Location : From Beijing to Datong. China.
High Point : The Great Wall of China. Not only did it impress, it made 5 boys with normally far too much chat become almost speechless. The mere magnitude and scale of this colossal beast blows the mind. Some quick stats for you : Built over 2000 years ago. 8862.8km long (well that’s how long China say it is). It wiggles a lot and goes over bumps. Read more →
High Point: Not getting stuck in THE traffic jam.
Low point: Knowing that today was the end of a six week amazing journey, and that stage two (Moscow to Beijing) would finally be coming to an end.
No Point: Night driving and trucks, why oh why?
Location : Zamyn-Uud to Erlian
High Point : With well over a year of research and hard graft behind it, we had always thought that of all the borders we are crossing, the Mongolian / China border was the “big one”. It could not have gone any better. Incredible. We met our Mongolia fixer the night before to go through the game plan and paperwork. The crew were up early to give Martha a good old clean as she was caked in wet sand and muck after all the fun in the Gobi desert. We headed off at 10am and were quickly through the Mongolia side with only one complication. With Panoramic Journeys on the end of the phone to our fixer Ulzi, the missing paperwork was soon dismissed and we cracked on into no man’s land. Read more →
Location: Sainshand to Zamyn-Uud
High Point: Getting stuck in the mud!
Low Point: This was to be the end of our stint in Mongolia and as that thought crept into the minds of the crew, you could see a disappointment beginning to wash over our faces. Pretty much in its entirety, Mongolia has been an absolute highlight, a firm favourite amongst all the those who have trucked across it’s unyielding terrain in Martha.
Location : Choir to Sainshand
High Point: Being Back on the unmade roads of Mongolia for one last time as we made our way to the Chinese border was something we all enjoyed in tough and long day on the move. You really feel like you have earned your dinner on days like this!
Low point: It the first day when I really thought about FTFE having to leave Mongolia. Living each day as it comes has been wonderful here and its hard to imagine being anywhere else right now.
No Point: Steve’s “Sleep talking” at 12.30AM that panicked me into thinking we were about to be run over…… In fact the train was about a kilometre away.
Location : Terelj to Choir. Mongolia.
High point: Playing the inaugural FTFE Mongolian Golf Open. Now who would have thought it, that in the middle of nowhere in a stunning national park, that resembled the Rockies more than Mongolia, we would stumble across the one and only golf country club in this country. Not planned according to James our route planner and pro golfer! Hmmm.
Low Point: James forgetting to buy tees and only realising when Steve was standing on the tee with the crowds awaiting in anticipation of the opening shot. Don’t forget this was Mongolia’s first FTFE open! Read more →
High Point: stretching my legs climbing to a peak overlooking Gorkhi-Terelj. Nice to get a bit of a sweat on and great to lap up the wonderful vista.
Low point: the last few days have been a real struggle. After 7 weeks on the road, momentum and purpose have done a magnificent job of masking the true pain to both body and mind. 3 days in UB and 2 slow days after opened the flood gates to the true agony. I was proper home sick for the first time as London felt an awfully long way away in either direction. Long haul flights, coupled with the digital age, have squashed most people’s perspectives of the size of this wonderful world of ours. Drive just a third of it in a silly red truck and you will feel every inch of its enormity!! A few restless nights and general poorly feeling was massively knocking my motivation. The road has become less desirable. A nice cup of tea and a little sit down sounds simply glorious. It would be nice to pop home for just a few days. I am sure that once we hit the road again in earnest, my enthusiasm will return in earnest. Read more →
High Point
Personally – actually getting out on the open road, after months of anticipation and a few days in limbo in UB while Martha was in service, this was it, the day had dawned! Bye bye city streets – the rumbling roads and big skies of Mongolia were beckoning. Yee-ha!
For all of us – finding a fantastic little ger for the night in the most brilliant setting near Terelj was a really welcome treat. Looking out across rolling hills dotted with gers, horses & goats and towering rocky mountains to our backs, scenery so perfect it hardly seemed real. Read more →
High point : Mongolian Karaoke, just when we thought the singing in the cab had improved our voices . . . We were wrong, in a big way!
Low point : The traffic, forget all you know about jams and dangerous driving until you visited UB. It was a miracle that I saw only 2 accidents in my time here! Read more →
