Prague, Graduation, Transfăgărășan, Dodgy Bulgarians and Istanbul.

Sorry for the lack of blogging folks. It's not our fault though, its due to lack of energy, wifi and laptop battery basically. But as I am sat here in the sweltering Turkish heat in a non-air conditioned hostel, I can give you my next blog entry. 

Looking at my last blog entry, it feels like months since we were in Nuremburg. And ALOT has happened since then. Like, ALOT. This Mongol Rally has been far more adventurous and eventful than any of us had expected. Nuremburg was a rubbish day. Illness, late nights, crap food and hospital visits made it a low point of the whole trip. We're currently down to 2 Tools & a Spanner. but are eagerly awaiting for the 3rd tool to make a speedy recovery and potentially join us down the road when he feels 100%.

So after a sleepless night in Nuremburg, we left for Prague at about 5am and arrived there for lunch. We were convoying with Team Blood, Sweat & Beers, drove past the red light district and stopped off at the gorgeous cathedral in the centre of Prague. This city was the first taste of the heat we have been experiencing over the last week.

Overlooking the gorgeous Prague with Jeremy (left) from team Blood, Sweat & Tears

Cathedral in the centre of Prague (excuse the fish-eye lens distortion)

We stayed in Prague until the afternoon and I was dropped off at the airport to cheekily fly back to Heathrow to graduate the next day (23rd), whilst the other 2 went to a unused military bunker in Klenova, Czech Republic for the first of the few Mongol Rally parties. Just before this however, we obviously needed a game of beer pong in Czech Republic with team Blood, Sweat & Beers. Their aim was to play beer pong in the most bizarre locations, in every country they ventured through. So we were driving about and stumbled across a railway.. Where better to play a game of beer pong, right?

Beer pong on a railway road, whilst trains went past...

I got back into Wembley the night before, drove to Southampton the next morning and graduated. Awesome seeing all the engineers having come so far over the past 4 years, very proud of the cohort in general. Graduated, went for a meal with my amazing family at Cowheards and then got dropped off at Heathrow and took a flight to Munich the same evening. We had alot of ground to cover and cover it we did. 

Cheeky mid-mongol-rally graduation.

I got out of the airport to find our team had picked up a couple of Hitchikers from Prague, so was a pleasant surprise I guess? I took charge of the wheel and dropped them off in Munich. Team 'Blood, Sweat & Beers' had gone their own way through Greece, Croatia, Macedonia etc with the promise to meet back up in Istanbul. Our next plan was to head through Austria, then Hungary and into Romania. All within 18 hours. The plan obviously didn't go as intended and we didn't make it to Sibiu, Romania for free beers at the Cotton Pub. It was too much of a big ask from the group. We did however do another full night and days drive between us, and slept for 2 hours in a lorry park in Austria. I was driving the night/dusk shift through the Austrian Alps and only til it got a bit lighter did I realise how beautiful the Austrian roads were...

Gorgeous winding Austrian roads

We covered Hungary during the day and ended up in Deva, Romania at about midnight. We were all shattered and needed a bed to sleep in. Alas, we found a really cheap hostel and had a decent 7 hour sleep in a semi-comfortable bed and were up to make it across the whole of Romania, through Sibiu, Transfagarasan, Constanza, towards the Bulgarian border by Vama Veche; the clubbing beach of Romania. But before I talk about that, words need to be said about the Transfagarasan highway. Actually, I dont think words do it justice, so I'm just going to post a couple of pictures up. It's basically a 70km stretch of winding roads that Jeremy Clarkson off Top Gear voted it as the best highway in the world. It's definitely the best road I've driven in my life. I'll definitely be putting up a timelapse of the highway on our facebook page! 

The Transfăgărășan highway. Most epic road that I've ever had the pleasure of driving. 

Vama Veche was also something else. We got there pretty late, just as the party was kicking off. A beach bar, surrounded by loads of outdoor deep house and drum n bass clubs with music blaring just as we drove in. We accidentally drove through a firebreather's display, parked up and headed to the main strip. The rest of the night I can't really comment on. Just because I don't even know what happened. I had far too many beers, tequila, other random spirits and what ever else was floating about Vama Veche. I vaguely remember passing out on the beach watching the sun rise with some girls from Bucharest, but the next thing I know, I'm being slapped and kicked by Romanian police telling me to get up. Get up I did as I stumbled my way towards the car. The heat was unmanageable, the hangover was kicking in hard and I just wanted shelter. Surreal experience. The beach itself during the day was beautiful. 

Sand, Sun, Hangover and hot Romanian women.

