Norbert's rally from London to Mongolia

For those who haven't heard yet: Norbert and Bob (a retired surgeon from Chicago) are on a truly once in a lifetime charity "rally" from London to Mongolia.

They started last weekend in London driving their Ambulance through the maze of the city, then on a ferry crossed the channel, worked their way through Belgium and Germany and ended up in Vienna causing some mayhem with local traffic. Meanwhile they're already past Budapest and on their very long way East.

The Ambulance thing is not a left over from the Cannonball movie but part of the charity deal: The vehicle will be donated to a local hospital in Mongolia once (and if) they arrive.

They estimate this journey will take them somewhere between 6 and 8 weeks. You can follow their escapades on here:

http://mongolia.charityrallies.org/node/44946

They are the team "Windy City". Bob came up with this deal and asked me to be his copilot, but I strongly recommended somebody with much more mechanical ability and Norbert fits that bill perfectly, having driven his 308 from Pacific to the Atlantic.

Godspeed team Windy City!
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After a couple of nights in Budapest to take in the culture our friends are back on the road again: Currently going through Transylvania. Those serpentine turns are love at first bite.
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Our friends enjoyed some Soviet architecture in Romania and spent hours at the Turkish border. Also survived a sandstorm of 70 mph winds in their tall ambulance. By now they have reached Istanbul.


Thanks mod for putting a sticky on this!

 

After some sight seeing of fascinating Istanbul, they finally managed to get back on the road again. It took them 80 minutes of circling around until they got onto the highway.

With the cities of Europe behind, they have now started the endless long haul across the deserts of Asia.

 

On their way through Turkey they got into another storm, which made any progress temporarily impossible (see picture). By now they are approaching the border to Georgia.

In Turkey they managed to get their ambulance repaired from the minor traffic accident they encountered in the maze of Vienna some time ago.
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After another lengthy debate with Georgian border control, they finally entered the country, drove to Tbilisi to spend the night and get the missing paperwork (there is always lots of it at each border crossing) in order. They did some sight seeing: Turkey's minarets have moved aside for Georgia's ancient churches. And they navigated their way through another hair rising mountain pass with oncoming truck traffic.

Today they are crossing into Azerbaijan. Europe is now definitely in the rear view mirror and Asia is looming out the windshield.

Godspeed Norbert and Bob!

 

Yeah!
So much better directly from the horse's mouth than my summaries. Thanks and safe travel!

 

They had the border crossing from hell going into Azerbaijan: They spent countless hours going back and forth with barely English speaking customs officers over their and the vehicle's visa: Turns out that a right hand drive vehicle is not allowed in this country so they had to get a time limited visa for passing through the country. Figuring this out in sign language with mildly motivated officials took hours in 95 degrees heat.

Thereafter they were up for the usual run around and getting lost trying to find their reserved hotel in Baku. They seem to do this in every town.

I knew the driving would be hellish, but I didn't anticipate that the paperwork at the border was such a challenge. Then again anybody who watched the Top Gear special about the "3 wise men" travelling from Iraq to Bethlehem got a feeling for what our friends are up against. And that's without the power of the BBC behind them but driving a bloody ambulance.
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Reading now also through Norbert's blog I think once our heroes return, they should combine these blogs and throw in their pictures and publish a little book about this adventure. If nothing else make it a low volume edition for friends and family. I'd be happy to buy my copy of it.

Anyway, I encourage all on here to read Norbert's blog as he also posts a lot of stunning pictures.

http://TheSilkRoadRun.BlogSpot.Com

 

I figured that somebody going on such an endless challenge doesn't do it out of a spur of the moment but because there is a deeper reason. I'd compare it to my lifelong wish to get into space. I'd love to hear what your original question was if you care to share. And I'm happy that apparently you have found a satisfying answer already.

And aside from that you two are seeing more countries, cultures and life styles over a couple of months than many of us in a lifetime.

Carry on!

 

They're trying to get the ferry from Azerbajan to Turkmenistan, which by itself is a challenge as it doesn't run as regularly as one would hope. But to make things worse they have to time it with their exit and entry visas. So leaving right now (as they must because of an expiring visa) would get them to the new country before their visa is valid. Which means being stranded somewhere on a pier?

As always this is the short story of what is a long bureaucratic run around they're getting just trying to find the appropriate office dealing with their visa.
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Our heroes spent many more hours in Baku, Azerbaijan at the harbor trying to get them and their ambulance onto the ferry to Turkmenistan. It seems that anybody in a uniform showed up, demanded to see their papers and then $ 100 to allow them an inch closer to the ferry. Well after 4 hours of that ordeal, they did get their car on the ship, which finally took off only with something like 5 hours of a delay.
They "bought" one of the crew's cabins for more $$$ so they had a place to shower (sortof) and sleep. They chose the ferry across the Caspian sea so they could avoid driving through Iran and the hassles that would bring to two US Americans.

I'm guessing that by now they have arrived in Turkmenistan, which can only mean more customs and immigration nightmares. Here some shots from the ferry:
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They're currently making their way through the hell of Turkmenistan: 115 degrees, no A/C, potholes everywhere, which reduce the driving sometimes to 1st gear and camels as road hazards everywhere.

But it isn't all bad: Through a connection they were invited to a private home in Ashgabat where they were able to spend the night in a real bed and enjoyed the "luxury" of a real shower etc. Oh, and they refueled at 67 cents per gallon. Remember those days? I think a 250 GTO cost something like $ 10,000 at that time.
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They are driving relentlessly through the deserts of Turkmenistan, battling sandstorms and avoiding speeding tickets (in the middle of nowhere!). They visited the ruins of Merv, a city/culture Ghingis Khan destroyed on his march East. They're now close to Turkmenabat, which will take them into Uzbekistan. Taking the Northern route lets them avoid Afghanistan.
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They're getting pretty good and hardened at the border crossing process and made it into Uzbekistan only within a few hours of haggling and paperwork. They also learned to just pay a cap driver to lead them to the hotel instead of circling aimlessly around in town. So they found their way to their next hotel in Bukhara, where they spent an extra day of sight seeing the mosques and museums. By now they're probably again in for some endless driving along the Silk Road towards China.
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Norbert just sent me a PM from the hotel lobby where they're staying. They're having a hard time finding fast and reliable internet connections, which is why they don't update much. Also when they arrive late at night in a new town, the evening routine is normally to take a shower, wash the clothes worn that day, eat dinner, charge all camera batteries, download all pics and communicate with the family back home. There is little time left for long bloggings and postings.

At any rate they seem to be in good spirits and we wish them luck and safe travels!

 

On their way out of Samarkand they visited Ulug Beg's astronomical observatory, which had an unprecedented precision 600 years ago compared to the rest of the world. And while I'm writing this, I'm scratching my head about these names I've never heard of, but I'm a good parrot.

It all sounds like an episode from the Trigan Empire, if you allow this pop culture reference.

Anyhow, they're on their way to Tashkent, another major city in Uzbekistan. They have been passing 20 gas stations with no fuel: The government wants to keep traffic low in August. Finally they did find one and fueled up their ambulance and all its spare canisters. They heard a rumor that there is a fuel shortage in Mongolia...
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Finally they're online again: After two days without Internet connections, now I'm getting a flurry of emails and PMs.

They left Uzbekistan and made it into Kazahkstan. So far they haven't found Borat's sister, but you never know.

The border crossing was nominal, which means after a lengthy detour for non citizens it "only" took 3 hours. By the time they found a hotel, it was night and with sign language the hotel owner cooked them a delicious meal opulent enough to feed an army.

Some pics from the market.
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