Ups and Downs for Dino
Well it's been a bit of a funny month for Dino. We've had to replace a battery and a tyre, and had lots of problems getting the puncture fixed for the bad tyre. It all started at the weekly mechanics course, where embarrassingly enough Ollie had to get a jump start after attending on his own whilst Jenny was over in Atlanta boozing (is he bitter??). Dino limped home, but then failed to start the next time, and every time he got jumped, no matter how long a drive we took him on. In the end we gave up and bought a new battery. This was just the start of it though.
Getting the battery in place, alongside the other battery turned out to a major challenge, one that involved a large amount of swearing to fix. So much so that Jenny disappeared to allow Ollie, the expert swearer, to get on with that himself. So, with the battery in place we took him for a drive, only to return with a puncture! We had a slow puncture in that tyre since Ireland, so we weren't too concerned, and took him off to get a top up. But, setting off for the following weeks mechanics course, we noticed that there was something up, and the tyre was totally flat! This meant we had to abandon (discipline) Dino in the middle of the estate, until we could get the tools together to change the tyre. This involved buying a bottle jack (Halfords), Axle stands (Malparts) and wheel brace (Brooklyn 4x4). You will notice these were all brought at separate shops, and this was because we didn't realise what was needed and had to keep going out for more tools. This was compounded by the fact that our high lift jack seemed to have given up doing any high lifting. Anyway, before (!!) you all disappear to the land of nod, we have changed the tyre, and hence now have a borderline illegal tyre on Dino. We will, of course, change this back as soon as we can get the other tyre fixed, but the six punctures found in the inner tube were too much for the local tyre shop.
All this practice has done us good, as well as helping us to get ourselves equipped with the tools for the job. As I mentioned above, we are still continuing the mechanics course, and as well as changing Dino's oil, we have now learnt to check the brake pads and disks of his front brakes. One thing we have learned is that a Land Rover needs a whole different tool set to other cars, mainly because all Dino's nuts and bolts are bigger than the average car. That's my boy :)
We have also started putting our own stamp on Dino's interior, and Jenny's brother, who rather conveniently is a blacksmith, has put a fantastic window in our dog guard. This should mean we can leave it up all the time, and still access our gear in the back. This only cost us the price of a pizza! Definitely the start of a beautiful relationship.
Jenny, would you rather visit a nuclear testing area, a Russian civil war or 1000 miles of frozen wasteland?
This is our latest part of our trip that we are deliberating. On our mechanics course, as well as the girl doing the Mongol Rally, is a Russian girl, Anastasia, which is obviously rather handy. We've been discussing our route with her, and most of it gets Anastasia's approval, but Kazakhstan gets even less than disapproval! So, Ollie decided it was time to do more research on this matter and spent Saturday reading up on Kazakhstan. Thanks to http://www.readitswapit.com/ we have a million and one different guidebooks and lots of different angles to approach any subject from. But all angles seemed to lead to the same conclusion - only S.E. Kazakhstan is interesting and the rest of it is only going to get a glowing recommendation from a Geiger counter.
So, if we want to still visit the places that we have chosen, we have the choice of Kazakhstan, Russia (Siberia) or the Caucasus. At the moment we are favoring the Caucasus, but this does involve getting a little closer to Chechnya and Dagestan than we would like. The Caucasus look an amazing part of the world, and it looks possible to get a ferry from the safe haven of Sochi to Turkey, which Ollie had wanted to visit all along. We are still considering, so if anyone has any thoughts on this subject, let us know.
The Pieman Runneth!
Just a small update on the running. Ollie's knee seems to have recovered and he's now up to 15 miles without too much pain. Just over two months until the main event and Ollie is starting to feel confident. Not too much has happened with sponsorship over the last few weeks, although come nearer the time a last push will happen.
That's it from Ollie and Jenny for the time being. Thanks for reading!
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