It's been too long since we last updated this. Today is Sunday. As below, we had hoped to be across the Lao border and into Thailand on our way to Singapore by now. However, we're back in Hanoi, since pretty much everything which could have gone wrong, went wrong.

We've also had some news which we've been sat on until Leg 3 were back in the UK. With them back in the middle of last week, we can tell a little bit more about what has been going on..

Another quick update then. Leg 3 came across the border on Monday night, and we had an excellent meal together at the International Hotel in Lao Chi, before we sent them back on their way to Hanoi in the Minibus.

The cars are still in the Chinese customs impound, but we're hoping to have them across the border tomorrow (Thursday), and with the help of a Police escort, we should be at the Laos border/Laos by Friday. This gives us a week and a day to complete the rest of the distance, and cross all of the borders between here and Singapore in order to meet our connecting flight home.

Lets just hope we can get on the road tomorrow, the team are getting rather tired of all of the waiting.

We (Leg 4) have moved north of Hanoi, to Lao Chi, which is the border crossing point between China and Vietnam.

Good news first then, Leg 3 arrived at the border last night, and we spied them across the other side of the bridge. The Chinese officials were happy for the cars to leave the country. Bad news, Vietnam are not happy for us to import the cars, so we are stuck (as are Leg 3). Ian, Malcolm and Steve have been doing a great job, talking to local fixers about trying to sort things out, but at the moment, we're going nowhere very quickly..

I don't think anything was going to prepare us for the day ahead when we woke up in the hotel in Singapore around 7am. All of us had recovered from the inevitable jetlag incurred a day or so before and were adjusting well to the new time zones.

After a cooked breakfast of noodles, eggs, hash browns, sausages and beans, our airport taxi arrived to transport us on to our next adventure. And what an adventure that would turn out to be!

Woke up early to what sounded like tin whistle music wafting through the night air - tune unrecognisable but clearly of chinese influence.

Hotel in Xian had been the best yet with running hot water becoming the only luxury required. Meal out had been taken in a dumpling banquet at the famous Emperors restaurant - very tasty.

A chinese meal was becoming a bit too much for breakfast, so being in the big city, there was only one option – McDonalds'.

Just a quick update with some pictures of us being tourists in Singapore today..

I'm writing this now from the air-conditioned comfort of a hotel room in Singapore, it's hot outside. Worse than that though, it's really, really humid.. (and the internet is a bit dodgy)

Team arrived at the border in high spirits, vehicles had performed really well yesterday and the team put in a sterling effort.

The sight at the border was a complete contrast to the previous evening; there were now loads of trucks and mini-buses + cars waiting to cross.

Day 34 - Chinese Border Crossing

What a nightmare flight, sleep not an option. Scenery coming into Almaty though is quite interesting - very flat arid area with small denser areas of populus and agriculture surrounded by mountains. Reminds me of somewhere but cannot remember where - too tired.

Customs are interesting, looks like one plane in and one plane out. We were able to watch our bags going around the carousel whilst still queuing in the immigration line.

Day 31 - Leg 3 Begins

Is that the time! 3 a.m. must get to Gaydon for 4 to meet the others! Drive to London, first in the queue for the Chinese Embassy for our appointments at 9 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. Made good time only a couple of hours to kill. Plenty of time to discuss how leg 3 has all come back together due to some hard work in the UK and China.

The whole team was down in London in case there were any questions at the desks but they only wanted to talk to two of us = I think everyone in the queue had the same time for their appointments as there was still a queue outside,

Leg 3 - The Prequel

Our final day starts early, with us all traipsing into Andy & Joe's room to pick our washing ready for the press conference kindly organised by Mercur Auto. After a breakfast worthy of an up market European hotel, (Almaty is a very cosmopolitan city, especially after two weeks in the wilderness), we meet up with Bagdat from Mercur Autos and are ferried at speed through the city. Every Kazakh driver seems to be under the impression that this is an audition for Ronin, the film. The traffic reflects the evolving status of Almaty, every automotive brand is here from Lada to Lincoln, Morgan to Mayback. We pick up the Go60 vehicles and join the melee ourselves.

End of Leg 2..

We awoke with the knowledge that today was the day we would reach the leg 2 end point of Almaty. There were mixed feelings associated with this. We all enjoyed the driving and the opportunity to put the vehicles through their paces. Combine this with the many changes of scenery and the welcoming people we have encountered, in many ways we couldn't have improved our experience.

Charin Canyon however was lined with a layer of extremely fine dust. It got into everything and reminded us that we had been days without a hot shower. There were other modern conveniences that we were missing and of course our friends and families.

Charin Canyon to Almaty

After a pleasant night sleep we arose around 8:00am for a refreshing breakfast of muesli mixed with yoghurt as supplies are getting low! A team effort saw the camp site next to the mountain river in Žeti Oguz cleaned to perfection with the campfire lit to burn off the remaining rubbish. Just as the tents were being packed away a herd of cows decided to wander around the campsite to reclaim their land. Succeeding this we managed our first successful key check after nearly two weeks much to Ian's relief!

