A message from Martha

Hello everyone back home,

I must apologise, I was so tired and disheveled when we finally got to Altay I forgot to tell you about a most extraordinary meeting; we had stopped for a meal break in the middle of nowhere when an ambulance pulled up beside us and you’ll never guess what her name is – she’s called Martha!  She is quite old and has been taken out of service in the UK and been donated to a Mongolian hospital, her crew were taking her there to deliver her.  What are the chances?

Anyway, in Altay the extent of my injuries became clear in the morning, I was leaking oil and other fluids, my exhaust was dangling, my rear differential was damaged, 2 doors were loose, my inverter and converter had come loose and there was a problem with the electrics. The roads in Poland were bad but the ruts and grooves at least went in the same direction as travel; here the ruts go across the roads, it’s like the earth is corrugated with a thin layer of dust and gravel spread over it. Thankfully none of my injuries were so bad that the boys couldn’t repair them.

We left Altay and headed north. I was pleased when we got off the roads, such as they are, and made our own route; I prefer to stay off the gravel roads where we can. Someone had given the crew a tip that if they let some air out of my tyres the bumps don’t hurt quite as much, it worked and I think they appreciated not being thrown around the cab quite as much! The only problem with being off-road is that navigation is so much harder. Ross tried his best to get us to the next town but by 9 pm it was so dark and we’d no idea where we were so we had to just set up camp. In the morning it became clear that we were very close to Tsagaanchulut which was where we had been heading. Well done Ross!

You may already know I’ve got spotlights on my roof (they are operated by hydraulics) today the switch got jammed in the on position, my lights went up and up and up until they couldn’t go any higher… and then they fell off. The lads had been making so much noise (they call it singing) that they hadn’t heard anything! We had to turn round and retrace our steps until they managed to find all the pieces. We ended up spending the night at Tosontsegel which wasn’t what we had intended.

Round here nearly everywhere is called Tsagaan ‘something’ and gets very confusing. We have since found out that the word Tsagaan means white, so the names mean things like white hills, white mountains, white valley, you get the idea. In the morning the boys did a splendid job of fixing my spotlights and attended to a couple of oil leaks and we set off for Tsagaan Uul which, yes you’ve guessed, means white mountain. There are a lot of mountains here and finding the right one wasn’t easy. Quite a few extra miles were added today.

The following day we set off early for Khatgal which is at the southern tip of the northern lakes. The road passed over several bridges but I, unfortunately, am too heavy for the bridges (I’m trying not to take it personally) so we had to find other ways to cross the, mostly dried out, streams and rivers. The boys really enjoyed this test of their skills and each took great pride in getting me safely to the other side. I was quite proud of my own abilities and the chance for a bit of showing off. We arrived at Khatgal quite late and most of places had closed for the night, what we weren’t aware of was that the whole place was in the process of closing down for the season. But the angels were smiling on my boys again and they found a nice lady called Ariunaa who took them in and fed them and let them stay overnight.

In the morning the smell of bacon and eggs was in the air; the smell transported me straight back to the fire station at Christchurch and I had to shake myself to remember that we are in Mongolia. The boys were shooed out of Ariunaa’s house early because her family were leaving but when we got to the lakeside all they wanted to do was lie down for a little sleep, even Dave who can never stay out of water for long. In the afternoon, after a bit of a swim and a playtime, we turned around and headed back to Moron, just about the only thing we met on the road was a herd of cattle – huge beasts with long horns that could really do some mischief if they wanted to.

After a night in a hotel the boys were eager to get going and get much closer to Ulaan Baatar (UB) which is the capital city of Mongolia; it has an airport and is where Dave and Ben will leave and Ailsa (she’s a girl) will join the crew. I do love this country and wouldn’t mind tarrying a while but there is a job to be done so we have to crack on. We managed to get close to a town called Bulgan where we just pulled off the road and set up camp.

Our next stop-over was Amarbayasgalant Khid where there is a rather beautiful monastery and you will never guess what we found on the way there. A real road! Not a Mongolian road of dirt and pebbles but a real road with real Tarmacadam! We couldn’t believe it. It did appear to be very fresh and not intended for heavy traffic (me) so it might not be so pristine any more. Oops.

