Miles driven: 394 miles
Time in Car: 15 hours
Borders crossed: 1
Over the past few weeks we had become accustomed to the freezing cold mornings of the high mountains and Great Steppe. Today we were pretty sluggish. Usually we were pretty good about getting up and going. But today, with a very long drive and border crossing looking at us, an extra 30 minutes in our dew-soaked tent was necessary.
We got on the road and made our way to Russia, which inconveniently went right back through Ulaanbaatar at the height of morning rush hour. After enduring well over an hour of Ulaanbaatar morning traffic, we finally made it out of the city and on the road north to Russia. The road to the northern border included roughly 250 km of unpaved, bumpy, meandering roads akin to some of the stuff we went through in central Mongolia. It’s as if Mongolia was making one last ditch effort to destroy our car. But by this point of the rally, we were all pretty aware of Stevie’s limitations. Even though she only has 4 inches of clearance on a light day, we know what she can clear and what she can’t. Based on the thud noises, we know what bottom-outs are bad and which ones are just scrapes. These last 250 km were no different. We made it through just fine even if it took a long time. Stopping quickly for lunch, we stocked up on snacks and supplies one last time, topped off our fuel using our Jerry cans for the first time, and then headed north.
We made it to the border around 4 pm and then began our last border wait. It took about 4 hours and during that time we chatted up some other rally teams in line. The Russians fully inspected all of our bags and trunk space, the most thorough search we’ve had by far to this point, and then we were on our way around 8 pm. After getting through the border, we decided we’d book it to Ulan Ude and grab a hotel room rather than camp. It was almost dark and a bed would be nice. Also, it was Notre Dame’s CFB opener tomorrow so Mike and Joe were keen on streaming the game via WiFi. We made it to Ulan-Ude easily and checked into our guesthouse. The owner spoke no English but we had no issues. It was midnight and surprisingly there was a 24 hour diner not too far away so we feasted on burgers and pizza before heading to bed around 1 am.
The next day started early as Mike and Joe made the mistake of waking up early to witness Notre Dame’s abysmal opening game against Louisville. Afterwards, we had a very leisurely morning spent at a local cafe where we planned the rest of our rally. We were officially “finishing” the rally later that day which consisted of filling out a few paperwork items and then getting our photo taken at the Rally official finish line which was a car-stage in the center of Ulan-Ude right next to a gigantic Lenin head statue. We figured we’d recreate the infamous Indy 500 victory celebration with some milk and some flowery wreathes (an homage to our Indianapolis teammate Joe #ClippityClopBestDayOfTheYear). We picked up the supplies and headed to the finish. The finish line was abuzz with other rally teams. Stories were being shared. Good times were being had. Many of these teams we hadn’t seen ever. Some we had seen back in Prague at the start party. Everyone was ecstatic to finish and showing it differently on stage. Once we got on stage, we climbed atop the car and celebrated accordingly as Indy 500 race winners do - swigging the milk and eventually dousing yourself with it. Turns out that milk was thick, salty yogurt. It smelled awful and had more a glue-like consistency. It didn’t stop us from carrying through with our celebration but it did make us utterly disgusting and stinky. After the finish line, we all took much needed showers and then properly celebrated with the other rally teams at a restaurant on the main square. Tomorrow, we escape to Lake Baikal, the largest freshwater lake in the world, before heading back to Ulan-Ude, scrapping Stevie, and having one last party before heading home. Until then - FWY
Finish line