Wednesday 8 May 2013

Another milestone reached

They've completed stage two and are now safely in Novosibirsk, but this stage hasn't been without it's troubles.......

Hi guys, I'm holed up at Novosibirsk in Russia, waiting for Graham and Mike to arrive and join me for the journey through Mongolia then back in to Russia, then on to Vladivostok. The two Jimnys are at the local Suzuki dealership, where we had a photoshoot and press conference this morning and now they're getting checked out ready for the next stage. They have had a bit of a pounding as a result of the Russian and Kazakhstan roads.  We paid the price by having to repair a sheared bolt on one of the shock absorbers, we had that welded twice, done properly last time! Then I lost a bolt off one of the shock absorbers on the front so we found a little work shop who replaced it and we were on our way again. The last 350 miles or so I have had to take it a bit easy to make sure we made it this far.

To say I'm not concerned about what lies ahead will be an understatement, getting through the border will have its problems and so far I don't have a Russian translator to accompany us.  If we can't find anyone by departure time we're going it alone.  Then travelling through Mongolia where all the roads generally are dirt roads, is obviously a concern,  all our modifications should now come into their own.  Finding anywhere to lay our heads will be scarce so we will be camping the majority of the time. It drops 10 to 15 degrees below at night so that should be fun!  And another thing, I hope the other guys like spaghetti!! I will keep you posted as to how we get on. 

Buy for now Les

I reminded Les that he promised to begin shaving slices off the fruit cake at the first campsite. Then the confession came out ........ they've eaten half of it, there was only so much Russian food I could take he said!!

Crew for stage three, leaving Novosibirsk on May 10th is Les Carvall, Graham Higgins, Mike Bailey and should have been Alan Butler.  Unfortunately Alan has been diagnosed with a very serious illness and disappointingly he is not able to join the other guys. It's not only disappointing for Alan because he's been part of the team from the outset, but it's disappointing for Les not to have his friend along to take part in the experience he helped to plan. We want to take this opportunity to thank Alan for all his hard work on behalf of Heaven Can Wait I'm Busy and to assure him our thoughts and prayers are with him and his family.

1 comment:

  1. Good luck with the next stage Les and best wishes to Alan. Wish I could help with the driving but I don't have a passport.

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