Joya's blog

Here are just a few pictures that have already appeared either on Tim and Fudge's website or on Alex's Facebook. There will be more pictures to come, and in a different format, once we get everyone organized - which I am in the process of doing with long, badgering e-mails to my fellow convoy members!

This picture is everyone from our core convoy; from bottom right clockwise we have Tim, Chris, Ross, Muzzy, Deeps, Himi, Ali, Alex, me (Joya), Tommy and then Fudge posing on Diana. This was taken in a small town in Kazakhstan after a very long lunch and right before Diana lost her suspension...

We did it.  Team Ironsides was represented at Dave's Place in Ulaan Bataar at about 7pm last night.  Our last few days spent in Mongolia involved some pretty amazing and intense driving through all kinds of terrain, several problems and break downs and a lot of dust.  About 450 km away from UB we came across Jack Osborne's (a British celebrity for those of you who dont know of him) convoy with a broken down vehicle (something with the tire and the wheel arch) and so of course we stopped so Kiwi Chris could lend his expert hand.  We ended up camping right there that night with that whole crew - making ourselves a camp fire and everything!  The next day Team Dzogchen and the Osborne crew set off early cuz they needed to find replacement tires and deal with other small issues.  The rest of us set off on our final day of driving at around 8:30 a.m.  Tommy was with the Kiwis in their SJ as usual and I jumped in with Team Endo in theirs.  The Kiwis sped on ahead, so our car ended up being well behind both them and Team Dzogchen, and at about 100 km out of Ulaan Bataar we blew the suspension on the right side (having already blown the left suspension a few days before in the middle of the desert...another long story).  We decided to limp on, at about 15km an hour, over very bumpy roads.  It was excruciating.  Fudge did an amazing job driving and I did my best to DJ and stay positive while Tim nursed an upset stomache in the back.  At one point Fudge saw a cow skull on the side of the road so we strapped it to the front bonnet of the car...Finally, finally, after what seemed like an eternity, we saw the city in the distance.  I have never been so happy to see a city in my life.  We rolled in to Dave's Place, a bar in the center of town that has been designated as the finish line for the rally, at about 7pm, pulling in just behind Team Dzogchen's Micra (and actually smashing in to the back of it as had become standard practice), stepped out of the car to a round of applause coming from all ralliers etc who were already there, out on the patio of the bar.  After many hugs and general jubilation, Dave himself came down and handed us our free beers.  I cant convey the feeling of satisfaction, relief and joy felt at that moment.  It is a bit hard to believe it is all over but I can say that I am ready to get home and NOT spend all day, everyday driving/sitting in a car, covered in dust.  More details, a sum-up blog and pictures will come once we all return safely Stateside.  As always, thanks to all of you for your support.  Team Ironsides is proud to announce the completion of Mongol Rally 2007. 

Well, we have made it.  To Mongolia.  More or less.  Diana and Alex-less, but here!  We left Astana on the afternoon of the 12th, sadly leaving Alex behind to decide whether or not he would fly to Ulan Bataar or just fly straight home.  I was moved from the back of the Kiwi's SJ to the Nissan Micra belonging to Team Dzogchen, Tommy has remained baggage in the SJ.  We basically spent 3 and a half days driving and sleeping in our cars on the side of the road.  Exiting Kazakhstan and entering Russia took about 7 hours.  We boiled water and ate noodles on the bonnet of our cars and tossed a rugby ball around as we waited, attracting a fair amount of attention from the others in the line.  We spent about 2 days driving through Russia to reach the Mongolian border; the last night we drove all night, changing drivers so people could sleep.  We drove through some beautiful scenery as we approached the border - and needless to say the temperatures have dramatically dropped!  We arrived at the exit border for Russia at about noon and ended up waiting there for about 5 hours with several other rally cars who joined us there.  Getting through the two borders wasnt too bad and finally we found ourselves driving into the amazing expanse that is Mongolia!  We convoyed with the other cars that had waited at the borders with us and witnessed the last shreds of Mongolian sunlight off of the mountains as our cars kicked up dust on the non-roads that will be our home for the next week!  It was both breathtaking and exhilerating!  The plan was to make it to the nearest small city that same night, which was about 90 km away, however, driving up and over a mountain proved more than some of the cars could handle.  So, at about 10:30 at night in very cold temperatures, we found ourselves pushing vehicles up a mountain in Mongolia.  Yup.  One of the cars, a Nissan Micra, ended up bursting a hole in their gas tank, so once again the Kiwis stopped to help them out while the rest of us got the remaining cars up the mountain and set up camp.  That night was by far the most uncomfortable I have spent as it was FREEZING and I could not warm up.  However, the next morning when we woke up and stepped out of our tents we were greeted by an absolutely breath taking view from the top of this mountain!  We are now in the very small city of Olgii, the one we had hoped to reach last night, and are showering for the first time in 4 days, and generally recharging.  Actually, just about an hour ago Tommy and I were interviewed by a British guy named Liam who is filming a piece for the Discovery Channel on the Rally!  He was looking to interview Americans and there we were!  Apparently the footage he is doing now will be used as a pilot for the piece which will be based on next year's Rally.  He might interview us again tomorrow in the town market, we shall see.So, from here its onwards towards Ulan Bataar!  We are doubtful that we will make it by the 19th, but hopefully it wont be much later than that.  Mongolia thus far seems like a pretty incredible place; I cant really believe that we are here!  I am looking forward to seeing more of it and reaching the finish line - hopefully!  Another site to check out for stories and pictures is Team Endo's site on the Mongol Rally website: http://mongolrally.theadventurists.com/index.php?mode=team&sub=display&name=timandfudge.  They should have a bunch of great pictures - Tim has taken A LOT.  Right, all for now from Mongolia...

