If anyone is still persevering with this, the worst blog in history, well done!
In the end I decided that simon McKenzie Smiths blog was so much better that I would leave it to him!
Our advice was not to take a computer - this was not good advice. In the end I found that I was trying to cover too many bases with the driving, maintenance and the blog. Dom has blogged with many photos from his blackberryand I will find out where the link is and put it up here soon.
we finally made it to Paris on Saturday, on schedule and very happy but a tad tired. We had a fantastic welcome from a very enthusiastic crowd but especially from Jane, Angus and Caroline. David and Clare also changed a habit of a lifetime and took the weekend off to come to Paris for which i am truly grateful.
I have read through the comments on the Just giving pages and thank you to each and every one of you. I am bowled over by your generosity. it makes the trip seem much more valid to have raised a great deal of money for really good causes.
a question I have been asked a lot in the last couple of days is "what was the best part?" Naturally this is a very difficult question to answer but I can say from the initial despair when the engine let go 30kms out of Thessaloniki in the pouring rain, to the elation as we fired up the rebuilt engine in the overnight ferry after an epic 8 hour shift through the night took me from a very low place to a very high one. For me this was our greatest achievment. I count myself as having had several strokes of great good fortune during this episode; first was encountering Rupert Marks (car 23 aka Noddy) in an exuberant mood having repaired his spring in a John deere garage and then having had a few too many beers waiting for the ferry. It was he who said in a slightly slurring way, why wait until ancona to strip down the engine to find the cause of the machine gun noise coming from within. Thus he and I started to take the ancillilaries off the cylinder head whilst the ferry was approaching the harbour. this prompted looks of utter astonishment from the sweeper mechanics who were convinced we had lost our senses. The plan (if you can call it that) was to get towed onto the boat and continue working until the crew chucked us off the car deck. the second major stoke of luck was Toby Kilner of Car 82 walking past us as he left the car deck for a well earned rest. His question to me - "would you like a hand? this looks like fun!" was all i needed. Toby has been a pillar of strength to many on the rally and with a huge amount of knowledge and equipment to back it up this was a great stroke of good fortune for Dom and I. Anyway, no one ever did come and ask us to leave, in fact just the opposite, at one point in the night a senior officer appeared and asked if there was anything the ship could provide to assist us. The three of us worked constantly with Dom making sure we had adequate supplies coffee and crisps and bizarely, chocolate puddings! Off came the cylinder head to reveal a cracked inlet valve. Yes we had a spare along with the lapping tool and paste. Rupert provided a valve compression tool and quite quickly we got onto the reassembly. finally at about 5am greek time, we fired up the engine which ran a sweet as a nut. The only problem was an air leak on the inlet side which meant the engine would not tick over - we could not complain. we all retired for a celebratory beer or two before getting a couple of hours kip before the ship docked in Italy. Again looks of amazement from a number of the mechanics as we drove off the ferry under our own steam. To put this in perspective, there have been many crews who have worked on cars all night to get back on the road again however, i still think it is unlikely that any vintage Rolls Royce has ever undertaken a reasonably extensive engine rebuild on an overnight ferry! My etermal thanks go to Toby and Rupert who made it happen.
I have met some remarkable people during the course of the rally and hope to stay in touch with many. We have seen some extraordinary sights and scenes in the many weird and wonderful spots we have been to. In time those unfortuante enough to know me well will be bored rigid with an endless stream of 2nd rate photos with some commentary of what it all meant at the time. This trip has tested the car and the crew in ways none of us could have anticipated. I am not aware of Dom and I having any arguments and given we did not know each other that well at the start i think that in itself was anhievment. I am glad i brought ear plugs and I hope Dom understands when I say I am glad we do not have to sleep together anymore! It was Dom's idea and his generosity has meant that I got to experience an adventure of a lifetime - thank you Dom.
maybe some more later...
