Part III: "The Big Empty"

On Tuesday 7 August we finally put our feet, or better our wheels, on the unpaved roads, or better tracks, of Mongolia, the most sparsely populated country in the world. 2.75mln people living in a country 6 times bigger than the UK. This makes Norway look as crowded as Monaco... 

We were welcomed by a spectacular scenery with several peaks reaching 4,000m, a vast, open and empty grassland and an astonishing lack of roads. Or maybe I should say an astonishing abundance of them. Yes, it's a bit confusing but the thing is that in theory there is a "highway" that goes from the western border to Ulan Bator through Olgii, Khovd, Altai, etc but this highway is far (very, very, very far) from being completed. For the vast majority of its length is closed or simply undrivable and only the last 400Km (out of 1800Km) before Ulan Bator are (badly) paved. To make up for the lack of a highway, a number of unpaved tracks have sprung around it in a disorderly fashion. All these tracks have their own unique characteristics; some are sandy, some muddy, some with huge potholes, some others with a myriad of small ones, some bring you to the next city and some others disappear into the unknown. The only common denominator is that the average speed rarely exceeds 30Kmh... 

Despite the lack of speed we had a good first day in Mongolia. We managed to cross a river without sinking and at sunset we set our camp up in a beautiful valley surrounded by horses (apparently in Mongolia there are 13 horses for every human being) and a couple of yurts in the distance.

Our second day was far from good. We left our campsite at dawn and reached Khovd later in the morning where we stopped at the Mongol Rally drop off point for breakfast. As 90% of people who retire from the rally do so in Mongolia, the organizers have set up 5 drop off points on the way to Ulan Bator so the cars could be fixed (if possible) and collected rather than being ingloriously abandoned on the side of the road.

We said goodbye to the helpful lady in charge of the camp and drove towards the next town, Altai. If possible the road got worse and eventually took its toll on our car. We broke the rear suspension spring in three parts and were faced with the hard decision of whether keep going (other 400Km to Altai) or drive back to Khovd (50Km) to fix it. We decided for the latter and slowly drove back to the Mongol Rally camp where luckily the mechanic (the one in the picture below...) was able to fix it in a couple of hours.

We fixed the car but unfortunately we lost a member of the team. Adrian decided to take the plane to Ulan Bator as the time was running out and given the condition of the roads it wasn't guaranteed that we would make it in time for him to catch his flight back to London.

On Thurday Adam and I set off again towards Altai but we soon had to stop as another suspension spring was about to come off. Luckily it wasn't broken and we managed to put in back in place with the help of two teams that pulled over to check whether everything was ok. These where the same guys who we met in Turkmenistan weeks ago. Great to see them again here.

As we passed Altai, the road brought us close to the Gobi desert where eventually we stopped for the night. What an amazing place where to camp; nothing around us, no trees, no hills, no people.

Problems with the car? Lost in the desert? Flat tire? Engine failure? Stuck in mud? Worry not! Team The Wrong Way Around is here to help! 

This is exactly what happened on our 4th day in Mongolia. We were driving east on some muddy roads (this was the wettest summer in Mongolia as far as people could remember) when we saw a local family asking for help. Their Toyota Crown Royal Saloon was stuck in the mud and we towed them out of it receiving an invitation for food and drinks at their house as a thank you.

Later in the day, just when we started looking for a place where to camp our exhaust came off. The insane amount of vibrations loosened all the belts and screws of the car and the exhaust was the first piece to fall. We removed it from the bottom of the car and strapped it to the roof (no piece stays behind...) and, probably excited by the new sound of our car that now looked and sounded like a tank, decided to keep driving to the next town.

Driving at night was a memorable experience and one of the highlights of the trip. If it's easy to get lost in the maze of off road tracks during the day, you could just imagine the sense of disorientation you get while driving at night. We tried to keep the electricity poles in sight as we thought that they would eventually direct us to the next town but it was impossible to follow them for long as the roads kept taking odd directions away from them.

Only at 1am we finally reached Bayankhongor but the day was not over. Despite being kind of a small shithole, the town seems to be quite popular and all the (3) hotels were full so the only option left was to drive few more Kms and sleep in the car on a hill overlooking the town (too tired to set the tents up).

The 5th day in Mongolia was pretty uneventful. We woke up early and drove to the next and last town before Ulan Bator, Arvaikheer. We found an hotel and had a late lunch at 4pm. We retired to our rooms for a quick nap ready for more drinks and food later in the afternoon but I guess we were both more tired that we thought and we ended up sleeping uninterruptedly from 5pm until the next morning.

