Tuesday 29 May 2007

Mongol Rally 2007 progress

We re-launched the blog yesterday, well, a new banner was made for the site which we are very proud of and we've also updated the colour scheme.

Many thanks go to Fr^KaZoiD for the new really cool new banner, who is now also our Mongol Rally graphics design artist :)

In car news, we've plugged a hole in one of the windows which was causing water to go inside the car when it rained. We've also had a few issues with the car since the shackles were installed, but that is all in hand.

We're now pushing our fund raising campaign toward Hopes and Homes for Children. We've just passed the £600 mark for Mercy Corps and we want continue to raise more for Mercy Corps, but our focus is Hopes and Homes for Children as it is lagging behind the Mercy Corps fund. Please donate whatever you can to either of these two causes by clicking the Donate Now button on the top right of this web site.

We had to miss the Mongol Rally meeting on the 26th of May due to prior commitments, but we will definitely be attending the meet planned in June in Wales.

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Adam

Sunday 20 May 2007

Visa progress and route update

We got the Mongolian and Khazakhstan visas, the Russian visa was the last visa we would need to secure a route to Mongolia.

It was always going to be a difficult one to get. But with the help of an agency, it took 2 weeks and more than twice the cost of any previous visa to get the Russian double entry visa. We needed the double entry visas just to get to Mongolia using our proposed route.



We now need to do some more work on our return trip plans from Mongolia. If we decide to come back through Russia, we'll have to sort out an additional Russian single entry visa in Mongolia (as there are no multiple entry visas for Russia currently). The alternative is to trek back through China, which we can get a visa for beforehand.

Our route has been changed since the one posted originally, mainly due to visa requirements of the other countries on the original route and the (lack of) time we have to get them all. See the two maps below for an update on our planned route. You'll probably need to click on the images to enlarge.





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Adam

Tuesday 15 May 2007

Rusty Rhino has a lift

Been doing a bit of work on the SJ with a bit of help from my brother, lewis. Bought some lift shackles and shock relocation gadgets to raise the car a bit which will give us more ground clearance for the rough stuff. Bought them from ebay from a mamber and because we are doing this for the Mongol Rally, he gave us some discount, so big thanks for that. The kit really is top quality and looks very strong. To check out his items, go to http://search.ebay.co.uk/_W0QQsassZnofearzuksQQhtZ-1

Pic of the new shackles:


Pics of the Rusty Rhino now lifted. The rear tow bar has also been removed as it is a waste of space and weight for us and will also give us some more ground clearance.





And a pic of me soaking wet from fitting them in the rain. They were not terribly difficult to fit - It helped that the dimensions of the kit were spot on. Looking forward to testing it off-road again as the decent tyres were already a vast improvement!



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Alex

Sunday 6 May 2007

Rusty Rhino has some work done...

As part of our grand Rusty Rhino modification plans, we've recently carried out some changes to the Rhino.

We've installed a set of 4 new(ish) tyres, they have raised the Rhino a bit, giving it a a more fit for purpose look! And after much fiddling around with cables and drilling holes in the wrong place, we managed to install a backup set of halogen headlights. They were a bargain at 8 pounds something off of eBay!



In other news for our rally, we've now sent off our applications for the double entry Russian visas. This has had the affect of nearly bankrupting us meanwhile our Mongol Rally 2007 spend keeps spiralling out of control and has just surpassed the £2000 mark! Ouch!

We've also received our Mercy Corps fund raising t-shirts and car stickers. To read about the latest at Mercy Corps - and to see a link to our article on their front page! ;) - go to http://www.mercycorps.org.uk

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Adam