Welcome back to the CrossCountry Rebels..

It was this time last year that we were gearing up to drive an old ambulance from England to Mongolia for a laugh. Actually for charity and we managed to raise £5,000. The royal 'we' I talk about is: myself Eliza, Jo, Gussy, Todd, Charlie and Roland. (Three boys and three girls if you were confused) The archive to the right is where to click if you want to start the journey chronologically. There are quite a few treats along the way and some real characters but I thought I'd start by extending a welcome we received from someone called Babylov:










The adventure started with fish and chips at Dover and ended with tinned tuna in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. The route spanned half way across the globe and with every border we crossed Dora, our ambulance, seemed more determined to stop using a part of her engine. Her motive: just to make things more interesting...I like to think. In Greece I broke the front axle by driving straight onto a beach. Subsequently our maximum speed limit was 45 mph for the next two months. (The garage in Greece told us that we either pay £1000 for a repair or if we drove at 45mph we would just about reach Russia) We took the risk and made it all the way! In Turkey the battery blew up. Uzbekistan the side door fell off. In Kazakhstan two wheels punctured and one rolled smoothly away. Turkmenistan we lost the back door. The back suspension soon came through the floor and broke in Russia. FINALLY in Mongolia the brakes and lights stopped working. But we didn't give up and got towed dust streaming through the many holes in Dora 24 hours to the finish line by two separate cars. The first one's engine burnt out because of the sheer weight of towing us and the second managed to succeed!

One story that deserves a place on the blog is from our ten days driving through Iran. To paint a picture of the climate and reception we got as Westerners I will use this example: all officials when inspecting our passports (which was twice a day because we were constantly pulled over) asked us to repeat 'America is evil.' In a few sentences Iran was: the hottest place in the world and we had no air conditioning. The girls weren't allowed to drive and wore full hijab. We found amazing salt plains and the landscape would veer between mountains, to sand dunes and to city built into the rock face. It was also we were rescued by the kindest man in the world: Danial Danesh.

From left to right: Jo, Gussy and me. In our hijabs.

Picture this: six students from England. We were moneyless because we had to pay a 'fine' for driving a diesel vehicle of £300 and that was all our collective money for the Iran leg of the journey. Iranian banks don't take Western debit cards so we have £50 for the rest of the drive to buy food, water and fuel.

We had managed to drive two days to Tehran and spend half our bugdet on suspect ful prices.The radiators blew as we were driving on the motorway outside Tehran. There was smoke billowing out of our engine and we thought it was from the engine so ran from Dora clutching the gas cooker. After fleeing from her into three lanes of motorway traffic we realised, well the boys did, that it was the radiator and our quick escape was actually rather embarrassing. Waiting with our hazards on we sat. None of us had any idea what we were waiting for AA don't extend their service to Iran. But low and behold a swanky looking Jeep pulled up.

Out came a God... (The below picture is from left to right: Jo, Me, Danial, his flatmate Azad, Todd and Charlie)

This deity was dressed is aviators, a tight shirt unbuttoned half way and chinos despite the heat. (Which clearly meant he existed in an air conditioned world of offices and villas..we assumed) Danial called his equivalent of the AA, had Dora patched up and offered us a place to stay. As we trundled up through Tehran the makeshift housing turned to walled gardens. We meet his family and went to supper with them. We went round Tehran with him and listened to how he 'was in oil' but wanted to be an interior designer. Daniel also leant us some money and packed us on our way. We advised us to stay in the ambulance at all times, especially the girls. When we went out in public with him he asked us to wear extra scarves over our heads, wear socks to cover the tiniest flash of ankle and long sleeved jumpers despite the heat. However regardless of this precaution we attracted the wrong sort of attention.



The second evening we stayed with Daniel we were on our way to meet his family for supper. Having headed to our ambulance to put on some more layers of clothing. Police sirens sounded and a police motorbike pulled up to us. Two officers jumped off. They were really angry shouting and shaking their fists at us. Daniel stepped in and took them behind the ambulance and away from us. He last explained that two neighbours from the apparently looking down on where the ambulance was parked had called the police. They had reported us as behaving 'indecently.' (when myself and the girls were putting on more layers the boys had been in the ambulance with us and despite not taking any clothes off we were facing charges) Daniel managed to calm them down with whatever persuasion it took and reverse the six month jail sentence we were looking at.