So, as mentioned below, Team Wingit Racers has been a huge help to us, spending many hours working on Diana and if it werent for them she probably would have died a long time ago and we would have been stranded somewhere in Kazakhstan, at best. SO, if any of you were planning on contributing to Team Ironsides, I would ask that you direct that donation to them instead. OR, if you just feel like helping them out anyway, that would also be great. Their website is www.thewingitracers.com. They also have been updating their page from their cell phone so you can track our progress vicariously through them, if interested. Their site is pretty entertaining so I would check it out regardless.
Right, all for now, over and out. Stat.

So, its been a week but Team Ironsides is still in Kazakhstan.  I am honestly not sure there are words to describe the events that have unfolded just in the last few days, much less since I last blogged.  Given I dont have four hours to spare I will attempt to keep this brief.  After our convoy turned into five cars in Volgograd, Russia we managed to make it to the Kazakh border, only to find out that the ferry to the actual border was closed (seeing as how it was about 2 a.m).  We camped out right next to the ferry and were awakened by the border guards yelling at us to get up and catch the first ferry at about 5:45.  About three hours later we all made it through the border and headed towards the city of Atirau.  24 hours later we left with a convoy now of four cars, plus a random rallier named Ali who was hitching a ride until Astana.  This four team convoy has basically become our staple group consisting still of the two Kiwis, Chris and Ross (Team Wingit Racers), and then two amazing guys from Wales, Tim and Fudge (Team Endo) and finally three guys from Manchester UK, Muzzy, Himi and Dibs (Team Dzogchen).  The next two days were essentially spent driving and camping on the side of the road.  The second of the two days involved us realizing that the suspension on the left hand side of Diana had rusted through into our trunk.  It was then that we also hit the worst roads that I have ever seen in my life.  Im sorry, did I say roads?  I meant a series of ditches.  Which is exactly what they were.  We spent about 5 - 6 hours driving maybe 20 miles an hour over these "roads."  The first hour was fun, driving on dusty, dirty rough roads with our buffs over our faces, the kiwis and the welsh guys hanging out the sides of their Suzuki Jeeps, filming and generally having a great time while I attemtped to navigate my low-riding Fiat with no suspension over non-existent roads, with Tommy hanging out the side window trying to help direct me.  A few hours later in the dark it was less fun.  We rolled into our destination town at about 4 a.m exhausted and every single one of us convered in a thin layer of dust.  We honestly looked like we had each just crawled out of our own graves.  After a slight incident with some intoxicated and ornery Kazakh men at a gas station we drove about 100 km before sleeping in our cars on the side of the road.  We pushed on the rest of that day so as not to lose too much time and then camped again on the side of the road.  The next day we had driven for only a few hours when it became clear that Diana was not doing well.  Those non-roads (series of ditches, Im telling you) had really done a number on her.  We found a mechanic in the nearest town and all waited around there in the sun for several hours.  My favorite moment was definitely when I was sitting on the ground around our cars with ten other guys and these two women come out of the mechanic shop, take me by the hand, lead me inside and point towards a faucet and hand me a bar of soap.  I guess they felt sorry for me!  Anyway, the mechanic finally arrived and basically said that our car was 'caput' unless we completely replaced the engine.  So, we decided to check in to a hotel and find another mechanic for a second opinion.  The next morning Tommy and I took Diana back to another place and got more or less the same response.  As a group we decided we would drive Diana as far as she would go and then when she died we would pile in with the two Suzuki Jeeps belonging to Teams Endo and Wingit Racers.  About 2 miles out of this town, on our glorious way to Astana, Team Endo's SJ started sparking from her exhaust pipe.  