Latest news from our journey

FINISH LINE CELEBRATIONS!

2008-09-03T21:18:00.001-07:00

FUN IN THE FINAL DAYS...

2008-09-03T21:08:00.000-07:00

R.I.P. Matilda

2008-08-26T23:45:00.001-07:00

Three days ago, our car Matilda succumbed to the elements and died in the middle of a huge sand storm.

Her front left wheel and suspension completely sheared off. Our convoy mates were valiant in their attempt to resuscitate her, with their arms bleeding from sand cuts in the height of the storm. We sold her to a local and are now completing the rest of the adventure in our convoy's cars, disappointed but not defeated!

We are now expecting to arrive by Sunday - the remaining cars are sharing breakdowns but we're all determined to finish - even if we're the first Mongol ralliers to arrive riding camels and yaks!

More photos added below - and now for a quick tribute to our convoy mates

2008-08-20T22:49:00.001-07:00

When it's time to fix the cars, that means it's time for the boys it's time for crack o'clock...

Below: Taxistan have caught up with us! Their London taxi does travel considerably faster and we can confirm that you can fit 11 people in it quite comfortably...

When camping in sites with pit toilets, the best approach is to take a car airfreshener, strap it around your nose and then tie a buff around your face before entering the dreaded outhouse. We all agree that bush camping is much more convenient!

Sardi getting to know the newest mascot Dave, who has now been siliconed to the front of Top Gun's car, much to Ben's joy...

Anyone for ping pong?

The above are just a few photos taken over the last few days of our convoy mates that really do just speak for themselves....

Scroll below to previous blogs for more photos that we've added.

Our next post will probably be from Ulaan Baatar - the finish line!!!

The final frontier! Heading to the finish line now!

2008-08-19T17:17:00.001-07:00

WE MADE IT TO MONGOLIA!!!!

Above: the mechanic's family who we stayed with - great hospitality and a toasty warm home!

Above: the head of the family who we stayed with - a true gentleman

Above: gorgeous little girl who we read Dr Seuss to - pity we couldn't take her with us as a third driver but she couldn't see over the steering wheel...

Above: Sardi makes a friend!

We've made it to Mongolia!
And we've made it through all our border crossings without paying a single bribe! Our convoy's theme song "Highway through the danger zone" made it as far as the chorus when we entered Mongolia before Team Top Gun broke down. A challenging week now lies ahead as we head to the finish in Ulaan Baatar.

We are aiming to arrive at the finish by Tuesday, 26th August - depending on how Matilda goes!

Trouble finds our convoy

2008-08-18T20:47:00.001-07:00

Last night we camped in a designated camping site in picturesque Altai mountains where we enjoyed the company of many other Russians also camping at the site. Unfortunately we awoke this morning to discover that 3 of our cars had been broken into and only Matilda had been spared. The list of items taken was extensive, including cameras, video cameras, phones, ipods, cds, watch and wallet - a pretty brave effort considering all our tents were 2 metres from the cars. The day has been spent filing police reports and reorganising ourselves. We are extremely thankful that our camping neighbours were quick to step in and translate to police. We are also relieved that no passports have been taken and this little set back won't compromise our convoy's ability to finish the rally in any way! Mongolia or bust baby! We cross into the final frontier on Tuesday!

The nation of Taxistan

2008-08-18T20:41:00.000-07:00

Today we visited a country not previously on our planned route - the country of Taxistan. Karen had been phoned by a team who were stranded for 5 days in No Man's Land between the Russia and Kazakhstan borders due to Russian visa errors.

Our 4-car convoy loaded up with food and water supplies and exited Kazakhstan to enter Taxistan, a country with a population of two English lads, one shoddy table and a London black cab. We negotiated with both of the population to acknowledge our entry by writing an official statement in our passports. In return, we offered border bribes of water, iced vov biscuits from Sydney, Elvis playing cards and boomerang to annoy the guards with. The Russians were not amused by Taxistan's insistence of playing 'God Save the Queen' as each of the 4 cars crossed into Russia - cheers lads and bravo!

When the going get tough...

2008-08-18T05:04:00.000-07:00

Above: Matilda's broken front spring - now replaced with Audi parts. NB: we do love Matilda's ability to inspire group discussions by men in any mechanic repairs workshop!

Above: Matilda getting some much needed hot welding love. Only her third mechanical hoist in two days...

