Waking up on the 50th again we were confident of making the 50Km over rough ground to the Astana road by lunch. So weset off with Dave, our morning specialist at the wheel. Once again Dave demonstrated his skills and got stuck again within sight of the campsite (this time he at least made 30 meters). On inspection we thought we were not very stuck and a bit of digging should get us free. 5 hours and two land anchor holes later we finaly got out. 50Km seemed like a tough ask, but we headed off to see how far we could get. Dave having a bit of a special day got stuck again, but we ended the day only 10km short of the road (and still bang on 50 degrees).

With our final wild camp before the capital out of the way we made good progress on some of the countries best roads and reached Astana by mid afternoon. As usual we had no idea where to stay and headed for a big hotel (they always speak english) to get some cheap recommendations. But after a chat with a guy at some traffic lights he lead us to the Tengri Hotel. The face price for a room was $80, but after chatting with the Director we were again amazed at Kazak hospitality and accepted the offer of the room for $30.

So back in a city again. Astana is the strangest place any of us have been. !0 years ago it did not exist, now there are 700 000 people living here, and some really big building, but the whole place does not seem real. I am fairly sure it is all made of lego, and people look really out of place on the streets. But we have had a great time here. The hotel have supplied us with a driver and a guide and also set up some press calls for us. So if any of you fancy looking we are going to be on Kazakh TV on monday and in a number of news papers here. The interviews were a bit of a laugh with the most common question being ‘No girls for 5 months, so how’s that going’.

Last night we met up with a friend of a friend who took us out and taught us all sorts of russian traditions, strangly they all involved vodka (that might be the reason we were not looking at our best for the TV interview). We are about to head out and meet up with the embassy staff for dinner and a beer so I expect we will learn some more traditions.

Tomorrow we head off to Karaganda and towards Russia again, aided by the pimping Garmin GPS units we finally managed to pick up after weeks of failed attempts! I suspect we will be a little sad to leave Astana. The double beds, all you can eat breakfasts and lunches and the hot showers have been amazing. Thank you Tengri Hotel!!

- Pete

P.S. Thanks for all the sports updates, we’re better informed than if we watched it! The messages to the sat phone are amazing, please keep them coming.

Playing on the iPod: ‘The Boys are Back in Town’ by Thin Lizzy

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As regular listeners will know we set out yesterday morning with the noble aim of having a wash and reaching the 50th. We drove for a while along a road which in due course turned out to be entirely the wrong road. It was actually a Kazakh motorway, although without any road signs, lanes or even much of a road surface.

We adjusted our course and found a delightful river for lunch and a wash.

Refreshed and not stinking quite as much we headed back in search of a track. Ten minutes in I had managed to get Roxanne stuck up to the axles in the most minging mud we’ve seen. At least since we last got stuck.

Plenty of digging ensued and before long we were once again mucky and sweaty. Eventually after about three hours and a bit of assistance from our terrific winch we got out and headed on to another sandy beach for the night

- disappointingly only 30 miles on from our previous nights camp!

Today we once again we set out with the noble aim of having a wash and reaching the 50th. Within 15 metres of camp we had managed to get stuck once again. More digging and numerous attempts later we eventually got free, again taking about three hours. It can be demoralising to be able to still see your camp when you left it so long ago, especially when you’re being eaten alive by giant mosquitoes and assorted other winged beasties.

However we did get free and pushed on to towards our line - covering 200 miles on dirt tracks. We stocked up on diesel and provisions in the beautiful town of Torghay, the arrival of our Landy causing much commotion in town. Everyone wanted their picture taken with it - we printed out copies of the photos for them and they gave us vodka in return, seems like a fair deal to me.

We’ve now hit the 50th and are hoping to offroad along it most of the way to Astana. The terrain is incredible flat and featureless but there’s some salt flats and rivers to be negotiated ahead. Stay tuned.

- Spike

Playing on the iPod: “Gone to November” by Wyclef Jean

P.S. We’ve each chosen teams to support in the European Championship. I’ve got Holland, Germany and Sweden. Dave has Czech Rep, Croatia and France and Pete has Switzerland, Italy and Portugal. Any updates of scores sent to the sat. phone much appreciated.

P.P.S Keep the cricket score coming, as much info as possible. Many thanks to Iain and Ed for their messages so far.

