Latest News
08/15/10 by Ross Shepley-Smith in | Expedition Updates, Stage 2 : Moscow to Beijing | 1 Comment »
High point: Run club. Finally, finally we managed to fit some proper exercise in and we all attempted to go running today.I think attempted is probably the right word as the air pollution in Gorno-Altaisk is pretty high (even the Lonely Planet which is normally so complementary about everything calls this place ‘a concrete scare on the landscape’), it affected our breathing, so what was discussed as a good quick 10km run turned into more of a shorter plod. Oh well at least we gave it a go!
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08/14/10 by Dave Orders in | Expedition Updates, Stage 2 : Moscow to Beijing | Comments Off on Day 28 – Novobinsk to Barnaul
High point: So while Ben was taking a stupid amount of time wandering around Novo trying to change Kazak Tenge into USD a Russian Wedding party stumbled across Martha. What a start to the day – you have to check out the pictures below.
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08/13/10 by Paul Barham in | Expedition Updates | 2 Comments »
“One evening in June 2009, shortly before Garth passed away, Steve came over for dinner and was talking about his idea for an expedition. It was something that he had discussed with his Dad to try and raise his spirits. It did seem like a mad idea, but something he was pretty set on trying.”
To Steve and the crew it’s quite overwhelming to sit back and think about the kindness, generosity and selfless contribution from friends, family as well as complete strangers all giving so much for the cause. There are of course countless numbers of people that have made this expedition possible.
Nay and Jimmy Dare are two of these people.
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08/13/10 by Ben Haslett in | Expedition Updates, Stage 2 : Moscow to Beijing | 1 Comment »
High Point – The city of Novobinsk. Surprisingly impressive with tree-lined streets, pleasant parks and a far more western feel to it than some of the cities we have experienced many miles earlier. Top restaurant, great bars and a plentiful supply of vodka.
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08/12/10 by James Morrow in | Expedition Updates, Stage 2 : Moscow to Beijing | 1 Comment »
High Point : Finally Getting out of Omsk after a 2 hours drive around the town!!
Low Point : Realising it was “slightly” my fault that we were driving around Omsk for 2 hours…
No Point : Why does Steve ALWAYS leave one sock around on the floor when he leaves anywhere.
Russian Word of the day : Imodium…. Thank God its pronounced the same !!
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08/11/10 by Ross Shepley-Smith in | Expedition Updates, Stage 2 : Moscow to Beijing | 4 Comments »
High point: THE BORDER CROSSING without doubt, 3 hours 55 mins (Ben won the FTFE crew bet…again). The Kazakhs were so friendly on the border, and Martha got her usual fan club, and to be fair, as it was such a quiet border even the Russians were really nice and chatty. The usual problem of the carnet (Martha’s passport) wasn’t an issue as we were duly informed that it was still open for Russia. One could look at this as an error, I think it was a lucky bonus. Everyone was a winner!
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08/10/10 by Steve Moore in | Expedition Updates, Stage 2 : Moscow to Beijing | 2 Comments »
High point: The remoteness of the route. Bumping along down a dirt track that looks like she was made only for Martha. This is what she was made for and boy does it show. Boooo motorways, rejoice dirt tracks.
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08/09/10 by Dave Orders in | Expedition Updates, Stage 2 : Moscow to Beijing | Comments Off on Day 23 – Kostanai to Darobestja
High point: After several hours on the open road the boys were probing the land for the real Kazakhstan. Captain Steve took the wheel and also the initiative and randomly pulled a left at the only village we’d seen in the last 50 clicks. It turned out to be a beautiful decision. I think he’d had a few too many coffees and the chat and enthusiasm was coming on thick so the crew were quickly motioned into action. The locals, I think, were scared having never seen a European before, ever. We were greeted with trepidation but the cricket set was pulled from the back of Martha and quickly set up to include the village kids (Adults were coming back from a day’s farming to ensure we weren’t going to steal them). For the cricket, It’s safe to say it wasn’t your classic field setting, but I’m pretty sure the next Kazakhstan version of Brian Lara has been scouted. Hand eye co-ordination was incredible! By this stage the most incredible thing had happened. We found a young lad who had spoken English. There were seriously less than 100 people in this village. After explaining our story we were given a personal tour to the lake that was about 2km off the main trucking route. It was the most amazing campsite yet there were no other campers. The sun set on one side of the lake and rose the next morning on the other. Complete unobstructed by any building or man-made structure. Incredible.
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08/08/10 by Ben Haslett in | Expedition Updates | Comments Off on Day 22 – Komsomolets to Kostanai
High point: Upon arrival at our first hotel in Kazakhstan, all seemed pretty standard. Yeah, the fluorescent green paint in the rooms was pretty bright, and reminiscent of an episode of Only Fools and Horses. But, late on, after our hotel transformed into the local banging nightclub playing all types of Kazakhi-Ruski hardcore, and Dave was apprehended by the gang of local hoodlums (average age 11) we knew we’d stumbled across a real gem. Very funny. He’s still not recovered.
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08/08/10 by Paul Barham in | Expedition Updates | 2 Comments »
The expedition was only 4 days old when news came back from somewhere in Switzerland that a leak had been spotted in Martha’s fuel tank, and as Steve so eloquently put it they were “in a bit of a pickle”.
This was supposed to be the easy part and they were only 500km in, on smooth roads. Whilst most of us cursed our misfortune and held our breath for the latest news on how bad it was, there was one man in Bognor Regis that on reading the news rocked back into his chair a very proud man.
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