Above: the burly Kazak truck driver with massive guns and obligatory crack...

Above: free apples from a Kazak truck driver who Karen flagged down to borrow his male brute strength.

After our Kazak mechanic, 'Bucket', told us the spare parts Matilda needed didn't exist in Kazakhstan, we had no other choice but to suck it up and head north, hoping to reach our convoy friends before Matilda gave up.

Departed: 8pm Monday. Arrived: 4am Wednesday. Average speed: 50km/h.

Hours sleep: 2 for Sardi, 1 for Karen.

Number of hours before welding and front spring broke: 5.

Number of times stopped to do repairs: 5.

Number of truck drivers flagged for assistance: 1.

Number of juicy apples given to us by truck driver: too many to count!

Number of times Beaches sound track played non-stop: 2 (Karen didn't want to wake Sardi by changing tapes).

Number of mechanic super heroes found: 2 - Matilda now fixed with Audi parts!

Convoy arrived back from nightclub just in time to greet us - they'd gone out all night and didn't believe we'd make it. Have earned new level of respect from guys.

Matilda is needing some love...

2008-08-12T01:17:00.000-07:00

We're back in Kazakhstan and Matilda has finally put her hand up for some attention. She decided to have a meltdown while in the queue to cross the border from Kyrgyzstan to Kazakhstan yesterday (skirt-wearing has now multi-skilled - can both lie under the car and push it when it won't start!!)

After the assistance of many taxi drivers and a mechanic we got her fixed and to Almaty in Kazakhstan where our friends Jo and Andy greeted us with the biggest feast we've been yet to see!

Matilda was clearly not happy with the attention being taken from her so she's cracked it again today, sinking her engine, needing a shock replaced, welding, two new tyres, and let's face it - just a little bit of mechanical love - I think it was the speed dating in Kyrgyzstan that she got upset about... maybe we should have stopped at the yurt for coffee with two random men after all....

We're now sitting tight waiting for Jo & Andy's mechanic, 'Bucket' (yes, that is his name - meaning happy in Kazak...) who is fixing the car so we can drive the equivalent of Sydney to Brisbane where our previous convoy Chris, Ben & John are now waiting for us to rejoin them at the Russian border to take on the Mongolian final frontier. Hurrah!!!! We're sooooooo excited to be meeting up with them again.... once we get our golden girl fixed for the 1100km catchup... Lots of red bull is now loaded in the car. Wish us luck!

Speed dating in Kyrgystan

2008-08-12T01:03:00.001-07:00

Driving through Kyrgystan really is like speed dating - by 11am yesterday our score card was
we'd already had two invitations for coffee and one declaration of love and suggested procreation of children.

The first coffee invite came from a policeman who was busy chatting up Sardi. His fellow officer was trying make bolder moves on Karen, suggesting to her that they were the right age and suitability to marry and make babies, boldly declaring 'I love you!' as we sped away.

The award for the most impressive effort for the day has to go two fellows who tried to flag us over to stop. When we declined their charades, they sped ahead and parked at the nearest yurt cafe and stood in the middle of the road flailing their arms in the air to try convince us to stop for an impromptu double date. As we'd slept in the car the night before and hadn't showered or brushed our hair, we opted to keep going...

Sunday afternoon in Uzbekistan

2008-08-12T00:55:00.000-07:00

If we thought that we were being treated like celebrities in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan has now taken it to a new level.

While we've said goodbye to our convoy we're never driving alone in this country as we always seem to have someone driving alongside us chatting (never let two differing languages get in the way of a chinwag...) We've also lost count of the number of times we've had to slam on the breaks to avoid being side-swiped by people wanting to veer in to wave. Our favourite local escorted us 43kms to get a wheel alignment and tracking done on a Sunday afternoon - all you need to tell them is that you are from the land of Kosta Tzu, their favourite Aussie/Uzbek and you really can't go wrong...

A 24-hour page out of our book...

2008-08-09T09:27:00.000-07:00

Friday 8 August (I think that's right???)

10am Ponder how to repair Ben's flip flops as we have struck a deal - if I manage to fix his flip flops, he'll reattach the rearview mirror to Matilda which fell off when Karen hit a pot-hole yesterday. We have also managed to negotiate for him to wire our sump guard back to the car - as he is a builder we are all sure it will be a simple, 5 minute job.

