|
Diary up to 18 June
|
|
|
4th JuneNot much to report so far, except that we are only two weeks away from our planned departure date (19th June) and there still seems to be an enormous amount to do! Well, we've got the Land Rover, at least (that's it, the muddy thing behind the two handsome men on our homepage). We have even learnt how to drive it off road and how to winch it out of rivers, gorges, etc when (not if) we get stuck. A disused quarry in the Forest of Dean, under professional instruction, is not quite the back of beyond - but it was quite a learning experience. We've got somewhere to sleep - a tent on the roof (it seemed to work quite well in our "shakedown" trip to Devon last week). It's hiding under the green tarpaulin on the roof rack in the picture. We thought it would be a good idea to have a plan B if the Land Rover breaks down and we need to get somewhere quicker than 4 mph - so we have both been taking some riding lessons. Not much fun for the horses, but we have at last sort of mastered the mysteries of the rising trot (as opposed to the galloping ones, which come later) and can even canter a few yards without falling off. Let's just hope the vehicle doesn't break down too far from civilisation, eh? We also feel like colanders with all the jabs we have had. As well as all the "usual" ones, we are now safe-ish from rabies and even the highly obscure tick-borne encephalitis that can boil your brain in about ten minutes (well that's how the travel nurse gleefully put it, anyway!) Our Russian and Mongolian language skills are still at first base, though. We are going to have to rely on slow loud English, lots of gestures and pretending to be French when the going gets tough. By getting this website up and running "as a first draft" I have at least achieved one target. Now hopefully the fundraising efforts can really take off. I have had lots of enthusiasm from both Acorns and CNCF - I would love to raise some really serious money for them. Anyone who knows us can expect a knock on the door! That'll do for now - you don't want a legal agreement to read, do you??? June 9thA busy week - where has the time gone? We now have a functioning solar panel on the roof of the Land Rover and a proper fridge/freezer inside (a cold beer and some fresh food will be very tempting in the 45 degree heat of the Gobi, I suspect). Quite proud of our DIY efforts! We are also "nearly there" on the recovery equipment - winch, ground anchors, cables, etc to haul ourselves out if we get stuck somewhere. I'm picking up some stuff this afternoon and a delivery is coming in tomorrow. Richard, our IT Director, is setting up all our bits of IT kit to talk to each other - but download speeds over the satellite phone are every bit as slow as we feared! The charity fundraising has started to roll as well. Money is starting to come in over the "Justgiving" web links - many thanks to those of you who have contributed, keep 'em coming. Acorns did a press release yesterday which we hope will get us a bit more publicity (though Elton John's visit to Worcester seems to be grabbing most of the headlines here at the moment!) The Land Rover goes in on Monday for its final modifications and checks. Liveridge will have it for a couple of days and one of the main jobs they are doing is fitting uprated suspension springs and gas shock absorbers to cope with all the corrrrrrrrrugations we can expect in Mongolia on what pass for roads there. So most of the logistics are coming together, and the main worry now (apart from obvious ones like breakdowns, lack of Russian/Mongolian, where do we sleep, etc) is the border crossing into Russia. We hope they don't turn us back as spies, bearing in mind all the high tech gadgetry we will have aboard (satellite phones and GPS interest them particularly, apparently). Nothing much we can do about it, so let's just hope for the best! At some point I will put a bit more detail on the website for those who are interested about the vehicle and equipment we are taking. There's quite a pile building up! Next entry will be early next week - and in the meantime can anyone tell us exactly how many Euros, Zloties, Lats, Litas, Roubles and Tugricks we should take?? June 12thRichard's birthday, but though he had a great bbq party with friends over the weekend, he didn't do very well out of the day itself - so his main present is "to follow". Kevin went into Powick Primary School (where Gerry teaches) and did a 15 minute talk to the school in assembly, followed by a guided tour of the Land Rover, parked on the playing field. The Reception class were apparently busily hunting through their atlases to find Mongolia afterwards. It seemed to go OK - but perhaps they were just being polite! Otherwise, more endless preparations - it seems hard to believe that it will be just the two of us plus a Land Rover and contents driving off next Monday! June 14thIncreasingly frantic rushing around after getting the Land Rover