Photos from the final leg

Ukraine Farm Cart

Myrtle has her prop shaft repaired in Poland

Israeli remembrance ceremony at Auschwitz-Birkenau

Colditz Castle

The first bar in France

Place Vendome arrival (1)

Place Vendome arrival (2)

The final leg

We left Kiev in some sunshine, but the weather soon deteriorated, and after a somewhat less than pleasant stop by a Ukrainian policeman who queried everything- and possibly wanted a bribe to let us go on but he got nothing- we ended up getting caught in a tremendous thunderstorm, and got soaked. The weather then remained cloudy, wet, cold and windy till we reached west Germany, so we made as much speed as we could and reached Paris one week after leaving Kiev.

Total mileage to date is 7196, Myrtle has drunk 870 litres of fuel and Kotka has been slightly less thirsty on 863
We have averaged overall some 37mpg which is actually very good indeed.
Average time from getting on the road in the morning to stopping at night has been 11 hours- usually 7am till 6pm
We have managed more than 300 miles in a day just six times, daily average has been nearer 200

Damage-

Kotka
Broken universal joint on prop shaft-repaired
Twice prop shaft needed other adjustment
Starter packed up- we have push started in the morning for weeks, though thereafter the crank handle works once engines warm.
Distributor needed packing as it became very loose
Possible broken rear spring leaf- needs investigation at home
Broken steering arm in Gobi desert-repaired in sandstorm
Severe engine oil leaks- we just have to put up with them! Gaskets have been replaced and bolts tightened but to no effect, and further tightening could fracture a bolt. Our supply of 30 grade oil should just about get us home.


Myrtle
Speedo broke
Starter packed up- as above
As above re distributor
Prop shaft needed adjustment
Brakes pretty well not operating at all- everything adjusted and cleaned but still not working properly
Petrol pump packed up- although a spare was carried we have not fitted this and Myrtle has run well enough on gravity feed alone
Severe engine oil leaks- as above

We left Kiev- see above- and soon on a very goood road which meant that for the first time we could actually look at the scenery rather than scan the road ahead for holes. Very pretty- lots of horse qnd carts, cows ambling along the verges, storks feeding young in nests, lots of corn fields mixed in with woodland- but no fences or hedges so how do you know who owns what? The storks seem to nest mainly on electricity pylons by the roadside; with the wires passing thorugh the nests- so how do they avoid electrocution?  The Ukrainers in this area all seemed so pleased to see us, every town we passed through people would wave, and cheer.

We stayed near Lviv, and intended to leave before 7am but found we were locked into our motel, and had to wait for the owner to turn up some 30 minutes later, after we had hailed some herdsmen from our window and - in sign language- explained our predicament!. We wanted to see central Lviv, a world heritage site, but cobbles and tram lines put paid to that idea, so we set out for the Poland border only to get lost and then be misdirected by a local to the wrong border crossing, necessitating a 40 mile detour back to our intended route.

The road to the border was dreadful, and when we arrived at the border there was an enormous queue, but the locals beckoned us on so we bypassed everyone, only to be accosted by a unsympathetic Polish border guard who insisted on going through all our papers in minute detail.

Crossed into Poland and obviously much more prosperous...roads perfect from now on, everything tidy, and an end to lumps of concrete, bits of brick and dust.  Much much less hooting from passing traffic, so nerves began to settle. Russia was actually quite expensive but Ukraine and Poland were very reasonable; with a good hotel costing about thirty pounds a night and a good meal for two about seven pounds.

Next day very wet, having to shelter under a bridge at one stage as could not see where we were going. Visited a salt mine near Cracow, then to Auschwitz/Birkenau. Very difficult to explain the feeling one got standing on a railway siding where mothers and children were  separated from fathers and sent off to be gassed. How would you feel if it had been you?

Birkenau is absolutely huge, Auschwitz, a former Polish army barracks, quite small. There were few visitors, but the Israeli armed forces were having a memorial srvice at Birkenau as we arrived. Dull and wet, but we were alive, well fed, and going home.

Myrtle's prop shaft slopping about so we stopped at a little garage where it just happened that a Pole who worked in Northampton was having some work done on his car having retuned home to visit his family, so he could translate our problem, which was soon fixed, free.

More rain and high winds next day 1st July crossing into Germany where prices much much higher, with same sort of hotel costing twice as much and food about four times as much as Poland and Ukraine.

2 July cold and drizzly, visited Colditz Castle much of which was unfortunately shut for a festival that afternoon. Much bigger than we expected, and now heavily restored. There are windfarms everywhere, almost never out of sight of one. Clearly there are not the same planning problems here.