10.30am Needle nearly breaks in hand whilst trying to repair Ben's flip flops. Clearly a travel sewing kit will not suffice when taking on rubber soles.

11am Ponder some more about fixing the flip flops - given what's at stake in return, I must get this fixed!

12pm With Sardi's pocket knife in one hand and araldite in the other hand, commence attacking Ben's flip flops.

12.08pm Ben's flip flops are reattached and fixed!

12.15pm Rearview mirror has been reattached to Matilda - with a combination of silicon, araldite and wire, we can see what's driving behind us once again. Hurrah!

12.20pm Matilda is jacked up and repair work under her belly commences. Karen is lying under the car wearing a skirt and feeling very empowered! Ben is dripping in sweat as the 5 minute job has revealed another few hours of work.

1.10pm Front tyres come off revealing just a tad of a problem with Matilda's tracking when compared with the new tyres (you'll see from the photo below what we mean...)

3.30pm Repairs finally fixed, it's time to farewell Chris, Bena nd John who have been brilliant to convoy with. Thanks for a brilliant journey guys - we'll miss you enormously!

3.33pm Karen and Sardi are driving away tearing up about farewelling our friends when the Police us over. Twice. Don't they know to stay well clear of women when they are having an emotional moment!!!!

5.48pm Arrive at border crossing, chuffed wtih ourselves that we've managed to find out and are now a mere 12km away from impending destination for the evening in Uzbekistan. Only minor hitch is that the border is closed. NO!!!!!

6.56pm Arrive at the next closest border crossing point which is open. Sardi gets swamped by locals while minding the car while Karen has the passport control officials on their hands and knees studying their map and have an animated discussion about why are they unable to process tourists at the crossing. This time we don't win and are sent on a 120km detour to the 3rd border crossing point for the day.

8.45pm Arrive at yet another border crossing point and start jumping through the usual hoops of paperwork and questions about marriage.

9.52pm Kazakhstan officials finally let us leave their country... only problem is that the Uzbekistan side of the border has closed one hour earlier so we are stuck in No Man's Land for the night, surrounded by swarming mosquitos and a few random men. Assess the bathroom facility options and quickly determine that the only place where the men can't see us is the one metre gap between our car, the border control gate and the stop sign... so.......................

Just another typical day really.

Getting last minute advice from the boys while practicing my surfing technique...

Sleeping in the car at No Man's Land - not sure if we're more scared of the random men or killer mosquitoes...

What started as a good idea....

2008-08-09T03:29:00.000-07:00

Some days just go thoroughly pear-shaped. This one did. And yet is started with such promise - Sardi and Karen enjoying the bush camp bathroom and shower facilities of being in an open field (the photo above explains all).

Several hours in to driving in 40 degree heat, we saw a body of water that we realised for once actually wasn't a mirage - and of course if screaming at us all to go and swim. Big mistake.

Fast forward 15 minutes we have managed to bog all 3 cars in the sand. OK, so maybe we need to take a little break from driving and try walking down to the water's edge for once.

Fast forward 2 hours and we are just finishing getting the third vehicle out of the sand and now drenched in sweat from the heat of the day, rather than jump in the water, we have to drive off and make a hasty exit as we've attracted too much attention from some locals who are on a mission to whisk us away to drink vodka.

Fast forward another 30 minutes and we are now foraging by the side of the road for a stray jerry can that's come off Team Top Gun's car. The jerry can is the same colour and conveniently the same colour as the shrubs.

Fast forward several more hours, getting to the end of the day, we're stopped by the Police. Twice. And this time they want to take pink-mohawk Chris' pink aviator sunglasses as a 'gift'. Except the two emus aren't happy about this as we gave them to Chris as a gift - and so the two emus get out of our car, march over to the Police and start an academy-award winning performance of outrage and hysteria in order to get the sunglasses back. We win. We retrieve the sunglasses. Chris is happy to have an all-girl team trump card for future Police encounters.

Fast forward 30 minutes - time to stop for dinner at the most fly-infested truck stop in all of Kazakhstan. Fortunately they do an excellent unidentified meat pattie with fried egg and we are all happy campers once again. The unidentified meat substance brings out the hunter instinct in the guys and an enormous fire is the result when we camp that night - so enormous that we nearly melt one of the cars' headlights and none of us will need to shave for the next 3 months - which is fine for the girls, but the guys will look a bit strange....

Extreme ironing in the Aral Sea...