After supper that evening we drove 30 hours straight to get out of Iran and two months later the British Embassy issued a statement saying they have no jurisdiction in Iran and the embassy was stormed. In a sense it was the last time any British residents could have travelled through. Iran is the most beautiful country to drive through just not with a British passport. 

Jo trying out some alternative travel options when our brakes finally failed in the middle of the Mongolian desert. 

46 days on the road

First things first we're in MONGOLIA! 10 and a half thousand miles. The CrossCountry Rebels have finally arrived. Well if crossing the border after two failed visas and a quick two day dash to and from the nearest cash point in Russia to bribe the border guards counts! The roads have dropped away and dirt tracks wind up the mountains in front of us .Even at our average speed of 18mph Dora (who ironically now has no working doors in the back) sounds like she's being rattled apart slowly. There's another 2000km until Ulaanbaatar,(the capital and finishing line) We have no doubt that this leg of the adventure will be the toughest yet.

 Russia was something quite phenominal, the mountain road that winds south to the mongolian boarder was breath taking. This is where we camped near the Russia-Mongolia border. It was like the beginnings of the earth. The water was so cold our bodies were numb within 30 seconds of trying to wash. Another round of 'tuna rice' and cards was our last night in Russia. And of course the bottle of vodka the Russian police gave us when they pulled us over earlier that day. It would be rude not to accept it..

Wish us luck as the picture below is the tracks we are navigating in Mongolia. Suddenly the idea of just having a compass is fairly daunting. But with no road signs and 70% of the population living in yurts the adventure takes a turn for the daunting!

Finally to catch a video of Dora being towed across a river please feel free to turn down the volume of my terrible commentary..http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=1958158886263&set=vb.1611480045&type=2&theater

A picture of the dashboard and how many miles old Dora has done! 

The Mystery Cargo

After nine border crossings and two and half thousand miles we have discovered a secret cargo has been stashed in Dora. We have in fact successfully smuggled a few risky stowaways. After a few tell tale signs the secret stash came to light....and what better place to unveil it than in Greece. A sheepish confession from yours truly Mr Roland Wood revealed that he, and therefore we, have been smuggling an army of the Queen Majesty’s finest headlıce which are now chomping their way through the six of us. Armed with a bucket of ointment and packet of fine combs.... let the battle commence!

Above is Dora in all her glory basking in the sun. Inside the back of her is an aeroplane seat purchased from another bizarre auction, a sofa bed and a beanbag or seating. We really are living the camper’s dream. Below are the boys reading as Guss and I take the wheel!

Below: 'Man make fire!' 

Next stop Iran!

With one day before we make the border crossing to Iran at feels like the perfect time to reflect on our Europe adventure. Having been on the road for 16 days it is safe to say that the number of break downs have increased to almost daily since we ventured through Istanbul to Asia. Dora has proved to be a little madam!

Yesterday (8th August) we camped by a beautiful stream in the rolling hills in Western Turkey (the landscape looks like the Nevada Desert) and woke to the temperatures of 30 degrees. Dora clearly enjoyed our little spot so much that she point blank refused to start. So Todd and Jo trundled off to find help. 20 minutes later a Turkish man in his 50s rolled up in a beat up car gesturing that we should all get in. With Todd and Jo's reassurance we piled in. After a short drive we arrived at a beautiful farmhouse. There were cows being milked, a bee hive, a horse pulling a cart loaded with hay, chickens clucking around, storks with their nests high on the roof and wild flowers growing all over the buildings and as far as the eye could see. First the man led us to a row of cages with guinea fowl, rabbits and a number of other large birds. All communication was through smiling and hand gestures. As he led us round the farm he spoke and we nodded with no idea what he was saying! The tour of the farmyard led us to plenty more members of his family, with the women tending to the livestock and other men riding on old tractors through the courtyard. When we reached the house, he gestured for us to sit on a large bench covered with large cushions and immediately a young girl (about 18) bought us eggs, bread, apricots in honey, cheese, tomatoes and olives. The food they explained was all produced on the farm. A small group of about 8 other family members appeared and sat on chairs slightly away from the table and watched, smiling as we ate with the head of family. There was a lot of laughter as we tried to communicate. We tried to offer them something in return as a thank you but they firmly refused it. The whole experience was incredible. We got back on the road a few hours later with a taste of what is to come as we enter the Middle East.

