p>Got to Almaty, Kazakstan! Our car is ok, all the better after being filled with petrol! We did actually spend 2 hours tinkering with just about every part of the engine before realising that she had actually ran out of petrol! This was after our car engine cut out when we were half way across the final border gate out of tajikistan - what a place to break down! It was simply too cold for the engine and the spark plugs had so much dirt on them that some were actually bridging the gap! Might make the finish before end of August if we`re lucky! Met a few teams here in Almaty and heard stories from locals who have seen them. Have an invite to be on national TV but dont think we have time! A few teams have totally knackered cars after doing the pamirs so we`re both quite lucky to still be going! 6500 miles down, about 3000 to go!

So here are some more photos from the trip…
Also check out Stretching Cred`s website

We made it to Sworde Teppa in Tajikistan!

Tajikistan threw some interesting challenges at us - firstly we arrived at a bridge crossing at 10am after following a dirt track for 2 hours, only to find that the bridge was closed until 7pm that evening! A local restaurant owner let us sit in his garden and pick apricots off his trees for most of the day and we met up with 3 other teams, team wolfson, if genghis can we can and a red fiesta.

At 6.30pm we crossed the bridge and had to drive on through the night - the road was only open at night as there were road works during the day. We ascended into the mountains and had several stops because of things like stretching credibility loosing all their lights whilst driving up a sand bank and gengis cans sump guard dropping off. Then we found the tunnel… 4 feet deep in water and about 5 miles long! Our car breezed through, being 4 wheel drive, but the micras struggled and we had to tow out Gengis Can.

Despite all that we arrived at Sworde Teppa on Friday 8th August and have been staying here for the weekend. We gave them the white water raft, disco ball, kids games, stationery and other bits and pieces, which they absolutely love. We`ve seen the building including the english library and movie room. We`ve decided to put all future donations towards Sworde Teppa because we know the money is going to really worthwhile stuff and isnt wasted on expensive cars and stuff.

New Donation link: www.justgiving.com/boarswordeteppa

Once again thanks to everyone and all the companies who sponsored us and helped us get this far!

Some pics:

Made it to Uzbekistan and met up with loads of teams in Bukhara.

Currency here is worthless and our pizza meal (yeah, actually going to an italian restaurant in uzbekistan!) came to  $15 each, which was the equivalent of a whole table with piles full of Uzbek Sum.

We convoyed from the border with streching cred and the gobi ambulance (google them to see their sites), found a hotel and texted a load of other teams including the allegro, spank the money in their dodgy volvo, the highly painted SJ and anotherr micra team.

Taking a rest day here today to relax as the past 2 weeks have been pretty hectic!

Turkmenistan was very hot and dusty. Drove through a sandstorm. Stretching cred needed to clean their air filter half way through.

Iran was awesome and the people were really friendly - everyone would wave and beep at us on the road as it is so rare to see a foreign car. Got stopped once at an army checkpoint and had to show passports but no big deal.

Turkey was a long haul, 1300 miles in a single country! Camped at a beach campsite one night and stunned the guy in the shop by buying 30 bottles of beer!