The following day we reached UB and I was introduced to a wonderful man called Pieter Pretorius at the Mercedes Benz garage. He took me in and looked after me for 3 whole days, giving me a massive major service which involved replacing everything that could be replaced – filters, gaskets, plugs, belts and much more besides and then a super steam clean to get all the muck out of those secret little places where it can fester and cause damage.

I don’t know what the crew got up to while I was in the garage but I found that I quite missed them, I think I must have got used to them always being around.

When we left UB we headed for the Terelj National Park, going by way of the Chinggis Khan memorial. My word that thing is huge! And shiny! The way into the National Park is over a wooden bridge and we had a few hairy moments when we weren’t sure if I would be too heavy, but it was fine – I’m obviously not as heavy as I look.

We spent two nights and one day in the park and then it was back on the road again, and again we found a stretch of road with tarmac; it just sort of appeared and went on for a while then ended – with no apparent reason. We camped for the night near Choir. During the night when the Trans-Siberian train went by it sounded very much nearer than it really was and the effect on the sleeping crew was quite comical.

From Choir we went off-road following the line of the railway to a town called Sainshand.

On what would be our last full day in Mongolia we had to drive from Sainshand to Zamyn-Und. We were reluctant to leave Mongolia but I think that Mongolia was equally reluctant to let us go; we hadn’t seen a drop of rain the whole time in Mongolia but now the rain was so hard that we couldn’t see past the end of my bonnet and an hour after leaving Sainshead we realised that we were back where we’d started. When we did get going in the right direction the sand had turned to mud, thick heavy mud. After a while we came across a random stretch of tarmac that seemed to be going in the right direction, but this wasn’t like the other bits of road, this was a bit that we weren’t supposed to be using (judging by all the obstacles) but a little bit of difficulty wasn’t going to prevent my crew so we went up onto the road and down onto the track several times. On one occasion the mud was deeper than expected and I got stuck with my wheels spinning, unable to go forwards or backwards. The boys were delighted because it gave them a chance to show off their recovery skills to dig me out. All these little diversions had made us very late and we had to keep going even after darkness fell and there were no stars to light the way so it got quite spooky. We were all very relieved to finally see the lights of Zamyn-Und.

Today is going to be a big day, our plan is to get from Zamyn-Und (Mongolia) to Erenhot (China) which means crossing two borders. The day started early with the boys giving me a really good wash to get rid of all the sand and mud from yesterday (I love a good rub with a soapy sponge). We passed through the Mongolian border with no problems and so we left a country that we have all grown to love. Here I have to say that from entering to leaving we – all of us – have been absolutely bowled over by the friendliness, hospitality and generosity of the people of this country.  Good bye Mongolia, we will miss you.

Our first glimpse of China – the border control building – and we were very impressed. The crew had been expecting problems getting through but our new, honorary, crew member, Sun Ji, had fixed it for us and it seemed no time before the crew were allowed through. There was a slight panic when it seemed as though I would be detained (but the border guards just wanted to take photos I think). In no time at all we were reunited and I became the first ever western fire engine to enter China (and with new Chinese number plates).  Check me out!

We stayed the night in Erenhot and very early the next morning set off for Beijing. We are back onto tarmac – no more off-roading for us for a while. We were about half way to Beijing when we joined the back of the queue of traffic. I’m sure you have all been stuck in a traffic jam fuming that you are going nowhere fast. Well this jam is so long that it is measured in days not miles (9 days) and so slow that they move only about 17 miles per day. We realised that if we had to stay at the back of that lot it would have put the rest of our trip in jeopardy so we decided to use the hard shoulder to get past and we figured that, as nobody had ever seen anything like me before they wouldn‘t know whether we were supposed to be there or not. With the blues and twos switched on it was the most exciting and nerve-wracking ride I have ever experienced, squeezing past huge trucks and lorries with only a couple of inches to spare. At times the lorries tried to box us in but, thanks to the superb driving of the crew, we managed to keep going and after a very arduous 14 hours of travel we arrived in Beijing. Phew!

We’ve done it!! I’m the only fire engine to ever make the journey from Moscow to Beijing.

We’ll sadly be dropping James and Ailsa off here and picking up two new boys. I’ll write to you later and let you know how Stage 3 is getting on with our adventure.

Lots of love to all

TTFN

Martha