3 July the awful weather is getting us both down. Pass Koblenz and at last SUN. Pass by wooded "mountains", lovely valleys with vineyards, cross the Moselle at Trier then into Luxembourg. Our Tom Tom has begun to work- a good thing as the roads here are like twisted maccaroni and very very difficult to read a map.Shortly into Belgium then into France and a stop at the first bar- at Montmedy, where we stopped on our P2P of 2007. Very pretty area- Ardennes.

4 July set off for Reims, beautiful countryside, lots of woods, green valleys, pretty stone villages. A hare bounds out in front of me, rears up for a quick look at Kotka, and scurries off into a golden wheat field. Lots of traffic into Paris and two scuffs with taxi drivers who considered it their right to carve us up- they now know differently.
Champagne in Place Vendome, then to Breuillet south of Paris to stay with son Marcus for a couple of nights. Off to our house in Falaise Wednesday to see the Tour de France pass by our gate, and to celebrate in our local bar, then to Caen to catch Friday night ferry.

We are both very very tired but having seen the kids in the clinics, we know that what we have done has really achieved some good, and is going to make a real difference for perhaps around 40 children, who will now lead normal lives.

You can donate through our JustGiving page

Or send us a cheque payable to Smile Train

Post to Kip Waistell, c/o 1 Fairfield Green, Fownhope, Herefordshire, HR1 4NL 

Free with donations of £25 +

Anyone donating £25 or more will receive a free DVD of Smile Pinki, the 2008 Academy Award winning documentary about a little girl whose life was transformed by Smile Train surgery. read more about Smile Pinki

Ukrainian Magazine Penoptep

Thank you to lana2112 for this link showing our old ladies featured in Ukrainian Magazine, Penoptep

http://www.reporter63.ru/110621/article/pekinsamaraparizh.html

According to Yahoo's Babel Fish the text translates as:

At the beginning of the past week on the roads of Samara were noticed two British [vintazhnykh] automobiles “Austin -7” 1930 and 1927 of release, writes Lan's [blogger] [Kurolesova]. 

Governed “old ladies” on “Myrtle's nickname” and “Kotka” husbands of Carmen and Keep [Veystel] from the English town Of [kherefordshir]. Englishmen went from Peking to Paris, and by their tailwind it carried into our city. Purpose of path - collection of money to the charitable purposes. By the way, in the retro- machines there are no belts of safety. But according to travellers, their Russian traffic cops do not fine.

Kiev, a beautiful city even in the rain

Kiev church

We have been in Kiev for three days and it started raining an hour after our arrival and has not stopped since. The locals say they have not experienced this for years, which is not much consolation for us as we try to see the sights, and poor Myrtle and Kotka drown in the car park.

But it IS a beautiful city and we have visited a 50 acre monastery on the outskirts and descended 50 meters underground to see, by candlelight, 200 year old mummified monks. whose coffins the locals reverentialy kiss as they pass, the bodies being believed to possess healing powers.

Then to a service in the cathedral at the monastery, where a priest was being ordained. The beautiful deep voices , the fantastic golden robes and headpieces of the priests, the huge beards, the congregation constantly crossing themelves and bowing, made for a tremendous atmosphere.

Kiev military cemetery

Then last night we went to the opera house for a double bill- the first a one act opera by Rachmaninov, Aleko, then a ballet, Bolero by Ravel, and both were absolutely stunning.

We plan to leave tomorrow Tuesday, in spite of the awful weather, and take it very carefully to Lviv, and just beyond that the border crossing to Poland, which we hope to reach within two days

Baby Yar ravine, to which the Germans marched Kiev's 34,000 strong Jewish population in 1941, and massacred them all within 48 hours

More Smile Train Clinics

Today we visited the two childrens clinics, one dealing with just local kids, the other with kids from the whole of Ukraine. Here operations are free up to the age of eighteen, but the hospitals are underfunded, and the right equipment is scarce, so money from Smile Train helps a lot.

As with Peking,and Ulan Bataar, we were struck by the cleanliness and uncluttered appearance of the hospital, the professional appearance of the staff, the obvious organisation rather than chaos, and the relaxed and unstressed atmosphere. So how do we in Hereford, with all the cash we have, manage to have such a disorganised and sloppy hospital .

Operated on last week

to be operated on this week

---

You can donate through our JustGiving page

Or send us a cheque payable to Smile Train

Post to Kip Waistell, c/o 1 Fairfield Green, Fownhope, Herefordshire, HR1 4NL 

Free with donations of £25 +

Anyone donating £25 or more will receive a free DVD of Smile Pinki, the 2008 Academy Award winning documentary about a little girl whose life was transformed by Smile Train surgery. read more about Smile Pinki

Please help us spread the word by passing our details onto everyone you know! Help us make a real difference in the lives of children.

