Ulaanbaatar 18th August

And that, ladies and gentlemen, was The League of Extraordinary Kriegspielers and the 2014 Mongol Rally.  Thank you for reading, supporting and encouraging us along the way. It has really helped.  As of this morning £57,342.17 raised.  (justgiving.com/steve-langan)

Cue Sergio Leone music........

Ulaanbaatar 18th August

Sunday 17th was paperwork day and lodging our name on the finishing board.  We came in 43rd out of 250.  We were one of the first to finish going through the difficult and long southern routes (lots of the guys ahead of us just sped across Russia, which must have been pretty dull).  Fastest finisher was 12 days, again across Russia.  Rory's team were the youngest to finish so far.  Their combined ages of of 56 was two years short of the single age of Rodger in our team. 

Ulaanbaater 18th August

After booking the car in we headed straight for our hotel.  Two bottles of Tattinger between the three of us, and as Rodger doesn't drink, that meant one each for Peter and me.  There was party going on somewhere for the Mongol Rally that night in UB, but we were shattered.  The champagne proved a good way to sleep the deepest sleep I'd done in a month.

 This is where all the gars go in UB.  Some for the scrapheap, and some like the Nostromo to be packed on a train and sent back to Vilnius where I will pick her up and drive her home.

 I don't think Ford know what a great car they have on their hands with the B-Max.  If anyone knows anyone there I'd be more than happy to explain to them just how good it is.

 The cars were beginning to stack up

 And this dude, in his Ghostbusters overalls and cheap Russian cigarette was one cool customer

 Hard core finisher.

Ulaanbaatar 18th August

6.45pm on the 16th August, we made it!  God knows how many miles, 28 days, 16 countries, no punctures, £57,000 raised (so far - if you haven't donated I'm coming after you!), three great friends (Peter Martin, Rodger Williams and 'Mission Control' back at base - Nicola Riggs), and one amazing little car, The Nostromo.  Thank you all for your support, donations, but most of all, your friendship.  It's been.....epic.

I was completely overwhelmed by the emotion of everything when I stood on that podium.  Out of a terrible sadness has come some good at last.  God bless my dear little sister.

Ulaanbaatar 18th August

The border crossing was the usual mindless process with unsmiling Russian border guards. I think this lot must have been being punished with a stint in outer Mongolia for some previous transgression, because they were, almost to a man and woman, particularly useless and rather thick to boot. For example, they couldn't work out from the paperwork given to us by their comrades at the Kazakh crossing which crossing we had entered Russia.  They kept saying to me 'Kyrgyzstan!  Kyrgyzstan!' despite the fact that we had not been to Kyrgyzstan, and perhaps more to the point, Russia does not share a border with said 'stan.

Getting out of Russia was taking longer and taking more effort than getting into the place!

 Classic Russian customer friendly notice.  The border bylaws in cyrillic

 ..and there's more!

 impressive bug body count by this stage.  At our previous nights camp the grasshoppers were the size of sparrows and totally unafraid of humans  Rory even poked one on the nose and it didn't budge from staring at him.

 There was a complete scrum to get pole border crossing position

 ...and it looked like we could be in for a long wait in the baking heat

Eventually, at last, we left Russia.  Funny place really.  The Mongolian border was friendlier and helpful, but no less bureaucratic.  But remarkably we crossed the border in a record time for us - 3.5 hours in all.  UB was in our sights!

The roads started well, a velvet soft ribbon of fresh black tarmac, but then, as every mile went by got worse and worse and worse.  The funniest one was a part where they were repairing the main road and had literally poured tarmac like lava on the countryside beside it, creating unto eight different roads which you used according to your fancy.  Holes the size of cars appeared and it was funny (if you were a front seat passenger as I was at this time) and stressful (if you were the driver).  The Nostromo, as always, dealt with everything in her stride.

 Norther Mongolia is stunning. Very different from the Siberian side of the border.  The landscapes are vast, the hills lush and rolling, and the skies are like no other I have ever seen.  Huge, and with the most amazing blues, and white puffy clouds everywhere.  Gers (yurts) dot the hillsides and herds of fit and well cared for horses roam everywhere. And little prayer stuppas complete the magic. Absolutely beautiful.

 a typical scene in the north Mongolian countryside

 '3orc' means stop. Apparently

 the most mental road of all. Somewhere outside UB

And finally, at last, the outskirts of Ulaanbaater!

Ulaanbaatar, 18th August

The 16th August was a day of anticipation.  We might, just might, make it to Ulaanbaatar.  There were 300 odd miles to cover, over unknown road conditions.  However the biggest unknown of all was the border crossing.  All the reading we had done suggested this could take a full day to cross.

So, up early, packed and ready to go at 7.30am when we hit our first problem.  Pete was reversing the car over a small rise when the mud flap caught in the wheel and almost ripped the entire rear panel off as well as more or less removing the internal wheel arch.  We realise that is was a design fault in the flaps we had fitted. Either make them snap off if this happens (as per what land rover do) or make them much shorter.

We fixed it with swiss army knife, some gaffa tape and a couple of cable ties.  I don't think there's anything in the world that can't be fixed by some combo of these three items.  We had however lost a vital hour.