Who are Team Ozzy Roadkill?

Ben: Well, I don't consider myself a travel expert or even a travel enthusiast, but I like the challenge of the journey and I enjoy seeing what's out there in the world. Actually I found the event online and was keen to take part. Choosing the partner though was more difficult!

Matt: Yeah, I looked around for a long time to find an alternative partner also, but in the end gave up and got stuck with my brother! He's not as well travelled as me so this event is a great way to give him the benefit of my experience. Ben: What?...

Final Blog

On Tuesday evening at 19:00 we handed over our car to the local Adventurist organization. Officially that brings us in 3^rd place of 390 teams. Unofficially we were the second team to reach Ulaanbaatar. Either way we are quite happy with our efforts. Thanks to everyone that dontated money to our charity, Christina Noble Foundation and don’t forget you can still donate until the end of September. Also a very special thanks to family and friends that helped get us organized for the rally. We hope people enjoyed reading the blog, do keep in mind that thoughts and expressions written in the blog are not entirely politically or culturally accurate and are not necessarily the beliefs of all Ozzy Road Kill team members J

THE EAGLE HAS LANDED!!!

After 12hrs 14days and 10,050kms we have finally arrived in Ulaanbaatar. Getting across Mongolia has been epic. We were held at the boarder from 11:00am Monday morning until 20:00 Wednesday, due to an import tax mess-up that we are trying to erase from our memory. 3 days locked in a compound sleeping in the Clio was NOT the highlight of the trip.

Once allowed to leave on Wednesday we rushed straight for Olgij (about 80km), to get a hotel, a shower and a feed. Well we found a bed and a beer, we did have a bathroom of sorts in our room but it was missing a vital ingredient, running water. Also the toilet came in kit form, very interesting. The seat was thrown in the corner and the top of the cistern was lying on the floor like there had been an explosion and it was blown clear. This would not be the last time we were disappointed with the ‘washing facilities’.

On the road early Thursday, we headed east. Not being accustom to the local roads we were not sure how far we would get. But we would learn fast. At around 10:30 we failed to avoid a VERY large rock which was embedded VERY well in the ground and should have been VERY easy to see! Oh dear….. 30 minutes later we were rolling again after changing BOTH wheels on the right hand side. The wheels had been dented so badly that the air immediately came out of the tires. Miraculously the tires themselves appeared undamaged. Even more miraculously, we found a man in the next village with a tire removing machine and a big hammer. One look at our wheels and he new what we wanted. No translation needed. Considering this was a 1 gas station village made of mud huts and not even one Irish bar, we considered ourselves lucky and headed onto Hovd. Total drive time for the day 9 hours, total distance 380kms.

Friday was again a low distance day, Hovd to Altaj was 390kms and around 10 hours drive. We were now being VERY cautious (weren’t we Matt J) as our little mishap the day before left us slightly rattled, pardon the pun. The sheer amount of concentration required on the diabolically bad roads in Mongolia means that large distances are almost unachievable. As we would find out the very next day. In Altaj we tried in vain to find a hotel with a shower. By this time the inside of the Clio looked like the inside of a cattle truck, dust was everywhere and in everything, so a shower would have been nice. In the end we settled for a rough meal and a hard bed.

Sometime just before sunset, we came across a river crossing. Thankfully the river was dry, but the bed was sandy and the crossing was around 30 meters wide. Complicating this obstacle was the steep exit on the far side. All the same, we thought we’d try our luck. The Clio did power across the sandy base but it was simply not able to drag itself out the other side. We were stuck. So we began digging and cramming rocks under it wheels, now in complete darkness. This was fun but not entirely successful, so we were more than happy when a friendly old man and his mate came along at 22:00 in their Russian jeep. He pulled us out in no time and after thanking him with a little cash and a few cans a beer, we were all on our way. Arvajheer was another 120kms away and we were determined to get there. But restricted to 20km/h, because of the darkness, it took an eternity, arriving at around 04:00.

