more beer so I’ll end it there. Mongolia you were harsh, beautiful and a lot of bloody fun! Seeing the Khan statue tomorrow then heading off in the evening up to the border looking to get to the finish line the day after (23rd). What a time we’ve had. #mongolrally #mongolrally2018 #mongolia #howthehelldidwedothat
From Semey and team AFK we set off north to the Russian border about 100km up. Got in the queue and got some noodles on and got through at about 12am. We got through the Kazakhstan part and decided in no mans land to have a sleep and go through to Russia in the morning. The roads in Russia are a breath of fresh air! So easy and smooth and we got a lot of distance done! All the way up to Barnaul, down through Bisque and further until we started looking for hostels in the evening - no luck either full or non existent which actually turned out to be a good thing! We found a very hidden and almost deserted looking motel of huts and trees and found a lady who let us stay. Things then got very interesting as another group of Russian guests who were chilling outside all came over and started giving us food, beer and a good laugh! They then told us to get swim stuff on (again hand signals) and come with them - here’s where I’ll have to do some top level summaries! Walking through an overgrown garden and deserted house to a sauna thing, getting whacked with a bush by Russians whilst lying down in said sauna with Russian beer, honey mead type stuff, dancing in a disco tent with a fire in it whilst drinking lots of good Vodka and eating more food, many laughs and extensive amounts of lost in translation! We set off today after some fond farewells, have stocked up on supplies and now just chilling in a cafe for updates. Onto Mongolia now! Might be out of contact for between 1-5 days and we are no longer with team AFK so don’t use that to track us, we’ll be somewhere in Mongolia! See you on the other side! #mongolrally #mongolrally2018 #russia #russiansarelovely #russiantraditions
