Mongol Rally, Day 8, 26/07

Slow start this morning as yesterday's riding was very tough in the heat.

At the hostel I met a couple of lads from Iverness who are touring the Nordics and Lithuania/Latvia on more sensible sized bikes and as usual they were in disbelief at how far I was going on the XR.

The mighty XR while still in tip top condition

A little maintenance was completed, the blown headlamp bulb was a pain in the dark the previous night and as I am about to go into Russia it would be the perfect excuse for the police to constantly hassle me for bribes. The USB charger still does not work but I will leave that for when I get to Moscow; as for the moment I am staying in hostels and hotels where I can charge my phone.

The ride to Rezekne in Latvia was again very hard, it seems that the Latvians have decided to dig up all the roads that head east and leave them in a loose gravel finish. The dust clouds are choking and the big trucks pepper you with stones as they rush past. Latvia seems to be woods, fields and lots of small farms, I did not see any industry over my whole trip.

Rezekne has a definite Soviet feel about it with lots of crumbling social housing flats and the expected big statues. My hotel is the usual lovely reception area then somehow you go back in time while in the lift and emerge to find a room perfectly preserved from the 1960's, complete with dripping taps and lino flooring.

Soviet era crumbling flats

The bingo hall next door (also bar, pizza restaurant, and general low life hang out place) is boasting a mega prize night of  100Euros! I suspect that the ex Soviet housewives of Rezekne will be there and horribly drunk later tonight!

Miles today 220M (352KM) and a lot of dust and dirt.

Mongol Rally 2015, Day 7, 25/07

So on Saturday morning bright and early, my lovely wife drove me to the airport to catch a flight to Warsaw where I had left my bike a month ago with another bike friend; Anna Wozniak.

Warsaw was in the middle of a heat wave with temperatures on the motorways of up to 38C - wow not expecting that, as the UK was dull and raining when I left.

Anna was at home, so it was great to spend a bit of time finding out about her - turns out that she has a semi medical background like me and works for Glaxo as a sales rep selling Asthma drugs.

Bike was still in great condition, I had a moments scare when it would not start, but had forgotten that the side stand cuts the ignition if down. After leaving a gift with Anna and the security guards, I set off to try and ride from Warsaw to Vilnius in Lithuania, I did not get far - Warsaw is a nightmare to escape and I spent an hour going in very hot circles not able to find the right motorway.
Eventually I asked a biker who I spotted on a large Suzuki and he offered to lead me out of town - really grateful as both me and the bike were getting very overheated.

Once moving things improved; my air jacket is brilliant, but the poor little XR was not happy above 50 mph so I had to go easy all day.

I eventually made it to Vilinius but late at night, then the Downtown Forest Hostel eluded discovery until gone midnight! Too late to go for supper so the whole day's food was a pain choco in airport and a hotdog in last service station, the Hostel sold bottled beer so I bought a cold Tuborg and was soon in bed out cold.

Total miles for the day after 12+ hours riding was a disappointing 333M (533 KM)

Oh my god here we go again! Mongol Rally 2015

So having not learnt my lesson last year, my lovely wife has again unleashed me on the unsuspecting world (or at least Eastern Europe) and agreed that I can ride to Mongolia once more.

Unfortunately work has delayed my departure so although the 2015 Mongol Rally started yesterday, I am still at my work desk for another week before donning my leathers and risking all for the sake of insanity.

Now this year the Aventurists have supplied some words for us all to speak whenever in a public forum, so here is a taster that puts us in the mood.

"Adventure used to be easier. Maps had edges and you could keep going until you fell off the edge of the world. Now you have to try hard to get lost. You've got to ignore the travel guides, you've got to throw your compass down the loo and you've got to set off with nothing but ignorance to light your path"

So to make progress after a late start I have a cunning plan.
A few weeks ago I rode my mighty steed (Honda XR125) to Warsaw in Poland and left it with the lovely Anna who is guarding it with her life until I return next Saturday - then it's head down for a thrash through Lithuania and Latvia with Moscow as my target for first proper rest and party time (hopefully there will be some very slow teams that are still in town)!

To get you excited here is the trusty steed (donated by Koh Lee Na) sitting by the Berlin wall while I was on my way to Warsaw.

As you can see from the painting I am metaphorically escaping! (pretty high brow for me)

Bigger boots, more armour and old age will hopefully keep me safe this year.

Home at Last and time for bed

So it's hard to describe how nice it is to be out of hospital today and back home with Angie and Scarlett.

Now before we go any further please understand the scale of my misdemeanours, after putting Angie through a week of stress and worry, yesterday was her birthday and I failed to get even a card! Maybe I will be in the dog house for a little longer than originally expected.

So a big thank you to all my friends and family who have called and sent messages, I feel really guilty because other than a couple of dodgy days the whole adventure had been super brilliant and I in no way deserve any sympathy from anyone. Currently I am just a bit weary, but overall I expect to be back to 100% in a week or so.