Long story short, we decided to send one car ahead to Astana as Himi and Alex both needed to deal with Russian Visa complications, while the rest of us stayed behind and tried to fix our cars.  After yet another day in this small, kazakh town (which we had now named Cocknob...) and several hours of the Kiwis dealing with both the Welsh SJ and Diana (in fact, they spent about 2 hours under Diana on a ramp on the side of the highway while Tim from Team Endo made us all tea...), only to get about 10 miles out of Cocknob before Diana really died.  The accelerator just ceased functioning.  So, once again, we were pulled over, the two SJ's and Diana, in the parking lot of what appeared to be a restaurant.  Tommy and I decided we would try to sell Diana to anyone who would take her in the nearest vacinity, so, while the two other teams emtpied out the SJs to make room for us and our stuff, I marched into the restaurant armed with about 3 Russian words: Car, sell, buy and a note with 500 Tengue written on it, which is about $4.  After the women behind the counter laughed at me, a crazy Kazakh guy started to seemingly engage me and Tommy about the car.  Finally, we realized he was in fact interested in paying us for her, thrusted me the money, filled out the form, climbed in and drove off.  Well, he drove about 10 feet, Diana died, and then after a few anxious moments for me and Tommy, she started again and the crazy kazakh disappeared with our car.  It all happened so fast, we didnt even really get to say good bye.  We then spent the next hour repacking the remaining two vehicles and giving stuff away to three other kazakh guys, who gave us 2 bottles of Russian Vodka.  After eating what we had for food on the side of the road, we finally set off, five of us packed into the Kiwi's SJ and all of our stuff on the top of the other SJ.  That night we slept in our cars and we arrived in Astana this afternoon.  All of it honestly has been surreal.  As I am writing this there is so much more I could saybut this is already turning into a novel.  OH!  I forgot to mention that I then took the 500 tengue that we made for the car, went into the restaurant and bought 7 candy bars.  I managed to communicate to the girls in there that I was spending the money I had just made for the car.  On chocolate.  They definitely thought I was insane.  Anyway, we are now all in Astana together, and have checked into a hotel for the night.  Things are not looking good for Alex's Russian Visa, so he is deciding now whether to continue waiting for it here and then take a train and meet us at a specific town in Russia, or sadly, to just fly home from here.  Tommy and I plan on pushing on with the other three teams as there has proved to be enough space...so, basically, Team Ironsides has suffered some serious losses the past 24 hours, but we arent giving up yet!  The plan is to get to Ulan Bataar around the 19th, hopefully, as that is when the huge end-of-rally-bash is, but it all depends on how things go from here.  Its been an absolutely insane week and I cant wait to share the myriad o? photos we have taken.  I really need to rap this up but do stay tuned as I assume it will only get better.  I apologize for the length and poor writing quality of this entry but I dont have much time and as usual am running on little sleep, little food and way too much testosterone!  I will write again when I can, who knows when that will be.  Wish us luck and say a little prayer for Diana who is now somewhere in a small town in Kazakhstan with a crazy Kazakh who probably thinks he got the deal of a lifetime...   

Hello again all!I dont have much time as I am using the computer at the reception desk in a hotel I am not staying in, but Team Ironsides has made it to Kazakhstan!!  We crossed the border this morning, our convoy having grown to 5 cars.  There are many many stories involving Russian police pull overs, statues, and me leading about 14 guys from Russia into Kazakhstan in my little Fiat.  We are not giving up any time soon and are hoping to make it all the way to Mongolia, but more on that as we know.  We move onwards tomorrow, all 15 of us - thats 14 guys and me.  Wish us luck, we'll keep you posted as we can, but internet is going to get more and more sparse as we head out into this crazy country.  If need be we should be reachable on our cell phone, the number for which I posted below.  Thanks for all your support! 

