Marigold fired into life on the
morning of the 44th day with a sense of eagerness we hadn’t seen
from her in a while. This feeling of anticipation translated through to the
rest of the team as we neared the Mongolian border. Russia’s bowling alley roads
continued for a good while towards the forested area of Barangol. Stunning
woody scenery engulfed the meandering valley roads as we snaked between log
cabin towns etched into the impressive slopes. Every now and then you’d catch a
turquoise glint of the river running parallel to the road through densely packed
stretches of conifer trees. For the first time we felt like we were in bear
country.
Craving a short break to stretch the
legs we stopped off at a spot next to a lake. Within minutes we had resumed our
rally obsession of throwing stones at things by the water’s edge. After Alf
proved his worth in a highest skim, most number of skims and largest rock to
achieve a single skim skim-off, we retired back to Marigold rather out of
breath. Although Caleb gets a special mention for his dambusters-esque boulder
bounce, gaining him a perfect ten from the judges.
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| The skim-off |
In the neighbouring town of Karagol we
encountered a rather unusual phenomenon. Hundreds of white moths were suddenly
flinging themselves at our windscreen. At one point the wipers were deployed on
constant to clear the raining moth guts that continued to splatter in front of
us. When we pulled over to fill up, tens of thousands more dead moths were
strewn on the ground all around us. Covering buildings, electricity pylons, gas
station fuel pumps and clogging up our radiator, this town obviously had some
kind of infestation problem. I’d have paid a local Russian a lot of rubles for
one of those electric shock tennis rackets at that moment.
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| Lunch at a trucker cafe |
Feeling high-spirited we suddenly
broke out into a karaoke sing-song to pass the time. Needless to say all the
classics were out in force. Vanessa Carlton tickled the keys to get us warmed
up before Angels was unreservedly belted out like it was the national anthem. Nothing
however can dethrone the Beatles from their title of the most quintessential
climactic karaoke song of all time. Even Russia’s roadside sheep population
joined in with Hey Jude’s crescendo.
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| The straight Russian roads go on forever |
When we eventually rocked up at the
border with Mongolia we were told that it was shut and that camping on the
surrounding army owned land was illegal. Consequently we had to turn back
around and drive 10 km to a town called Kosh-Agach where roadside camping was
permitted. Whilst rooting around for supplies to cook that evening we turned
around to the euphoric sight of a dark green Perodua Kenari carrying a bright
yellow mobility scooter on its roof. Following closely behind was the red
Vauxhall Agila or “Agilles” as it had been named. Team Thunderbirds and Team
Two and a Half Men came screeching into the car park where Marigold was sat and
the original convoy was reunited. Like greeting old friends, it was as if we’d
never been apart.
Once we’d settled on a campsite we set
about preparing dinner. Keen to re-assert our culinary ingenuity on the group,
we brandished our Big Bon instant noodles and lapped up the jealous looks.
Comprised of 75% air, a bar of soap sized portion of sawdust noodles, and one
sachet of sauce that was meant to impart the taste of steak, peppercorn sauce
and vegetables all by itself, expectations were low. Indeed those instincts
turned out to be accurate. It was like eating shoelace and dishwater soup. As
salty goo dripped from our now styleable beards, we looked at each and silently
agreed that Big Bons were one of the many decidedly rogue purchases made on the
rally so far. However, as a sworn enemy to the car slot, it was a relief to
finally get rid of the over-inflated noodle pots that took up so much of our
boot.
Posted by: Rich