After Vama Veche, we were broken men. We left for the Bulgarian border at about 3pm and soon we were on the road. I was driving down this highway, looked in my mirrors only to see a bag tumbling out of a car. We had been driving with our boot open. Turned around to collect a bag, towel, and Simon's shorts which had obviously been carried by a lorry's wheel arch a mile down the road.. After that fiasco, we headed into Burgas, Bulgaria. This was a weird weird city. It was this part of the adventure when I started to feel very far from home; no-one spoke English, road signs consisted of symbols rather than letters and the road conditions started to deteriorate rapidly. We pulled up at a very dodgy hostel that we saw a sign for on the road. After about 15 minutes of charades with an old Bulgarian man at reception, he understood we wanted a room for 3 for the night. It was an awesome room though; air con, kitchen, comfy beds, freezer, walk-in shower. All for the total of £12 for the room. That's £4 each. Ridiculous prices. We didn't however have any money, but a local Bulgarian man who spoke some level of broken English gave me and Henry a lift in his zoopped-up VW to an ATM in the deserted town. He also then went on to say he's 'seen things you wouldn't believe' at the Hostel we were staying at, and that we were in 'grave danger'. We obviously shat ourselves at this, but just powered through. After moving all our gear into our room, and checking numerous times the room was doubly locked, we headed out to explore the area and found a very small local bar. Again, language was a huge problem. I had 20 Bulgarian Lev on me, the equivalent of £8.06, so we weren't hoping to eat/drink much. We were wrong. For 20 Lev, we bought 7 beers and had 3 mains. This place was SO cheap, the beer was awesome, and the food wasn't too shabby either. We walked back, had a good nights sleep, woke up and made our way towards Istanbul.

Istanbul. What a beautiful city. We left Burgas around 11am, and made our way to the Turkish border at about 2pm. On the way there, we bumped into team 'Are We There Yet' and decided to convoy to Istanbul with them. Spent a good hour at the border, bought insurance and tax, and got all the relevant stamps and were off with our new convoy team. Upon arriving in Istanbul, wee realised that the roads were completely chaotic. No-one signals; there seemed to be no road rules to follow and everyone did their own thing. Completely different to western driving. I took charge of the wheel being the designated 'city driver', but it wasn't pleasant. Within an hour, we almost had 2 close-calls which involved screeching tyres and team 'Are We There Yet' almost rear-ending our car (On one occasion, there must have been only a few cm between our bumpers..). 

After the chaos of Istanbul, we found a hostel to stay, central to the city. Slept the night and went exploring the old town of Istanbul; the palace and the famous Blue Mosque.

Heart of Istanbul, with the Blue Mosque in the background

And here I am, writing this blog in the heart of Istanbul. Team 'Blood, Sweat & Beers' finally caught up with us last night and are staying in our hostel too, obviously getting a cheeky game of beer pong on the balcony. We now are part of a 3-team convoy, and are feeling confident for the dreaded Georgian-Russian border..

''I don't have a spoon, so I'm just going to use this banana to eat my porridge''

So this is what our last couple of days have been like.. Currently in a McDonalds with team ‘Blood, Sweat and Tears’ about 200km shy of Nuremberg:

19^th July

Day before the morning of the launch… What better way to spend it than getting smashed with mates during the day before meeting up with all the teams for beers in the evening. Met office messed our initial plans of a BBQ in Wandsworth Park up, so called up The Boathouse, Putney and they kindly accommodated all of us, with the car parked on their site to get signings done. Awesome turnout, awesome weather and a great farewell all round. As the evening approached, we registered ourselves in Battersea park (we missed the photoshoot of course being too busy saying bye to everyone). Met LOADS of teams from all over the world and ended up going to an architecturally distressed warehouse about 10 minutes from the park, had a few drinks and ended up back at mine for one final comfortable sleep.

20^th July

LAUNCH DAY! After a lot of faffin’ about, we’re en route to Brussels. After a manic day and waking up late for launch (we were shattered from the previous nights antics), we finally left London at about 10am. Got on the road, headed to Dover through some pretty blinding fog, convoying with team Mordor Rally (Scottish lads and my mate Simon McKenzie from my old school). The lovely lady behind the till at Dover let us jump on a ferry a couple of hours earlier and the next thing I know, I’m doing a shit in a toilet that doesn’t flush just as the ferry approaches Calais.

Matt takes charge of the drive off the ferry. First time on the other side of the road, and surprisingly it’s not too difficult to master. Just got to always remember we’re on the ‘wrong’ side of the road… and off to Brussels we went.

21^st July

After a reasonably heavy couple of games of beer pong the night before with a team we met on the road, we crashed (not literally..) at a slightly overpriced (but comfy) camping site in the heart of Brussels. Obviously had to go the local alcohol shop and pick up some local beers! After a few of them, I was braindead enough to not bother with all the tent malarkey and slept in car as the rest pitched their tents up. The next morning was tough… Not sure how long it will take me to get used to 7:30am starts. Breakfast was simple: Basic value porridge with bananas. Me and Matt didn’t have cutlery with us, so just used the banana as a spoon (picture evidence will ensure..).