Lets really hear it for Pembury and Maidstone Hospitals, fantastic teams, beautiful people who have given me a complete overhaul, flushed out the dodgy plumbing and set me up for a super quick recovery, with luck a small adjustment to my hand and I will be back to full function - if anyone wants to rush me to a pub I have been told to flush the kidneys copiously - so all clear there.

In some respects I am a little sad over having dropped out before Mongolia, I was looking forward to seeing that amazing country and hopefully making more friends, but it is what it is and it was fantastic as far as I got. Would I do it again? yes in an instant, even to the same outcome. The people I met and the friends I made were more than worth the difficulties and I think that I have learned a lot about myself and other cultures from the whole experience.

Max and his team are still making great progress, the Saxo has lost its sump guard and radiator fan courtesy of James hitting a big rock, but nice men with big hammers have got them back on the road and they are doing fine.

Here is a picture of James when I passed them in Russia, doing the walk of shame back to a policeman's hut, pulled over for nothing but did not stop fast enough and incurred an immediate demand for money in passport, I donated some miniature Jack Daniels bottles that did the trick!

I have so many stories to tell that I should write a book - I suspect that would be preferred or I will bore you to death even more than usual.

This is probably the last proper blog update, I will add some more photos and notes about some of the places I stayed but for now go find Max Chapman on Instagram or Facebook and you can enjoy an altogether more alcoholic road trip to Mongolia.

Thanks for the charity donations - Cool Earth and the Nava Kiram Orphanage are truly grateful for your support and will say prayers in thanks for you.

A slightly less fat man, minus a small motorcycle, is now wobbling off to bed!

Four days to go and starting to panic about food, money and wet wipes

Less than four days to go and yesterday my brand new panniers split when I forced a final (one too many) can of chain cleaner into them. Bugger - not much hope that they will last the trip intact especially now that I have had to sew them up with cotton thread designed to hold my trouser turn ups in place.

What's killing my luggage is the twenty days rations from Expedition foods. This stuff is a good as it gets, designed for events like the Iron Man or proper mountain climbers, it packs 800 calories into a small pack that you bring back to life by adding hot water - nice and simple. My problem is that acceptable fresh food will be easily available for the first half of my trip, but is not expected in the Siberian mountains or the middle of the Gobi desert etc,  so I have to lug this lot nearly 10,000 miles before I get to eat it.



Looking on the bright side when I find other teams marooned at a Russian border crossing that's not playing ball, I could be the next best thing to a Domino Pizza Delivery.....

Final item today weighing in at a couple of pounds was the month's supply of wet wipes, essential in Eastern Europe where the concept of toilet paper has yet to be understood!

Toady I invested in a Post Office Travel Money Card Plus - it allows you to pre-load Dollars or Euros and use them anywhere in the world without involving your bank (ie avoid fraud). If it gets lost or stolen you call a control center and they courier a new card to you complete with your remaining balance. Charges are very low and it works like a debit card/ cash machine card and can be topped up from someone at home or by using their mobile phone app - all very sensible but probably wont work in the really off track places where a few American dollars still rule.

How to turn a perfectly sensible motorcycle into an adventure motorcycle for almost nothing

So here is a Sinnis Apache



Note the luxurious seat, huge luggage store and superb weather protection.....

What was needed was a few quick changes to make life possible:

1. By an Air Hawk cushion (kind of like a large woopee cushion to help your bum survive.
2. Change the chain and sprockets to heavy duty and make the rear sprocket smaller to give better speed at less finger-numbing revs.
3. Add a charging socket to the handlebars for keeping the iphone alive.
4. Add hand guards to the handlebars to avoid hurt fingers when you fall off.
5. Add foam hand grips for comfort.
6. Completely cover the bike in soft luggage and rear racks.

The Bike Bit

So you may have noticed that every year about 300 teams set off on the Mongol Rally in cars. Not very big cars and most of the time not very nice cars, in fact something you stole from your Granny is likely to best fit the rules.

And the rules are - no engines bigger than 1000cc and the more inappropriate the better! Unless......
you want to go by motorbike. So before you start talking about big BMW's or KTM's as used by our film star friends, the rally rule for bikes is no bigger than 125cc.

Now to get this in context, my friend Jeremy has a ride-on lawn mower with a bigger engine.

Enter stage left Anthony Jackson of Sinnis Motorcycles Brighton. Anthony is a veteran of the Mongol Rally and fairly recently rode one of his own bikes to Mongolia with minimal drama. He did his best to drown himself and the bike at one river crossing, but he probably needed a good wash by
then.
 

Anthony has been gracious enough to not only inspire me to take on the Rally, but he has also cut me a cracking deal on one of his Sinnis Apache bikes plus the handful of spares that I will need.