back from the garage yesterday. It now has even bigger shinier bouncier blue suspension springs, capable of coping with everything the Gobi Desert and the Russian road system can throw at us (and about another 20 other modifications). Bought some (hopefully final) tools - like the really big spanner you need to change your wheel bearing in the desert and some really huge tyre levers so we can repair our own punctures on the roadside. Richard and I also had the guided tour of all the places we have to oil, grease and fill as we go along. I ordered the Roubles etc from the bank this morning. A call from the local paper this afternoon who have picked up the story from Acorns and will be running it tomorrow. More publicity can only be a good thing for the fundraising! Richard spent most of the day sorting out the satellite phone internet connection - after a very frustrating few hours, we think we finally have that sorted. We believe we can update our diary by satellite phone, and also receive and send emails (text only, no big attachments) via the email address shown on our homepage. His job tomorrow is to try and do the same with the mobile phone (which would be a lot cheaper than using the satellite phone, where there is coverage). I think I have finally got the Russian motor insurance sorted through a Finnish insurance company. Long story! This afternoon, we visited the Acorns Children's Hospice in Worcester, being shown around by Fran, the area fundraising supremo. A hugely sobering experience for both of us. There is something really wrong about children being so ill, though the atmosphere in the place was very relaxed and quite upbeat. I cannot imagine what it would be like if one of my children needed their care. And they have had to cut staff and scale down their services because of their funding shortfall. PLEASE GIVE GENEROUSLY. Click here for the Fundraising page which has links to enable you to give directly online to the two charities. Only 4 days now before we go. I hope the visas arrive tomorrow as planned......! June 15th (Thursday)Visas duly arrived!! It never happens like that in real life, especially when dealing with Embassy bureaucracy. Well worth paying the visa agency to sort them out for us, I think! Russian motor insurance also arrived finally by email. We now have most of the gear, so today was a first run at packing the Land Rover. After heaving in the spare parts, tools and all the recovery gear (cables, ropes, hand winch, etc) we didn't seem to have much space left for the things we actually hope to use! But with some careful repacking, it begins to look as if we might get most of it in - as long as we don't want to take any food, clothes or personal effects! We'll have another go tomorrow. Richard rigged up our DIY sun awning for the first time - a groundsheet tied to the roof rack and supported on poles with guy ropes. In the desert this will give us a good sized area of much-needed shade to have a shower in! No progress on the IT front today, unfortunately! Even took time to watch England just creep agonisingly over the line against Trinidad & Tobago - so they won't have been knocked out before we leave! Set the video, someone... Oh, and we're famous - well, the Worcester local paper printed a big article plus piccie of us today, based on the Acorns press release. Hope that generates a bit more publicity and some donations.... June 18th (Sunday night)Well, we have finally finished packing it all in (as in "into the Land Rover" not "we've packed it in"). We've sprayed the rooftent with insect repellent, we spent a few hours yesterday running up some curtains.... yup, we're serious - we now have a full set of blinds which we can velcro up to cover all the back windows and hide the contents from prying eyes. We have a fistful of Roubles, tools and spares for most eventualities, winching gear to get ourselves out of trouble, a first aid kit that could resuscitate a downed elephant and yet there is still quite a lot of spare room in the vehicle - there is an uncomfortable feeling that we must have forgotten something really important.. Rich says: Hi! I have yet to write a single word of this thing but I have a spare moment between packing and watching reruns of The Simpsons. Oh b******* (I'll let you guess the word) we have to leave tomorrow morning and apparently we have to get to Arnhem by the end of the day!? Yeah right. Anyway the most important things to me right now are sleep, food, not forgetting anything before we go, sleep, slight heartburn, how I am going to make myself as comfortable as possible over the next few months and having to wait three months to see any of my mates from back home (which is c***) but mostly sleep. While I think about it does anyone know how to use a mobile phone as a GSM internet connection (not GPRS) because I can't do it and it annoys me greatly. Cheers. Virgin say my phone will work in every country except Mongolia, but we shall see. |