So after arriving in Romania we spent the night in a hotel with the Kiwis and then headed off promptly the next day. The drive through Romania was actually really beautiful.  We drove through mountainous areas, small villages and a National Park; Transylvania was lovely as well.  It was really nice to be off highways, although we dont think Diana appreciated it much.  Seeing as how we cant drive very fast we arrived in our destination city of Bracau a bit late and had to run around to find a place to stay for the night.  The next day was a L-O-N-G one.  First it took us over an hour to get out of Bracau as they had closed the bridge we needed to get to the highway.  The drive from there was hilly and the roads rough.  We entered Moldova without any problems but all of a sudden we came across what I thought was just a police check point but turned out to be the border of a region/country within Moldova we didnt know existed called Transnestra (I think...).  They searched through all of our things leaving Moldova and tried to get us to pay some made-up tax, which we refused and luckily they didnt insist.  In Transnestra however they wouldnt let us through until we forked over $40 for a "road and emmigration tax." We refused for about an hour and then finally decided paying $40 would be better than driving the 300 km aound this region to get into Ukraine.  After finally getting through that hastle we drove onwards towards the Ukrainian border, laughing about the made-up rogue country we had just entered.  Thinking that the worst Transnestra had to offer was over, we were proved very wrong when they pulled us aside yet again when trying to exit this ambiguous region.  They ushered us into an interrogation room of sorts and had us empty our pockets of cash on the table.  We of course knew not to carry a lot of cash on us as these border guys would definitely dream up a way to get it from us.  I was sure this guy in the interrogation room was going to make us give him all the cash we had and to be honest I was starting to get really worried (interrogation rooms will do that to you).  After much arguing on our part and then finally dealing with someone who was reasonably nice and spoke decent English, we got away with only paying $5 more dollars for the alleged road tax stamp they hadnt given us at the first border.  With a sigh of relief we drove the ten feet to the Ukrainian border only to be pulled over once again.  This time we were in trouble because we didnt have a Green Card (and Im still not sure exactly what that is...) so once again we had to pay for that and wait about an hour.  We were then held for about two more hours because the name of the Registered Keeper on our V05 car forms was Alex's brother Scott, and not Alex himself.  This apparently was "big problem."  At this point we had spent many, many  hours on these horrible borders, it was about 11 at night and we still had 70 km before we would reach Odessa.  We were not happy people on that Ukranian border.  Finally, after much trumping around self-importantly, the border guys let us go through.  We were three VERY relieved individuals to say the least.  Arriving in Odessa wasnt quite the reprieve we had imagined however as it took us about 2 hours driving/wandering around until we actually found a place to stay for the night.  The past two days have basically been spent relaxing and seeing Odessa - taking a much needed break from driving, especially after the antics at the borders.  There ended up being quite a group of ralliers in Odessa; the Kiwis had arrived a few hours before us and we ended up running into three other Rally teams as well; one team with two Australian guys, one team of Brits (which included Jack Osborne actually, for those of you who know who he is) and then another team of 3 Brits with backgrounds from India, Sri Lanka and Iraq.  We all plan on convoying onwards together with three of those teams tomorrow.  Who knows how much of the Ukraine we will get through tomorrow as the country is quite large, so we shall see.  The next time I blog we may be in Russia, assuming Diana makes it and the Russians let us in!  Long roads ahead, long roads ahead...

I dont even know where to start in recounting the events of the past few days...Lets see. From Prague we travelled East to visit the Church of Bones and then from there we headed into Slovakia. We had barely crossed the border into Slovakia on a major highway at about 10:30 at night when our car battery died. We immediately pulled over and called the NZ guys in the car ahead of us. They talked us through some basic things to inspect in the engine and then convinced us that we would have to jump start our car to get it to the nearest gas station. Yeah, for those of you who have seen 'Little Miss Sunshine', you know that scene where the whole family has to get out and push the van while the father puts it into second gear, and then one by one they all have to jump back into the car as it is moving? Yeah, we did that, on the Slovakian highway, at 10:30, with me behind the wheel and the boys running. It worked tho and we caught up with the NZ boys (or the Kiwis as I have started to call them) at a gas station five minutes down the road. They spent about an hour with us looking over the car, only to conclude that it was probably our alternator and that we would have to camp out at this gas station and then get towed in the morning. After a wonderful night in a tent behind a gas station (in Slovakia), a tow truck came and picked Diana up. The driver, who spoke no English, communicated that only two of us could accompany him to the mechanics. We then decided that Tommy would stay behind and Alex and I would go with him. At this point our cell phone had run out of credit. The tow-truck guy then proceeded to drive us about 50 km into the middle of no-where. We pulled up next to what looked like someone's home and NOT a car-repair establishment. I was stressed. Turns out there WAS a mechanic on the scene, although again, no English was spoken. He managed to let us know that it was in fact the alternator and that he could try and fix it...Alex and I waited for about an hour at this guy's house, praying that Diana wouldnt die on us. I explained to the nice mechanic that we were driving from London to Mongolia and he responded with a lot of head shaking and "Fiat?! Oh no! Oh no!" We then got him to sign our car with a sharpie when he relayed that she was fixed and ready to go! Relieved doesnt begin to express how we felt! We then started to drive back to get poor Tommy only to get a call that he had hitch hiked in to Bratislava with a Dutch family. We then spent the next hour searching the city of Bratislava to locate him. Once found we decided to book it to Budapest, where we arrived three hours later (the Kiwis had gone ahead but we agreed we'd catch them up that night). After a few hours in Budapest we drove into Romania and stayed at a place right near the border with the Kiwis. Thats all I will write for now, many stories to come, involving being harassed at multiple borders and having to enter and exit a country in Moldova we didnt know existed...We are now in Odessa and will be here another 36 hours so I will try and blog again soon, so stay tuned!!