Just a quick addition to the last blog. We had our first vehicle issue, the driver window fell out of its seating. This was not too much of a problem until we drove in to a section of dunes with no plants. Unfortunately there was a small sand storm going on at the time, so the vehicle is now full of sand. The window is now fine, but everything we eat is now full of sand which is nice.

So back to this blog. After the camp where I managed to get us stuck on top of a dune, we got up early and headed towards the reailway line, the only land mark for miles around. Just before we got there, going up the final dune , we noticed a small puncture in the back right tyre. So we now had a tyre with no air in at all and were on sand, so no easy jacking ground.

This was made worse by us having noticed the day before that a vital pin had fallen out of the High Lift Jack. However the piece of screwdriver that was embedded in our tyre fitted perfectly.

In the end though we managed to get the bottle jack under the axle resting on a sand ladder and we had the wheel changed in no time. This was all for the benefit of two railway workers who found it hilarious, and then helped us across the tracks, with Roxanne eating up the bumps.

We continued without incident to Aral. This was not actually the desired destination, but the Ship Cemetery we were aiming for turned out to be about 200Km away from the marking on the map; we are getting used to our rubbish map now. While trying to get the tyre mended we were all around the back of the vehicle getting the spare tyre off the back door while some pikey leant in the window and stole my phone. Next stop police station. This was a fairly surreal experience with the three of us having tea and biscuits with the police commissioner while they sorted me a police report (via an interpreter whom they dragged off the street). This took a while, but the tea was great and we found out how to get to the ships.

Having headed out of town that night we camped on the top of the old cliffs. It was rather strange because it looked very obviously like there should be a sea there, but instead we got a strong wind buffeting our tents all night. Odd thing about Kazakhstan that - the weather seems to come out at night, and the air’s in a hurry to get somewhere.

In the morning we tracked down the beached ships, although they’re all being pillaged for scrap, so there aren’t many left now, and none of them is intact. Still, it added to the list of surreal things we’d seen!

Somehow we managed to get another puncture down there, so popped back into Aral to get it sorted before getting back on the road and heading towards the 50th again. We filled up the tank at a forlorn looking station at the edge of town and David got a nice diesel shower from the very drunk attendant, it probably actually made him a bit cleaner though. Our aims for tomorrow are to get back on 50 degrees and have a wash (neither of which has happened for a little while now.)

- Pete

Playing on the iPod: “Swing Life Away” by Rise Against Police stop count: 16 (plus tea with the Police Commissioner!)

P.S. Iain you little tinker! We were wondering how we’d find out the cricket scores, keep the updates coming! D

During our visit to Hele’s School in Plymouth, someone asked us what we were most worried about, and with unanimity of a well-oiled machine we all said ‘Russian border crossings’.  We particularly thought the crossing from Ukraine into Russia would be an ordeal.  So with this in mind we approached the border yesterday with a little trepidation.

We stopped a couple of kilometers short to rearrange the packing in the boot so that a few shoes (and even one of Pete’s socks - a particulrly evil touch I thought) would fall out upon opening.  Then passports in hand, we trundled past the huge line of waiting HGVs to the crossing…

…and left less than 3 hours later having had no problems at all, and even several smiles!

Our first impressions of Russia have been pretty good all-in-all, we even got stopped by a policeman just because we looked lost and he wanted to help us.  Let’s hope it continues!

David

I’m currently sat by a beautiful lake 100km from the Russian border.  We’ve driven all day long so we can cross the border tomorrow morning.  We’ve pulled off the road to set up camp, Dave is cooking dinner, Pete erecting the tents whilst I write the blog wearing a head net to keep all the mosquitoes off.  We’re all enjoying the messages coming in on the sat phone.  Many thanks to everyone who’s sent one.

It’s been an eventful time since our last update.  We managed to blag our way onto a free boat trip down the River Dnipru which through Kiev, organised by one of the candidates in Ukraine’s forthcoming election to swing voters.  Driving beer down the river we were definitely swung, although we can’t actually remember his name! We then spent the evening securing the services of a translator for the next day’s case study near Chernobyl.

