Horse Ridding in Kyrgyzstan

Wooden church near the border of Russia-Kazahstan

Meeting locals in Kazak roads

Nice hotel!!! Kyrgyzstan rocks!

Sunset along the road

There is more than just driving to Mongolia and the illusion of reaching our next stop has come to a second plane. The landscape hasn't been amazing so far; dirt and exhaustion, trying to get to the next stop to set the camp site, have been a constant along the road. Where does the energy come from to keep us going?A simple image could best describe this: two cars entering the snaky roads of the Ural mountains, reaching the 180 k/hr, tiny 1l cars, yet powerful and reliable, overtaking on the right, avoiding the police. The music in the backgrounrd, either Latin, Brit-pop or Trova and distorted by the wind, tunes our engine, simply one engine that makes the two cars roll: one team: four guys and one girl, singing along, laughing and joking, enjoying our self and chasing the end of the road. No Mongolia but the red sun of the sunset behind the Urals, this is the most beautiful image so far in our trip. At the end of the day, the last music bit and the first star push us out of the road to rest. We sleep all together in the same tent, the last part of the day when the five of us melt in tiredness wanting for another day, another sunset hunting.

Hyde Park

We left Hyde Park on Saturday, and it was very emotional to see a lot of people waving at us on the street. In Trafalgar square, we asked a bus driver the way to Mongolia, and he replied he did not know but that it will take him the same time to go around London....

We crossed the channel and went straight to Gottingen, where we spent the night at Itzam's place.... We had breakfast with his mates the next morning and got to Praha later in the afternoon.

See the next link for some pics of the Hyde Park departure:

http://blog.hereorthere.com/31/mongol-rally-2007-team-photos

Last-Minute Car changes...

It's been a difficult and long week before departure. We had to change both cars: the corsa had a funny noise and the zuk clutch broke on wednesday. However, luck was on our side, because Ed found two micras in excellent conditions, one red one white. The white one just one day before the rally party!

Well, and with the two cars "ready" we left Cambridge and went to London for the launch party.

Visas, Last chapter

Today I finally got my last visa, the Kyrgyz one!. On monday, I got the fastest ever visa, perhaps even setting a world record. It was at the Uzbek embassy and took less than 15 min!!!

Kukulcan in Cali

The first post from the California branch of team Kukulcan, we like to get around. I've been busy on Ebay and we now have CB radios and road maps. All is going well and more kit is arriving soon.

T-shirts

We have finally created a selection of t-shirts with our logo. They're really cool!

What happened in 2005?

This is what happened to the 43 cars that left London in 2005...

27 cars reached Mongolia
14 cars reached the finish in Ulaan Baatar
1 car snapped in half
3 engines fell completely out of the cars
2 cars flipped over in Mongolia
1 team was held for 5 days in no-mans land
1 team cycled 200km to get to the finish when their car gave in
100's of tyres were blown
3 teams attended weddings
1 team got engaged
2 teams were robbed at knife point
3 teams were chased by armed bandits
1 team found a 10ft deep pothole
1 team found a 25 tonne crane that had rolled due to a pothole
1 team had to reverse up a mountain after losing all bar one forward gear
1 person spent 24 hours in a Kazakh jail charged with 5 crimes against the state
1 person was detained by police in Azerbaijan and threatened with a beating from a dwarf - this followed an incident with a cow
3 people were banned from Turkmenistan for a year
1 person was stoned by a Mongolian nomad (who he then shot at with a gun)
1 team got rammed off the road after an argument over water melons
1 person spent a day in a Turkish hospital
0 teams died

Official looking documents III

Excellent news all round. My Mongolia visa came back without any problems. 30 days from 1st Aug. I've also booked my flights to Beijing on 21st Aug. The flight back to the UK on happy happy Aeroflot via Moscow is on 29th Aug. £507 from Expedia not too bad.

Yesterday evening we received our first donation and it was big. A good friend of the team, Hector Pacheco, gave the generous amount of 50 pounds. I'm sure his contribution will help this world to become a better place. Now is time for more friends to add up to this list.

Official looking documents II

It's a Friday. A Friday before a bank holiday weekend and I'm leaving the company in 3 weeks. Hardly conducive for hard work is it ? I thought I'd use my time productively and get the Mong application in. £45 which is a fiver cheaper than the rally charge. My disorganization in missing the rally deadline could save me a few quid !

Visas - chapter one

Two days ago, Ingrid and I got the passports back from the Embassy of Mongolia, and guess what? Our visas are ready and there wasn't any problem ... But now the "real" visa applications come.

%$#@&!! flight prices went up from yesterday to today!!... well, after an hour of fighting I got my flight back. It was not a bad deal at the end, but it was not as good as the prices I saw yesterday!

Official looking documents

This morning I picked up my International driving permit from the post office. It's £5.50 of pure officialdom. Who could refuse me entry to their country, now I bare the signature of no other than Tim Parker - Chief exec. of the AA.

I've also wangled a second UK passport from the all-seeing mandarins in Whitehall. This means I can dally off to the new world when my visas are being cooked in the other passport.

The SJ is temporally not steering, but don't let that worry you team, it's a straight line to UB.

The webpage is up and the blog is running...

Jambo,
Welcome all to the Kukulcaners world... we hope you'll enjoy it.