One of the many jump starts we got that day!

Slovakia is not for the faint hearted

The six of us..

Rolling around Europe with only a compass is proving to be more of challenge than anticipated. Our route has rocketed from Dover to Prague to Budapest with multiple games of twenty questions, storms, a towing, a clamping, a graphitised ally with ‘profound’ fortune tellers and into Slovakian campsites which lock their steely perimeters around you at eleven.

We have started trading in the tarmac roads and regular road signs for an altogether more remote style of getting around. Our first encounter with such a place came after we had cooked ‘tuna rice’ for the fourth night and the boys revolted. (Tuna rice can be cooked in a variety of ways but the essential ingredients are rice, tuna, water, salt and pepper. The deviations of it can contain chilli!) As you can tell the spice of life is indeed ours. So having sniffed out a concrete block of buildings with a tattered flag outside boasting of food we immediately stopped.  In the restaurant, which had no menus so I’m unsure of whether it was one, we had hot food!  This miscommunication of lack there of is an example of how the language barrier is becoming harder and harder. On finishing our feast the owner of the ‘restaurant’ swept towards us with a bottle of rather potent locally brewed wine (Raki) and the visitor’s book. Yet another interesting way to communicate!  After an awkward send off, as I Dora backed into a wall, we were pursued by an increasingly violent storm. The lighting was a phenomenon that not one of us had witnessed before. Simultaneously three or four bolts ripped down through the inky sky lighting up large patches of amber. We stopped at a campsite at midnight, set up six camping chairs in a row and gazed until Woods whimpering climaxed with him bolting to the tent. 

The picture below is from the back of the ambulance in Slovakia. 

Let me introduce you to Dora..

This is Dora on the open road..

Dora the Explorer is the name of our trusty stead. She stands majestically with a white paint coat with a green strip round the middle of her body. A suggestion of her former glory as an emergency vehicle. The back was empty apart from a rogue industrial sized vat of hand sanitizer (which we’ve kept) and a long collapsible ramp. Bizarrely we managed to shift the ramp a mere two miles down the road from the ambulance auction. Having pulled into a petrol station to fill up and buy the necessary snacks for the two hour journey back we were approached by a man wearing not only a denim jacket and matching jeans but also a denim tie. After a few niceties he cracked down to business: ‘I’ll give you £50 for the ramp.’ The rest is history. Maybe it’s a bad omen that we started to sell off parts of Dora before we’d even left the country.  But I challenge you to resist an all denim wearing Welshman.

The Mongol Rally and our Big Idea

Welcome to the CrossCoutry Rebels! (welcome welcome welcome). We are six students from Manchester and our challenge this summer is The Mongol Rally.
Our plan is to drive a route that spans from England to Mongolia in order to raise (we hope) a significant amount of money for our chosen charities. The Cystic Fibrosis Trust and DISCs. Click here to visit our donations page.

Let me expand on the challenge that is fast approaching! Firstly we've decided to drive an ambulance across the dusty deserts to the finish line. Our intention beingto donate the vehicle to the Mongolian emergency services. This recent purchase, from a bizarre auction in North Wales, gave us an idea of the tales that the trip will leave us with. As we waltzed or rather trundled back to Manchester at a steady 50mph the idea that we'd be driving the 10,000 miles in a matter of weeks materialized. The first video was filmed and we hope to document every story from the exploring, to Roland's driving and Todd's rule of no maps.

We leave on the 23rd July at Goodwood with a box of tools and a few packed lunches in the knowledge that there will be as many obstacles as adventures in the coming months. This will be the place to check in as we check out. Please help support us on this campaign!

Our route...