Monday 18 October 2010
Monday 27 September 2010
russia to kazakhstan
getting out of russia was not so difficult as getting in and we were back on the raod in kasakhstan by approximately midday however the roads got progrssively worse. just as you get up to a resonable cruising speed of about 70kmph, another huge pothole appears which will certainly give you a puncture in some peoples case break suspension srings split whhel rims and rip off shock absorbers. we fared pretty well therefore. out hotel in semey was na old soviet intourist hotel. this was quite an experience; no curtains, no loo seat, no plugs, short beds and hysterical decor - i will never complain about scottich b&B's again.
off early again to avoid the rush and this allows us to take our time. even so, we have no time to stop which is a shame. some times the countryside is very bleak but often there are little local delights which we try and photograph as we rush by. the final night of camping was improved because the weather has warmed up to a pleasant summers day but tempatures do drop dramatically at night. we were going to abandon our camping gear at the point but we have been advised we might need it in Uzbekistan as getting petrol is problem!
We reached Almatty at about5pm and for the 1st time in what seemed like a very long time were able to have a proper wash. the towels and the bath in our grand hotel were very grubby after the first proper shower for sometime. all our clothes went to the laundry and we went out c/o the son of the tourism and culture ministers son (who owns a collection of sviet era cars and planes) to a Kasak restaurant. 1st course bread and vruit, 2nd course horse and pasta, 3rd course a whole sheep including the head (inc eyes, tongue and brain) all washed down with vodka! none of us particualrly enjoyed that but it was an experience!
Yesterday and today have been spent repairing the car. Yesterday i worked steadily through all the electrics and i think we now have all working again. Today i did an oil change, rewelded the exhaust and had the fan pulley wheel welded - we had spent the last 2 days with no fan which meant town driving got to be quite an intersting situation.
Tomorrow, we start early at 5am as we have 750km do cover. this will be the greatest distance so far and takes us to the Us\zbek border
dom and I are getting on well and I think the car has been great so far. we have had only 1 puncture on the last day which is remarkable for such a big car. the physical challenge is certainly more than i had anticipated but apart from some moments where i have questioned my sanity, i have enjoyed theexperinece enormously. the trouble is i cannot begin to do it justice either in this blog or photographically.
more another day
off early again to avoid the rush and this allows us to take our time. even so, we have no time to stop which is a shame. some times the countryside is very bleak but often there are little local delights which we try and photograph as we rush by. the final night of camping was improved because the weather has warmed up to a pleasant summers day but tempatures do drop dramatically at night. we were going to abandon our camping gear at the point but we have been advised we might need it in Uzbekistan as getting petrol is problem!
We reached Almatty at about5pm and for the 1st time in what seemed like a very long time were able to have a proper wash. the towels and the bath in our grand hotel were very grubby after the first proper shower for sometime. all our clothes went to the laundry and we went out c/o the son of the tourism and culture ministers son (who owns a collection of sviet era cars and planes) to a Kasak restaurant. 1st course bread and vruit, 2nd course horse and pasta, 3rd course a whole sheep including the head (inc eyes, tongue and brain) all washed down with vodka! none of us particualrly enjoyed that but it was an experience!
Yesterday and today have been spent repairing the car. Yesterday i worked steadily through all the electrics and i think we now have all working again. Today i did an oil change, rewelded the exhaust and had the fan pulley wheel welded - we had spent the last 2 days with no fan which meant town driving got to be quite an intersting situation.
Tomorrow, we start early at 5am as we have 750km do cover. this will be the greatest distance so far and takes us to the Us\zbek border
dom and I are getting on well and I think the car has been great so far. we have had only 1 puncture on the last day which is remarkable for such a big car. the physical challenge is certainly more than i had anticipated but apart from some moments where i have questioned my sanity, i have enjoyed theexperinece enormously. the trouble is i cannot begin to do it justice either in this blog or photographically.
more another day
the border cfrossing into russia was interesting to say the least. we left camp at 7am and drove about 10km to the mongolian border. there we sat until about 1pm. some cars diddnt make it across the border until after 5pm. then we had a 700km run to belarouskia. this drive was maginificent for the 1st 250kms. we drove down a magnificant gorge with a huge river dropping all the time from about 7500ft to about 500ft above seal level. even the americans confimred that they had never seen scenery like it. the russians were all extremely friendly and of course the tramac roads were much appreciated. the reason the day was so long was that we had to avoid bush fires which added a furhter 125kms to the distance. noen of our lights worjked except the old fashioned headlights. these were just adequate and we strapped our heasd torches to the rear bumper with their red light setting which worked rather well. we were stopped by the police but this was because they wanted to pose in front of the car for photographs - this has become quite familar. belorouskia is a spa town and our hotel was a supposed health centre - luckily with beer.
