The relative quiet on the blog recently has reflected our status as adventurers in limbo. We have been shacked up in UB sorting out repairs to Roxanne and doing various admin stuff before we can set off again. This had all pretty much been taken care of when Pete rather carelessly decided to contract tonsilitis, so we’ve arranged visa extensions and will stay until he is back at full strength. An ill Pete is a most unnatural thing to behold; he doesn’t eat very much and his favourite maxim “Pedro’s a legend” has not been heard in days. We all look forward to him getting back on his feet.

In the meantime we have been embraced into the expat community in UB and must have met every volunteer in the city! It’s a slightly surreal episode of the expedition but gives us good access to translators for our research. We’ve also met some fantastic people through the G4 challenge and their links to the Red Cross – our night with the journalists we’d met in the desert being particularly memorable!

Since we’ve been stationary for a while you might like to have a look at some people on the move at http://minivanmongolrally.wordpress.com/ – I came across these guys through Steve Smith, one of the team members, who is arranging our shipping from Japan to Vancouver. The team and his company (Japan Car Exports) are raising a fantstic amount of money for Hope International, and we aim to meet up with them and compare stories at Halifax. A long way to go yet…

- David