Hello everyone from the amazing city of Prague!! It has been a GREAT few days.  The departure from Hyde Park was quite the show with the array of cars and characters.  We ended up convoying with 2 other cars heading to Dover where we saw the beautiful cliffs of, before driving our boat onto the ferry.  We arrived in France about 2 hours later and immediately headed towards Belgium.  Our convoy had grown to four cars, the other three teams consisting of guys from the UK: one Scot, one Irsishman and four English.  A great group of guys.  We exited France pretty quickly into Belgium.  All four vehicles had walkie-talkies going which was helpful for direction comparing, but also useful for walkie talkie kareoke at like 2 a.m.   At 4a.m we stopped in a truck parking area and slept in our car for about 3 hours, woke up at 7:30 and headed onwards towards Germany.  That ended up being a big day as we wanted to make it to Prague that night for the big Rally party being held there.  We got a bit lost in Germany (the highway signs dont display cardinal directions...) and then were held up briefly at the Czech border (a Welsh team we ran into there were strip searched...).  We didnt role into Prague until about 1:30 a.m, exhausted.  Up until that point I had been doing about 95% of the driving so needless to say I was ecstatic to have arrived finally (Jon - you proud of me or what??!!).  Most of the ralliers were parked in this one car park so after getting together in a local pub until about 4 a.m, we put sleeping bags down on the floors next to the cars and attempted to sleep.  Yes, in a car parking garage.  On the floor.  Apparently Alex was not a happy camper with this arrangment so I was awakened at 6 a.m to Alex barking about a hotel he had found.  I would have been happy sleeping on the ground, thats how tired I was, but Alex wasnt taking no for an answer.   The next day we just spent wandering around this amazing city.  My only regret at this point is that we dont have more time here -I'll just have to come back!!  We also have been communicating with a team from New Zealand who are driving our same route eastward so we will be convoying with them now.  Today we head to the Church of Bones in eastern Czech and then on to Bratislava.All is well with the car; Diana is running beautifully, we are very proud of her!  I will start letting the boys drive soon, I just didnt want them to drive in the dark or in the rain, or in complicated cities when their experience with stick is pretty limitted.  They'll be pros by the end tho!  Ok, we are off to find these NZ guys now and continue heading East!  So far this has been amazing, keep posted!!  Pictures will come when we get our act together, but many have been taken, no worries!(Oh, and if Im not a man by the end of the trip I will be very surprised...Suffice it to say there arent many female-ralliers...) 

Its the big day ladies and gentlemen and we think we are ready to go!  I am in the lobby of Tommy and Alex's hotel, waiting to bring our bags out to the car.  We will then drive over to Hyde Park where we will join the 200 other teams.  I have a few friends who plan on being there to wave us off.  From Hyde Park we drive to Dover where we take the Ferry to France.  I have been nominated again to do the driving in this initial leg as neither of the boys want to drive stick on the left-hand side.  Understandable.We do have a cell phone with us and it is free for us to receive calls.  The number is: (423) 663 166645.  We may be able to send text messages in to the Rally Organizers who will then post them online, but we will keep you informed on that front.Right.  Team Ironsides forges ahead.  Thanks to all of you for your continuing support - we wouldnt be here without it!(A special thank you to Alex's brother Scott Switzer who has been great to us here in London and has made a generous contribution to our Team.  Another thank you again to the Fletcher family for their help as well!)