almatty, kazhakstan 2
mongolia has been incredible. the rally organisation announced on the day we left the country that this leg had been the most challenging yet. this made me feel a little better as i wasn't sure either us or the car to take the pounding for much longer. the desert roads are particularly bad as they have been building a new road down our route. the construction traffic have virtually destroyed the bush tracks and the attrition to the car has been pretty horrendous. we have completely laost the bash plate that protects the bottom of the car. we think this happened in the sandy section. we managed to avoid one sand dune where a car was bogged and promptly got stuck in the next one. the sand is like glue and if you allow the momentum to fall off, you are lost. luckily there were plenty of cars on hand and we managed to push the car back and find another route. the best part of the desert was driving quite fast (55mph) across the desert where no one else had ever been. the car ran smoothly over the scrubby surface and a 360 degree view showed that we were the only ones insight with the swetting sun in the west and the campsite just over the horizon. this euphoric feeling was in contrast to the usual bumping and grinding and scraping along. at some point we obviously caught a rock om the exhaust which sheared off just under the engine. this meant that we sounded like a tractor and were constanly overcome by fumes. we had to run like this for two days until we reached Kovd where we got the exhaust welded for the princely sum of $50 - we subsequently found that we had been totally ripped off but it still seemed like good value.
camping has been the name of the game in mongolia and the Nomad tour team have looked after us very well. there are delicious hot showers and the food is a stange micture of western and local food all served on a plastic prison style tray. evenings are spent trying to get the car ready for the next day, having a few beers and swapping stories. We have already made some very good friends and the atmosphere and camaraderie are excellent. we typically start early the next day which means we incure more penalties but we can see no point in arriving after dark which is no fun and even more tiring. so 6am rise and leave camp by 7am if possible. the last few daysa were complicated by the fact that car was running very roughly and would not start on the battery in the morning so a push or a tow was required. the rough running is because the car is running too rich becaue of the altitude - our highest pass was 8500 feet. the poor starting was because it was jolly cold. on the l;ast morning it was -12C in camp in the morning!!
camping has been the name of the game in mongolia and the Nomad tour team have looked after us very well. there are delicious hot showers and the food is a stange micture of western and local food all served on a plastic prison style tray. evenings are spent trying to get the car ready for the next day, having a few beers and swapping stories. We have already made some very good friends and the atmosphere and camaraderie are excellent. we typically start early the next day which means we incure more penalties but we can see no point in arriving after dark which is no fun and even more tiring. so 6am rise and leave camp by 7am if possible. the last few daysa were complicated by the fact that car was running very roughly and would not start on the battery in the morning so a push or a tow was required. the rough running is because the car is running too rich becaue of the altitude - our highest pass was 8500 feet. the poor starting was because it was jolly cold. on the l;ast morning it was -12C in camp in the morning!!
almatty, kazhakstan
i tspent some time yesterday updating the blog only to find it would not upload. rather annoying so will try again now.
Day 5 seems like a lifetime away now. We think we are effectively 1/2 way now which is a massive achievement. some have not been so fortunate. a number of cars have had to retire and the cars are being shipped home. tragically one car caught fir 3 days ago just short of the final campsite. the car was completely destroyed.
We have not got this far unscathed! those who know the car would be rather horrified by her appearance. We have decided to call her Maggie. We have a sticker on the bonnet supportin maggies centres but it seems a good name. a couple of people in china raised an eyebrow seeing the name; apparently it is also the name of a rather undistinguished club in china which is well known for all the wrong reasons.
Day 5 seems like a lifetime away now. We think we are effectively 1/2 way now which is a massive achievement. some have not been so fortunate. a number of cars have had to retire and the cars are being shipped home. tragically one car caught fir 3 days ago just short of the final campsite. the car was completely destroyed.
We have not got this far unscathed! those who know the car would be rather horrified by her appearance. We have decided to call her Maggie. We have a sticker on the bonnet supportin maggies centres but it seems a good name. a couple of people in china raised an eyebrow seeing the name; apparently it is also the name of a rather undistinguished club in china which is well known for all the wrong reasons.
