Thursday, July 02nd, 2009 /
Murray
I have changed the format of the SPOT Messages. First, it’s a full Kernow Krew update. And now there will be two new messages.
I got a broad range of input on what they should do. Some that didn’t make it include “I pooped here”–that wouldn’t be used enough to make it worthwhile; “Agelina Jolie sighted shopping for another kid”–that would probably be too often; “Mugged and all my stuff stolen”–doesn’t really work since the SPOT will probably go with the rest of the stuff; and many more.
The new ones include one showing “we arrived at our next stop”–which could be once or sometimes twice in a day; and the second which is going to be the “Adventure” message. The Adventure message will let you know something story-worthy happened. You’ll have to wait for the blog update to hear the story details.
The 10-minute tracking isn’t working yet. I have a message into SPOT to get that fixed. Hopefully you’ll be able to follow as we go without the updates.
Monday, June 22nd, 2009 /
Murray
Something I never expected to hear was someone recommending we get as close to Afghanistan as possible–just to be more safe. Today we received an update from the Rally officials that started with this:
Hi there folks,
Got some breaking news on Taj . Just an important security update basically to do with militants on the route around the Garm area and army operations in the area…
They go on to recommend a route change. This change moves us out of the militant area and extends our route along the Afghan border. A great deal of the Pamir Highway we are going to take skirts the Afghan border, but we had planned on heading inland from the border as soon as practical. I guess practical was replaced by non-militant. This keeps it interesting if nothing else.
It was good for a reality check on the potential dangers involved driving through this region of the world. Bart, maybe you were onto something.
The map of the proposed route has been updated. It now shows Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan, as well as this most recent route change. Fun times in Central Asia.
Category: 2009 Roof of the World Rally, Countries Visited, Rally Maps, Travel
Tags: 2009 Roof of the World Rally, Afghanistan, map, Pamir Highway, rally, route, Tajikistan, Travel Leave a Comment
Wednesday, June 17th, 2009 /
Murray
This has changed about 10 times now. Here are some challenges so far:
- Scares of the Swine Flu closed Turkmenistan as an option.
- The Uzbekistan government wouldn’t let the Brits get a double-entry visa (I guess they only wanted to see them once).
- Azerbaijan and Russia can’t decide if they will have open borders or not.
- The ferry captain across the Caspian is not sure when or if he will be sailing.
- Iran won’t let me enter without a full-time escort.
So here is the route as it stands right now:
- England
- France
- Belgium
- Germany
- Czech Republic
- Slovakia
- Hungary
- Ukraine
- Russia
- Kazakhstan
- Kyrgyzstan
- Tajikistan
- Kyrgyzstan
- Kazakhstan
- Russia
- Ukraine
- Moldova
- Romania
- Bulgaria
- Turkey
- Greece
- Albania
- Montenegro
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Croatia
- Slovenia
- Italy
- Switzerland
We will add or subtract (more likely subtract) countries and stops depending on breakdowns, robberies, jail time, and romantic interludes. Yeah, it will probably not be the last. But who knows–I might come home with a Russian bride…
