The past week has been all about the Stans, Almaty and the Mongolian border! The cars are crumbling, the roads have disappeared and yes that glimmer in the distance you can see whilst sipping a nice cup of fermented horse milk is the queue at the Mongolian border. With teams timing their arrival for the Finish Party in Ulaan Baatar, the Mongolian Border guards have their work cut out to get everyone through as quickly as possible! Meanwhile, other ralliers are making their way through Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan onto Kazakhstan. Some teams have had to turn back home at Kazakhstan while others continue on as far as there trusty metal steed will take them.
Along the way all types of ‘official’ bribery have been a constant companion for the ralliers and some have engineered a cunning way to seamlessly sidestep this pitfall. It would seem that Ulan-By-Car have found the ‘confused Englishman act’ to be a goodun.
“…pulling out from a directions stop the kazach police were on us before we even had a chance to turn our lights on (to be fair i had probably forgotten anyway). drivers license quickly ended up in the guys top pocket and the hand came out - we then deployed the confused englishman act for a good 15 minutes until the poor guy could take no more, another fine avoided. “
We have had news of breakdowns and write offs but also of comradeship and hospitality, and there’s even one tale of a very lucky bird defying almost certain death!
“On a fun side note, we ran over a bird, as in, it flew in front of our car while we were driving and disappeared. We never knew what happened to it, until about 100 km later, we heard it fluttering somewhere in our engine compartment. Eventually, the fluttering stopped, and we assumed the worst. However, this morning, it started making noise again, and we eventually pulled loose the wheel well and out popped a very confuse and tired bird. It shook off it’s strange experience and flew on its way.” Khan With The Wind
The rally is proving to be a mixed bag and at times a lucky dip. However the teams find ways to stitch and plaster the cars back together and carry on the dusty track.
From Almaty teams are entering into Mongolia and the last leg to the finish line in Ulaan Baatar to reunite with fellow ralliers who could be enjoying a spot of goat and a splash of Vodka in the Yert of a hospitable Mongolian. Stories of hospitality have been coming in especially one friendly fellow called Mustapa who has opened his home to 15 of the ralliers.
"As Stewart drove I tried my best to make conversation with our new passenger, Mustapa, and I played American music for him and showed him pictures of North Carolina and Boston. Mustapa and I hit it off, and after he gave me a crash course in Mongolian and Kazakh (there is a significant Kazakhstani population in Western Mongolia) he invited our convoy – all fifteen of us – to stay in his home that night. This was between his attempts to warn us of hazards in the “roads”: “OK GO GO GO…OK STOP….OK GO GO….STOP.” Khan With The Wind
Other teams are still plugging away at the trip to Mongolia, with Ulanbattered reporting “We have left Almaty, the city of beautiful women, expensive beer (£5!) and traffic jams. Not really sure how Borat can afford it. Camping by a lake tonight, Semey tomorrow for the penultimate border!”
The Adventurists’ team out in Mongolia are busy preparing for the much deserved arrival party for the ralliers, many of whom have already reached the finish point “booyah! We have only gone and got to ub! Its 4 oclock, 7487 miles, 25 days and 11 countries. Thank you to everyone who has made this possible.” Team Swift
Finally, news from the Great Balls of Fur team as they head steadily towards Mongolia. Complete with their furry red fire engine, this team are the true Legends of the Mongol Rally 2009 - have a look at some of their finer moments in the Mongol Rally 2009 Legends - Great Balls of Fur gallery.
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