Tuesday 14 September 2010
day 5 take 2
no one slept the night before we were due to leave, coupled with jet lag and a 0445 start, this meant we were very tired when we got going. the 1st bit was to the official start at the Great Wall of China. this should have taken about 1hour 30 but because the traffic is appalling in beijing, it took more like 2 1/2 hours. the driving style in china is very much freestyle, no one gives way to anyone else but it is all very friendly. i have got very good at operating the horn! eventually we were away at about 1030, having waved goodbye to jane and caroline collins. we settled down quite quickly and made good progress eventually getting about 250 km under our belts.
day 2
today dawned with a more normal 450km scheduled. as usual, we decided to set off at 1st light. dominic and I have decided not to try and compete with the rally proper. the Rolls is too big and although we are able to make good speeds the days are still very long , we feel it is better to get to the destination each day as early as possible. once again all the driving was on tarmac with occasional diversions off the road onto rough tracks when roadworks dictated. now things are getting very rural and basic. lots of similar red brick houses, many of which are abandoned. suddenley we come over a ridge and discover a huge town on the plain with 1 million people in it. according to those that did this rally 3 years ago, there was practically nothing there then. this is a country in a hurry and there is building works everywhere.
we had great fun driving through heavy traffic on 6 lanes having a bit of a ding dong race with the 1907 Itala which was going really well. in the end i ended up taking to the pavement followed by the japanese film crew so that we could get past him. no one seemed to mind but it may take a while to revert to normal driving once we get home. we pulled into Errenhot which is the border town where we cross into mongolia. this town was not very nice and we were advised not to go out of the hotel in the evening. some of us discovered to our astonishment that there was a lap dancing club in the hotel! however before anyone gets too excited, when we got there we had to wake up the bar lady and we were the only 3 people there. a shame really as i have never seen lap dancing live!
day 3. today starts with us driving 3km to the border starting off arounf 0730. we then sat around for about 3 hours whilst varrious officials worked out how to get 120 cars, some of which had to be towed, over the border. Eventually, at about 1145 we were off. Mongolia has a completely different feel to it. the people are much more reserved and it is clearly much poorer than china. after a short time we were off the tarmac and into the desert. nothing to be seen as far as the horizon in all directions. an absolutely stunning experience. Mongolia has the lowest population density of any country in the world. the desert roads are just wherever someone befor you has gone before so there are many track heading off into the distance which will hopefully get you to the next checkpoint. the gps which we all have is invaluable. the driving conditions are truly awful with the poor old Rolls bottoming out reguarly and getting more are more bumpy. we eventually. It took us to about nine hours to make 225km. our average speed was 27kph. we stopped twice to help other cars with punctures but happily di not have to wrry about this ourselves. we got to within 4 km of the campsite and then took out 1st wrong turn which was, to put it mildy, rather irritating. the only good thing was that about 10 other cars did the same thing! We ended up leading a strange little convoy across the desert in the dark via track and, strangely, quite alot of deep muddy water. luckily no one got stuck and we pulled in at about 2030 in the dark. pitch ing our tents in the dark was quite funny but after some food and a couple of beers morale was restored.
day 4. after a surprisingly good sleep, we struck camp at about 0630. pop-up tents do exactly that but trying to fold them up again is another matter. the organisers have a brilliant tent city with mess hall, toilets and even showers. so we had a good breakfast and then set off into the desert again. today was a much better day. the desert roads were much better and we were making upto 80kph on some stretches. at one point, whilst being filmed from a helicopter, the downwash reduced visibility and we failed to see a deep culvert. I can confirm that we can fly but the landings are rather heavy! in fact the headlights both drooped down in there disapproval. amazingly that was the only damage that we could discern. we covered 250km over sand, and another 250 took us into Ulam butaar the capital of mongolia. a hotel room and proper shower were very welcome.
day 5. as i have already said we have been busy getting the car ready for tomorrow. i had to make a new bracket for the exhaust and i am a little worried about one of the rear springs which does not appear to be getting lubrication. we will have to manually oil this every day to try and prevent any disasters. that is all for now. we will be out of contact of phones and emails for the next 4 days we think.
