Back in UB

I feel like I should post a ton of photos from the last few days, but it’s 3am and there are a couple thousand to go through and edit… at this point it’s looking like you all get more photos when I get home, sleep and recover from jet lag.  There are a 232 gigabytes of photos & video from the whole trip with a good chunk of that from just the past few days.

Needless to say, the home stretch here has been quite exciting.  Even though we sent our rally car back to UB and were taking it “easy” in the Mercy Corps vehicles, there is just no easy way to get around this country.

We woke from the Ger camp where I posted last and had a leisurely morning, leaving only at 8am and heading down to the bottom of the Flaming Cliffs to hunt for dinosaur fossils.  We did find a few, but they were not very big… most of the good stuff having already been picked over by archeologists of course, and sent off to museums. Leaving the fossil site, the Land Cruiser was stopped by a flat tire… even the best suited vehicles are made into putty by the Gobi. The drivers made quick work of the fix and we were all back on the road.

Next stop, sand dunes.  Not the giant ones far out west of the cliffs, they were too far away for our itinerary… we settled for the dunes only 20 or 30 meters tall.  Climbing these dunes was pretty tricky, but we could scale a few of them.  Tom, Kim and I also hopped on a few Bactrian Camels for a ride up to the top of one dune, and off to explore one of the further away dunes.  Again… words not sufficient. You get to wait for photos.

It took most of the rest of the day just to reach Arvaikheer in Ovorhangay aimag.  Deciding that the Russian jeep should not be punishment for one person, I decided to rotate in and give it another chance.  Not sitting in the middle of the back seat helped, not being sick to start with was better… but no doubt about it, anywhere you sit in this thing, on the best day, is a pretty punishing ride on the roads of Mongolia.  As I wrote before, it’s a tank, for sure.  But the alternator belt started slipping, and we pulled over a couple times to rig a solution.  The belt they had in there was the wrong size, which meant the alternator had to be slid up to the smallest position… and the belt kept rotating into the wrong position.  We just made it into town where our driver, Buggy, was able to get the ‘right’ belt.

We also actually lost the Land Cruiser for a little while.  They were out in front of us, and we turned off a section of road riding straight out into the Gobi… we were actually pushing fresh tracks in the sand.  They got so far ahead we couldn’t even see their little sand trail anymore… apparently they couldn’t see ours either, because they stopped to wait for us, and somehow we were just over a ridge of mountains and passed them by.  Cell phone reception is not exactly reliable in Mongolia… there are no towers out in the barren desert.  You have to be close to a town where there is a tower.  We stopped at the next town, called Mercy Corps HQ, and finally we were able to reach the other car as they neared the town we were in.  I wasn’t too worried except that Buggy was such an aggressive driver, and he was mostly just following the Land Cruiser, that I thought maybe he was lost.  The only word he spoke in English was “good?”, so I took a gamble and tried to speak Russian with him.  I say a gamble, because since we’ve been in Mongolia, contrary to what we were told before leaving, NOBODY speaks Russian here, and few more than that speak English.  That’s ok, we have gotten by without speaking the language via pantomime, and now we had Zaya with us to translate… but it was too bad that I had spent all that time learning Russian, and here in Mongolia it did me no good (not to say it wasn’t helpful in the former Soviet states though).  Well, Buggy was old enough to have lived prior to the revolution here, and he had gone to school during Russian dominated times, so he did in fact speak Russian!  It was great, we were able to talk about where the other car was, how far it was to the next town, where we were, etc.  I now knew he definitely was not lost, and it was clearer what had happened.  The only downside is now he is trying to have full on Russian conversations with me.  Woops, ya punyemayu newachin heracho dude.  The Land Cruiser caught up, and we made it to the next town  pretty late.

This morning had us sleeping in again until 8, but by 9am we were out visiting Mercy Corps projects in Arvaikheer.  These projects were not economic development programs that create self sustaining business, but were educational programs that are more reliant on grants since they don’t create recurring revenue.  These projects were all really touching though, as these kids really just want to learn.  The first school we visited was teaching Mongolian language skills to kids who have health issues that keep them out of regular school.  What they were describing sounded like they had seizures of some sort, but the kids mostly appeared healthy and happy this morning, showing us their Cyrillic alphabet lessons on the wall, the plants they are learning to take care of, and some of the handicrafts they learn how to make.  The kids were all interested in us, asking if we were “classmates”, and a few took interest in my tattoo, as they recognized some of the Buddhist symbols on my arm.

