The Tale of Two Fire Engines from Jonathan Choksey on Vimeo.

Dubrovsky (or Dudebrovsky as he is also known) has put together some of the awesome footage from the rally, understanding Russian may help, but if not enjoy the cinematic adventure! Part 1: Europe: All according to plan??  will be released soon!!! Enjoy.

                                   MR The Film [CLICK]

Thanks to our handy camera man, we can show you the final moments of the ‘Tale of Two Fire Engines’, thanks Dubrovsky (‘Dude’brovsky). My one concern is how obsessed the makers of the film are with a certain toilet scene??

Mongol Rally Film: Mongolia, Road...what Road!??

 Mongol Rally Film: [CLICK]

It has been a few months since we returned back to the relative calm of university life but the story of our Green Goddess was not over until a final adventure to West Wales. Our last journey took us to Fishguard to meet the man who spent many hours on the phone and countless more to other Green Goddess owners to help us fix the goddess in the final days. We would truly have been lost without him.

So our thanks to Rhys, David and the other RSOLES who made it possible.

More photo’s and video to follow

There are many people which we owe  much to:

D & R Services of Arley, Warwickshire, your help getting us prepared and the words of wisdom form both Paul and Gareth were much appreciated. Thank you.

Power Traveller for the incredible solar powered kit which you kindly gave to us. it was extremely helpful in the Gobi desert. We made several (semi-emergency calls) on our satellite phone which was only possible with the power gorilla. A tough, and reliable bit of kit, plus incredible battery life.  I advise anyone planning an adventure (in the sun) to take one of these. Thank you

Shark Subsea Services for kindly allowing us to use your facilities and putting us up in accommodation for our stay ion Constanta. Your help was one of many kind gestures that allowed us to carry on. Thank to Dan, Roger and all the staff.

Vertikal, our eternal gratitude to Vadim, from the moment the teams made it to Donetsk he not help us, joined us but made the rest of it possible. it was a pleasure to have you with us. Best of luck for the future.

Rubber 4 Roofs thank you again for treating the roof of the goddess, the wooden roof was the major weakness to the vehicle’s life span. In the words of the Mongolian mechanics, it will last a lifetime.

 Tom Whites. He supported us very much before the start, a complete set of road wheels, grease gun and funding. It saddens me to inform that Tom passed away a few weeks ago, my you rest in piece. I am sorry I didn’t get a chance to thank him personally, but I hope that in the end he knew that we made it and we owe  much to his generous help.

We would also like to thank the following individuals for their time and support:

RSOLES online forum: experts in everything Goddess.

David Moore from Nottingham, A Green Goddess owner and military enthusiast. He has donated parts for our engine conversion and general spares.

Adam Wilson, mechanic and MOT lifesaver who drove all the way form Devon to Birmingham, then single handedly passed our MOT test. Which for our 57 year old GG even surprised the most optimistic amongst us.

John O’Brian from Fillongley who has given so much of his time and knowledge to help organize our fundraising.

Len, may your surname forever be a mystery but your service never forgotten. Thanks for the MOT.

We would finally like to that all of our families and friends who have donated to our charities and put up with our singled minded drive to get all this together before the off.

For 5000 miles the tales of two fire engines were intertwined. A tale woven on the worst roads known to man, unkown peril and adventure. 8 Days ago the convoy, Big Red and Genghis Goddess parted ways ( Jonathan and Edd need to be home for uni…).

For their story and some great photo’s visit  www.monletsgolia.com. Our eternal gratitude to all the Big Red Crew, Dubrovsky and Vadim, without you guys we wouldn’t have made, and is such style. Drinks on us when we’re back in blighty/Ukraine!

On the 26th September, one month after expected the Green Goddess , Edd and Jonathan approached the sparklin city of Ulaanbataar. Our trip across Mongolia has been amazing…when home, we will post the films and photo’s. Lets just say the lack of roads made the whole thing much more fun. The Goddess performed amazingly on the bad roads.

Unfortunatley, 10 miles from the finish line, Jonathan drove over a hole in the road which caused damage to many minor parts. The engine failed, after some rapid roadside surgery we managed to limp into Ulaanbataar, as we approched the city center she gave up the ghost and died by the road side. In the biting cold we thought she had breathed her last breath.

Edd’s flight was booked for the next day, it was the second time the rally comrades had to say goodbye…again as things had turned for worst, a hard day. After Edd’s departure on Tuesday, Jonathan buried himself in the engine day and night, trying to bring her back to life. He managed to replace the broken parts and adjust most of the engine tunning, but after 48hrs still no go. Repeated phone calls were made to the Green Goddess experts in the UK (Rhys Hughes and David Moore).

After coming so far and not being able to give this invaluable machine to the local authorities was draining Jonathan of all his will. So close to giving up, with 24hrs until his flight he made one final phone call.  The ‘Eureka’ phone call, Rhys had the answer, some of the internal parts of the engine had moved out of position puting the ignition timing off…so another couple of adjustments, and that familiar purr of the goddess was back. The Mongol Rally is finished, and the Goddess will start her new life in Mongolia.

“Relieved and exhausted I am sitting in an internet Cafe in UB, with a stupid grin across my face. 2 months and 6 days after the rally began, we made it. With all odds against us, entire countries against us, we did it. Now my only wish is that our 60 year fire engine has a new and long life here, that I may return one day and find her still going, still helping.

This won’t be our last post, the journey for the bold adventurers may be over, but a new journey has begun…getting back …stay tuned! (also loads of photo’s and vids to come…)

After three weeks of waiting, visas running out, the cold weather setting in we made one final attempt at the border. But not before a few modifications!

In the dead of night we approached the small an unassuming border crossing in the North of the Ukraine. As we entered the crossing into no-mans land the whole team felt that same longing dread, how long would this take, would they call central customs and discover our identity… a very nerve racking 7hrs and 10 mins later, Dubrovsky emerged with our papers and asked Jonathan to go inside. He sat in front of the customs official watching stamp after stamp plastered over a bit of paper then that beautiful two letter word….GO!! We were on our way, our rally was back on, Mongolia would get its engine.

And this car was …

Metamorphosis …

Fire equipment removed and stored (somewhere..hmmm)…

Getting ready to leave Donetsk. A note to sponsors, this was a necessary step, we will do our best to get the logo’s printed again for more photo madness.

In an attempt to cross the border we together a video with Dubrovsky asking the President and Prime Minister of Russia to let us through…

The video (in Russian) Describes how we are stuck in the Ukraine. Trying to get to Mongolia, and we need permission to go through the Russian border. If you don’t understand, just watch the awesome film shots!!

With Vadim’s contacts we were able to get the vehicle fully serviced

With my very limited Ukrainian and copious amounts of sign language we managed to fix the exhaust, rear axle seals. Fill oil levels, tighten every bolt, adjust the timing and just give her a good look over. Thanks to all the guys!!