2008-08-09T03:11:00.001-07:00

Finally! We've made it out of the Road of Death! Our reward was 35+deg heat soaring temperatures - the perfect climate to do some extreme ironing on shipwrecks in the Aral Sea. NB: for those of you who have exceptional observation skills you'll notice that the 'sea' part of the 'Aral Sea' is no longer there, but we still managed to find a penguin....

At the start of the rally, Karen had promised to iron the Irish mechanic's pink shirt in return for swapping ratchet straps amd it was time to come good on her promise. While Chris put his feet up and lit a cigarette, Karen pressed on determined not to conquer The Road of Death only to be defeated by shirt creases.

Sardi and John did a very moving impersonation of Titanic's 'King of The World' scene that bought a tear to our eyes - then again, maybe that was the sand and dust in our eyes...

Our battle with the Road of Death rages on...

2008-08-09T02:43:00.001-07:00

Well, we all awoke the next morning - our first big win for the day having been warned it was too dangerous to camp by the road and seen the gun cartridges lying around.

While the lads worked on their car, a lone horseman appeared on the horizon and road over to our tent like something you'd expect to see watching McLeod's Daughters. After some quick small talk (aka over-enthusiastic charades usually involving an impersonation of a kangaroo at some point) we determined that he was aMongolian goat herder - something we drew great strength from because we figured at least when we get lost, we are yet to stray across a border into another country!

The goats came and passed and our friend remained, quite fascinated by our cars and world map. He also seemed to find the mechanical repairs quite amusing which left us all wondering whether he was actually Kazakhstan's top mechanic just out and about on a morning horseride.

Day 2 of 4WDing on The Road of Death in the mighty Nissan Micra proved equally challenging but our mighty Matilda stood the test - even managing to avoid the camels on our way through.
Another night of camping by the death road transpired with our convoy mates valiantly giving us one of their tents as the ground was too hard for our humble tent pegs. Cheers guys!

Taking on The Road of Death...

2008-08-09T02:28:00.000-07:00

After a truly sad farewell to our newfound Kazak friends Olga, Irina and Sergei, it was time to move on and face the toughest challenge yet - taking on a dangerous and often impassable stretch of road that the locals call 'The Road of Death' (...queue dramatic music for maximum effect...)

True to its word, it has a plethora of cemetries, gravestones and the occassional abandoned car that the road has claimed as its next victim along the way.

Like a scene out of Gladiators, our convoy charged towards the road driving three abreast and covered in UV30+ war paint. The road won the first battle, claiming the Irish mechanics car as its first so we retreated behind the only clump of shrubs to camp (a.k.a. hide) for the night.

Funniest moment of the day: pondering why the compass was showing north when we were supposed to be heading in a south east direction. We waved down a passing car and confirmed that sure enough we had taken the wrong option in the only fork in 60km of road and were driving to the Russian border! Oops...
DISCLAIMER: Team Emu Draft were not leading the convoy during the time that the wrond turn was taken - we were merely glancing at the compass just further down the road...

Celebrities in Aqtobe!

2008-08-02T09:25:00.000-07:00

Have arrived in Aqtobe this afternoon and have been treated like celebrities from the moment we arrived. A local family are our new favourite people, having spent their afternoon driving us (in their clean Audi) to a bathhouse where it's fair to say that after 4 days of not showering, a layer of what we thought was sun tan was washed away - even our new pseudo family were taken aback when they saw us step out all squeaky clean.

After much splashing and a sauna later, they've personally escorted us through the supermarket, to lunch, found a hotel, and are now waiting at the internet cafe as we head to dinner.

The friendliness of the Kazakhstani people has absolutely stopped us in our tracks - the cheers and waves from truck drivers, petrol station attendants through to the Director of the Bathhouse has been truly overwhelming and we can't speak highly enough of their country (...just don't ask us about the long stretches of non-existent roads... - absolutely brilliant fun to drive in the dirt and sand though! Will try post photos soon - you won't even recognise Matilda!)

K & S xx

Welcome to Kazakhstan!

2008-08-02T09:20:00.000-07:00

3min 29secs into our arrival into Kazakhstan our convoy had it's first breakdown. Now the real fun begins!

Had dinner at a restaurant which turned out to be a brothel... oops....

Tried camping in a field but we discovered that it was occupied by a renegade army with four tanks so we had to make a hasty retreat. Luckily it was too dark to see any other weaponary!