The next school was for kids learning English.  Some of these kids also had hearing difficulties and were learning American sign language.  The teacher at this school was so passionate about teaching these kids.  She recently lost her husband to a car accident, and her daughter also has learning disabilities, so she seems to have thrown herself into teaching these kids.  Her face lit up when she told us how she’d downloaded the sign language symbols and lessons from the internet for the kids, and all the games and computers she was able to purchase for them with Mongol Rally money.  She showed us how the kids even made their own games to learn English, which was pretty awesome since they are teaching themselves and learning how to learn at the same time.  She also had an extensive library… including Stephen King, which I asked if the kids enjoyed reading!  The computers she had in the classroom were not connected to the internet… the fee of 30,000 Tugrik, roughly $25, a month was out of her budget.  I want to ask Mercy Corps if there is a way we can help provide that funding in a sustainable way that doesn’t keep them dependent on annual grants that could go away… it seems like such a small amount to connect these kids to even more resources which they would obviously put to good use.

The last school we visited was for the blind, where they were learning Braille Cyrillic and other skills to become more independent and confident.   One of the computers they had was purchased by Mongol Rally funds, but unfortunately didn’t have a Braille keyboard, and the accessibility software they had was in English.  I don’t know if they even make the software in Mongolian, and it is probably not much more helpful for them to have Russian software… but I’d like to at least see if they can get a Braille keyboard.  I’ll be looking for a Braille Cyrillic keyboard on Amazon first thing when I get home.

Most of the rest of our day was driving back to Ulaan Baatar.  A few more breakdowns as the new “correct” alternator belt kept slipping and eventually snapped.  Buggy wanted to continue on the battery alone, which Tom & I thought foolish… we threatened to pull our spare Fiat belts out of the roof box (oh yeah, it was strapped to the top of the land cruiser after it shook the roof racks loose from the Fiat! hah) and better judgment set in.  He decided he had a spare after all, and we barely made it into UB on that belt, with the battery indicator continually dropping below 12 volts.

It took us about 45 minutes to part out all the gear we were donating to Mercy Corps and leave it with Zaya in their office in UB.  We took some photos, said goodbye to her and our drivers, and made for the luxury of our final hotel.  Tom, Yasmin, Jean & Amy headed back to the LG Guesthouse, while Kim & I are treating ourselves to Ulaan Baatar’s (and Mongolia’s) finest hotel, the Chinggis Khan hotel!

This post comes to you from the comfort of our room, with high speed internet again, and the benefit of a warm shower and toilet.  The fingernails are trimmed.  All the grease, grit and grime has been scrubbed away.  I am ready to cross the finish line with our Fiat Puntos tomorrow and party with our fellow Adventurists at the final finish line party, week 6 of the rally since departing Goodwood.  Kim asked me a few days ago if I would feel sad handing over the keys to the Fiat, and I said, truthfully at the time, that I was not that attached to them.  But that response came during the arduous drive through the Gobi, when I was actively battling the steering and suspension, and feeling no joy.  But when we pulled into the Mercy Corps parking lot today, I was so happy to see #206, with freshly powdered Gobi dust all about its edges, that I did feel a coming sense of loss that I’m sure will be bittersweet tomorrow at the finish line.

Then again, I just want to make sure The Adventurists repay that customs duty so Tom & I can get our $1000 back!

Ok, 4am is knocking at the door.  I’ve got to get some sleep before tomorrow’s long day.  Our flight home on Sunday is really early and I’m doubting I’ll get much sleep tomorrow night.  I tell myself this will help me get back on Seattle time, but I know I’m just going to be exhausted regardless.

Have Mercy

With just a few hours sleep, we were up and back on the road at 5am this morning to make up for time lost breaking down before Dundgobi. Jean, Amy and Yasmin were off in the Land Cruiser with Tom, Kim and I following in the Russian jeep. Zaya said it the best, “Russian jeep is built well, but not designed for anybody to ride inside”. The thing is a tank, with its awesome Russian nuclear submarine gauges, and the brutal road can do no harm to it. But the same can not be said for its inhabitants. As much as the road was shaking us and the Fiat to bits, the jeep took its blows and just passed them along to us. For several hours the seat was punching me in the back until I got sick. We rotated for a while, I took the front seat until somebody, I think Kim & Zaya, wisely put me into the Land Cruiser. I was finally able to sleep until the 5 hour drive to Dalanzadgad was complete.

The Mercy Corps office in Dalanzadgad treated us to breakfast before we set out to see the project sites around the city, and we all recovered from the drive with a well needed energy boost.

The first site we went to was a community wood working group that custom makes parts for Gers. With a grant of several hundred thousand Tugrik (a few hundred dollars) which came from Mongol Rally fund raising, they bought a table saw and some of the raw materials they needed to kick start the group. They are already building a reputation for the quality of their work and it was awesome to see that they are creating a sustainable business to benefit themselves and their community.

