ON THE WAY TO ALTAY 252 km (total 11699)

Loris suddenly discovered his 'inner mechanic' and managed to fix the suspensions and replace the tire.

The convoy is growing, rejoined by Bilbo Mongolia and another R4! Camping again in the middle of the wind-swept steppes. Another 700 km to go before finding another bit of tarmac.

KHOVD – MONGOLIA 246 km (total 11447 km)

By now you know Mongolia has not exactly a network of real roads, just a lot of dirt tracks, plus plenty of river crossing. Which results in a stunning average of 30 km/h. Great for sightseeing, less so if you are till over 1400 km from you final destination.

Despite all this, R4 is surprisingly back to normal and ran without a single glitch for the whole day. Let’s see how it will handle the road to Altai, 400+ km from our current stop.

OLGIY - MONGOLIA 97 km (total 11201 km)

After the coldest night and brigthtest morning ever, we finally made in to town, towed most of the way by a local car (which broke down too, twice). Thermostat is definitively gone and cannot be replaced, and a less-than-competent mechanic did a less-than-ideal job. On top of it, gasket is about to say goodbye. But we will reach Ulann Baatar, no matter what!

ON THE WAY TO OLGIY - MONGOLIA 252 km (total 11104)

We made it to Mongolia. No road, no signs, and the thermostat is gone. So finally we are camping, in the middle of nowhere, at 2450 meters and close to freezing temperature, but who cares - it is really fun!

TAKASH - RUSSIA 633 km (total 10852)

Ok,we can't read maps very well - border was 800km away, not 500, so we stopped earlier, and the only accommodation we could find is a mix between a garage and a kennel.

But the drive here was one of the best ever. Nice twisting roads surrounded by green fields, high peaks and the usual traffic-challenged cows. The Altai mountains are really a Swiss-like corner of Siberia.


Tomorrow a quick drive to the border and stop shortly after that to try to regroup with a few teams.

BARNAUL - RUSSIA 472 km (total 10219)

Finally in Siberia. Further drop in temperature, but back to paved roads, sort of clear signs and corrupted (but cheap) cops.

Met and had dinner and drinks with another team, Stella Performa, who got here via the central route, pretty adventurous too.

We are now just 500 km away from Mongolia, tomorrow night the real Mongol Rally will finally start!

SEMEY - KAZAKHSTAN 685 km (total 9747)

Complete change of landscape - trees, grass, horses and a chance of people too, as the majority around here are ethnic Russians.

We are now in Semey, a place known for its intellectual past and for being,unfortunately,one of the most radioactive cities on the planet. During the USSR time they exploded over 460 warheads in 50 years a few hundreds km from here.

We could not find a single map of Siberia, so will just use a sketch we made based on google maps. We were also waiting for a few others team to convoy, but they all broke down on the way here...