At the airport

So we've got 8 hours to kill at bucharest airport so I thought I would write a short update. There may be more later depending on how much sleep I get, and how much beer I drink...

We've spent the last few days visiting some of the projects our efforts and your kind donations will be supporting.

I think we are all impressed with the work of Moldolvan Ministries and Children on the Edge. we would also like to thank our hosts at the Betania Church in Chisneau for their warm welcome and hospitality, and personnally Matt and myself would like to thank Anton and his family for having us stay the last few days.

So the adventure is nearly over! It seems very strange we left Hyde Park 3 weeks. It seems an age away but also just like yesterday! we've crammed in a lot and I think I will be spending the bank holiday Monday uploading all my photos....

Thanks again to all those who have made this trip possible, and to all those who have kindly donated to some great causes. Again, full thanks and update when I get near a computer.
Gaz

Russian Internet Cafes are Rubbish

Apologies. I have a huge amount of photos to add but I can't. Just paid for an hours worth of internet at our hotel in Moscow and spent ages editing my photos to just upload the best selection, only to find these computers don't have the right plug-in for facebook and they won't allow you to upload it.

So rather than spend ages uploading each image one by one i'm just going to moan instead :-)

Anyway, other than internet access things are going well. All the cars seem to still be working (some with more issues than others) and we've had a great few days in Russia. St Petersburg and Moscow are definitely worth visiting.

The pace is slowing a bit now, which isn't a bad thing as i think teams are starting to flag. We have two days to make it down to Kiev, and then another to do the short trip to Moldova. We're already starting to plan various Top Gear-esque challenges for the cars once we get there, including drag races and stopping distances. Watch this space for the results.

Hopefully I'll be able to upload some more photos at some point. I'll just chuck one in of Red Square here.

So, some thoughts/impressions so far (bear in mind I've had a few beers):

We're the only team to not have a proper SAT NAV (although we have used google maps a couple of times)

Matt is the youngest person doing the rally, and i'm the oldest. Not sure what that says about our combined mental ages...

Russian roads are MENTAL!

But Russia is really cool.

Camping in Finland is really cold at this time of the year.

We've been amazing luckly with the weather - mainly sun all the way.

We've also been lucky with the cars, especially when taking them out in the snow and getting them stuck in massive drifts on the side of frozen lakes.

We didn't see the Northern Lights :-(

Pete Loz had to bribe a Russian policeman to let him off being booked for speeding :-)

F*cking sh*t computer won't even allow me to add a photo to this blog. So i think at this point I'll call it a night. Will try to upload photos and videos at the soonest opportunitiy.

Gaz

Photos now uploaded

Internet access isn't as regular as we would have liked. Have now managed to upload two new photo sets to Facebook.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=239593&id=684650267&l=b799b17de9

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=239596&id=684650267&l=b3f63d235c

More when we get to St Petersburg!
Gaz

Off Roading and breaking the Arctic Circle

We're now pretty adpet at the lovely clear Finnish and Swedish roads up here so decided it'd be a good idea to do a bit of green laning, scandanavian style. Using our rest day well we set out with the Vauxhal, Rialto and Nissan to find some fresh snow.
After a lot of thrashing about logging tracks and avoiding skimobiles we were told by a helpful local that the polive would impound our cars if we were found. A speedy exit later and we discovered a veritable playground, perfect for trying those handbrake turns and rally manouvers. Sadly this led to a 3 car pile up with the Vaxhaul hitting the Rialto and the Nissan then piling into the back of the Vaxhaul. Sum total of damage being a wrecked rialto boot, a trashed front headlight for the nissan and not a scratch on the Vaxhaul. At the same time we were seeing how far we could push the AX. Famous last words of "I wonder if we can get across this drift if we go fast enough" led to being towed out by the 4x4.

All in all a fun day.

Throughout our adventures up north we've been trialling the Lookfly base layers. They've made it through the ice hotel, blizzards and even a day on the ski slopes and the verdict is they really work. With temperatures as low as -5 we've been toasty.

Sadly the Library's free internet has no USB so the photos and videos will have to wait.

Matt

Reindeer baby!

Just a quick post from the Library at Kiruna, as we've borrowed someone's computer. Photo of the Ice Hotel below, pretty damn cool! Hoping to do a snowmobile trip tonight and maybe see the northern lights, and then on to Finland tomorrow.

Leaving the others behind...

Having caught up with the Volvo and Nissan on the way to Stockholm we decide we can't hang around for the slow teams...