So, its been a week but Team Ironsides is still in Kazakhstan. I am honestly not sure there are words to describe the events that have unfolded just in the last few days, much less since I last blogged. Given I dont have four hours to spare I will attempt to keep this brief. After our convoy turned into five cars in Volgograd, Russia we managed to make it to the Kazakh border, only to find out that the ferry to the actual border was closed (seeing as how it was about 2 a.m). We camped out right next to the ferry and were awakened by the border guards yelling at us to get up and catch the first ferry at about 5:45. About three hours later we all made it through the border and headed towards the city of Atirau. 24 hours later we left with a convoy now of four cars, plus a random rallier named Ali who was hitching a ride until Astana. This four team convoy has basically become our staple group consisting still of the two Kiwis, Chris and Ross (Team Wingit Racers), and then two amazing guys from Wales, Tim and Fudge (Team Endo) and finally three guys from Manchester UK, Muzzy, Himi and Dibs (Team Dzogchen). The next two days were essentially spent driving and camping on the side of the road. The second of the two days involved us realizing that the suspension on the left hand side of Diana had rusted through into our trunk. It was then that we also hit the worst roads that I have ever seen in my life. Im sorry, did I say roads? I meant a series of ditches. Which is exactly what they were. We spent about 5 - 6 hours driving maybe 20 miles an hour over these "roads." The first hour was fun, driving on dusty, dirty rough roads with our buffs over our faces, the kiwis and the welsh guys hanging out the sides of their Suzuki Jeeps, filming and generally having a great time while I attemtped to navigate my low-riding Fiat with no suspension over non-existent roads, with Tommy hanging out the side window trying to help direct me. A few hours later in the dark it was less fun. We rolled into our destination town at about 4 a.m exhausted and every single one of us convered in a thin layer of dust. We honestly looked like we had each just crawled out of our own graves. After a slight incident with some intoxicated and ornery Kazakh men at a gas station we drove about 100 km before sleeping in our cars on the side of the road. We pushed on the rest of that day so as not to lose too much time and then camped again on the side of the road. The next day we had driven for only a few hours when it became clear that Diana was not doing well. Those non-roads (series of ditches, Im telling you) had really done a number on her. We found a mechanic in the nearest town and all waited around there in the sun for several hours. My favorite moment was definitely when I was sitting on the ground around our cars with ten other guys and these two women come out of the mechanic shop, take me by the hand, lead me inside and point towards a faucet and hand me a bar of soap. I guess they felt sorry for me! Anyway, the mechanic finally arrived and basically said that our car was 'caput' unless we completely replaced the engine. So, we decided to check in to a hotel and find another mechanic for a second opinion. The next morning Tommy and I took Diana back to another place and got more or less the same response. As a group we decided we would drive Diana as far as she would go and then when she died we would pile in with the two Suzuki Jeeps belonging to Teams Endo and Wingit Racers. About 2 miles out of this town, on our glorious way to Astana, Team Endo's SJ started sparking from her exhaust pipe. Long story short, we decided to send one car ahead to Astana as Himi and Alex both needed to deal with Russian Visa complications, while the rest of us stayed behind and tried to fix our cars.

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