Two days of driving later, our car Matilda has now lost her muffler and her suspension is being compared to a kangaroo, much to the amusement of the Kazakhstanis.

Extreme ironing has officially begun....

Week 2: Convoying to Kazakhstan!

2008-07-29T04:14:00.000-07:00

Stop the press!
Fourth run in with police today had a very different outcome - he gave Karen his phone number and asked for her! We think it was her dowry of an ironing board that attracted him... We never realised that driving out of town to an escort of flashing sirens could be so romantic...

Day 11:
Now camping with the guys in our convoy. Made a great first impression when we set fire to the grass making a cup of tea... twice... Guys had a hilarious time teasing Karen about her fear of the boogie man - she's predicting they'll wait 2 nights & then scare the daylights out of her ;) Sardi has taken on the Steve Irwin role of the group - found the only snake in Russia (dead, don't worry.) Flat terrain and masses of sunflowers! Stunning! Theme song for the day: "Highway Through The Danger Zone". All three cars have been pulled over by the Police three times today but gotten out of paying any fines or bribes so far. Kazakhstan here we come!

Day 10: Volvograd
Caught up with loads of teams and have arranged to convoy with 3 of the guys into Kazakhstan (including our irish mechanic - hurrah!). The main square was quite a sight filled up with rally cars. Lacking sleep but having too much fun to care.

Day 9 (I think...): Kharkiv to somewhere in Russia
Drove to the Ukranian border where there was discussion of marriage with the Ukranian guards - not that we minded as most of the other teams had to pay bribes to get out, where the guards let us through and signed our car instead! Russian guards were more exasperating but we still managed to buy insurance at a cheaper rate than many of the teams - we guess some days travelling solo as an all girl team really does work in your favour...

Got completely lost on the Russian motorway and ended up sleeping by the side of the road in the car. Still managed to find our way to Volvograd without maps or guide notes - we figured we'd head in the direction that the sun was rising and it worked!

Day ? (have forgotten already...): Kiev to Kharkiv
Loaded up the roof racks to fit our Ukranian friend in the car to drive to his parents place for the night. His mum was an absolute sweetheart cooking us a home-cooked meal, and even insisting that we wore her slippers! Bless!

Want to see the route we're taking?

2008-07-25T06:27:00.000-07:00

Check out our Team Emu Draft page on the official Mongol Rally website to track our location on the route map by clicking on the section

WHERE ARE WE

Go to:

http://mongolrally08.theadventurists.com/emudraft

Week 1 of the rally...

2008-07-25T05:21:00.000-07:00

Day 7, seeing the sights of Kiev
After finally getting to our apartment after 1am and having to abandon Matilda in an alleyway, we're checking out Kiev today. Sardi is having a grand old time with the video camera so get ready for a popcorn and projector night when she returns. Karen has been struck down with a bad head cold for the first time in two years (...bad timing!!!) so has snaked off to try and collapse with some dignity in the air conditioned comfort of the internet cafe.

Annoyance of the day: Karen's, upon seeing photos from the start - that the posh London hairdresser really did cut her hair sooooo much shorter than the negotiated length!! And no amount of tugging on it is making it grow faster! Some days it's the trivial things that matter the most...

Day 6, L'viv, Ukraine - Kiev, Ukraine
Simply put - if today had been an episode from Channel 7's 'The Amazing Race', we would have been well and truly eliminated. We had a shocker.

We successfully drove from L'viv to Kiev and were extremely chuffed with ourselves that while The Desert Kings team, who we'd been tag-teaming with, had been pulled over and forced to pay bribes to the Police three times, we'd coasted past each time without being stopped (and had a lovely local truck driver by us a coffee along the way...)

Our luck ran out when we arrived in Kiev and had to meet a 'local friend of a friend', Vasily, at the train station - a simple instruction but not so much when your maps are in english and the signs are all in cyrillic. Two hours passed of racking up the 'asking people for directions' tally in the car and we eventually paid a taxi driver to let us follow him.

After finally reaching the train station and still being unable to find him, we resorted to using one of our emergency glow sticks which, it would be fair to say, made us look like we should be at an Australian Idol grand final rather than at a train station in the Ukraine. Oh well... onward and upward!

Vasily then took us to some random suburb where we were advised that as the office was closed, we needed to stand in the garden and pass our passports and a wad of local currency through an iron bar window in order to secure our accommodation for 2 nights. And so we did.