Up early and heading north we got to the check point at the edge of the 30km exclusion zone.  We thought we’d try to get through the checkpoint without a guide, as we couldn’t afford an organised tour that would’ve cost over £400.  The guards reaction to our attempt was summarised as “You three and that thing going in there – no chance!”  Still, we’d tried our best and then did a case study near the boundary with a charming 85-year-old farmer.  He looked incredibly healthy for his age and we left him after the interview to get back to ploughing the fields with his horse.

On the way back we came across three Ukrainians in a broken down car.  After some basic communication we discovered they needed a tow back to Kiev.  We attached a tow rope and set off toward the capital.  I was driving the Ukrainians’ car, a very old Volvo and Pete towing me in the Landy.  The tow was made more interesting by other Ukrainians’ complete disregard for the traffic laws and “stealth bumps” – sleeping policemen that are nearly impossible to see.  Two hundred metres from the end of the tow Peter pulled away from some traffic lights.  Unfortunately as he gently pulled away he took the bumper of the Volvo clean off and dragged it across the junction whilst the rest of Volvo stayed put.  The Ukrainians didn’t seem to mind, simply reattaching the tow rope to another, less rusted, part of the chassis and chucking the bumper in the boot for the rest of the tow!

We set off toward Kharkov and soon attracted the attention of the Ukrainian police once more.  He relieved us of a particularly fine bottle of Ukrainian red we were planning to enjoy at camp that evening and sent us our way.  Luckily it had only cost us £1.20.  For the last two days driving the landscape has been very monotonous.  Giant flat fields growing cereals stretch into the distance in every direction.

The existence of lanes as we drove through the city of Kharkov is completely open to debate as drivers jostled for position.  Fortunately we have a big vehicle so they tend to get out of our way.  We entertain ourselves along the route with a great range of tunes on the iPod and challenging each other with Articulate and Trivia Pursuit cards.

Dinner is nearly ready, the stars are out and the full moon is slowing rising in the east.  Below us there is a cacophony of unusual noises coming from cicadas, frogs and other creatures.  Off to eat now.

- Spike

Firstly we’d just like to say a big thanks to everyone who has sent us the text messages to the sat phone - it’s always a highlight of the day when we turn it on and it bleeps away at us!

Kiev…funny place.  We can’t quite make up our minds about it.  One minute we get really annoyed at the gruff unhelpfulness of the unsmiling people, then we meet some lovely helpful ones who give us excellent directions.  The city mirrors this, with charmless streets of mish-mashed architecture opening onto glorious tree-lined squares around golden-topped cathedrals.

It’s far too expensive anyway, so we’ll be off soon!

Usually we will not be giving day by day accounts of what we get up to but Friday makes for an interesting story.

Having successfuly made it into the Ukraine we woke up on Friday morning in good spirits. In the morning Dave and I had a relaxing time listening to Test Match Special in an internet cafe while Spike went to do a favour for a friend. We left at about one, hoping to cover about 300km before our first wild camping experience (camping not in a campsite). With ‘Born to Run’ playing and the road looking pretty good we were making good time, and thinking about a lunch stop. The next thing we knew we rounded a corner and were waved down by a very grumpy looking policeman. He came to the window and from a lot of sign language we established that we had come round the corner at 90kmph and the limit was 50kmph. This apparently was going to be a problem. So after more inventive communication (and thankfuly some laughing) Spike (who was driving) followed one of the policemen into the station.

With little else to do, Dave and I got out the tea stuff and started to make a brew. As it turned out this was unsuccessful as we could not get the stove to light. But soon Spike came out with a big smile on his face saying we should leave. So we jumped back in the vehicle and off we went. Once on the road again Spike recounted his story. He had walked in with the Russian phrase book and the officer had had a good laugh at the ‘Can i pay an on-the-spot fine?’ bit and said he could not. Next he asked how many dollars we had, then euros, then finaly Ukrainan currency, to all of which Spike said none. Finally after a lot of ‘i dont understand’ from Spike the guy got bored and let him go. So for doing nearly double the speed limit in a notoriously corrupt country we did not even have to pay a fine. Bonus!!!!