Last day on the road was supposed to be a relaxing one. We knew that the last 400Km before Ulan Bator were paved but what we didn't know was how badly they were paved. It was probably worse that driving off road as the tarmac gave us the confidence to drive faster but at 130kmh is not easy to stop and/or avoid big potholes... and in fact we didn't avoid them and finally, after almost 13,000 Km we had to change our first tire! 

At 2:30pm on Sunday the 12th of August, one month and 13,000Km after the start in Goodwood, we brought our car (or maybe it was the car that brought us) to the finish line in Ulan Batar. The Mongol Rally was over. We made it. 39th out of more than 300 teams (many of those are still somewhere between Germany and Mongolia. In 2011 the last team at the finish line arrived at the end of September) we went straight to the bar and the celebrations begun.

Approaching Mongolia

Long time since the last post but I guess that the lack of internet cafes or 3G mobile network is something expected when traveling through some of the most remote places on Earth.

Many things have happened since Semey and I'll do my best to recall all the main events that filled what, without any doubts, was the most intense and toughest part of this long journey.

Entering Russia proved to be way easier than expected. The paperwork was pretty straightforward and answering "no" when asked whether we were carrying guns or drugs was more than enough to pass the "security" check. Actually the border official made sure to check our Russia map and gave us tips on the route to take (tips that we clearly failed to follow as we ended up lost in the city center of a city few Kms after the border...).

We spent the night in the pretty unimpressive city of Gorno-Altaysk in the foothills of the Altai Mountains and on Sunday we had another early wake up call as we hoped to reach the Mongolian border before lunchtime.

The road from Gorno-Altaysk to the border was stunning and probably one of the best drives I've ever seen. Almost 600 Kms of winding road along the Ob river (the 7th longest river in the world) with the amazing Altai mountains in the background all the way to the Mongolian border.

We pulled up at the Russian side of the border crossing just after lunch and parked in a line of other Mongol Rally teams. There was no sign of human life at the border and we quickly realized that this very last border crossing was not going to be challenging. However we were certainly not prepared to what turned out to be one of the most bizarre experiences of this trip...

In the afternoon more Mongol Rally teams as well as locals joined the queue. It felt like a reunion even though none of us have met before during the trip. After sunset we set our tents up. This was the first camping night of the trip and we could have not chosen a better spot for it... on one side barb wire and the no man's land between Russia and Mongolia, on the other side toilets (a hole full of shit and flies covered by filthy planks of woods) and a training ground for "very aggressive dogs" as described by a border official.

Despite the cold weather and the location it was a good night and the day after we woke up fully energized ready for the long awaited drive in Mongolia. How wrong we were...

For some obscure reasons leaving Russia proved to be the most complicated part of the trip. We started queuing at the immigration office before 9am and were welcomed by the grumpiest and rudest border officials we met during the trip and only ad 4pm they finally let us through.

The process was not not over though. We drove the 25km of no man's land between the two countries and arrived at the Mongolian border just an hour before the closing time.

The officials here were friendly but unfortunately this last border crossing is a fairly long one because we were importing the cars to Mongolia so more paperwork was needed. Therefore it was disappointing but not unexpected to be informed that they were closing for the night and we would have to stay here overnight. We were not allowed to sleep in the main building or to leave the fenced area so we all had to set our camp up on the only narrow strip of grass available (once again close to the barb wire and the toilet). 

We spent the rest of the night drinking Kazak cognac with the border officials (who showed up to work the next morning still completely drunk) and went to sleep in the freezing cold anticipating more waiting and paperwork the following day.

At 9am the officials slowly showed up to work and we managed to get our last stamps on our passport just before lunchtime and after "only" 45 hours of border crossing, we were finally ready to face the last part of the trip, the vast open land of Mongolia...

Day 22, Semey, Kazakhstan

Two days and one night on the road brought us to Semey, the last city in Kazakhstan before the Russian border. This lovely city lies just 100km from the area where the Soviet tested about 450 atomic bombs and there are reference about this inglorious past scattered all around town (statues, posters, etc.)

Today we first need to find a supermarket to stock up before Mongolia and then enter Russia. The plan is to drive again as much as possible and sleep somewhere close to the Mongolia border which is open only between 8am and 1pm on saturday and sunday.