West from Chelyabinsk into Ukraine - Photos

coming up for a Siberian soaking

garage "facilities"

Carmen gets arrested for speeding

Bike shop in the Urals

Ural butterfly

accident traffic jam (body in road)

Ural honey seller

Ural farmer

Ukraine cop takes Myrtle for a spin

anyone for a stag night

Kotka goes to hospital again near Kiev

Myrtle gets religion

"who's an old bore then?"

The 5,000 mile barrier and the beautiful city of Kiev Ukraine

We have broken through the 5,000 mile barrier and are now in the beautiful city of Kiev Ukraine.

The journey from Novosibirsk has been hell. Kotka has suffered badly, her prop shaft coming loose, and also her starter has now broken so both cars have to be push started each morning- we means giving consideration to how we park them at night, so as to make pushing easier. Russian roads are truly terrible- and very dangerous. Obstacles everywhere, and whilst potholes are pretty obvious, there are hidden dips and bumps which you cannot see at all, which throw you about. In fact Kotka probably has a broken spring, but the springs are strongly taped up so leaving well alone, and I am just putting up with having a car on "the tilt". It is very very tiring constantly being on the look out, and looking at nothing but the next 20 yards of "tarmac".

We crossed the Urals some days ago- in 2007, crossing higher up at Perm, these seemed no problem at all and hardly noticeable, but this time we had a 100 miles or so of pretty severe climbing, bad weather and the usual humps and bumps.

We decided to give the Crimea a miss as Kotka has been suffering too much and it was not worth the risk of what we had heard were bad roads in that area, so from Chelyabinsk we headed more or less dead west, and crossed into Ukraine on 23 June, arriving in Kiev early on the 25th

The long straight roads- hardly a corner to be seen, have meant that petrol consumption has gone up to about 35 mpg on both cars, and they are running neck and neck on actual litres consumed, Kotka being just 5 litres behind Myrtle. Both starters packed up, both cars were leaking a lot of oil till I spent a morning taking bits off, tightening nuts and bolts, renewing some gaskets, and now we can stop at a hotel without leaving an oil well on the forecourt when we leave. Kotka's windscreen has cracked.   

We will stay in KIew three days then head for Cracow/Dresden

Only 40 pounds or so from our target!

Great kindness, bloody-mindedness and long, long legs

Roadside stall selling stuffed animals and birds

The Russians are as much of a mix as ever- great kindness has been shown to us by some, and others are bloody minded. But the girls ..in towns..are as stunning as ever, gliding along on never ending legs.

Lake Baikal dried fish stall

The countryside, and there is a lot of it, is medieval still- log huts in verfy dilapidated condition, no running water or drainage, dust and dust and dust everywhere, yet people with mobiles. We have noticed that many of the villages we passed last time are now bypassed, so the old fashioned Russia is to a great extent now hidden. For very many life is very hard, but for those in the cities, and they are hundreds of miles apart, life is very different indeed.

We have never had any response from the Smile Train clinic in Volgograd in spite of several e mails, so because of that, and the fact that the roads even now are pretty bad (but improving), we have decided to cut out Volgograd and the Crimea, and cut across from Samara to get to the Ukraine border asap, and then spend more time in beautiful Kiev. We hope to be there is 12-14 days.

Typical Russian wood house

Tomorrow we hope to break the 3,000 mile barrier, still averaging 30 or so mpg and in terms of litres of petrol used, Myrtle is just 4 litres ahead of Kotka. We are averaging ten hours on the road a day so it is pretty tiring

Rubble road in Russia

You can donate through our JustGiving page
Or by cheque payable to Smile Train. 
Post to: Kip Waistell, c/o 1 Fairfield Green, Fownhope, Herefordshire, HR1 4NL

.. and into Russia

Repairs finished in Ulan Bataar

Mongolia/Russia border control

We left Ulan Bataar last Monday, taking two days to get to the border as our visas did not operate till Wednesday 8th.

It then took four hours to cross the border into Russia, having queued from 6.30am in the morning. One of the customs officers on the Mongolian side recognised us from 4 years ago, and did her best to ease our passage, not helped by one officious individual who said we should have been given a special bit of papers when we entered Mongolia.

Then off into Russia hoping that their roads would have improved over the last four years.
We quickly discovered that (a) the roads are still atrocious, with many kinds of dangers- the ridge and furrow road, the pothole road, the dip and undulation road, the no road at all road with just dirt dust gravel and stones, the pox road with lots of little tarmac mountains to avoid, etc etc and the cars got shaken to bits.

Prop shaft repair under way with feline onlooker

Kotka has suffered particularly, with part of the prop shaft having to be replaced yesterday, and repairs necessary to a sheared bolt on the engine block. Her block is still leaking a lot of oil and I feel we will just have to put up with it. Her gearbox has started to leak a lot of oil via the speedo drive, and Myrtle's speedo has packed up altogether, likewise her starter. The starter is not too great a problem as once Myrtle is warm, I can start her on the handle, but every morning it is a push start for her.

