MONGOL RALLY. PART 3 — ENTERING RUSSIA
by Alex and Jamie — this story was first published May 17th 2015 @ ElephantBranded.com
EB Challenge Mongol Rally: Part 3 — Entering RUSSIA…
After a relaxing night of roadside lamb, sheisha and the shooing of stray dogs, we all awoke refreshed from our tents having all been tired enough to successfully sleep through the constant howling in the night. We hit the road pretty snappishly and made our way to a second day of mountain driving. The scenery was stunning and despite the early start progress became slow as we were constantly pulling over to take in the vast scenery. One pit-stop near a fairytale lake and a castle gave Alex the long awaited opportunity to purchase the traditional Russian headwear that his soon-be-wed sister had specifically requested for him to bring home to her, and after the finest display of skilled bartering I have ever witnessed, Eagles jumped in the car with no hat in hand and we made our way on the road. I suspect that I have not heard for the last time Alex grumble the words ‘I should have got that hat’ to himself.
Still taking in the scenery, as well as taking in our first risky dose of benzine, we flew down the mountainside and were just about to start the final ascent before Russia, when we noticed a familiar vehicle moving very slowly in the opposite direction. It had appeared that a fellow Mongol Rally team had awoken that morning to hear nothing but a nice healthy clunk at the turn of the ignition and they had been pushing their ice-cream truck down the mountain to the nearest mechanic. We offered a tow and spent another while in a picturesque roadside stop where we all briefly pretended to know something about cars before giving up and running off to paddle in the stream and take pictures on the back of a truck transporting pipeline to the Soviet fatherland.
After another photo-op pit-stop and the essential honey-pot pit-stop, we headed up the final stretch of roadside where teams of workers were digging with picks and shovels along the mountain roadside for miles to install pipeline. For the umpteenth time that day we whizzed around the lorry driver who had been making steady progress throughout all our stops. He offered us one final honk in the name of good banter and as we we began the final descent so did the quality of the roads. We drove through barren towns that existed in the middle of nowhere and seemed to be inhabited only by herds of perfectly inconveniently positioned cows and we neared the Russian border. We queued nervously to leave Georgia while Jamie was already upsetting the guards by sneaking his way into their staff toilets, but we successfully made our way into the no-mans stretch of road that would take us to Russia… where it was all kicking off. I do feel very British when I say this but I do have to say that the further east you go, the less familiar people become with the noble tradition of orderly queuing — we had buses burning out their clutches as lines of cars tried to jump the queue on the wrong side of the road, with men, women and children (and even one baby) getting out onto the road to physically obstruct traffic coming the other way or to stop others from pushing ahead. We were tempted to get involved but decided to sit back, take our time and wait patiently to arrive at the Russian border while enjoying a communal sing-along to the sound of Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Born in the USA’ to pass the time.
Alex and Jamie xx