Will try and post more photos on the website soon...

K & S xx

Day 5, Krakow, Poland - L'viv, Ukraine
Aqua-planed in Matilda to the border today in some truly torrential rain.

Nearly caused an international incident at the border crossing as some Ukrainians refused to accept that Australia is not part of the EU!

Had to do one U-turn lap of honour between Immigration and Customs for failing to get the correct stamp, but we're sure that it was more for their amusement than official reasons.

Roads seriously deteriorated as soon as we crossed the border and still driving in heavy rain. Matilda almost got eaten by one pot-hole but she's still going strong. We also tested her out driving along tram tracks (...ok...so we were lost at the time.....) but she is still going strong.

Observation of the day: from Sardi, who reflected 'You know you really do feel like a bit of a celebrity driving around in this car - except when you're asleep in the passenger seat with your mouth open...'

Unresolved conversation topic for the day: Which Spice Girl was the first to go solo after they split up - Sporty Spice or Ginger Spice? NB: if you know the answer, please feel free to email us at teamemudraft@gmail.com - thanks!

Day 4, Krakow - Team Emu Draft rest day! Hurrah!
After a thoroughly whirl-wind start to the rally, the emus took a day off from driving to check out the gorgeous town of Krakow. The castle is stunning and even the public toilets were so attractive that Karen was madly photographing the flower beds and wall facades before she noticed the sign.

Met up with one of the spanish teams who started from Madrid and had to drive to Poland to collect their passports and some visas, so celebratory bevvies were in order.

Day 3, Klenova castle to Krakow Poland
Another long day of driving to reach Poland, our seventh country for the rally on just the third day - we really need to stop drinking so much red bull! Stuning driving through the south of Poland though.

The tally that we're keeping for asking people for directions is coming along strong, so too are our car karaoke singing voice.

Day 2, somewhere in France to Klenova castle, Czech Republic
A lesson in how not to start day 2 of the Mongol Rally - from France!

A day of driving through 5 countries in 15 hours of driving to get to the rally party at a castle in the Czech Republic, but we made it!

France - Belgium - Luxemborg - Germany - Czech Republic!

Driving on the motorways in a car with a gutless engine is not for the faint hearted but Matilda wasn't intimidated, and the reactions from those speeding past us in Sunday afternoon traffic kept our spirits up - and the Europeans entertained...

Heart-stopping moment of the day: when the Les Miserables tape (purchased for 50p from a London charity shop) got stuck in the cassette player and we thought we were going to be stuck listening to it all the way to Mongolia! No!!!!

Favourite observation of the day: from another rallier who pointed out, 'You know you're lost when you're asking for directions to a whole country, rather than a city or town...'

Day 1, London:
The start of the rally is finally here!!! Matilda looked resplendid in Hyde Park lined up next to over 200 other vehicles and decked out with emu paraphinalia, complete with a floral ironing board cable tied to the roof racks.

Plenty of last minute preparations including ironing other teams shirts in return for some assistance but it all came together.

Fantastic to see friends and past ralliers there wishing us well on our way - thanks again guys!

Got lost getting out of London - turns out the South Africans that we followed didn't know the way either! Our car tally for the no. of people we ask for directions along the way has officially kicked off! The first texta stroke is on the roof!

Quote of the day: from some randon person in the crowd who yelled out "Look, two girls doing the rally! I'll bet they get lost!" to which Karen yelled back "Of course we'll get lost! We're driving to Mongolia!!"

2008-07-22T10:38:00.000-07:00

Greetings from Krakow, Poland! It's been a hectic few days and we promise to bring you all up to speed when we next have internet access in another day or so. In the meantime, here's some photos from the start in London to wet your appetites....

Armed with an Australian flag, ironing board and ready to go!

Cheers to Mel & Phil who bought an Australian flag blanket all the way from Sydney to London and farewelled us on our way! Thanks also to Ceil, Mel, Larry & Lloyd for being our official farewell crew!

A big thank you once again to our sponsors, AD Events, All Marketing Projects and Outdoor Kit

Team 'Sheilas Wheels' from northern Ireland - who generously swapped rachet straps with us after they watched Karen crunch her knuckle on ours to produce the first team injury for the rally. We guess the saying really is true - no pain, no gain!

