Prague to Moscow

Finally internet access!!!
The Prague garage visit of Tom and Tijs resulted in a basic oil change. The required work would take at least ten days so we decided -in the spirit of the rally- not to do anything but wait for the car to break down on our way to Mongolia. Our stringent oil regime -meaning a liter of oil every 200 km- seems to be pleasing Hatsu and if Hatsu is happy we are happy! During our first leg after Prague we had a easy drive to Poland, no hassle at the border (long live the EU!) and the roads were decent (good to be using some roads we paid for...). Hatsu did make some weird new noise. We concluded that must have been the result of the strange chemical substance we bought in Poland and added to the fuel.

Poland
In Poland we decided to use our tents for the first time and looked for a nice camping spot. The only suitable soil we could find was a farmers field in the middle of some woods. Luckily the guy spoke German and he gave us permission to camp anywhere on his land. He also told us it was OK for us to shoot any wild boars we encountered... This resulted in a rather stressful night for the Jet Setters, as the only animal sounds we're used to are the serene sounds of a sissling steak in the pan... (Although Anthony claims he is the Irish Steve Irwin) Anyway, we survived it and on we went to Lithouania. When setting up the tents, preparing dinner, and in fact during the past days the team members are showing their true selves. For some reason sometimes Tom seems to be thinking that we're all on his boat, hence he's acting like der Kapitän Buss. Nothing can be done without the approval, instructions or involment of der Kapitän. A lot of usefull tips and tricks and hey there's nothing wrong with some comittment (except when Tijs is grumpy).

Lithuania
Easy border crossing and impressive landscapes, good infrastructure and friendly people. New country, new weird sound. This time the suspension was making some bizarre sounds, but hey maybe Hatsu was trying to tell us to take it a little easier... So we did. When looking for a camping site we followed a sign that vaguely resembled a tent. We found a beautiful lake with some crap cabins around them, a couple of drunk Lithuanians playing the same boonga boonga tune non stop and a big sign with a phone number on it. Thanks to our phrasebook we managed to bargain the price for a cabin down with 2 euros to a 30 euro tourist rip off rate. We spent the night in a mice infected cabin at the lake. We had a cool night, burning down a tree and rowing on the lake at 1 am to count the falling stars and provide the musquitos with a late night snack...

Estonia
Estonia clearly has less money than Lithuania. We were slowly being prepared for the real crap roads, as sitting in the back of the car equals sitting on a bull that has a lobster hanging on its testicles. Hatsu starts the get some Camel features in the back roof area... (Why did we not bring helmets???)
We found a 'nice' camping spot close to the Russian border in the middle of nowhere. After we setup camp we realised that the middle of nowhere must be somewhere as we either heard some local maffiosi capping some business associates or some hunters killing whatever had a fur or feathers. Given our growing beards this was distressing der Kapitän to the extend he wanted to hunk the horn every 15 mins making sure we not to be mistaken for animals... The Van Santen brothers decided the car needed a higher level of security in this notorious high crime forrest, hence sleeping IN the car would be a good idea.... NOT. For some reason Jesse managed to fold himself into a position on the bench and fall asleep, but Tijs could not fall asleep. If Tijs can't sleep, Jesse is not allowed to sleep...

Russia
5 AM in the morning all of a sudden seemed a perfect time to be packing up and head for the Russian border. This ended up being an extremely good decision, because despite the fact we where there at 7AM and number 5 in the queue, it took us 5 hours, and 10 Russian forms (just in Russian, so for all we know we could have donated all our belongings to Putin now) to get through the border. We also discovered a new disturbing sound which was traced back to the rear axis. This time we were really worried as this could the end of our beloved Hatsu. It turned out to be the start of a hellish day, with roads that had more put holes than the upper legs of a fat 90 year old Babushka. We managed to achieve an average speed of 50 KM/H...ending up driving 450 KM into Russia. We found ourselfs a cosy truckers motel including a brand new disco sauna. Tijs and Jesse didn't notice this new Russian invention at all but der Kapitän and Parslow only fell asleep after 5 AM when they kindly enquired if the Polka tunes could be turned down a little bit.
Despite his lack of mechanical skills Tijs decided to take off one of the rear wheels to give it a thourough inspection the next morning. When he could loosen the knots with his bare hands it became apparent that the source of the disturbing sound wasn't the axil but just a wobbly wheel ready to seperate itself from Hatsu on the highway.

Moscow
Again a new sound. We either have a hole in the exhaust or the fuel we pomped at that dodgy gas station contains lead...
After all our adventures the Jet Setters were in desperate need for some luxury. We booked ourselves a room in the Sheraton Palace. So far we're having a good time. Tom and Anthony are close to death after having clubbed till 6am. Anthony can't stop talking about how great the night was, and how he was dancing like an animal... J and T have missed something good (they bailed at 2 AM), just seeing the Parslow move on some cheezy Moscow tunes is worth a million...
Tom and Anthony asked reception at 6 AM for a 8 AM wake up call, so they could go to the Mongolian embassy to sort out Tom's visa. They're still there. We (J&T) are going to look for a garage and a hard needed laundrette.

Last but not least, it's unlikely that we would have made it so far without the invaluable help from our 5th team member: Chris! Chris has been helping us with avoiding bears & wolves, booking hotels, giving weather updates, looking up technical car data, providing mental support and so much more. Only a week before we can close him into our arms...

Next blog will hopefully be from Kazakhstan!

To be continued...

J&T