Job done!!

We were very lucky re the prop shaft repair- it was a public holiday but luckily one of the many Russians pausing in their car to photograph us halted when we signalled distress, knew a local mechanic who just happened to be working, who knew a spare parts shop that just happened to be open. The repair took five hours, and now the prop shaft at least is in good working order again.

and (b) Russia is a lot more expensive than when we were last here - for example, a stuffy room with no shower or basin or loo cost us thirty pounds last night, that giving us the right to use a separate shower, which at least did have hot water, and a single communal basin and loo on the ground floor, both of which were filthy.

A worrying time...

As I type, waiting to hear from garage re possible differential failure in Myrtle and fan pulley failure, and terrible running on both cars hopefully due to lousy contaminated petrol. Also Kotka's steering repair bodge up to be made safe!

Then to Russian Embassy to bring forward our visas if we can, as hope to leave Ulan tomorrow and cross into Russia tomorrow night- but current visa only runs from next Wednesday as it would have taken us many more days to cross Mongilia east to west, rather than taking the northern entry into Russia

A worrying time not helped by Delhi problems

Kip 

1,000 Miles Done

Arrived in Ulan Bataar after 13 and a half hours driving, to clock up our first thousand miles at an average of 31 mpg

Hotel Kempinski- superb- putting us up for three nights free, or more if we want, so we are having a rest and having cars checked by local Merc dealer, free, as part of sponsorship.

Seeing press tonight after visit to local cleft clinic this afternoon which was very very touching. To see the awful probs these kids have and how easy it is to fix really makes you think that there are very good ways to spend money. We were then invited out to dinner with the surgeon and orthodontist, and presented with a plaque to thank us for our efforts in raising money.

We will now definitely exceed our fundraising objective, and if any of you have a spare pound or so, please consider giving the fund yet another boost. If you could see the smiles on the faces of the parents and kids you would be as touched as we have been. Our next clinic visit will be in Kiev.

Big change in route plans as we now have horses mouth news of roads in western Mongolia (from a Mongolian geologist whom we stopped to ask directions to exit from Sainshand) - presently terrible with very deep ruts which we simply cannot manage. So we will repeat more of our 2007 route, and exit nothern Mongolia to go to Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk, Tomsk, then onto original planned route at Novosivbirsk. Russian roads pretty terrible and drunk drivers very common, but at least the cars will not get so shaken about, and we have no more steering spares!

PS No wonder the Pope has Swiss guards. They are made of stern stuff the Swiss, and watching Carmen drive on and on, hour after hour is something to behold. She and Myrtle are quite a team. I am still trying to understand Kotka and our relationship is a bit fraught.

Best wishes
Kip n Carmen. Myrtle and Kotka

Herders north Mongolia

Campsite, North Mongolia

Visitors

..and more visitors

At last, out of China into Mongolia

After several days in China sorting the burocratic madness. we managed to get away from their customs post at Erenhot after a wait of seven hours. Absolutely infuriating.especially as we were then welcomed into Mongolia with open arms and only 30 minutes of paperwork to do

Stayed at their frontier town of Zamyn Uud then set off into the Gobi at 6am last Sunday following a myriad of tracks and using the GPS to keep us on the right course.

a Gobi local

Since our last crossing of the Gobi in 2007 the tracks seem to have become much rougher with terrible corrugations which quickly took a toll on the cars reducing our speed to some 10 mph, but no probs with overheating as actually it was quite cold with several storms giving Kip a soaking as no hood on his car.

Arrived Saynshand after 12 hours driving, in a sandstorm.

Set off late as had to wait till banks opened to get some dosh, then 9 hour drive to a sort of shanty town where we stayed in very basic but very friendly accommodation after another terrible day's driving during which Kotka's steering arm sheared. I had a bad job getting off the broken piece, having to use a hacksaw, then modifying a bolt to get it back together again. Both cars suffering from timing probs as well.

 

Manhandling Myrtle's load uphill in the Gobi to enable her to do the climb

Up at 5.30am and set off at 6 for another days bouncing about on corrugations, plus rocks, sand drifts (twice we had a car nearly overturn when sand collapsed beneath us). Then Myrtle's fan pulley sheared, but she is such a cool customer, and there was so much head wind, that we managed to keep her temperature down to normal.




One climb so steep that we had to unload Myrtle and manhaul contents up the hill on foot before finally getting her up.


Exited Gobi at about 2pm with awful American high fives, then filled up with petrol- to find it was contaminated so ran next hundred miles on less than full set of cylinders on both cars.

Good luck "ovoo" to circle three times