TravelReport

17 oktober 2005 - Mongolia

We reached our destination!!!!! It sounds more difficult then it actually is; to drive from Den Haag in Holland to Ulaan Baatar in Mongolia with your engine only running on vegetable oil, 11711 km in a 37-year old truck. Even in Mongolia it wasn't difficult to get enough vegetable oil, though we had to buy it in 1 liter bottles for the first time since Holland. But in a country as poor as Mongolia the empty bottles easily found a new destination. Our final border between Russia and the far west of Mongolia appeared to be the easiest, though we thought it would be the most difficult; with a one week expired visa leaving Russia and entering Mongolia on a border mostly used for local traffic only. Nowhere after Europe we had so few problems and it was by far the fastest border. As a reward we were allowed to drive our truck over the prairie in Mongolia; sometimes on a sort of gravel-road, but most of the time on tracks criss-cross through the country. The state of the meant- to-be-roads is normally a lot worse then the tracks.

After Barnaul in Russia it went up-hill into the Altai Mountains: in Russia with beautiful autumn-colors in the trees and barren and savage in Mongolia. Due to persisting alternator-problems we had to buy an extra set of batteries. We also got dirt again in the fuel pump. We were pretty at our wits' end when some friendly Kamas-drivers came to help us out laughing. They transformed an old gone seal with the aid of some thread for building up enough pressure. Our hero’s are very used to things that are not working and as inventive as just a very few people are. Now and then it was pretty hard to find the right direction, sometimes we had to cross a river or we almost fell over on a very beveled piece of track and at times we could drive with 60 to 70 km/h over a dirt-track. Always being alert for sudden obstacles, gabs in the road or crossing cattle. After the countryside no shock as big as entering Ulaan Baatar; first in the endless space and now fighting for every centimeter to get through the crazy traffic and its exhaust-gasses. Mongols drive their cars as they ride their horses: completely without rules.

29 arrival at Sukhbataar square in Ulaan Bataar

23 metal welder

22 inventive Kamaz drivers

15 signpost

13 Mongolian road-tax office

12 Russian Altai Mountains

19 september 2005 - North Kazakstan

When we crossed North Kazakstan we frequently saw people harvesting with many combines at one's (up to 10). The land is used on a massive scale to produce wheat. The first thing we saw aproaching a village were the big wheat silos. This are all leftovers of USSR times. Many times we find Lenin still standing on his socket, even when the rest of many villages is nearly in ruins.

We visited Astana, Kazakstan's new capital (since a few years). There are big skyscrapers rising, a very big contrast with the rest of the country. We found a new way to buy a lot of oil without bottles. On the markets there are often salesmen who sell the oil to take away in your own bottle, we took it away in our tank.

The bordercross to Russia was a big problem because they didn't know how to catogorise our truck. After nine hours we were finally free to go.

The first serious rainy day we had, was on our way to Barnaul. Due to this we couldn't start the very next morning, emty battaries (24 volt: 2 batteries of 12 volt). We found two cars willing to help us to start. It worked!

In Barnaul we met a very nice guy, named Slava, who filled up our batteries, helped us finding the source of the problem (probably the currentdivider which can not be replaced) and invited us at his home.

Now we are starting the hardest part of the trip, the altay mountians. Here it is very hilly and cold. The cold can be a problem for our fuel. The vegtable oil has a lower viscocity when the temprature is low.

At the highest pass we have to leave Russia with an expired visum and we have to enter Mongolia on a bordercrossing which is used only for local traffic.

4 september 2005 - West Kazakhstan

We crossed the Kazakhstan border with not too much of a hassle; it took us only 6 hours. For days we drove through the empty landscape of West Kazakhstan’s semi-desert and steppe. Although the Caspian Sea was rather close, it isn’t very accessible from this site and our efforts to reach it ended in a lot of mud. The roads are very bad, some days we could only drive 120 km a day. Often the road was completely abandoned. It was better to drive next to the road on one of the dirt tracks. In the few little villages we past, people were always very helpful to show us the right direction. During the way through West Kazakhstan we saw a lot of oil winning fields. Not so long ago they found big reserves of oil in this region. The first big city we crossed was Oil City Kazakhstan, Atyrau, where hug buildings are rising in the new city centre in complete contrast with its surroundings. In Aktobe, a big industrial city, founded in USSR times, we found a sunflower oil factory at first. But because the boss was on holidays they couldn’t sell us the oil. We had to tank 240 liters of sunflower oil at a wholesaler, unfortunally supplied in bottles of 5 liters. When we tell people that our truck is running on sunflower oil they are flabbergasted.