day 2
today dawned with a more normal 450km scheduled. as usual, we decided to set off at 1st light. dominic and I have decided not to try and compete with the rally proper. the Rolls is too big and although we are able to make good speeds the days are still very long , we feel it is better to get to the destination each day as early as possible. once again all the driving was on tarmac with occasional diversions off the road onto rough tracks when roadworks dictated. now things are getting very rural and basic. lots of similar red brick houses, many of which are abandoned. suddenley we come over a ridge and discover a huge town on the plain with 1 million people in it. according to those that did this rally 3 years ago, there was practically nothing there then. this is a country in a hurry and there is building works everywhere.
we had great fun driving through heavy traffic on 6 lanes having a bit of a ding dong race with the 1907 Itala which was going really well. in the end i ended up taking to the pavement followed by the japanese film crew so that we could get past him. no one seemed to mind but it may take a while to revert to normal driving once we get home. we pulled into Errenhot which is the border town where we cross into mongolia. this town was not very nice and we were advised not to go out of the hotel in the evening. some of us discovered to our astonishment that there was a lap dancing club in the hotel! however before anyone gets too excited, when we got there we had to wake up the bar lady and we were the only 3 people there. a shame really as i have never seen lap dancing live!
day 3. today starts with us driving 3km to the border starting off arounf 0730. we then sat around for about 3 hours whilst varrious officials worked out how to get 120 cars, some of which had to be towed, over the border. Eventually, at about 1145 we were off. Mongolia has a completely different feel to it. the people are much more reserved and it is clearly much poorer than china. after a short time we were off the tarmac and into the desert. nothing to be seen as far as the horizon in all directions. an absolutely stunning experience. Mongolia has the lowest population density of any country in the world. the desert roads are just wherever someone befor you has gone before so there are many track heading off into the distance which will hopefully get you to the next checkpoint. the gps which we all have is invaluable. the driving conditions are truly awful with the poor old Rolls bottoming out reguarly and getting more are more bumpy. we eventually. It took us to about nine hours to make 225km. our average speed was 27kph. we stopped twice to help other cars with punctures but happily di not have to wrry about this ourselves. we got to within 4 km of the campsite and then took out 1st wrong turn which was, to put it mildy, rather irritating. the only good thing was that about 10 other cars did the same thing! We ended up leading a strange little convoy across the desert in the dark via track and, strangely, quite alot of deep muddy water. luckily no one got stuck and we pulled in at about 2030 in the dark. pitch ing our tents in the dark was quite funny but after some food and a couple of beers morale was restored.
day 4. after a surprisingly good sleep, we struck camp at about 0630. pop-up tents do exactly that but trying to fold them up again is another matter. the organisers have a brilliant tent city with mess hall, toilets and even showers. so we had a good breakfast and then set off into the desert again. today was a much better day. the desert roads were much better and we were making upto 80kph on some stretches. at one point, whilst being filmed from a helicopter, the downwash reduced visibility and we failed to see a deep culvert. I can confirm that we can fly but the landings are rather heavy! in fact the headlights both drooped down in there disapproval. amazingly that was the only damage that we could discern. we covered 250km over sand, and another 250 took us into Ulam butaar the capital of mongolia. a hotel room and proper shower were very welcome.
day 5. as i have already said we have been busy getting the car ready for tomorrow. i had to make a new bracket for the exhaust and i am a little worried about one of the rear springs which does not appear to be getting lubrication. we will have to manually oil this every day to try and prevent any disasters. that is all for now. we will be out of contact of phones and emails for the next 4 days we think.
day 5
today was a rest day. this rather contravenes the trdes description act actually. we have been working on the car for about 8 hours now and are resonably happy.
lets back track a bit. i didnt think about the fact that the chinese block anyone sending out blogs so i couldnt do it dirtectly whilst in beijing but had to get my sister katie to post the blog by sending her an email from my phone. that worked fine until i lost my phone in beijing! as jane had come to china to see me off, i was able to hijack hers. that would have been fine except I have now lost hers too! how incompetent can i get. my excuse is that i am totally preoccupied with trying to get the car from a to b.
back to the journey, our 1st day
lets back track a bit. i didnt think about the fact that the chinese block anyone sending out blogs so i couldnt do it dirtectly whilst in beijing but had to get my sister katie to post the blog by sending her an email from my phone. that worked fine until i lost my phone in beijing! as jane had come to china to see me off, i was able to hijack hers. that would have been fine except I have now lost hers too! how incompetent can i get. my excuse is that i am totally preoccupied with trying to get the car from a to b.
back to the journey, our 1st day
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