Once there it was so late we decided to push onto Ulaanbaatar, another 400kms and to our relief the road was smooth and sealed! So apart from a quick roadside snooze break we had an easy run into our final destination, we arrived at 11:00 on Sunday morning. Drive time from Altaj to Ulaanbaatar, ~30 hours and 1000kms. As you can imagine, we have checked into a hotel with a hot shower and a decent restaurant. On Monday we will hand over the car to the local organization, as is the deal on this rally. So we will give you a teary eyed update on that soon.

MONGOLIAN QUICK REFERENCE GUIDE:

Mongolia is like the surface of the Moon, except the moon has better roads. This is a harsh environment for Man, Beast and Clio. The food on the Moon is probably better also. The North is very Mountainous very rocky, very baron and very cold. The south is very flat, very rocky, very baron and quite warm. The people are quite friendly and seem happy enough, even considering the above! 

*Democracy rating:
- Irish Bars, Check (Note: Only in capital City)
- American fast food, No
- Blackberry service, No
- Tom-Tom coverage, No

A poor score for this country on the Democ-o-meter, however, our personal advice would be to build some roads before worrying too much about McDonalds and Black Berry :-/

Made it to Ulaanbaatar!

The return of the blog is imminent. Team Ozzy Roadkill have made it and have internet access so stay tuned!

Into Mongolia

The stuff-up at the border was finally sorted out and the team is back on the road (or goat track as the case may be).

Blackberry email coverage in Mongolia does not appear to be up to standard so the blogs are on hold for a little while longer.

Matt likened the best bits of the main road across Mongolia to the worst fire trail in Australia. In some areas they were not sure if they were even still on the road until they saw the traffic coming in the other direction. At one point they hit some large rocks and ended up with damaged rims. After changing to the spares and making it to the next town they found someone to repair the rims. In approx 7 hours they covered about 240kms. They are overnighting in Hovd and even found a hotel with a shower. There is even some hope that this evening the hot water might be turned on for long enough to have a hot shower! - Kirsty

Stuck in no-man's-land

The blogs have been temporarily interupted due to the poor phone reception at the Russia-Mongolia Border. Team Ozzy Roadkill have been stuck between Russia and Mongolia for 3 days now. The Mongolian Customs Officers have not received the necessary paperwork for the importation of the vehicles. The team were originally told to pay US$4,000.00 import duty and they could be on their way.

After finally getting in contact with The Adventurists in the UK and Adventures For Development in Mongolia, they were told the paperwork would be emailed to the border post the next day and they would be able to enter the country.

Still no luck the next day!

Day 3 and they have been told that they will be allowed to continue on with the car but either The Adventurists or Team Ozzy Roadkill will have to pay the import duty. (Hopefully a more realistic quote will be forthcoming.) 

They can't go back as they don't have another entry visa for Russia. They aren't allowed to just leave the car and even if they were, how could they get to Ulaanbaatar? All they can do at the moment is leave the border compound on foot to go to the nearby town to stock up on food and water for another night in the car in the compound.

Other teams are starting to arrive at the border post - the compound will get very crowded if this isn't sorted out soon.

I'm sure the next blog to make it out will explain this situation in a very colourful way! - Kirsty

#11 July 26th

Well we made it to the border at 6am on Sunday, only to be informed that it is shut on Sundays, duh... So we stayed in the Kosh-Agash about 40kms back from the border. We found a kind of B&B and a super market for some food. This is a one horse town really, the people are 75% of Mongol decent and 25% Russian. In the end a well needed rest day where we could finally clean the car out and even install a new air filter for the motor, yep that was the highlight of our day!

So, it off to the border tomorrow, early morning. Hopefully it's as easy to exit Russia as it was to enter. We will see.

#10 July 25th

Ok people, we are bearing down fast on the Mongolian boarder. Another two day non stop drive got us in to Omsk on Friday afternoon, and yes we did find the Irish pub. This one however had a good twist, it was serving Australian steaks, or at least that's what we could make out. Tasted good anyway. Hotel was fine, about US$100 for the night. We took the offer from the doorman to watch our car overnight (200 Rubles, cash of course) but we turned down his offer for a 'Siberian Dream lady'. I guess we could have got her to clean the car, but 2000 Rubles would have been a lot to pay for a car wash.

