Day 5: Rest day at Ulaan Baatar

The day has been dedicated entirely to repairing the car. We went to our garage Stuff that needed attention included the steering box, broken rear shock absorbers, front bumper, rear box, front left mudguard which had started coming apart and one of the radiator fans. Some of the problems were the result of excess weight. This is a typical and very underestimated problem by many participants which gets amplified on the rough roads we are driving on.

Mongolian mechanics fixed some of the simpler problems, the huge Russian Anatoly worked on the welding of the mudguard.

We have had to make some painful decisions and his has included removing the rear box and swap some of its contents with a duffle bag which will be placed on the luggage rack. In addition we shall need to carry the spare wheel, normally lodged on the left mudguard, on top of the rear part of the tonneau cover to avoid its weight tearing the sheet metal apart again.

The most difficult problem was the steering box which was taken apart several times before it finally worked. Though it may sound straight forward, we actually finished at almost midnight. As is typical in these situations it was pizza for lunch (at 4pm) and we had our first taste of Mongolian food with the team mechanics at 11pm.

Other participants had even more complex problems such as a Lagonda in which a piston had seized and needed to be replaced. It helped that the participant on the Itala is one of the UK experts on Lagondas and in less than 6 hours had the engine running.

Others were less lucky and are still waiting for spare parts from various parts of the world.