Once in Mongolia we will drive south towards the Gobi desert and then up again to Ulan bator. It should be a 5/7 days job if the car doesn't let us down. There is a shorter norther route but aparently there are several uncrossable river so that's not an option.

Day 21, on the road, East Kazakhstan

It's 1am in the morning and a silver Suzuki is speeding on the East Kazakhstan roads. We are on a 36 hours driving mission started this morning in Teraz that hopefully will brimg us to Semey (or close to) by tomorrow evening.

The road is almost empty now and aside from the occasional truck our only companions are a bright moon behind us and an impressive show of lightnings in the distance (it actually just started raining).

We have passed Almaty at 8pm and started driving north with the China border only 50km east. Our journey is not even close to be over but it is still quite amazing to find ourselves driving so close to china on a car you won't use to go to Ikea...

Just north of Almaty we had a bizzare sight. Along the highway there were a number of big casino/clubs with familiar names such as Flamingo, Aladdin, Piramid and so on. I was incredibly tempted to stop and have a quick look but we knew that one of the following things could have easily happened:

1) We would have been challenged by the local at a vodka shoots drinking game

2) We would have lost our money and the car at blackjack

3) One of us would have married the Kazak stripper

Unfortunately all of the above badly mix with driving to Ulan Bator so we, sadly, decided to keep driving.

Earlier in the day I got stopped again by the police for speeding. Once again my russian came handy. I pretended not to understand what the policeman was telling me and instead replied: "Me italianski, apologianski. Me bruuum bruum, no! Me like truck, slooooowwwww, 50km!!". The nice policemen shortly tried to let us pay but then gave up and we were able to leave.

Day 19, Taraz, Kazakhstan

Another day on the road has ended. It started at 5am in Samarkand. Mr. Furkat, the owner of the b&b where we slept was kind enough to prepare us a take away breakfast with sweets, fruits and boiled eggs.

The drive to the border was a bit longer than expected and we arrived at Chinaz (50ish km west of Tashkent) at around 10am. it tooknus ages to clear the exit Uzbekistan exit border control as we had to wait for another car to be checked and the border police wanted to open and search every single bagof the guy who was driving it (and this guy was basically traveling with his whole house in the car).

We then spent a good hour in the no man's land between Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan as both borders shut down for lunch and we ended up trapped:in between together with a bunch of truck drivers. I took the opportunity to learn some russian and now I'm kind of able to say goodmorning, good evening, please and hotel. hopefully my vocabularynwill expand as we drive up north into Rusia in the coming days.

We cleared the border After the now usual 4 hours and after giving up some mongolnrally tshirts away to the kazak border policemen as they insistemtly asked for some "souvenir".

Beautiful drive in Kazakhstan as we were moving east toward Almaty driving close to the Kyrghystam mountains on our right.

I got stopped by a policeman for speeding and as I stepped out of the car to pay the ticket and sign whatever I had to sign I used some of my Ruski, basically repeating "good evening, please" over and over again. he then pointed at our radio and we thought he wanted to hear some music so we turned the volume on but his expression ckearly showed that we misinterpreted his words... in this moment of confusion I decided to sing him the Italian anthem and at that poimt he laughed and told us to leave without the need to pay anything, that's niiiiiiiceeeee (Borat accent).

Now we are in Taraz, a nice town 500km west of Almaty. tomorrow is going to be a big day as we are planning to drive for 36hrs as we need to be in Mongolia by the 5th or max by the 6th of August.

Day 17-18, Bukhara and Samarkand, Uzbekistan

It is a bit late here and tomorrow we have a wake up call at 5am to drive to Kazakhstan. We need to drive all the way up to Russia in a very short time and reserve at least 5 to 7 days to Moingolia as over there there are no roads and the average speed will drop dramatically. We had a couple of good days in Uzbekistan, both in Bukhara and in Samarkand. Not much to report as this computer is too slow and I am starving so here below a few pictures. Today we spent most of the day at the Bazar in Samarkand to buy pasta, tomato sauce, olive oil, garlic and some other food (everything that is not pasta for me is ""some other food") and a pan. The camping days are coming!

From now on internet will became a luxury as we may need to camp on the side of the roads in the next few days. My guess is that in Mongolia it will be even worse. Will try to send some updates from the road!

The Gate of Hell, unknown location, Turkmenistan

One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them

This is the Darvaza Gas Crater, a burning hole The Soviet Union attempted to drill there for gas in the 70s, but the ground collapsed. To prevent the gas from poisoning the surrounding areas, it was set on fire but the problem is that the crater has burned ever since...