The next site was a similar set up, but this time making bricks out of recycled ash, to be used as construction material. Mercy Corps had helped them with a loan guarantee for some equipment and was providing business oversight & advice. They are already looking to expand production due to their success.

A few blocks away, we visited a building where women were making the canvass Ger covers and growing their business with grants from Mercy Corps.

We continued to a few more sites, one which made handicrafts for sale in UB, and another which made felt and clothing for school uniforms. These uniforms are a little funny to us… today was the first day of school and we could see the kids strutting all over town in their new duds. The girls uniforms look like French maid outfits, and the boys wear these suits that are straight out of a 1920’s gangster film… all shiny with pin stripes. It was a total crack up for us. At many of these project sites we would see the Mercy Corps contracts proudly displayed on the wall with Mongol Rally logos stamped right above them. The fourth site we visited was operated by a group of women who were all struggling to pay to care for their children with cerebral palsy. With the grants from Mercy Corps they were able to start a business that now affords them the ability to better care for the special needs of their children, creating a steady and recurring income that far exceeds the minimal amount the government was providing for assistance previously. It was awesome to see that for a few hundred to a few thousand dollars, the fund raised from the Mongol Rally could set these groups up in the community to start sustainable businesses. Just the fund raising from Baatar Hero could create several of these grants next year, and we only saw 5 projects in one town. I can only imagine what the impact is in aimags across the country from the funds of the entire rally.

After yesterday’s horrible day of driving and final break down, it felt completely worth it today seeing how the rally positively impacts these projects. It was incredibly touching when these women told us how much the rally funds help them and thanked us personally… their parting words, “Tell people at home about our work here”. So, while you may not all be able to do something like the Mongol Rally, you now know the impact that Mercy Corps is making in these people’s lives.

While it seemed our day couldn’t get much better, it was only just beginning. Zaya took us to a great restaurant for lunch, and after a few hours drive one some really nice dirt roads for a change, we found ourselves at the Flaming Cliffs just in time for sunset. The view was stunning… words can’t do it justice and I’m not sure photos can either. Tomorrow morning we’ll wake up early from our nearby Ger camp and look for dinosaur fossils at the foot of the cliffs before heading West to sand dunes and then North to visit some more Mercy Corps projects. If their is time, we may even be able to drive through Karakorum and visit the Erden Zuu monastery on our way back to UB on Friday.

Gobi Breakdown

It’s 8:30 at night, the sun has already gone down, and I’m chasing a Russian jeep through the Gobi desert with rally fog lights and high beams lighting a path over rocks and sand berms just begging to take me out for good.  I find myself asking again, as I did at the top of that Russian ski resort… “how did I get here?”  Only this time I am in the rally milieu, this is exactly where we planned to be.  Well, “planned” is a strong word.

Our original route had us blazing through well paved Russian roads for the Altanbulag border in the North of Mongolia, and then heading west before ever entering Ulaan Baatar so we could visit Chinggis Khan’s old capitol at Karakorum and do a loop south to the Gobi desert, riding triumphantly into UB across the finish line.

You all know at this point how amazingly well the blazing through Russian roads and crossing at Altanbulag went.  And of course now we were already in UB reuniting with Kim and trying to figure out what to do with the rest of our week before this is all over.  I am wondering if we are the first Mongol Rally team to drive into UB, *NOT* cross the finish line, and leave before returning successfully.  I can’t say for sure, but I do know one first we accomplished.  According to Mercy Corps Mongolia, we are the first Mongol Rally team to ever visit their office in UB in person!

Not knowing exactly how we would head out of UB, but knowing only that we wanted to go to the Gobi and that we wanted to visit some Mercy Corps project sites, we contacted Mercy Corps to see what projects we could see on that route.  Not only did they have a list of sites we could go to, they generously offered to send one of their staff and a driver along with us in their Toyota Land Cruiser to personally guide us around their projects.  How sweet is that?  Bonus: we are following somebody who knows where they are going, they also offered to show us to some sites we wanted to see (the Flaming Cliffs and some famous sand dunes), and we would have instant help in the event of the inevitable mechanical mishap.  Given that #201 was really struggling with a torn off muffler (did I forget to mention that it basically just fell off on the way to Irkustk?) and some very sketchy steering shake at around 40mph, we decided to leave her parked at Mercy Corps.  On the other hand, #206 had new life breathed into her in Krasnoyarsk. With a rebuilt front right strut, exhaust, and radiator fan, she was driving smooth as ever and ready to take on the Gobi.
And she was freshly cleaned!  Surprise of the day was Monday morning when we walked out of our guesthouse to see UB, and we noticed our windshield wipers were flipped up.  After hearing about all the theft in UB, we were worried about a break in, and had cleared the car of all valuables the night before… but with the wipers flipped up we assumed somebody had broken in anyway.  To our great enjoyment, not only were the cars not broken into, they were spotless.  We had acquired a new paint job of mud and smog after the rainy drive to Irkutsk, but that was now gone.  The cars shone again, cleaner than they were when we left Goodwood (Tom and I did a good job of dirtying them up during the prep week).  Certainly we couldn’t cross the finish line like this.  We would have to remedy this right away.

