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3,2,1.... GOOO |
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| We have the mongolian visa. The russian should arrive soon |
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first day in the Ukraine |
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| Went in a ukrainan traffic jam, and tryed to bypass it on a narrow little road wich didn't went further. So we stoped for lunch and went back on the mainroad, on wich we've seen a burned out lorry. The Ukrainians drive like nutters, and its wondering, that there are not more accidents. spent the nigth in a posh hotel in L'Viv |
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road in ukraina
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in the Hotel George
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the vehicle |
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| it's a similar thing like the one on this pic from the internet. A Bedford Rascal with a 970 cc petrol engine.
Two seater, mid engine, rear weehl driven - damm, it's a real sports car ;-) |
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ready |
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| Finally we've got the russian visas. Now we are nearly ready to go. Ok, maybe some minor preparations, like byebye partys and so, and then we're off. |
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The Team
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The Van front
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The Van Side
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odometer
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A/C
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first (minor) breakdown |
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| The windscreen washer brocke. Actually it was just ceased, but still took an hour to undo it and fix it |
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off road test |
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| We made some off road tests in Wangen an der Aare, and we got stuck. Luckily we could get out by ourselves. But we urgently need to get something to pull us off/out of difficult ground, like a winch or even a rope. |
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Shopping Day |
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| We had a day just shopping for everything including a 30m rope plus two pulleys which together work as a winch. Got some foreign money and now we are ready to go. |
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Not too far |
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| Lat 47deg 28'14" Long 8deg 19'06"
Not too far today and no problems |
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Going OK... |
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| We're now between Bratislava and Zilina. Everything has gone OK and we are able to go to sleep (in the middle of a noisy lorry park).
Lat 28deg 27'51" Long 17deg 44'42 |
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waterfall in austria
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arlbergpass
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high house
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Long day |
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| Position - 48 47 37N 021 58 17E
Early start and finish today. We have now done just over 1000 miles from Baden! It's hot here and we should cross into Ukraine tomorrow.
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Less stress today |
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| After a stressful day mainly driving on motorways yesterday all the way from Lichtenstein through Austtria as after as Brastislava where we spent the night sleeping in a lorry park. We took it easier today using a lot of sideroads. We have chosen to spend tonight on a campsite. |
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insider
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country side
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fuel stop in slovakia
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castle in slovakia
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YMCA (1/4)
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camping
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lakeside view from the camping
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getting mugged |
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| Today we went to Kiev. It was raining most of the day, but appart from that everything went right, until Kiev, where we've being muged by the ukrainian coppers, for having a white insurase card instead a green one. |
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calm day |
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| Spending some time with people living in kiev, which are very friendly. Made the insurance in a Mc Donalds Office |
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Road in Kiev
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houses in Kiev
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Mc Donalds car insurance
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sight seeing Kiev |
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| Today we went for sight seeing with our Kiev hosts. |
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Presidents representation room
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Presidents palace
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meeting a local
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independence square
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east Kiev
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pintpullers getting culture
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walking around Kiev |
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| Today a quiet walk around the town. Saw our first Ukrainian stretch limo, driver could not turn any better than British ones. Went to an island in the Dneipr river to see the topless girls, there were none, but that is why we went. Saw a Biker and cheer leader wedding, the girls in the majorettes were louder than the bikes. (Thez set off from a strip club, but it does not open until 10.00. a beer in the underground bar that has an outside balcony, which is still inside. and back for tea. Off to Russian border tomorrow. |
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a job for the safety officer
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Dynamo Kiev
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Love bridge
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Kiev harbor
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holy Grog
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Golden Gate???
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lazy way to get to the top
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ministry of foriegn affairs
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Kiev underground bar
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No-man's land |
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| Position : 51 52'37" N 034 20'14" E
We have left Ukraine but are not allowed to enter Russia because Grog's visa starts at midnight. Got ripped off by the Ukrainian Border Police but are OK. We've now got 2 and half hours to wait so we have having tea in no-man's land. |
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Somewhere in Russia |
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| Position 52 35'01" N 040 23'19" E
We're somewhere in Russia. The biggest problem at the moment is that none of our Credit Cards are working so we need to find a bank where they speak English. |
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road in russia
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lovely toilet in russia
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Everything going smoothly |
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| We have just passed 42E longitude and everything is going smoothly. Got stopped by the police for the first time. They checked our papers and didn't even ask for bribes. We are now heading for Samara. |
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Bloody big country |
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| Position : 53 12'30" B 048 29'24 E
We are now nearing Samara. Endless roads over a big, flat land. The distances are huge in this bloody big country. |
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endless roads
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ghost town
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Volga hydro power
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Smoky and the Bandit
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cloud
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being pissed |
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| siting in a internet cafe. Having lots of beer. realy nice looking girl in the internetcafe. hard to chat with her. dont speak enougth russian. ( jiggy jig, sucky f****) what do you want? grog) |
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Van doing well |
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Position : 55 59'50" N 071 27'18" E
Everything is going OK - van is doing 6.5 litres per 100km or 38mpg in real money. We are planning a quiet day in Omsk tomorrow. (Grog)
We are nearing Omsk and have crossed into another timezone, we are now on MEZ +5h. Endless roads past huge crop fields infinite birch forests and it's starting to get boring. I'm looking forward to the wonderful Mongolian landscape... (Andy) |
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road with oncoming traffic
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more road
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more road
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trucks
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bridge to nowhere
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road
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On the road again |
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Position: 55 13'12" N 062 40'18" E
Last night was in in Ufa therefore no coordinates. We're on the the road again and there was a traffic jam leaving town this morning due to a dead guy in the road. (Grog)
We had a late start this morning after drinking too much beer last night. For some reason Grog liked Ufa more than me! (Andy) |
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Girls in Bikinis |
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Position : Omsk, Siberia
It's 30degC (positive!) in the shade and most of the girls are wearing bikini tops.Somehow I imagined Siberia to be totally different!
