Yup, thats right, we're in UB, Mongolia.  It was touch and go as to weather we'd make it but about 300km out from UB we hit our first bit of tarmac road in days.  Strange how just something like that can make three sweaty, smelly men so happy.  Having eaten only noodles with the occasional tin of mince we acquired from a team who'd broken down, and not showering for 10 days, we were soooo looking forward to speeding in to the finish line.  But Mongolia had one final card hidden inside her vast steppes - the last 100km were unpaved again!  By now the cab was really only hanging on by the finest of threads and we took every bump at 10mph.  Add to that that we had no brakes, sporadic 1st and 2nd gears (and non existent 3rd or 4th), zero suspension and a funny scrapping noise coming from the front wheel, we were not convinced we'd make it still.

But we did and the celebrations and the relief were shared by one and all.  Last night we stayed in a swanky hotel, with plasma, computer, kettle and even condoms in...

Hello! 

Sorry for lack of blog updates but internet is pretty scarce and we're always fighting the clock.  Currently we're in Barnaul, our last major city before Ulan Bator so we stayed in a hotel and went out for a bit of a booze session last night. Today, when the other two wake up, we're heading south to the Mongolian border.  The business end. 

The last 8 or 9 days in Kazakstan have been glorious.  The landscape is mostly boring and flat but the people are awesome.  Every town we enter we get beeped, waved at, smiles and offers to take us wherever we want to go.  One of the best days was just spent in a car mechanics!  About 20 of them all crowded round the cab, laughing and giving us food, tea and some weird herb that makes you a bit high. 

The car is doing really well despite needing a mechanic to change the rear and front suspension.  The roads (or lack of) in Kazak were just too much for a vehicle designed to cruise the streets of London and part of the rear leaf spring fell off.  As for other failings, we have:

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Thursday 24th July

2 days to go and the money's still pouring in

The mustachioed one returns from fondling Frodo

A delicious array of tasty bite-sized news pieces

Visa musings...because at the moment, we all love visas

A brief update on Team DYDAs progress

Another quick update from DYDA land

From the ashes of Taxi #1 rises the Fairway phoenix in the form of Taxi2.