time is pressing. blogging today has not gone too well.
the whole of the grand tour crew understand that the following few posts many be difficult to understand and we apologise.
this post is meant as a form of damage control. next time we are online we will rectify the mess that, i would like to add, had nothing to do with me (apart from good stuff, naturally).

Ulaanbataar 30th August

Hi from Ulaanbataar again, we have news from the chinese agent and we are very likely to get across Chinese border on 22nd september 2008. fingers X.

Still in Monoglia Resort Guesthouse, (the owner sold the guesthouse business and officially closed from 1st september) using the wi-fi free. Meeting up a few Mongolian Rally guys, 2 from Holland (went out dinner with them last night) andd 2 from Belgium. The Belgium guys will be joined us to go camping as we have good forecast weather. With this we have a good prospect of Barbacue today.

Lost Blog, Tessie' fault when Loong is away

At this moment we are still in Mongolian Resort Guesthouse in Ulaanbaatar (for one night only due to cold weather), making use of the free wifi.

we have had good news from china and it is looking increasingly likely that we will be able to enter china on 22nd september. fingers crossed.

In the mean time we are taking a couple of people, Matt and Heinrick camping with us with fine forescast on the weather. Both came from Belgium, Matt rode on a Honda CBR 1000 and has giving in his bike to a Mongolian charity. His bike is so unusual that it will fetch more money than a 4x4. Heinrick was unfortunate as his bike has failed and he has to abandon his in Gobi desert and hike a truck into Ulaanbataar. We have a the great prospect of a barbeque as although we have a camp fire every night when we camp we cook on our faithful petrol stove.

Lewis has made a solar system with Loong's coaching which was amazing and exciting illustration of King Charles I using Humpty Dumpty set up.

Great news that Greg and Jowanna are making great progress with their selfbuild house

check them out at http://www.gregandjo.wordpress.com/

another video on youtube. first old kite flying way back in Latvia July. (are we gong backwards? @no just catching up with technology)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNMZ6ufni_I

we are most excited about greg's new house.
as we are in a permanently tented state this makes us most jealous.

we would like to start this post with a massive shout out to our most dedicated follower- ling.
she has stuck with us through thick and thin, the good times and the bad times.
ling, you are the pit stop crew to our grand tour crew: we know you will always be there to back us up. true dat.

everyone will be most pleased to know that a smoking habit (for those of you who have watched the video) will be the least of lewis' worries as a result of this trip.

the grand tour crew would like to say a specially hello to granny who has just come back from holiday. we hope someone tells you how to read this and post a comment.

(if you are feeling exculded and would also like a 'shout out', please do not hesitate to ask and the grand tour crew would be pleased to oblige).

another night in ulaanbaatar and daddy is starting to get nervous of the city.

today we are glad to be in the city as this morning we had one of the worst mornings of the trip. last night we had cleverly decided to sleep down a slope in an overpriced national park just outside ulaanbaatar. the night was one of the coldest yet and lewis was sick in the tent. daddy, tessie and lewis went to sleep in the car but none of us could get much sleep. at six o'clock we had to get up in the cold and rain to pac away. our way out, however, was impeeded by the muddy slope and the precipation, which, at this point, consisted of sleet, snow and rain.

daddy, tessie and i were soaked through but we donned the waterproof trousers anyway in a bid to keep warm. my specialist sailing trousers meant that i was not cold but did it lots of the water that i had already collected inside.

we took over 5 attempts to get wilma (with larry detatched) up the main bit of the hill and i cannot count how long we had to push her. most of the time wilma slipped backwards especially as we had little or no grip on the wet and muddy slope. tessie and i also had task of ensuring we had chocks ready for the big sliding down the slope.

although wilma had tried to kill us on many an occasion, with unpredicatable sliding, we all felt sorry for her and her thick layer of mud. however, i remained wet in the car all the way back to ulaanbaatar so prehaps was not a sympathetic as others.

i would like to add at this juncture that larry, too, had to be pushed up the slope as did his contents which we had taken out to make the load lighter.

the whole incident was not so great at the time but looking back on it, it definately counts as japes.

tessie and lewis are currently ill- this is both a cause of 'the incident' this morning and a result of it.

the grand tour camp is proud to present its first minature production.
please visit the following link to view this beautifully filmed and edited piece:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8AR_RSejRU

if you have any views or comments please feel free to air them.

