After Slovenia we had a couple of days in Austria, two in Germany and three in Belgium, all mostly sunny.
When we arrived home in the afternoon on 11 October we had completed 17,248 miles (27,596 km). During the whole trip we did not dare mention the ‘P word’ in case we tempted bad luck but it can now be revealed that during all this distance we did not have a single puncture, either to the Land Rover or the Tab. That’s despite about 3000 miles of off-road driving and more than 6000 miles of very poor roads. We had a few other mechanical and electrical issues with the Land Rover, as recorded in the blog, but on what was to be our last day on the channel coast of Belgium the vacuum pump burst losing all the engine oil. This serious problem required an expensive garage visit, and a day’s delay, almost in sight of the Dunkerque ferry to Dover.
Of the 180 days spent away 31 were in western and eastern Europe, 15 in Ukraine, 37 in Kazakhstan, 42 in Russia and 54 in Mongolia. Accommodation was by 93 wild camps (includes four in a tent), 24 camps at truck stops and various unofficial sites, 31 camps at commercial camp sites and 32 nights in hotels (included 3 nights in a Ger in Mongolia).
There may be further postings to this blog, for example there are a few accidental omissions and a few embarrassing out-takes if we can bring ourselves to share them.
A huge thanks to every one for the terrific support we got from friends, neighbours and relatives as well as many complete strangers who stumbled across our blog. We would also like to mention the excellent service and help provided by Real Russia when it came to getting visas and many questions we had about our time in Russia; much help and support kindly given by Bill Munns at CAMDA, a charity established to help Mongolian herders - see www.camda.org.uk and special thanks to Goyo of Goyo Travel who provided much assistance before and during our stay in Mongolia. For anyone interested in visiting Mongolia we recommend that you check out their website www.goyotravel.com (also facebook.com/goyotravel).
Inspirational, expertly crafted Mongolia group tours,
private & tailormade journeys by Goyo Travel
Our pics of the last leg:
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| Austria - a very neat country, even on allotments |
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| Gorge at St Johanne |
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Views from our camp site at St Johanne |
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| Highland cattle have been imported to Austria to enhance the overall neatness with cute cows. |
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| A couple of pictures of Saarburg in Germany (near Luxembourg) |
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| The last butterfly of the trip - a Speckled Wood on the camp site notice board in Belgium |
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| Disaster in Belgium - the Land Rover is towed off to a garage with a burst vacuum pump. |
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| The homecoming - in light rain just like when we left! |
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