It seems fitting that our final day of the rally proved to be the longest and consisted of the most breakdowns yet – all thanks to the Rialto of course.
Continue Reading »

It was a long long drive (slightly longer for some due to Jon’s map reading) but all of the teams have arrived safely in Moldova. It has been an eventful day including yet more breakdowns but all the cars made it. The Rialto finally gave up 30k’s from Chisinau loosing brakes, engine power and the clutch so had to be towed the finally stretch by the Frontera.

The teams finally got into Chisinau at 2am… a mere 8 hours later than planned.

We will produce a full report tomorrow.

All of the teams have finally made it to Kiev, the last destination on our 4500mile journey. Tomorrow we face the final hurdle, the Moldova border crossing.

One of the rally charities, Moldova Ministries, will be meeting us as the border of Moldova. Following the fun experienced by the teams at the Ukrainian border, the Moldovan boarder could be a mixed bag and all are looking forward to it.

Its been a long couple of weeks of driving and the final destination is now in sight…. amazingly all the cars have made it this far but there is still time for some more breakdowns yet!

The alarm went off at 6:30, what joy!! We snuck out from our beds to hit the roads of St Petersburg before rush hour, the beginning of a very very long days drive. Generally we started well, the cars were where we left them (which is always useful) we loaded up and went straight through St Petersburg with little problems. The roads were not in as bad condition as we first thought, so we put the ‘pedal to the metal’ or the ‘pedals ass to the fibre glass’ for team Hog Lumps.

Unfortunately at this junction Spanners and Pants were pulled over for speeding (naughty naughty), caught red handed at 95kph in a 60kph zone (oops). Continue Reading »

Follow a successful border crossing, the teams have been on a much required rest day in St Petersburg.

St Petersburg comes highly recommended from all the teams as a very interesting city with a great deal of culture. It really is a great city with a lot of interesting things to see. Many of the buildings harp back to ‘old Russia’ and the culture of communism is still very much in the air.
Continue Reading »

All the teams are now making their way from Helsinki to St Petersburg through the Russian border. This involves lots of exciting form filling and bureaucracy that only years of Communism can create.

To keep you entertained in our absence, we have produced a short video of Dave singing about stealing food that was recorded during journey south through Finland.

Continue Reading »

With the Arctic circle firmly under our belts, the teams have removed their belts all together with a team sauna in Helsinki! We managed to achieve 30 minutes at a painful 85degs celcius before an ice cold shower - thats a whole lot of man in a small room!

The Teams have finally made it across the Arctic circle - challenge 1 is complete

After a snowy drive north to Rovaniemi, the teams assembled at the Rudolf Hostel before preparing to drive the last 6km north to the Arctic Circle line.

Surrounded by the kind of tatt you would expect at such attractions as Lands End, the teams are pictured here either side of the official line.