Zeti Oguz to Charin Canyon

Most of awoke having spent our first night ever in a Yurt, and this proved to be a comfortable and enjoyable experience! We had breakfast consisting of yoghurt, bread and 3 fried eggs! The homemade apricot jam was also very enjoyable.

After photos, we said goodbye to our hosts and drove down the track 800 metres to Lake Ysyk-Kol, where we parked up by the sandy beach. We all had a good dip or swim in the rather cold lake, washed clothes and enjoyed a general wash and clean up. It was very sunny, the sand was hot and quite a few of us got sunburnt!

Issy-Kol Lake to Zeti-Oguz

The admin day got off to a peaceful start with the morning light revealing a truly spectacular scene created by the still waters of Song-Kol lake and the contrasting jaggedness of the distant mountains all bathed in a rich sunlight. Today is going to be our day of rest.

Since we started we have been pushing hard to achieve our goals in spite of the challenges faced, which in turn has taken it's toll on most in one way or another. Therefore today will be the teams first real opportunity to relax after the mammoth drive from Moscow, and boy we are not going to let it go to waste.

Song-Kol lake – Issy-Kol Lake

The admin day got off to a peaceful start with the morning light revealing a truly spectacular scene created by the still waters of Song-Kol lake and the contrasting jaggedness of the distant mountains all bathed in a rich sunlight. Today is going to be our day of rest.

Since we started we have been pushing hard to achieve our goals in spite of the challenges faced, which in turn has taken it's toll on most in one way or another. Therefore today will be the teams first real opportunity to relax after the mammoth drive from Moscow, and boy we are not going to let it go to waste.

Rest Day

Last night we stayed at two community based tourism houses. The families were brother and sister and lived a few doors apart from each other. They were hosts to two American peace corps volunteers Jonathan, in the house Joe, Andy P, Ben, Chris and I were in and Erin was with the other group. They are here for two years. Johnathan works in a local womens co-operative where they sell the traditional felt rugs (shyrdaks), he's teaching them to put a business structure in place, Erin works in the local school. I knew the US peace corps existed but really didn't know what t hey do. I now have a healthy respect for the work that they do.

Kochkor to Song-Kol lake, Kyrgyzstan

In a country that consists of so many superlatives it's difficult to pick out a best moment of our day when every corner you turn offers a new photo.

Would it be waking up and having breakfast served in a magnificently decorated yurt by Turdubek Ailchiev's family courtesy of Kyrgyz Community Based Tourism (CBT).

Would it be the climb out of Talas into the snowline of the rugged mountains and over the Otmok Pass (3330m).

Talas to Kochkor

After a well earned 7.5 hours sleep the team emerged from their slumber to a breakfast of either Omelette or Blini's filled with meat. Team spirits were up once again as a proper nights sleep was long overdue and everyone was eager to get on with the business of the day, which was mainly concerned with crossing the border into Kyrgyzstan.

Symkent to Talas via Taraz

Scrambled egg, sausage and strong coffee prepared us for the onward journey. After several days of disciplined stops an significant mileage the team have become a finely tuned machine. We do some maintenance checks on Defender 1 and the remainder of the team get busy cleaning windscreens, head & tail lamps and sorting ipod cables, Garmin nuvi units with charging leads, radios and water between each vehicle. The route out of town is simple, we follow Ben's route along roads in a relatively good condition. The cosmodrome is near our location and at least 2 of the team want to go, we hadn't pre-arranged our visit so unfortunately we had to decide to move on.

Kyzlorda to Shimkent

Up at 7 this morning to the sight of camels grazing on the horizon near our tents, & got the porridge on. This is great - we're definitely in Kazakhstan! With Aralsk (yesterdays intended destination) still an hours' drive away, we were eager to crack on. Thanks to leg1 for leaving all the kit in good working order – our first night under canvas was plain sailing. Just a few private meetings round the nearest sand dune with the shovel of destiny (we observe the dung beetles having a party!), and everyone's ready to roll.

Aral'sk (nearly) to Kyzlorda

After watching the Man U - Chelsea game in a drive in cinema the previous night, we got up early having been woken during the night by a triple shooting, (of cats). Apparently the locals don't take kindly to been woken during the night.

Aktobe - Aral'sk (nearly)

Today was another scorcher, the hottest yet peaking at 31 degrees. We arose at 8:00am and found the showers were not working so another smelly day. After saying our thankyous to Aliback & Umit our excellent hosts for the evening at the Tahiti hotel we set off & filled the cars up and went to the local supermarket which resembled an airaid shelter, the guys working there were really friendly and insisted we took photos of them!

