Check out the latest video below- our last week in Mongolia:

We should be at the finish line in Ulaan Bataar tomorrow afternoon all going well! Have had a few more breakdowns but the car is holding out, fingers crossed!! Keep you posted...xx

Our 5am start began at 4.59 to what Rosie thought was the sound of a bear padding around our meagre tent....and the clink of tuna cans being rumaged through left over from a previous camper and curious purring noise....
Tim lept out the tent in his pants (knees knocking from the cold) but adrenaline fuelled and armed with a foam fire extinguisher as a weapon, Rosie poked her head out the tent armed with a lighter and deoderant can to act as a flame thrower.
Were laughing now but you've never seen anyone pack up camp so quickly...(Our attempt to mark our territory by urinating around  the tent (not on it Kenza!) clearly didn't work) Combine this adrenaline with  a wagon wheel and can of redbull for breakfast and were two hours from the mongolia border, driving through the breathtaking snowcapped Altai mountains as we type...
Over and out...cowardly coyote and frightened fox Xx 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5u5ZnYVUuE 

Check it! (sorry couldn't get the video to upload on the blog) xx

We've made it to kazahstan, the land of potholes and sand, red letter days would make a fortune out of this place! This is where the rally really starts and were really feeling it physically and mentally....
The roads are plain ridiculous and we have to concentrate so hard to dodge potholes the size of trucks to keep the car intact, most of the time we find sand tracks off the side of the road that locals have carved out in protest...
Car update, we've lost 4th gear again, but the terrain is dictating our speed anyway, so fingers crossed the 3rd will hold out and we'll make it, the petrol gage has stopped working... great in a country where there are no petrol stations, the car battery isn't charging- the generator has gone so we are having to charge batteries over night from a petrol fueled generator lent to us by the ambulance were in convoy with (they are saints!) This also means tim has to put up with me singing britney spears toxic every morning as we can't use anything that drains power....we also haven't washed for 4 days (hence the toxic song) and predict at least 5 more days of smelling....thank the lord for baby wipes.
Were also living (and pretty much eating) in a sandpit- I've realised just how many holes there are in the beetle!
Moral- moral is high we are in convoy with 4 hilarious graduates who drinking and adventure is still their favourite past time. One team is driving a london black cab, the other are driving a fully working ambulance with equipment that they are donating to a hospital at the end (however its not so sterile now!) Legends. We spend one night playing the drinking game ring of fire, to which we won by going to bed later than any of them (yey for oldies!) And despite the vomit in the morning to which tim claims was dehydration (some things never change!) One final thing, we don't have a map.....there are only about 3 roads in kazahstan, however sometimes its very hard to determine what actually is a road, so we are using a bit of oohnargie and a compass and the sun sets in the west(!) Some videos coming your way soon when we next find some juice for all this technology which is redundant out here in the sand From team tortoise, over and out Xx 

So....we had a gearbox transplant which bud the car took a while to adjust to  (and a little coaxing  from us with a few spanners!)

The guys in the  garage worked from 8  in the morning till  5pm to get us on the road, and  waved us off cheerily as we grinded our way  out of the  yard  and  into the unknown! Thank you  all at Universal Service Braila.


As  with all transplants there were teething problems, but we have managed to adopt  a new driving style called  RallyFormulaIndyLeMansTouringGumball style. We've  got 4th gear back (if you hold it  in gently...) but 1st  is  proving to be  quite the  engine grinder...


The car works, that's the main thing.

 We wish we could say the same about the brains and moral compasses of the greedy little stoats in the Moldovan/Ukrainian border control.  We wouldn't wish that on our worst enemies (which happen to be Moldovan's now).  If you ever have  time to look at a map you will notice that they have about  2/3  entry points which you pretty much HAVE to go through. Each one carries some sort of levvy,  we paid  $20 for about 2km's of driving to the Ukrainian border, where we spent 2 hours convincing a pig headed  dude that it was our  car,  we were legit, and he was a nob. Don't do it, EVER.