OBSERVAIONS SECTIONS:

1. they have no coins.
2. camels, horses, goatss and sheep galore. a cow could very well walk past the tent at any time.
3. there have been more crashes and accidents on the road than we have ever seen. daddy says this is really funny.
4. they have pretty interesting music- trace.
5. great contast in weather between cold (night) and hot (day time).
6. lewis' reading is going well.
7. the berries that the locals collect are inedible- we think they do something to them as they are selling them everywhere.
8. they love wooden bridges (not sure if we have said this before).
9. lewis has a new found and strange obsession with black jack.


n.b. daddy would like to encourage more questions as he is struggling with his observations section.

this is the first time we have been to the big city of ulaanbaatar for a week.

a couple of days ago we suffered the big rains of the season. our camp spot next to the river in the local national park, which was usually packed with music blaring mongolian campers, emptied completely. it rained for 24hours with a break of about 2 hours when we went exploring for fire wood; even the mighty gazeebo could not keep us dry. to entertain ourselves we played cards, mainly black jack, for an extremely long time. good times.

after the 'great rain' (as i like to call it) the river next to us rose by two feet. amusingly we had crossed a dry river bed on the way to our camping spot and had not taken into account the fact that, after the 'great rain' it may no longer be a dry river bed. this morning we had to leave our camping spot so that tessie could get a visa. funnily enough this was not a easy as you might think. we spent a little time trying to find the shallowest place to cross the ever deepening river; when we had selected our spot (the place where the water was just under daddy's knees) we prepared ourselves for 'the big swim'. we decided to unload some of the trailer and the boot of the car in preparation for flooding. daddy then drove through- full steam ahead- into the water. the low point was probably getting stuck half way across. i heroically waded into the river (well over my knees) and attached the tow rope to the car that had managed to cross the river in front of us.

after safely dragging us out, the car would not start as we had got water in the oil and had soaked the air filter. after a little time and some biscuits we were on our way. wilma now sounds like bill's boat.

greetings from ulaanbaatar, party capital of the world.

we were caught up last night in the party atmosphere and crowds that gathered in the public square outside dave's place (an english pub). the spontaneous mass gathering was to celebrate the first time that mongolia has ever won an olympic medal. they won two yesterday, a gold in judo and a silver in archery. the gathering was made all the more exciting by the fireworks that were being set off a couple of metres from us. although joining in mongolia's celebrations we felt strangely at home as we were sitting near some 'ladz' who, we are certain, are from essex. we were first alerted to this possibility by a white wife beater and gold medalion. our suspicions were confirmed by a chant of 'let's go f*****g metal', in true essex style.


the celebrations rounded off what was an exciting day for us with my exam results and a pub quiz. i got into exeter and we claim that we won the quiz.

the last two nights were spent in a ger camp which was a different experience. there were four beds round the edge on the round tent and an iron stove and table in the middle. while we were there we were able to watch some of the olympics as even the ger camps have massive satalite dishes. we also enjoyed an hours horse ride around the hills and streams. we are unsure of the photographs we were able to take as daddy was in charge of the camera.

we would like to noted by anyone who is from up north that our plates from stoke have survived everything we could throw at them and are in sturdy form. we are impressed.

this morning we were most supprised to be greeted by a man willing to purchase wilma; he was offering $500 (a price i thought over the odds to be honest). we declined his offer but have kept his buisness card just in case we should need to sell her for example if we have problems getting into china with her.


