How 3 Cheapskates with limited fundraising experience raised 6600 dollars for Cool Earth on the Mongol Rally A Mongol Rally 2014 retrospective is a murky endeavor; tough to see clearly exactly how it all came together because we had a destination goal, only a loose plan of how to get there, and a whole lot of ‘lets see how this goes’ attitude.…
Mongol Rally Blog
Somewhere between Arvaikheer and Edernasant (MGL)- Ulaan Baataar (MGL) + Final Mission Completed! September 2, 2014 We woke up at 6am, leave camp at 7:30. Our Tahki Butter seems to know that we will be at the finish line today. He “galloped” the entire way through. It was a peaceful morning. There were eagles everywhere…
Somewhere before Bayankhongor (MGL)- Somewhere between Arvaikheer and Edernasant (MGL) September 2, 2014 Today our car Takhi Butter wanted to be free and didn’t want the sump guard anymore! The sump guard was loosen on one corner when we did our oil change in Almaty, Kazakhstan. The young mechanics over tighten the bolts and caused the…
All Night Drive (MGL)- Somewhere before Bayankhongor (MGL) September 1, 2014 We drove all night last night and slept for 2 hours inside our tiny car Tahki Butter. After our rear suspension got fixed yesterday the ride was much smoother, despite sometimes the car fishtailed and lost control of the rear due to taller and…
All Night Drive (MGL)- Altai City (MGL)- Middle of Nowhere East of Altai (MGL)- All Night Drive (MGL) August 31, 2014 Today we encountered our biggest car problem in Mongol Rally- our car suspension springs were shattered in pieces in middle of nowhere. We were saved by a Mongolian nomad named Gondag. We didn’t sleep last…
Unknown River Crossing (MGL)- Khovd (MGL)- All Night Drive (MGL) August 30, 2014 Last night we camped out by the river next to cow dungs, very natural feeling hahaha! When we got to the river late in the evening we thought we might be able to cross it, but weren’t sure. We we awoke and saw…
Somewhere in Bayan-Ölgii aimag (MGL)- Unknown River Crossings (MGL) August 29, 2014 (continue from part 1) Crossing the dry up riverbed with big rocks is super tough. It was a long day driving. The road is very challenging due to our low clearance car. However we are glad we did a detour from the normal Mongol Rally route.…
Somewhere in Bayan-Ölgii aimag (MGL)- Unknown River Crossings (MGL) August 29, 2014 Today is one of the toughest days of our Mongol Rally trip. While driving through the city of Ölgii we abandoned the normal Southern route and took the smaller roads called Altantsugts-Bugat Road and Bayanauur-Bugat Road. These are actually not road its more like a rocky path. The…
Altai Mountains (RUS)- Somewhere in Bayan-Ölgii aimag (MGL) August 28, 2014 (continue from part 1) We finally arrived at the Russian/ Mongolia border around 11am. We are super excited for our 20th Mongol Rally countries! Russia border crossing time: 11am to 12:00pm Mongolia border crossing time: 12:30pm- 12:55pm Our paperworks are all done by 12:55pm. We though that we can leave…
Altai Mountains (RUS)- Somewhere in Bayan-Ölgii aimag (MGL) August 28, 2014 It was beautiful camping in Altai Mountains next to cow dungs. The view of the Katun river is spectacular. The M-52 followed the Katun river and later on wind into a huge plateau. Altai Republic is so serene. It reminds Graham of the wilderness in Seattle, Washington.…
Barnaul (RUS)- Altai Mountains (RUS) August 27, 2014 We left the Hotel Barnaul around 9:30am and started driving towards Mongolia. We saw a Suzuki dealership on the outskirts of Barnaul. We were concerned about our wheel. We only got one spare tire and two of our wheels were bent and hammered multiple times already. Our goal is…
Rubtsovsk (RUS)- Barnaul (RUS) August 26, 2014 This morning we woke up around 7:30am. We walked around and found a mechanics closed by. We went to car and found this notes on our windshield. How nice our new Russian friends are! большое спасибо Helen, Sveta, Alex and Alex! Young and myself ignited the engine and…
Somewhere around Novotaubinka (KAZ)- Semey (KAZ)- Rubtsovsk (RUS) August 25, 2014 We woke up at sunrise and start driving. We have not take a shower since Osh that was 4 days ago? I lost count on the dates now. Can’t imagine how we smelled hahaha! The road is filled with gigantic potholes. We dodged most…
Somewhere before Saryozek (KAZ)- Taskesken (KAZ)- Ayagoz (KAZ)- Qalbatau (KAZ)- Somewhere around Novotaubinka (KAZ) August 24, 2014 Today is a tough day. This section of Kazakhstan is all desert and had tons of gigantic potholes. We got a flat tire and the cap that protect our exhaust pipe got loose. All in all, a day of fixing the car. We…
Korday (KAZ)- Almaty (KAZ)- Kapchagay (KAZ)- Somewhere before Saryozek (KAZ) August 23, 2014 We arrived last night at Kazakhstan/ Kyrgyzstan border at around 10:30pm, and waited the border crossing for a good 6 hours for the paper work to be done. It was until 4:30am that our car finally passed through. Graham had to pay USD $5…
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