It's is a  bit of a long story how we managed to find it and visit it but it is enough to say that this, so far, has really been one the highlight of the trip. We were drove to the crater by Vladimir, a Russian guy who picked us up in a 4wd as to reach the crater it is a good 7km driving off road on the sand.

Day 12-16, Ashgabat/Mary/Turmenabat, Turkmenistan

We spent the first night in Turkmenbashi as it was too late and we were too tired to drive at night. Early in the morning we drove to Ashgabat were we arrived only late at night. The road from Turkmenbashi to Ashgabat is ridiculously bad and it was the first real test for the car. Some of the bumps were so crazy that one the rear wheels literally took off a couple of times. 

Checked in in a nice hotel in ashgabat and went out with another team to get some food. Unfortunately everything shuts down at 11pm because of the curfew imposed by the president so we had to return to the hotel and get something to eat there together with another team. 

Ashgabat is an interesting city and I feel we have only scratched the surface of it. There is an incredible number of policemen and the image of the president is on every single government building, office, hotel, street. He is everywhere. In some pictures he is dressed in a camouflage suit making war plans, in others he is surrounded by children, in others he is praying and so on. You are also not allowed to take pictures of his palace or other gov buildings. There is a new part of Ashgabat with only marble buildings, fountains, statues and an army of people washing the streets and even the street lamps every single day. All the people we met were incredibly happy and cheerful. They all asked where we were from and where we were going and helped us every single time they could. 

We had to wash the car in Ashgabat as we were told that the police would fine dirty car driving in the city so we borrowed a mop from the cleaning lady and used the water from the fountain in front of the hotel. 

After Ashgabat we drove to Mary, spent the night there and the following day at 5am we left directed towards Bukhara, Uzbekistan.

Day 12, the Black Pearl, Caspian sea

Oh Naxcivan, why did they trapped you in this lake? You deserve to sail the blue oceans and visit the ports of the world because your beauty should not be hidden...

Naxcivana a 146 mt piece of rust assembled in Jugoslavia god knows how many years ago (how it made it to the Caspain sea is beyond my comprehension). On board there were 86 passengers (mainly truck drivers and other Mongol Rally teams) and a crew of 40 valid seamen. 

(Naxccivan twin brother in the picture below)

We were shown our cabin (2nd class, what else do you pretend if you only pay 590 dollars?) by the old  russian lady in charge of our deck.when she tried to open the tap a brown fluid invaded  the toilet and we understood that this was not going to be a smooth and relaxing cruise.

We left the new port at 8pm but unfortunately it was no time yet to say goodbye to baku as we only moved to the old port to get a few more gigantic lorries on board.

Finally we set sails at 11pm and the 16 hours journey to Turkmenbashi began. I was hit by terrible headache as I smartly spent a good amount of time exploring the ship and taking very unnecessary pictures where the cars and lorries were parked.

The problem was that a lot of lorry drivers were sat in their trucks with the engine on to enjoy the ac so the place was invaded by their toxic fumes combined with the ones from the ship.

We didn't have much sleep during the night. The temperature in the cabin was way to hot and I had to find a bench on the upper deck to get few hours of sleep. I enjoyed the sunrise while drinking green tea with the captain and his crew who let me"drive" for a while and proudly showed me all their equipments and the oil rigs scattered in the Caspian Sea. 

We finally approached the deserty coast of Turkmenistan at 2pm but once again our patience was put to tested. In Turkmenbashi there are no tug boats so when it's windy big ships can not dock and need to wait outside the port. 

This could last hours or days and it's really beyond anyone control. Last year few mongol rally teams spend 48 hours waiting with no food or drinks available on the ship. Again we got lucky as we managed to dock after "just" 6 hours. However another challenge was waiting for us...

Turkmenistan immigration process was the craziest things I have experienced in my life. A burocratic nightmare that seemed to come out straight from Terry Gilliam's mind. We had to go through 15 different steps and it took us and the other teams about 5 hours to have a stamp on our passports and register the car. Don't get me wrong though, weirdly enough I loved every minute of it (the lack of food and sleep in the last 36 hours didn' really help though) and the locals were incredibly friendly, sharing food and fresh water with us and keeping the place running the whole night.

What a sweet feeling to turn the engine on and leave the port. Despite all the problems we made it to Turkmenistan and the Central Asia adventure was finally ready to begin.