Not that the Clio doesn't deserve a Siberian Dream car wash, it's even running like a dream actually. The only complaint is a failed spring somewhere under the drivers bum. Maybe we'll take it a bit easier on the Steak and Guinness...

Anyway, another day or so and we'll be at the Mongolian boarder and we're guessing the Guinness will dry up.

RUSSIAN QUICK REFERENCE GUIDE
Russia is split into two distinct halves. The west half is basically one VERY enormous pine forest, dotted with dozens of cities which are all connected with congested, potholed roads.
*Democracy rating:
- Irish Bars, Check
- American fast food, Check
- Blackberry service, Check
- Tom-Tom coverage, Check

The east half is VERY big, VERY flat, has no pine trees and comparatively less cities but these are also connected with potholed roads but with significantly less congestion.
*Democracy rating:
- Irish Bars, Check
- American fast food, NO
- Blackberry service, NO
- Tom-Tom coverage, NO

So there you have it folks, whilst great progress has been made since perestroika, not all locals here live with access to the 4 pillars of a true democratic society. Sad but true....

#9 July 22nd

Have arrived in Kazan and checked into a hotel. But more importantly, we quickly found the Irish pub! This town is streets ahead of other towns we have driven through, so that's a bit of luck. Between here and Moscow there was a wasteland of ex soviet industrial carnage. Oh dear....

On a technical note, we have decoded the official Truck tuning procedure for all Russian trucks. Most trucks here are modern and of European or American manufacture. Volvo, Mercedes, Freightliner, etc etc. But regardless of which, in order to comply with local regulations they MUST all be tuned using the following procedure

Step 1 - Position technician and the truck in a quite corner of the workshop.

Step 2 - Locate the mixture screw on the diesel pump.

Step 3 - Very, very gently wind the screw in all the way until you feel the screw stop (this will equate to Maximum Diesel injection)

Step 4 - Now wind the screw out again precisely 1/4 of a turn.

Step 5 - Next, wind the screw back in viciously 3 turns or until it breaks (which ever comes first)

Your Volvo Globetrotter is now ready to pump maximum smoke, block passing motorist vision, choke them to death AND destroy the environment all in one go. Great success!!!

#8 July 22nd

Daylight here where we are in Russia, about 400kms east of Moscow. The overnight drive looks like a good move as we had no delays around Moscow, in fact we zipped round the ring road and got away without any trouble. We'll be looking to do another 500kms today and then break early. Perhaps staying in a town called Kazan which is on route. It's still fairly early, 6am and the roads are clear. Only saw two overturned trucks in the night, which we recon is a low score for the local truckies, but maybe there are a few more wreckages further up. We'll wait and see...

#7 July 21st

It's been a long day today and it's not over yet. We off loaded from the Ferry at 7am and drove the 150km through Finland to the Russian boarder. So we did not see much of Finland but the country side looks very picturesque. 

But what you're all dying to hear is what was the boarder crossing like? Well it was pretty straight forward actually. We shuffled around paperwork with a number of ladies that all looked like Claudia Schiffer (in uniform!), then had our car inspected by a disinterested guy in army clothes, paid some 'compulsory insurance' fee (US$30) to another guy and drove off. The roads immediately changed for the worse, but so far they are nothing we or the Clio can't handle. Not much worse than Australian roads to tell you the truth. 

Right now we are around 800kms inside Russia and coming up on Moscow and since this is THE town to stay away from, we recon we'll just cruise through the night and slip past the capital city. 

Generally the Russian traffic is well behaved, there are plenty of coppers everywhere, but they've not shown any interest in us thank goodness. Also loads of trucks and the odd suicidal Lada driver overtaking up the inside whilst the rich guys in brand new Range Rovers overtake on the other, interesting... 

Fuel is about US$0.75/litre and so far we have found 95 octane, which means the Clio is still humming. Oh and we just crossed the Volga river, so there you go!

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