Due to the bad roads we had to change our route. Instead of going south, passing the Aral Sea we took the road north which is about 500 km shorter.

18 central city heating of Rudny

16 ruins of large scale cattle breeding during USSR times

12 bad roads

7 oil fields are everywere in West Kazachstan

2 Warning sign for wild drivers

1 Russian controle

22 augustus 2005 - Russia

Getting into Russia was one thing but getting out of the Ukraine was even more difficult. At first they found in our passport another border post mentioned where we should have gone out. They sent us back for a detour of hundreds of kilometers to the right one, only for 100 euro we could get ahead. After walking away angry we could pass to the next step. Several paperworks later they said we needed TIR-documents because we were with a truck however things came to a complete standstill when one of the many officers found out we had only a transit visa to cross Ukrain in three days, while it took us two weeks. We didn’t know but it was written in the stamps in our passport. Jeroen sat at the desk opposite of this bureaucrat, who said that we had a very big problem. Finally another representative got bored with the situation, gave us the needed stamp and off we went for a three hour queue of cars to the Russian border. Also not very easy, but we came through. In Russia we get stopped by all policemen and checkpoints we pass, almost every 50km, but so far they only wanted to see papers and stamps. At first there was no difference in the landscape, endless fields of corn and sunflowers. Then gradually the prairie started, the last 500 kilometers we saw almost no agriculture, no trees, only barren land. Now we are in Astrahan, a beautiful city at the delta of the Wolga. We easily got new visa for Kazakhstan and we surprisingly easily found enough oil at a local distributor. Quickly somebody fetched an English teacher to translate the conversation. Later she invited us for a good dinner at her house and supplied us with good food. Also with changing tyres we got a lot of help from the locals and as matter of fact, we never get the change to pay them. The contrast is very big between the corrupt policemen and the friendly and nice people we meet. As a goodbye to Astrahan city we gave an expo-truck presentation yesterday evening (see the item expo-truck). Today we go for the border to Kazachstan.

31 Astrahan Kremlin

27 helping hands with changing tyres

25 the Enlish teather and her family

24 bathhouse

21 tanking at a local distributor of sunflower oil

20 Wolga

17 a friendly family who gave us a shower and fresh watermelon

16 refreshing shower

15 bad tyre

14 checkpoint

11 one of the many saltlakes

5 tankingsunflower oil at a factory in Gigant

3 Mariupol

11 augustus 2005 - Ukraine

After filling our tanks with 210 liter of rapeseed oil in bottles of 10 liter on a parking of a big supermarket in the last big city of Poland, Rzeszow, we crossed the Ukrainian border. It was a little of a hassle with bureaucratic stamps but within 4 hours we drove into the Ukraine. A total change of… everything: Russian script. Flat land. The land is divided in big parcels of agriculture. No woods. No farms. Every region has a complex of empty buildings with a fence around, former punishment camps. No big megastores but many little traders at the roadside and small markets. The people are at first very reserved but soon after very friendly and helpful. It is a social society with strong family ties.

We visited L’viv where we were shown around by an Afghan living in Amsterdam, Yudsef. Before immigrating to the Netherlands he lived in L’viv for some years.

Near a little town, Leticev, we found a little puppy of nearly 4 weeks old, lost and very thirsty. We took it, we fed it, we gave it a nice little bed in our van, we called it Woda (it means water in Russian). But we released that it was very unpractical to take it with us all along so we decided to find a good new home for it. Already the very next day we met some good people who wanted to take care of Woda. We left our little friend with them in Vinnica.

For ten days we suffered a heat wave, very, very hot and sunny. In the afternoons the asphalt on which we drove was melted. In Odessa, a beautiful old bathing place at the Black see, we went to the seaside were many people were bathing and enjoying the cool water. For some time there was a thunderstorm approaching but still suddenly heavy winds stroke and people fled out of the sea to search for shelter. 1 cm big hailstones came down. After 2 hour the hot sun was shining again.

In Cherson we found a factory, which presses oil out of sunflowers. We filled our tanks with 230 liters. It is very strange to pay more for a liter in the Ukraine than we pay in Holland while we see a lot of immense field of sunflowers along the road. When we asked people for a reason, they all spoke about there new president, Joechenko, he decides the price.

We were making progress in the Ukraine till the engine didn’t have it’s power anymore near the city of Melitopol. We cleaned the fuel filter but in the middle of town we got stuck in front of a car shop. Very soon friendly people from all around came to help us. They facilitated us with repairing, supplying food, coffee, tea and showers. They made it rather pleasant to be stuck in this place. Only after three day a diesel specialist found the solution. He fixed the fuel pump and we got back on track.

