Blog - GO-60

Fri 18th July At last something is beginning to happen. We were rang early by Chien to say that the vehicles were going to come across soon. 'Soon’ turned out to be early afternoon with a morning of waiting, wondering and playing cards. It felt as this was going to...

Wed 16 July We met at 9am this morning and, in the absence of food at our hotel, walked the 70m to the nearby hotel. Our usual breakfast of omelette was served (two fried eggs, dry bread, and soy sauce) whilst plans were made for the day. A bit of...

Day 8 Refreshed after a great day yesterday we set off for one of the largest cities in China and apparently one of the nicest also, a place called Xian. The roads today were in bad condition and also very slow as the work men were out trying to improve...

Mon 14th July The plan was to get an early start today, meeting our interpreter at 7am to get to the customs office early. I met Steve, Ian and Pete and we waited. And waited. And waited. Just before 9am, he appeared and off we went to speak to the...

Awoke to horns blaring (the usual) in the street outside and found it was about 11am. Sleep had been ok. Steve knocked the door and told us a large party are coming in today and we have to get out ‘sharpish’. Yet another quick move, stuff everything into the bags...

Leg 4 of Land Rover GO60 Expedition, July 2008 Tue 8th and Wed 9th July After all the planning, and ups and downs of the first 3 legs, Leg 4 is finally off – or at least Leg 4 is finally leaving in readiness for the ‘off’. As I arrived...

Day 5. Approx 950KM (could this be the record drive to date?) I shall fill you in on our progress since the last blog; the officials at the licensing building stayed open late just for us and we finally got our licences at 21:00. We said we would take the...

Day 4. I woke up early this morning, feeling slightly refreshed and ready to enjoy the day hopefully in China. Our guide said he would meet us about 10:00 and so we set off to find some breakfast. All the little shops looked alike and so we plumpted for one...

Woke up early at 6am, looking forward to the day ahead! No food for breakfast again, custard creams will be our substance until we cross the border. We arrived at the Kazakhstan border at 8am and whisked through without ant problems, we drove through no mans land and arrived at...

It hadn't felt like ten minutes since I went to bed when the alarm went off for an early start with the Land Rover dealer. We were collected from the centrally located hotel and returned to the garage where we collected our serviced vehicles and headed in convoy to the...

Sunrise in the canyon was a spectacular affair – but we were all asleep for it. We arose an hour later in the baking sun to pack up camp for the last time on the expedition. As we left, the team had some fun driving through the canyon and getting...

We left the yurt after a breakfast of fried eggs, bread and sour yoghurt drink to stop at the lakeside just down the track. The inviting water was still and clear lapping on a beach shoreline but belied the freezing cold water. We braved it and swam and washed for...