The crew from the P&O ferry were fantastic - they sent us on our way with a British naval flag, and have written along the back of our car 'Anything Ewan & Charley can do, you two can do too!' Awww...... thanks guys! (...they also wrote 'this side down' on our shovel... cheeky...)

One of our favourite teams! These two guys are true Mongol Rally professionals who put the rest of us to shame. They have set off with no maps, but armed with tailored suits, top hats, tennis whites and a photo of the Queen. Legends.

Looks like this vehicle has ignored the one-litre engine rule - and we applaud them for their efforts! Goodluck getting to Mongolia guys!

Enid the Emu - our team mascot - very popular for keeping the kiddies entertained when their parents pass us by on the motorway!

Until our next time, we'll leave you with our best emu faces for now....

Karen & Sardi xxx

Extreme car packing has commenced...

2008-07-17T13:38:00.000-07:00

After a truly whirl-wind week, all our luggage (and clip-on koalas) have now arrived, Outdoor Kit have very generously donated camping equipment including a trangia and two tents (!) and our Kazakhstan visas are through and sorted.

Sardi's talking about 4WD's and packing cars in her sleep, and Karen is contemplating how to cable tie an iron and ironing board to the roof racks for some extreme ironing en route - because doing the Mongol Rally isn't extreme enough...

Check back tomorrow when we'll be posting some photos our fiesty motor Matilda, as we attempt to fit everything into the tiny car!

Extreme car packing tomorrow, Hyde Park then straight to France on Saturday, Czech Republic on Sunday - Mongolia or bust baby!!!

The Emus have landed in London!

2008-07-09T11:04:00.001-07:00

Team Emu Draft have landed in London and we can confirm that the official team tally count has begun... It's been an eventful 24 hours for the team tally board with the following deserved of a mention and tally point...

No. of ipods broken before we've even departed Hyde Park: 1

No. of bureaucratics who have tried to charge us extra for leaving our country or stop us from entering their country: 2

No. of 'Emu Bottom' branded biscuits served by Thai Airways to passengers: 678

No. of Team Emu Draft equipment bags currently in the wrong continent: 1

No. of clip-on koalas inside the bag that's in the wrong continent: too many to count.

No. of trips across London and back in the rain to submit passports for visa application: 2 (A second trip was required after Sardi realised that she'd forgotten to bring her passport and photo ID for the visa application - a small but somewhat important detail. Jetlag is a very dangerous thing.)

Oops... I knew I'd forget something...

2008-07-04T00:41:00.000-07:00

As an Events organiser, I have been known to pride myself on my ability to write extensive 'To Do' lists. Upon reviewing my 'Things to do before I fly out of Australia' list and marvelling at how I'd crossed off almost all of the tasks, I realised that I'd over-looked one small item... getting an International Driver's Licence - a useful (...ok...crucial....) document when taking part in an international car rally....

My revised 'To Do' list for Monday now includes this task - and with my flight not leaving until Tuesday, that leaves plenty of time!

Karen

Emus take flight Tuesday 8 July @ 3.50pm from Sydney

2008-07-02T16:54:00.000-07:00

Flights fully sorted, currency being exchanged, luggage coming together - its nearly time to go!!

Sardi has been working full time at Team Emu Draft Head office, running errands and crossing off the many list.

Karen has achieved a successful boomerang of our passports around all the right embassies with visas - only one more to get in London! She is working right up until Monday 7 July - so some serious packing will begin then.

Matilda, our feisty little car, is fully prepared and awaiting to meet us in Suffolk, England. We are also looking forward to meeting Dan - our Knight in Shining Armour who has sourced, housed and prepared Matilda - as soon as possible once we land in the England.

Team Emu Draft have been amazed at the generosity of people's support and massive interest in this endeavour.

5 sleeps to go!!!

Eurovision on wheels...

2008-06-07T18:22:00.000-07:00

Well, at the risk of speaking to soon, our plans seem to be falling into place. Yesterday the travel agent got our flights to the UK finally got sorted - and offered to personally donate her sleeping bag to our trip!

As our impending departure from Oz starts to approach, the critical topic of 'what music shall we upload on the ipod' is starting to take priority. It all started earlier in the week when we received a bunch of cassettes from a friend who had read our equipment wish list, and decided to make a musical contribution by sending us four tapes from her classic cassette collection.