OBSERVATIONS SECTION (by dwight wood, written by loong wood):
1. the city is hight smogy.
2. the city is an old soviet built town.
3. the cost of staying in a ger (four people per night) is $10.
4. fuel is roughly 75p/ l.
5. the trolly buses here are completely ancient.
6. there are herds of animals all over the shop.

happy belated birthday to tessie from ulaanbataar!

we reached the captial of mongolia yesterday afternoon just in time to take tessie to a mongolian restaurant for her 40th birthday. we had a lovely time yesterday giving tessie her cards and making her a birthday crown which she wore all day (photographs will follow some time); however we were forced to be nice to her for the whole day which was, needless to say, quite testing. swings and roundabouts.
driving in ulaanbataar has been quite an experience: it is a true asian city with people who drive how they wish and use the horn excessively with seemingly no purpose whatsoever.

as a birthday treat we also stayed in a guest house for the night, which is where we are now. this was our first bed since omsk.
thank you to granny and ling their cards and gifts. made tessie's day.

crossing the border to mongolia was quick and trouble free. the mongolian officials were very friendly. our only slight problem was a girl we met at the russia side of the border that we chose to take across: she was a bit dodgy, with money for bribes; also, at the mongolian side of teh border she just disappeared without saying thank you.

it feels most exotic being in mongolia and so far we have see hundereds of animals- cows, sheep, yaks, goats, buzzard-type birds and our first camels. it has been somewhat of a binocular fest. the gers we have seen so far have also been most exciting.

when we first crossed the border the roads in mongolia appeared to be far superior to the non-roads we had been experiencing in russia. however, after lulling us into a false sense of security the road disapeared and was replaced by nothing: we had to drive on the sandy dirt at the side of the road with no clear path on this 'diversion'. the cars where driving anyhow they liked and it was so dusty that we had to use the windscreen wipers and they had no effects. the open plain was also lovely and bumpy. daddy was most upset as we had washed the car only the night before at a flat riverside where were camped.

last night we stopped at an expat pub called dave's place, which is where the mongolian rally ends. it was there that we men to english guys who told us of the guesthouse they were staying in. they had just completed the rally in two weeks.

now we are in mongolia there has been a change in scenery. daddy is supprised that it has been hilly.

reeve and cherry-
please could you show granny how to put comments on the blog.
we know she really wants to and will have an endless stream of things to say.
we appreciate your comments. we hope it rains lots when you are gardening for granny so that we can appreciate our weather all the more.
must say that the stories you recount do not insight confidence never find how funny they are.
you will be pleased to hear that the wheel bearing on larry's right wheel went again but we managed to stop before the whole thing fell apart. we are becoming quite the experts.

as we have a bit of time left until we are due to be at the border, we are still in ulan-ude. this is why the next instalment of our adventures come to you so quickly.

we camped just outside the ulan-ude last night and the night before, in the same spot. this spot was comfortable with a great view of the town but it was at the top of a windswept valley.

yesterday we went to the natural history museum of ulan-ude. it was small but lewis loved it and it was exciting becuase we had to wear plastic slippers to protect the museum.

yesterday we also tried, unsucessfully, to get some mongolian money from the local banks but none of them could help us.

one of the reasons we stayed in the city (our last big one before mongolia) was because we felt we had to take a ride on a trolly bus before we left russia. we went on two: an old one and a new one. i have to admit that it has been one of the hightlights of the trip so far and i used up all the battery on my camera taking photographs of this adventure.

last night daddy was highly pleased with himself as he managed to catch a giant grasshopper and subsequently win leiws love for half an hour. daddy and tessie also had their first night without an airbed as it was undergoing repairs and as it was raining had not managed to see to it properly. they have not yet revealed whether or not it was uncomfortable but there was talk about doubling efforts to fix the bed tonight.

we should be out of the city this afternoon after we have tracked down the history museum. the rain has held off so far today but as there has been more times of rain than not over the past few days we do not hold out much hope. the drainage system in ulan-ude is extremely poor and we all got wet feet yesterday because of, quite possibly, the biggest puddles in the world.
the most anoying thing about the rain is daddy complaining.

