Ze Status 2.0

I've just made a phone call and our passports are currently at the Mongolian Embassy and are expected to come back tomorrow. After that it's off to the Russian Embassy, where they are apparently going to take their sweet time processing our visas. Once they're done however, there is nothing left that can stop us. The car is also getting another check today and we're starting to buy equipment. In short: Things are going somewhat according to plan.

This has me worried.

We've also got another sponsor! The cool people at Avanade have agreed to pay for some of our fuel costs, which I have to say is awfully nice of them.

Things are going almost too well right now. I'll let you know when our car falls apart or the Russians call to tell us that we will never be allowed to enter their country. Ever.

Ze Zune

Hey, what's that? That's right, it's a Zune! It's not even available in Europe yet, but Ze Germans have got one, thanks to our sponsor Microsoft. To be honest, I'm not sure about the color, but hey, it was free (thanks, guys!). Besides, it could have been much worse. It could have been the Halo 3 Special Edition. Or pink. Or an iPod!

Not sure which one is more embarrassing. Probably a pink iPod.

Also, don't worry about Martin's potentially dubious taste in music. I've tasked my brother (pictured right, posing with his band) with selecting the contents of the Zune's hard drive. I have a sneaking suspicion that the aforementioned hard drive will be the only thing about us that's ready for the Rally come July 21st.

That's it for today, which means I'll go back to worrying about our Visa now. Thank you for your attention, you may leave appropriately envious messages in the comments.

Ze Interview

The super-charming Lori did a video interview with Martin at the STC. Klick on the image above to see Martin in action!

Ze Status

So, what's happened since our last update?

First of all, we've worked out our route in more details. We spent an entire afternoon pouring over our maps, working our way backwards from Ulan Bator to London. It's actually quite easy to pick a route in Central Asia, because the number of main roads is remarkably small. Sometimes a quick check of satellite imagery reveals even these "main roads" to be little more than glorified dirt tracks.

We're also finally getting our Visas applications out the door. We couldn't start this process earlier, because I still needed my passport for Rio. This means we have to pay quite a bit of extra money to expedite the processing at the various embassies, but we'll just have to suck it up. It's going to be close, but I think we'll make it. There was also a bit of a scary moment, when we realized that Germans can only apply for single-entry visa to Kazakhstan. That would make our planned routed impossible and would have forced us to skip Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. Fortunately we were able to find two possible solutions to that problem. Let's hope the one we picked works out.

I've also taken a test drive in our car. It doesn't feel quite as cramped as I thought it would and drives quite well. Unfortunately it has a tendency to drift to the right. Let's hope that this not a symptom of something serious. The battery also needs to be replaced, but that's not a big deal.

If the visas work out, there's no stopping us now, so we're moving on to buying equipment. Space is going to be limiting factor there, because the car is, well, small. We'll keep you updated how things are going. As long as we take a year's supply of duct tape we should be fine.