Now we’re heading for the next border, the Russian.

28 nature reserve

27 free camping

26 garbage is dumped everywhere

22 helping hands in Melitopol

20 spontanious sponsor of Melitopol

18 punishment camp in Cherson

17 tanking sunflower oil at a factory

15 thunderstorm in Odessa

10 road to Odessa

9 new family for Woda

8 Woda

3 wondering people

1 tanking rapeseed oil

28 juli 2005 - Brakes fixed

While we were waiting for the spare parts of the brake system from Germany we spend our days in Krakow; enjoying and wondering. We also made some new features on the car; emblems on the doors which explain the cycle of the use of vegetable oil in a drawing, another storage box underneath the car and ‘glasses’ for the Estafette. Now the brakes are fixed, we hope that the car appreciates the brake fluid as much as it does the vegetable oil.

10 glasses for the Estafette

8 emblem

6 storage box

5 repairing brake system

4 dirty brake amplifier

18 juli 2005 - Krakow 2

1 Helping hands

16 juli 2005 - Krakow

After our stop in Bayeren we drove through former East Germany, through Chemnitz, Dresden and Gorlitz to Poland. We planted our third rapeseed-mark near the mines of Katowice. Now we are enjoying Krakow. Only a little longer then planned to get some things done to the car. The brake-system is leaking. The Polish people are really helpfull. They will never say that they can't help you. They just send you to another friend or place. We saw a lot of Krakow. Yesterday evening we ended up at a very friendly family of mechanics. We stayed the night. We dronk beer and Wodka and couldn't keep up with them. Next day - afternoon - they 'fixed' the brakes but they are still leaking. Our last change is to get spare parts from Germany. We just called a Hanomag specialist and he is going to send us some essential parts by post. So we stay some more days in Krakow.

12 Krakow

8 Katowice

7 Katowice

6 ten litre bottles of oil

5 Golitz

3 Ostritz

1 between the fields of rapeseed

8 juli 2005 -

24 juni waren we eindelijk zover om te vertrekken naar het Oosten. Bij de Gemeente Venlo konden we onze tanken vullen en 60 kg koolzaadzaad meenemen. Vervolgens werden we doorgestuurd naar het bedrijf van Siegfried Hausmann in Beieren om de motor van de Hanomag te optimaliseren voor het rijden op plantenolie. Hiervoor zijn de verstuivers anders ingesteld. Ze verstuiven nu onder een hogere druk, 150 bar. Het brandstoffilter is voorzien van een warmtewisselaar die doormiddel van de koelvloeistof wordt verwarmd. En de gloeibougies zijn vernieuwd. We hebben het eerste koolzaadveldje in de buurt van Keulen gezaaid in een windmolenpark. Het tweede veldje bij het standbeeld van Karl Marx in Chemnitz, in het voormalige Oost-Duitse Karl Marx Stadt. Deze koolzaadveldjes symboliseren onze reis en zorgen voor de neutralisering van onze co2 uitstoot.

22 koolzaadveldje naast het standbeeld van Karl Marx in Chemnitz

16 tanken bij een olieperserij

15 nieuwe brandstoffilter met warmtewisselaar

14 het oude brandstoffilter

13 instellen van de verstuivers bij Siegfried Hausmann in Beieren

11 de verstuivers worden opnieuw ingesteld

8 bijtanken uit de reserve

7 het eerste koolzaadveldje wordt gezaaid

6 koolzaad

5 een zak van tien kg koolzaadzaad

3 overnachten bij windmolens

1 tanken van koolzaadolie bij de gemeente Venlo

update 17 juni 2005

Te gast bij het radioprogramma Vara's Vroege Vogels op de vroege zondagochtend van 12 juni. Het programma is nog te beluisteren op de website van de Vara. Klik op 'radio' en dan op vorige uitzendingen.

Een week testrijden door Nederland en België.

Tanken van plantenolie.

5 juni 2005

Jeroen geveld door ziekte, vertrek uitgesteld.

1 juni 2005

Presentatie op de biomarkt Den Haag voor tweede kamer.
Alle overgebleven estafette-onderdelen hebben een nieuwe eigenaar gevonden. Met spierkracht (11 man en drie balken) is het busje op de laadbak van de hanomag geplaatst. Zonder de achterwielpartij is het weer aan elkaar gezet en vastgelast. Het busje is voor en achter de achterwielpartij doorgezaagd.