That’s it from us now. Been ridiculously hard to get everything in and have literally spent 20 minutes writing this post this post after a 5 hour drive on the autobahn. Its 22:07pm and we’ve still got a 200km drive to go. 

5 days to go...

FIVE MORE DAYS. We're not sure whether to be more scared or excited. We're both at the moment. We feel prepared though, despite the kit list only being half complete. I reckon we've got the important things. Just now need to exchange cash, get some emergency rations packs from my old school and do a few health checks to make sure everything's fine.

Will post a final update just before we leave.

Heavy drinking and Sponsorship.

Weirdly enough, I don't mean me when I say 'heavy drinking'. Unfortunately I mean Quinsey, our beloved 1.4L Skoda Fabia Estate. Who up until recently, was doing circa 45 miles to the gallon. It's now doing a measly 19 miles per gallon and it's really starting to worry us because we don't know why. It cost us £52.32 to drive 194 miles. That's bloody outrageous! Now you know what I mean by 'heavy drinking'...

We have a huge roof rack, loads of gear and 4 adult blokes in the car, so I'm not expecting hybrid economy. But 19mpg is what a 5.4L super-charged Ford Mustang does. Quinsey doesn't quite scale up to that sorta muscle. So anyway, took it to a couple of local garages in London today and they don't really know what's wrong with it either. Checked the spark plugs, coil springs, underbelly of the car: no leaks, or signs of fuel fatigue. Top bloke who ran the garage saw all the stickers and that jazz and gave me bottles of additives to help clean the fuel injectors, so hoping that helps..

Okay, so putting my worries aside, I've been pretty damn successful recently with regards to sponsorship for this Rally. Yesterday, I went down to my old school (Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Barnet) for a cheeky fundraiser. The car got alot of interest from alot of the teachers and kids there, a fair few signatures and a fair bit of money from it all too; all going to Cool Earth and WaterAid. Weird being back at my old school after 5 years though; a very nostalgic day for me.

#backtoschool

Old maths teacher getting some ink on the car doing his bit for charity!

Todays been even more successful for me by secured a huge sponsorship deal; we got AWESOME satellite equipment from Inmarsat plc, a huge telecommunications company based in the heart of London. They sorted us out with an awesome satellite phone which gives us confidence in our safety, as we'll have network coverage for 99% of the world, and a BGAN terminal which allows us internet access in the middles of nowhere. 

..Its safe to say Inmarsat plc's HQ's HUGE

Stickers are slightly being delayed, but will update you all with an awesome picture of our car once its covered.

For now though... you can have this one ;) 

Mongol Rally stickers on... Cool Earth stickers on.. Keep posted for the rest

That's all for now. Won't blog for another couple of days cos I'm away in Colchester this weekend for a cheeky festival, and also a chance to test out the new equipment and my new GoPro Hero 3+ (Black Edition)... YEEHHH BUDDY

My baby for the next few months #GoPro

Oh yeh, one last thing. The Adventurists (the geezers who are helping us organising this whole thing) have got together another mini-blog with a TRACKING MAP. So anything I post on there, you'll also be able to see exactly where we are aswell. Check it out here: http://tracking.theadventurists.com/

Thats enough for now.

Mongol Rally love,

Prasana 

We lost a tool in Gloucester...

Yup, Mr. Boddington is away in Gloucester for some fancy conference malark, so it's just the 2 Tools & a Spanner that are here in Southampton. Yesterday, got a fair amount done to the car, including stripping down the car a bit more, taking off all the plastic casing in the boot, and getting us some nice chrome-finished spotlights attached and wired to the car!

We got bored midway through the day, so thought we might try our hands at a bit of mini-golf in East Park Southampton. It didn't end too well for Matt...

Matt started off well, but frustration got to him, and he became.. well.. shit. 

Getting back on track with the Mongol Rally stuff... CHECK THESE BADBOYS OUT:

Chrome finished obviously, the bare necessities. 

Sadly, not all the lights work... 3rd lamp down isn't working for some reason. It's not the bulb, not the wiring, so we don't really have an idea what's wrong with it to be honest. But who cares? They look cool, and as you can see below, they still pack a fair bit of power...

Mongolian deserts, come at me bro

Anyway, this is a relatively short blog post. We're all just monging out at Henry's brothers house, trying to sort out when to pick up the acrylic stickers we're going to plaster all over the car. Look forward to a fundraiser, and news on Inmarsat's satellite phone in the next couple of posts.