After a quick lunch stop we headed of again and managed to complete the rest of the drive without event. At around 8 we spotted some woods of to the left where we would be able to camp and headed off the road down a logging track. Spotting a good site in the trees to the right Dave took the vehicle off the track and it promptly got stuck. Spike and I jumped out to face the onslaught of mosquitos to try and talk Dave out. After lots of backwards and forwards action we where still stuck so we decided to ‘let our training take over’. As Mike our Land Rover Experience Guru taught us we got lots of sticks and brush under the tyres and then drove out easily (Mike you’re a Legend). So finally in the woods we set up camp, cooked dinner and got a fire going. Half way through cooking we heard a logging truck, as we weren’t sure we wanted any attention we switched off all the lights and sure enough it drove past without stopping. Just after dinner Dave and I were getting the sleeping stuff from the vehicle while Spike was tending to the fire and we heard another vehicle. Again Dave and I turned out torches off, but the lantern on the table 30 meters away was still on, and then there was obviously the fire. The vehicle stopped.

Dave and I stood in the dark swearing, and trying to get spike’s attention without making too much noise. This was pretty unsuccessful, but there had been no movement from the vehicle. I jokingly suggested that he was probably getting his gun. Then a torch switched on and we heard a gun being cocked. This became less of a joke and we decided to make ourselves known. I opted for a loud Hello, and the man replied, slightly shocked, also with a Hello. He came over shining his torch in our eyes, looked at us and the vehicle and burst out laughing. After a lot more laughing and him telling us we were crazy he went to get his friend who apparently spoke French. His friend came over and with more laughing told us we absolutely could not stay there. They explained that we were on a government game reserve, and the laughing man with the gun was the game keeper. On seeing the light he had loaded his gun and come out ready to shoot expecting us to be poachers. Fortunately they found it so funny that we were crazy enough to have set up camp in a mosquito infested swamp, they let us stay. They left with a packet of Marlboro Reds and more chuckling and we had a cup of tea. It seems a lot of smiling and a bit of crazy gets you through most things!

After a fairly sleepless night of thinking poachers were going to walk into our hammocks, we left early the next morning and made it to Kiev by lunch time.

Pete (the illiterate one)

We finally hit a proper border crossing yesterday, after lots of spooky deserted ones. The Ukrainian border guards seemed to rather like Roxanne, and the organised mess in the back discouraged any searching of our gear, so after showing the same documents to four different sets of people we were through!

Our first impressions of the country were shaped by the unmarked speed bumps, and the mosquitos that came to join us when we stopped for tea and cake. The outskirts of L’viv (where we are now) did little to lift our opinions, but the centre proved much nicer and we even had a highly entertaining trio of boys, super-keen to meet us, running in front of us to direct us to a hotel!

Earlier, in Poland, we had a slight scare as a van up ahead appeared to blow a tyre and smashed into a ditch after veering across the road a few times. We were second on the scene, but thankfully both driver and passenger walked away from it.

After a slow amble across Europe, we are now in Krakow, which is cracking.  The Polish roads have given Roxanne (the Land Rover) her first bit of rough, and she seems to like it.  We’re less keen!

We spent most of yesterday at Auschwitz - it’s hard to say it was enjoyable, it was rather gruelling in fact, but certainly well worth the visit.  It’s a very eerie feeling walking under the infamous ‘Arbeit Macht Frei’ sign, and even the occasional coach-load of school kids (only over 15s allowed though - the first censored museum I’ve been to) can’t detract from the haunting knowledge of what happened there.  The Birkenau camp, the epicentre for the Holocaust, is a vast place and at every turn the sheer scale of things beggars belief.

From here we get a brief reprise on the sites of mass-killing (next up Stalingrad) with the small matter of Ukraine to tackle - check your atlas, I guarantee it’s bigger than you think!  It also provides us with our first border crossing, so fingers crossed for that!

We’re currently in Bastogne, which has Pete and Spike merrily quoting Band of Brothers and looking out for exploding trees. I think we’re beginning to realise how far we actually have to go, after only just managing our required daily average milage yesterday across the dead straight, well-kept roads of northern France!

We did have a relaxed start though, and paused to take in one of the many British military cemeteries in The Somme - a majestic and tranquil spot in the midst of beautiful rolling hills. It was impossible to imagine battles being fought there, and all the more sobering for it.

We’ve got a case study lined up for this afternoon, then traffic-willing we may stop by the Nurburgring on our way to Frankfurt - let’s see how the Landy fares out of its natural habitat!

The satellite phone texting now seems to be working, just make sure you put in the right number!

- David