Welcome back to the Thursday Rally Photo. It has been awhile since I posted one of these. We have been getting a little bit more attention for our exploits during the Mongol Rally and it seemed appropriate to resurrect this little feature.

I took this shot on the side of the Trans Siberian Highway. You can tell it is an important road, you know the only East West road in Russia, by the high quality material and excellent condition. That train in the background is the famous Trans Siberian Trailway. I bet those fire trucks were heading to Sakhalin to fight all the fires the Russians are sure to cause with their new pipeline.

This is the point that the Seat (in white) ceased to operate. We worked on her like mad men until it was deemed that there was no time left (our visas for Russia were about to expire and we faced Siberian prison). We ended up driving straight through from this point in the Fiesta (in blue) and made the border about 20 hours later. 15 minutes before they shut down for the day.

High quality photo here.

Full size photo click here
I am not too sure who took this shot, I think it was Andy. This is on the outskirts of Volgograd in Russia on our second morning in Russia. The night before we were wading our way through police stops and the blackness of the Russian countryside when a belt on the Mini Scamp snapped. The Scamp boys had been through a lot that day, multiple suspension fixes and were less than enthused with yet another issue. Dom and I jumped in with a roll of pantyhose, yes pantyhose. Now you probably think that pantyhose are only useful as filters for intakes and yeah for leggings. Surprisingly, pantyhose work really well as belt replacements. That is if you wind the hose ultra tight before tying them off. We failed this critical step and the hose snapped about 50 miles later.

The next morning we had to push start the Scamp in the countryside. The wanderer, also known as Pat, is seen here losing interest and wandering off as we push away. Another excellent part of this photo is the myriad of power/phone poles dotting the countryside. So Russian it hurts.

So here is the first edition of Thursday Rally Photo during the Fiesta Movement. This was shot in Kazakhstan by Vaughn on real film, man 2006 was a long time ago.

Earlier in the day some random guy in Aktobe had professed to the road's phenomenally phenomenal condition, claiming "yeah sure, road good, president use all time." And like the rookies we are, we believed him. Now to be fair, we had consumed a fried chicken off the hood of the SEAT in the train station parking lot, so insanity from chicken grease was certainly a possibility. I think that same random guy took Neil and James to the airport as their Mini Scamp had exploded into flames somewhere in West-ish Kaz the day prior. I am not too sure, once again blame the grease.

Full Size Here
This is one heck of a mundane and boring photo without some explanation.

We arrived in Bishkek, Krazystan (aka Kyrgyzstan) a battered and beat bunch of grubby ralliers. We had survived 7 days in Kazakhstan, lost one car to a fire, a couple springs, and the Fiat was patched with condom. We looked the part.

''But right now it seems the world's turned upside down, I got to hope that better times will come around, not going to stop and let the hard times drag me down, you know I'll be home soon'' - Sven Curth