Mongol Rally love,

Prasana

First post

So, this is my first post. Let me just introduce myself a bit. I'm Prasana, I've just finished four amazing years at the University of Southampton studying Mechanical Engineering, and I'm a participant of the 2014 Mongol Rally. First things first, I'd like to say I've never blogged before, so if it doesn't meet your 'blogging style', I apologise (I don't actually, I couldn't give less of a shit)

Let me set the scene a bit: I'm currently in Southampton, house squatting after my student housing contract ran out end of last month. It's eleven something pm, and I've decided to use blogger to be my main form of contact with the world whilst I'm on my travels. But I felt like I needed an initial post to introduce everything.

Okay, so here's the summary. I'm driving from London, UK to Ulaanbataar, Mongolia, with three semi-decent mates I've met at University; Simon, Henry and Matt. All three of them do Physics, also graduating this year. I do engineering, hence the name of  '3 Tools & a Spanner' as our group name (me being the spanner). Why are we doing the Mongol Rally? Because it looks pretty damn cool, that's why! Initially, when I first heard about the Mongol Rally, I asked myself 'which nutter would actually do this?'. 8 months after, we have become those nutters, and we're leaving for it in 17 days.

Am I scared? Of course I bloody am, I've never been travelling before and whilst I think I'm ready to travel the world, it hasn't full sunk in yet. I cant even tie my shoelaces in an efficient manner (I blame you mum*, you clearly didn't do your research in the art of shoe-lacing), how the hell am I supposed to drive 12,000 miles from London to Ulaanbataar, going through 20 odd countries on the way. Well, I don't know, but I'm going to attempt it either way.

So let me tell you a bit about the car. In February after our winter exams, we decided it was time to get a car. We needed a shit car, but something good enough to get four of us to Mongolia. We decided to get a Skoda Fabia from this little old private car dealer in Reading called 'Many Motors'. The guys there were great! Listing price was £950, and after talking to the guys and telling them what we're doing, they were happy to give it to us for just under £500! A bargain! Whilst it wasn't the best of motors, it drove, and it had a boot that could be filled with rally shit, such as water, food, camera stuff, camels, and what else we decide to put in the boot during our 5-and-a-bit week adventure.

Yeh... we painted bad-boy racing stripes on. It might go faster?

Next bit: Visas. We needed visas for Turkey, Kazakhstan (double entry), Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Russia (double entry) and Mongolia. We initially also wanted one for Turkmenistan, until we realised that we would be shit out of luck if our car broke down, and probably probed by Turkmen border guards in a prison cell, which is far from my idea of a 'good time'. A great site the Adventurists (the company who help us organise the rally stuff) suggested using was 'The Visa Machine'. They basically acted as the middle-man between us and the embassies, and did all the hard work for us, so we didn't need to travel to all the different embassies in London to get all the forms filled out! Having said that, they did charge an additional fee but I would say it was reasonable.

I want to dedicate a whole paragraph to our sponsors. As emotional as this sounds, we genuinely wouldn't have been able to get this rally going the way we have without our sponsors. The main guys who have helped us out are Station Motors; a local garage who have basically done all the main bits of work on our car for free. Awesome guys who are really passionate about our rally and real professionals who know all there is to know about cars! I feel safe leaving Quinsey (yes, that's what we called our car... Story for another time?**) with Jason and Ian (the 2 blokes who basically run the garage, Ian owns it, and Jason is an awesome mechanic there).

The awesome guys at Station Motors! 

We've also got several other sponsors who have helped us with tyres, tracking, stereo, stickers, hoodies, shirts, car parts, keys and satellite equipment! Basically, the local companies in Southampton are awesome and have been a huge part in our rally progress.

Car on 2nd July, getting kitted out with new tyres, and getting the tracking sorted

Since getting our visas, so much has happened. Basically, our car is looking pretty cool now and is covered in signatures of all the people I love (and all the people I will never see again), there's been a couple of vehicle fires (nothing too major), we've got a roof rack, and tomorrow, I'm hoping to get some working spotlights on the car to look like an actual rally car.

Anyway, I'm going bed now. Got an early start tomorrow at Southside Car Audio (www.southsidecaraudio.co.uk) to wire in those spotlights. Will post a few pictures up tomorrow, and let you know how it goes!

Oh, one more thing. As you know already, we're doing this for 2 awesome charities we feel passionately about; WaterAid and Cool Earth. If you could donate any spare dolla' to the cause, we would be very grateful! Our virgin money giving page is: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/3ToolsAndASpanner

*I used 'mum' here to sound cool. If you know me well, you'd know I call my mum 'mummy'. Call it gay, call it cute, call it whatever you want. The reason is I never got out of the habit of it, so deal with it. 

**I'll just tell you now. It's nothing interesting... Matt went into hospital a few weeks ago cos he had a cyst in his throat. That cyst just happened to be medically called a 'Quinsey'. Never heard of it before? There you go! You learn something new every day!