we have also noticed that pedestrians and drivers have are highly sympathetic towards each other during the great rains and generally allow each other to circumnavigate the biggest puddles in the road.

sorry, we forgot:

OBSERVATIONS SECTION (by daddy, written by loong):
1. there are shrines: ribbons tied to trees. this has been since we have come close to mongolia

we are all most greatful for the questions that have been asked.
we really feel that with all this interaction we are ahead of the game.

have made it to the final frontier of russia: we are in ulan-ude, our last big town in russia. tomorrow we will begin to head south for the rest of the 'grand tour'.

our major excitement has been hitting lake baikal; however, the road we have been driving along does not take us along the edge of the river (as the train line does in many places) but takes us through the valley to the side of the lake. due to this lack of lake we were most excited when we spotted a road leading down to the lake. it was here we decided to camp. the train was in the background, running every 10 minutes and there were stretches of pebble beach and ruined buildings. most of the night was spent beach combing for drift wood with which to make a fire.

it has also been fun times again with larry. daddy was driving, in what can only be called a wreckless manner, trying to overtake a lorry on one of the windy mountain roads when he smashed into one of the biggest bumps to date. larry's right wheel flew off and rolled down the hill into a ditch. we had to unload the whole trailer again and put out our red danger triangle. we are now looking out for a garage as we have no spare wheel bearings left and daddy stripped the thread on the wheel retaining nut.

whilst shopping in the cash and carry at the edge of town they had music in the car park, relayed over loud speakers (suggestion for tesco perhaps?- says daddy). appropriately they were playing 'the great escape'. we felt most at home.

OBSERVATIONS SECTION (by dwight wood, written by loong wood):
1. lake baikal is the largest lake in the world and the villages that surround it feel very sea-sidey. the only land we have seen across the water has been and island in the middle of the lake.
2. fuel is 50-60p/l. we travel c10 miles per l.
3. we fill up wilma about every two days/ 400 miles.
4. every house, what ever type, has either corregated metal or asbestos roofs. daddy has observed that the last craze is bright blue.

Q&A:
reeve- we have two spare tyres and wheels for larry and no sets of wheel bearings because of daddy (we started with two). daddy, we are now realising, does not have a good track record with trailers and are feeling a little tense that he is so frequently driving with only one wheel. we hope you are jealous of cheap fuel. slow and steady wins the race, reeve.

greg- the food is quite basic- rice, pasta, potatoes, onions, carrots, cabbage, cucumber. there is no escape from the dill. fruits in supermarkets are mainly apples and, suprisingly, bananas; however, they sell many berries at the side of the road that we think are picked from the surrounding countryside.

ling- we have not bought presents for anyone. indeed, true to form, daddy and tessie spend all our spare money on wine (though it should be vodka). we have too many mosquito bites to count. tessie and lewis do a daily count and are what may be call, obsessed. we think they exagerate. tessie says lewis has 50 but we know that it is more like 10. daddy gets loads but pretends he doesn't: he is learning to man up. his bites go really angry and red.

we thank everyone for their questions and welcome any more.

photos galore. how exciting. if you make them bigger their titles will explain a bit about each photo.
don't think we left you without a post:

(NB. there is a significantly longer post after the photos. please read on.)

OBSERVATIONS SECTION:
1. they drink lots of beer as it is as cheap a bottled water.
2. we have discovered real cow boys (men on horse-back herding cows- says daddy) in the wild east.
3. most lorry trailers are imported and tractor units still have names of companies on the side.
asda is a regular round these parts.
4. there have been storms most evenings, lasting 1/2h- 1 h (this makes camping very exciting- says daddy). the tent leaks. we are not fully satisfied with our purchase and would like a full refund from tesco (another 25 pounds wasted- says daddy).
5. we get up a 06:00 (latest every morning).
6. we are seven hours ahead.
7. three holes in the bed so far. daddy is patching them up.