Tuesday morning, we drove both cars over to Mercy Corps’ office on Peace Ave, and stripped everything out of #201 we thought we would need for the journey.  Most of it went into/onto the Land Cruiser, and the rest we piled into #206. Our new friend, Zaya, a project manager for Mercy Corps, would accompany us from their office to project sites, educate us about their projects, and translate for us along the way.  Another bonus for us: she’s a part time tour guide and her family is from the area of the Gobi we are visiting!  The drive south out of UB was fairly uneventful for the first 100k, with only slightly degraded pavement we passed the airport, a new stadium being built, and some herds of sheep and camels.

Then, the road just… ended.

No fanfare, it just turned into dirt.  We bounced along for a few hours, trying to keep up with the effortless pace of the Land Cruiser.  Taking our fair share of scrapes we would stop every once in a while to look for leaks, but the new shocks and sump guard seemed to be doing their jobs.  Kim expressed some concern… but I assured her this was all “normal” and that the car could handle it.  Then, as if to spite me, the road turned absolutely evil.  Now, I can only assume that the roads from the West are just as bad, but if that’s really true I have a hard time understanding how any of these Mongol Rally cars can make it.  Maybe it was just the pace of trying to keep up with the Land Cruiser, but our newly rebuilt car was taking an complete thrashing.  The words “pot holes” do not do these exploded mine fields justice.  And when the road was “flat”, it was covered in cat tracks left by Russian construction vehicle treads, the spacing and depth of which are perfectly designed to shake a Fiat Punto with 14″ tires, and it contents, completely apart.  “Don’t worry, we’ll be ok” I confidently reassured Kim as we scraped against every rock, bush and cow skull on the road.

And it was ok.  Until the muffler came off.  This wasn’t so bad actually, it came apart right at a U-bolt and we were able to reattach it somewhat, but during our exhaust reconstructive surgery we noticed something else… something bad.  Oil was flowing pretty steadily out down over the sump guard.  Crap.  We were done for.  The car would not hold oil long enough for us to get to the next town, let alone the South Gobi and back to UB.  Thankfully we handily had a Toyota Land Cruiser with an experienced Mongolian driver ready to tow us.  I attached the tow hook to the front of the Fiat and before you could say Chinggis Khan we were being dragged through the sand 10 feet behind  a screaming dust machine.  A thick layer of sand and dust was making quick work of the car wash we’d never asked for in UB.

When we arrived at the next town, Tom and I quickly went to work pulling the sump guard off so we could see what had happened to the oil pan.  The town mayor or governor came out and offered his help.  Zaya called the Mercy Corps office in the next town to start arranging for a backup plan.  After we got the sump guard off, we could clearly see where one of our brutal pounding scraps had pushed the guard up against the oil pan creating an indentation which was weak enough to leak oil through a small hole.  This is a risk with every rally car, but we knew from the start that this one was susceptible since we’d seen an oil leak there in London.  We had driven out to the Fiat dealer in Slough and briefly purchased a new sump, but when we tried to get a local mechanic to replace it (a long job) he insisted he could patch our leak cheaper.  He slathered epoxy resin all over the sump, gave us a batch of quick steel, and sent us on our way to return the new part and protect the whole bit with the custom made sump guards Tony made for us in North London.  Well this new hole was just below where the resin patch was, and it was time for the quick steel to do its job.  Tom cut off a bit of metal from the exhuast foil repair kit so I could push it up against the hole and create a flat dry surface for the quick steel.  We pasted over the whole business with the quick steel and in 5 minutes my work of art was complete.  We poured in 3 liters of oil, started her up, and low and behold… NO LEAK!

While we were pretty impressed with our amazing mechanical skills, we were also certain that our little Punto couldn’t take 3 more days of this abuse, and leak repair aside, she was starting and running pretty rough.  The kind of vibration we were taking can’t be sustained for long, at least not by this fine example of Italian engineering.  So when the Russian jeep arrived, we followed as far as Mercy Corps’ office in Dundgobi where we left #206 to catch a ride back to UB on the back of some monster trailer.  Zaya said Mercy Corps could arrange to return the car to their office while we continued on our route with the Land Cruiser and the Russian jeep!  We’d have to pay for fuel (which we would have anyway), and to send the Fiat back to UB. Other than that our rally dreams continue!

Tomorrow, on to Dalanzadgad!