Ukraine is beautiful though, and we are completely exhausted  having got up at 5am to get to the border early, and then driven 500km's on pot holed ex soviat roads. Bud is loving it, and we both have monster truck arms.....

Movie to follow, but our connection is rubbish...

More Ukraine tomorrow, and then we have the dread of the Russian border. Watch this space and think of us!

How do you say "I've already had a cavity search" in Russian?
Kdgkjhdggds fjdsfkjsldfkjsdlkfjsd lsdf9ejij88y**6%$))*\---\9 ??  (give or take a few symbols)

Over and out....double agent dark secret and fluffy pillow
xx

So we rock up at a petrol station in  a country road in Romania to find 3 other rally cars, signs of life, yey!
We decide to follow them to the Russian border in their convoy but when we set off again we had  serious gear box problems...
We now didnt have a fourth gear and it was just a question of time before the other ones gave in as we had been forcing it in for so long.
We lose the convoy and make it steadily to  the next main town....and this is where  a massive stroke of luck comes in.....
We pull up to a roadside mechanics for help and  there is a customer in there who can speak perfect english, he is called Adrian and he is a legend....He takes us to 2 garages who he says we can trust and  helps us communicate the problem...
Both garages say not a chance, as it was a 38 year old beetle, it was  possibly and engine out job and they didnt have the parts, it would take them a week to get them....(We hadnt seen one other old beetle the whole trip, doents bode well!)

We contemplated our options and staying in the arse end of nowhere for another week was a  big NO! We then decided to just carry on as far as we could in 3rd gear having conulted our UK mechanic, just as we were about to pack up and leave Adrian came up with the goods....

His plan B was that he knew of a guy who had 2 beetles.....we went to see him and he was  willing to sell us his gear box from one of them (that was in perfect working order!) What are the chances of that?????
They start the job tomorrow, should be ready by 4pm

This guy then drove us all around town, found us a nice hotel, helped us get cash out (turns out he was a police officer who wanted to change his community for the better, by helping people one by one)

In the meantime were staying alive in the ghetto!

And the moral of the story....HELP PEOPLE WHO ARE IN NEED, KARMA IS ALIVE AND WELL.

A massive thanks to Adrian and his beetle friend, he is an absoulte angel!

Until were next on the road....fingers crossed! - Video to follow...


 

Wowser! What a mess this continent is begining to come.

As we write this, for a second time from the car, we are trying to get through as small town in east Romania called Ploiesti. Lovely....

We drove for 12 hours solidly yesterday through Romania and it took its toll. It's a very strange place indeed...

Ukraine and Russsia here we come, wheer we're hooking up with 3 other cars to tackle Russia, Kazakhstan and Mongoloid...

Check out the video, it's naiiiise.

Yaksimash...

Tim & Rosie XXX

Ah HA! We're in Prague, and had a little whirlwind sightseeing tour - see the video below.

We stopped over in a random german place called Pfriemd* (or something), luckily persuading a helpless landlady to give us a room. Our german sign language has come on leaps and bounds, especially when we had to communicate with Arnold Schwarzenegger's old Gym buddy who kept showing us his battle scars.

The Budvar is great, and we hit the road at 6am tomorrow morning to get Hungary.....

Enjoy the video - we'd love to hear your comments.

Over and out.

Red Fox and Dirty Butler XXX

*We don't really care what it's called

We stopped over in Charleroi, North Belgium. Having given Bud the ride of her life to get here we have settled in a Formula 1 Alan Partridge-esque travel tavern. Loving it.

We hit the road to Prague today, a good 10-12 hour trip, with nothing but our cunning wit, iPod, and broken speedometer that wails angrily when we go over 60 miles an hour - see the footage. It's like a whirling dervisher!!

There's a lot of tashed up Dutch bikers smoking pancakes everywhere. This simply HAS to change...
We'll be in touch, Prague-side.

Tim and Rosie. XXX

Bud is ready and all raring to go. She's even got a new fold out bed thing in the back instead of seats. Oh yes.

Only 6 days to go, and we're like two over excited school kids about to go on a trip to Chessington World of Adventure...

Fundraising Quiz-o-Rama is a blinder!!