(Andy)
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Small problem with the van |
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Position : 55 03'45" N 082 10'37" E
We should arrive in Novosibirsk sometime tomorrow. We are experiencing a new problem with the van, the roof lining keeps falling off. Probably the mosquito repellent has killed the glue and unfortunately gaffer tape won't stick either...
(Grog)
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Uluru???
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sunset
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he didn't see the Ukrain sign
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Heli
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Cropfield
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more cropfields
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Transsib
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Quarter away around... |
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| Position : 56 13'57" N 090 04'42" E
We are now a quarter away around the world! |
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Time to stop |
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Postion 55 30.01N 098 36.32E
It's 20:30 and is time to stop! (Grog)
The countryside is definitely getting more intersting, more hills and more trees. It's a little bit like the Black Forest (Germany). Unfortunately on the negative side, the quality of the roads has decrease significantly and we can't go any quicker than 25 km/h. (Andy) |
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Novosibirsk
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road
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more roads
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even more roads
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curvy road
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slow road
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First breakdown |
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Position 54 37.35N 098 50.07E
We've only managed 160 km today as the Rasal's clutch failed and we had to get a Lada one fitted.
(Grog)
After a nice gentle drive through a river bed otherwise known as the M53 superhighway, we finnaly had a first breakdown as the Rasal's clutch failed. Since the genuine part isn't available we've fitted a slightly modified Lada clutch unit.
(Andy) |
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breakfast cake
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sidecar
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road
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pothole
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locals
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Sergej and team
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Lada chlutch
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M53
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Out on the pull... |
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We are now in Irkirsk and we're going to stay here for two days. We'll be out on the pull tomorrow but unfortunately we've hotel security here. (grog).
Turns out not a problem, everything available in the hotel - EVERYTHING>
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guides
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russian (or american) girls
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lobby in the hotel Ankara
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arrive in Ulaan Baatr |
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| Today we've arrived in UB. Everything went well. We never thought we were going to make it here, but we did. Now we are planning the way home. One possibility is to take the train to Beijing and fly home from there, but for that we first need the chinese visa, we will check this out on friday, when the embassy is open.
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landscape
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irish guys
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more landscape
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landscape
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yaks
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arrived
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handover the car
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Touring Mongolia |
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Position : More than 113deg E.
We went through the savana and ended up towing a Mongolian SUV with 8 to 10 people inside (we couldn't count them because they were moving around so much).
(Andy) |
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new bridge is not finnished
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so we took the old one
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main road to Baruum Urt
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Lost Mongolians
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wild camels
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rental car from CDPF
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Mongolian Savana |
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Back from our 3 day tour through the Gobi Desert. We hired a 4x4 for the journey and it was great fun. We will fly back to Zurich via Berlin on Aug 1.
Grog |
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cranes
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12 lanes to choose from,
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transsib in a straight line
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Arthurs yurt
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deep blue sky
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a rock in the desert
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crane
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big pond |
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| today we first went lost a little bit when we followed a car which looked, he knew the way. But he only went to a meadow to make some photos. Later on we've passed one of the biggest lake in the world, the lake Baikal. Short before Ulan Ude we helped a women to run her car again. |
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end of the road
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back on the track
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lake Baikal
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would you trust this guy?
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tape cars
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heading into Mongolia |
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| We are now finaly in the charity-rally. Today we went in Ulan Ude in a internet cofe to print out the costum paper. (the costum wanted the stamp in red, but with a b/w laser it's not that easy. After 6h waiting we had a second stamp in red, and we could go in. Met some the first others teams. |
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big Lenin head
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bridge not finished
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so we took this one
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noisy bugger
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snake at the border
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jurt
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bit loaded
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Mongolian landscape
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rascal shadow
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landscape
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cowboy
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lazy day |
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| Today we had a lazy day with some shopping and sight seeing |
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typical mongolian vehicle ?!?
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local hats
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our guides from the charity
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local waitress
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into the outback |
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| We went off quite lately. And we got lost. But we followed the GPS wich brought us back to the mainroad. Inbetween we had to return from a pass, because the rocks where a bit to big |
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he`s coming back
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endless Mongolian landscape
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good old gps
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pass
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religion?
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100 km from nowhere
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crossing the desert I |
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| Today we've crossed a part of the desert. We saw a lot of dead animals. The nigth we've spent next to a jurt. We've been invited in, and they gave us something to drink, they called it chai, (tea), we think it was warm sheep or horse milk, certainly not tea. |
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water crossing
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dead camel
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first dunes
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RR with spirit of extasy
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oasis
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again infinite landscape
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sunset at the jurt
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flying home |
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| Today we've flown home. Met some dutch in the aircraft. Got some troubles with the german customs, and nearly missed the connection flight to Zürich. |
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