Ural'sk to Aktobe

Borislav, the Russian Reporter we had hoped would join us, unfortunately wasn't able to rendez-vous. The team were a little slow after the previous night. We were able to use the Garmin hand held unit to navigate to the M32. Samara had some most interesting sights, including domed churches, retro style trams, statues and squares. The town merited more time than we had, disappointingly we had to move on quickly. 10 kilometres later, we had the fuel stop, where we knew we needed to fill the jerry cans for the first time. The remote wilderness of the stans was beckoning. A coffee stop shortly after provided breakfast for those that missed the fine breakfast in the hotel.

Samara to Ural'sk

After a brief breakfast of bread with sliced meats and tomato, we set off having said goodbye to our hosts. They also gave us an escort out of town back onto the M5. Within minutes we get stopped by the Police at a checkpoint. Joe and Ben were negotiating for about 40 minutes with an armed border guard, they wanted $50 per person but we got away with just a few small gifts from our kitty!

Penza to Samara

Oleg joined us for the send-off, he has become an honorary GO60 member and has done so much for the team. Tour guide, translator and luggage chaser. We took pictures of him with the team next to his classic Range Rover. He gave us a routeplan to head out of Moscow and without further ado we were off. We seemed to drive for some time before we reached the countryside.

Leaving Moscow

A solid breakfast of meat and potatoes prepared us for some serious exploring. Oleg led our convoy to visit “Independents” one of Land Rover's biggest dealers in Russia. Also the purveyor of extremely good coffee, which we all appreciated. On return to the hotel, Leg 1 joined us for a tour of Moscow.

Exploring Moscow

Leg 2 started for us in Birmingham airport with 2 bottles of champagne. The flights passed quickly with excited team banter about the adventure we are taking. Ian with his Ray Mears style explorer's hat and lofty 6'4" stature was an easy figure to find in the crowd so it was simple to stay together.

Leg 2 go to Moscow

Most of the team made it up in time for a shower prior to a good hearty breakfast of... bread and cheese! all washed down with a cup of tea. Tents were emptied and broken down, the ground was damp and the insides of the tents were sodden with condensation even though the vents were open.

Krakow to Lublin (Poland)

We're waiting on some updates from the team, so here are the maps showing their progress so far..

Czech Republic to Russia

Last night was a bit cold, we think the last couple of nights at the hotels have made us soft! After a quick breakfast of bacon sandwiches, we broke camp and headed into the center of Munich to visit the local dealer. They very kindly gave our vehicles the once over just to check fluid levels and tyres etc.

Germany to Czech Republic

After a lovely meal last night and excellent accommodation, we made our way to see Mr Sergio Bertani to thank him in person, Bertani are a major importers of Land Rover products to Italy and we had a chance to see their vehicle preparation areas and chat to their Land Rover specialists. They even kindly topped up our fuel tanks to help us on our way – thank you once again. By mid-morning we were on the road again heading towards Lake Garda..

Italy to Germany

Switzerland to Italy ‚ It must be Wednesday

We woke up bright & early this morning after a good night's sleep at a lovely hotel courtesy of Jaguar Land Rover Schweiz AG. After some breakfast and a last drive to Gstaad, we briefly stopped at Hansueli Brand, Ledi Garage Feutersoey to thank them once again for hosting us for a lovely meal the night before. We then made our way along the scenic 2 hour drive to Sierre..

Switzerland to Italy

We got up early to get a good start on the road – some snoring last night in the shared dorms kept people awake - we all blame Tony! After some breakfast at the hostel we had another chance to get lost in Luxembourg – beautiful city – we should know we saw it twice! Then we were on the road towards Switzerland..

Read more about Day 4..

We got up early this morning, Stuart and Dave were on the last stag and got the kettle going. No exciting news from the stag shift (thankfully!) - just a badger, rabbits and a couple of rather inebriated caravaner's! Although the weather has been lovely and sunny – the tents were damp again with dew. We headed straight to visit Corus Steel, who very kindly gave us breakfast and coffee..

Read more about the trip to Corus..

We got up early this morning – it was a cold night and with all the excitement of the day before, none of us had slept that well. But after firing up the stove and putting the kettle on we were soon feeling more alive. A quick forage at the campsite shop resulted in pain-au-chocolate all round! We then spent some time re-arranging the kit, putting all the tents and roll mats together so we could quickly set up camp tonight.

Read more about Day 2..

We collected the cars from the Heritage center early in the morning, and with some fingers crossed, loaded our gear into the vehicles. Even with only one bag each, it was still a squeeze with all of the kit. We headed up the road to Solihull to meet up with all the rest of the Land Rover vehicles on the annual Heritage run – this year being even more special with Land Rover's 60th anniversary. Our expedition vehicles took pride of place at the front of the run and it was a great ride down to the Heritage center..

Read more about Setting off..

From : Gary & Warren

After leaving the Heritage show and getting down to the tunnel, we were surprised at how easy getting the train was. (It is run by the french).

We arrived in Dunkirk at a camp site that was by the sea side, but was well past its best.

A local pizza place took care of the immediate hunger issues..read more about our how they got their collars felt...