I am confident that with our newly acquired "The Best Dance Music in the World... Ever!" circa 1989 cassette tape, our ability to extend the hand of international friendship during tense border crossings has been greatly strengthened. In fact, I may even send a copy of the UN. All we need now in some tinted colour cellophane for our mighty motor Matilda's ten spotlights and we'll have Eurovision on wheels!

If you have any musical suggestions for our i-Tunes shopping perusal, drop us a line at teamemudraft@gmail.com

In the local newspapers ...

2008-05-31T01:14:00.000-07:00

Because we all love a 'Local girl does good' story...

http://www.kiamaindependent.com.au/article/sardi_has_a_driving_ambition

Royal Brunei deny our Sydney departure!

2008-05-12T05:14:00.002-07:00

It seems that all was well and booked sooo last year with our flights to the London start ... however on Friday we were informed from the travel agent that the airline Royal Brunei are no longer departing from Sydney airport after 30 May. They will still depart internationally from Brisbane, which would mean catching a flight at 0735 instead of 1430, going via Brisbane ... and when Karen is wrapping up The Rocks Aroma Festival the day before and packing her bags the morning we fly ... its all looking a bit tight!

So what do we do?

The travel agent offered us a full refund, though we're a bit unsure that we will get such a good price on our flight. Just another things to get sorted before we depart in just over 7 weeks.

Can you help us with a good deal on a one-way flight to London?

It was a busy weekend at head office...

2008-05-05T05:22:00.000-07:00

With a 'Team Emu Draft Head Office' sign now firmly stuck to our front door, it was a busy weekend of planning and duelling laptops at HQ...

Karen: 'How much does a visa service want to charge us for paperwork to get into Kazakhstan?!
Sardi: 'Sod that - we'll do it all ourselves!'

Karen: 'I haven't used one of these since I was a girl guide, which way is up?'
Sardi: 'Are you sure you should be chief navigator?'

Sardi: 'Did you know that everything looks brighter through yellow-tinted glasses?
Karen: 'Seriously darl, you look like you could be Bono's sister...'

Emergency glow sticks, first aid for vital organs and much more...

2008-05-04T06:23:00.000-07:00

Presents received during recent 'Festival of the Karen' birthday celebrations which will now be taken on the rally:

i) Emergency glow sticks - now I just need to learn the cheerleader signal for S.O.S.....

ii) Mini binoculars - useful when needing to confirm that we really are lost and in the middle of no where...

iii) 'Bush Mechanics' DVD - a group of young Aboriginal men solve mechanical problems with bush rememdies such as filling a shredded tyre with spinafex grass to build a new tyre. I don't think spinafex actually grows in Central Asia but perhaps we can use yak manure as an alternative....

iv) Travel sewing kit - that way if we do get kidnapped by bandits and sold to Kazahstani camel farmers, at least we'll be able to sew a button or darn some socks for them.

v) Safety whistle on a key ring - should be useful if need to herd yaks along the way.

Items still be to be purchased:

1. Visas, visas and more visas...
2. The game Twister (could come in handy when needing to pass the time whilst charming guards at border crossings)
3. Wigs (for when we haven't showered in over a week and are having a bad hair day)

Lessons learnt from recent camping & rally driving weekend:

i) My trusty co-pilot and chief mechanic is far more knowledgable under the car bonnet than what I'd realised! Hurrah!!

ii) When being taught by your co-pilot AND her father how to change a tyre, DO NOT run your dirt-and -oil-covered fingers through your blonde hair.

iii) Do start to lift heavier weights at the gym if you want to have any hope of getting the wheel nuts off without the assistance of your co-pilot's left foot and her father's right foot...

iv) If a bull ant bite gives you a huge welt on your leg, chances are you'll probably be allergic to scorpions in Central Asia. Still, as the Australian government once said - 'Be alert, but not alarmed', and rest easy in the knowledge that your co-pilot has undertaken an online first aid course which brings me to my next point:

Lessons learnt from Sardi's online first aid course:

1. In the event of requiring CPR, please point out exactly where your sternum is placed, as the online diagram wasn't quite clear on that one.

2. In the event of an abdomen laceration resulting in organs spilling out of the patient's body, firstly reassure the patient and keep them calm (sounds pretty straight forward...) Secondly, do not attempt to place their organs back in their body - leave them out for the doctors to deal with. Thirdly, wrap the laceration and external organs tightly - so we will now be adding cling wrap to our inventory list of items to take.

Yep, all on track with rally preparations indeed,

Karen