20 Our winter break in Gothenburg, West Sweden – Podcast

In Episode 20 in my travel podcast series I’m taking a winter break in Gothenburg on the West Coast of Sweden. We tasted our way through plenty of delicious food in between visiting Christmas markets and popping into the odd museum. We enjoyed our fika, the Swedish for coffee break, in several of the cosy cafes around town and tried the Gothenburg truffle topped with sea salt. We met Camilla Parkner, the head chef at Basement, one of the 5 Michelin star restaurants in the city and at restaurant Gabriel in the Fish market we learned how to get the best taste of oysters from the owner and oyster opening champion Johan Malm. And to prove that eating out in Sweden needn’t break the bank, we took a budget lunch at Sjöbaren – the Sea Bar in Haga and heard the drinking song that encourages you to knock back the snaps with a Swedish toast – Skol!

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Reception at Hotel Elite Plaza hotel, Gothenburg, Sweden

Bedroom at Elite Plaza hotel, Gothenburg, Sweden

We flew with SAS to Gothenburg from Heathrow and arrived to find snow at the airport, although by the next day it had all melted. Over the long weekend we were staying at the Elite Plaza Hotel, a lovely 5 star hotel with an elegant, classical style, built in the 1880s as the headquarters of the Svea fire and life insurance company and converted in the 1990s into a hotel. Our bedroom was on the 5th floor, under the eves which allowed us a view over the copper topped roofs of Gothenburg towards the canal nearby.

We spent our first morning exploring some of the cafes and food venues in the Inom Vallgraven neighbourhood near our hotel. In the courtyard at Magasinsgatan we came across the Strömmingsluckan food cart which just opens for lunch to sell fried herring and mashed potato with lingonberry sauce – the owner Thomas told us that there are many of these food carts across East Sweden but not so many in West Sweden so they decided to open one in Gothenburg. In the same courtyard we found a small branch of the Da Matteo coffee shop  while across the courtyard is the bakery or Panetteria, where they make sourdough bread and where you can see the coffee being ground with huge bags on the floor in a separate room to one side.

Next we stopped close to the canal, at the elegant Café Kanold where we enjoyed a warming cup of hot chocolate topped with chili flakes to keep out the chilly wind and tasted a few of the Gothenburg truffles topped with sea salt, invented by Jeanna Kanold who has built up this old family business.

Later that day I chatted with Camilla Parkner, the head chef at Basement, one of the 5 Michelin Star restaurants in the city and the only one that’s run by a woman; in fact she’s the only female head chef at a Michelin star restaurant in the whole of Sweden.

Camilla feels that the seafood is one reason why Gothenburg has such a great reputation for great food and also that the chefs here are down-to-earth and unpretentious in their approach to food – so they stick to what they know and love with really good results. Camilla describes the food at Basement as a little bit ‘rough’- but stylish-rough – meaning that they take the kind of food that you might eat for Sunday lunch at your grandparents but then give it a stylish twist. The restaurant is especially known for their slowly cooked roast meats. For the 10 years that the restaurant has been open there has always been a slowly cooked meat dish on the menu, which is cooked in the oven overnight at 85 degrees Celsius so that the meat gets very tender and is presented with a flavoured glaze.

The menu changes every 2 weeks and is based on whatever is in season, which is why they call it the Seasonal Selection. Camilla loves the changing seasons and tries to use the best from each season – she grows a lot of vegetables herself at home from March to November, which brings her inspiration and also her colleagues bring her ideas for the menu.

When asked whether being the only female head chef in a Swedish Michelin star restaurant should make her an inspiration for other female chefs, Camilla wasn’t so sure – she doesn’t really think of it as being a woman and a head chef – her focus is on just being a head chef – although maybe other women might look at her achievements and think – “Why Not?” – they could achieve this level too.

Camilla’s recommendation to visitors to Gothenburg would be to try the fish and the shellfish which she considers the best in the world. She may have eaten seafood all over the world but finds it doesn’t taste the same as here in Gothenburg – perhaps chefs in Sweden use more salt to cook their shellfish or it could be that the water is so much colder off the coast of West Sweden, giving the seafood a unique flavour. At Christmas Camilla will be serving seafood of course, with different kinds of herring and salmon and it will be washed down with Christmas beer and perhaps a snaps with the herring.

Bar area at Basement in Gothenburg, Sweden

Our starter at Basement in Gothenburg, Sweden

Later that evening at Basement we tried the 4 course tasting menu and were impressed by the attention to detail and the passion with which the combinations were put together. You can add on a couple more courses to make a 6 course tasting menu or if you just want some simple dishes there is a different menu available in the bar area where you can’t book in advance. We also tried the tasting wine menu which is carefully selected to complement to food in the tasting menu and changes each time a new food menu appears. Although it isn’t cheap at 675 sek (£62/$98) for the 4 course tasting menu and 895 sek for the 6 course plus 495 sek (£44/$71) for the wine menu, we felt it was good value if you are looking for a gastronomic experience, with complete harmony of food and wine. We enjoyed the slowly cooked meats for which Basement is known with neck of suckling pig and reindeer tongue marinaded in honey, with each course of food and wine being described in great detail to us as it was served.

The next morning we visited Kronhuset which is one of the oldest buildings in Gothenburg and was originally an artillery store, with the buildings arranged around a courtyard. In the Kronhuset or Crown House there was a Christmas Market with many different craft and charity stalls where we bought some Christmas decorations before coming into the Café Kronhuset to have a fika break with coffee and a cake. The atmosphere was very jolly and traditional with red tablecloths and a fire burning at one end.

At lunchtime we had ate at restaurant Gabriel in the Feskekörka fish market (literally the Fish Church) and had a chat with the owner, Johan Malm about the seafood in Gothenburg. We started with the famous Gothenburg oysters that had been caught the day before, accompanied by a glass of champagne and then we had a plate of different styles of marinaded herring followed by some fish soup, washed down with the local Ocean lager and snaps with the herring.

After lunch I learned from Johan that the seafood is a long tradition in Gothenburg – there’s water all around and fish has always been a major part of the diet in West Sweden. The water is highly salted and very cold here and in winter it’s dark most of the time so the fish grow slowly in deep, cold water and that makes them very fresh and tasty.

At Gabriel they serve mainly locally caught fish and shellfish and anything that is in the fish market can be served in the restaurant. There is a menu but it is just a guide for what you could eat and if you find something in the fish market that you’d like to try that’s not a problem. They serve oysters, mussels, herring and the fish served changes with the season depending on when the fish are at their best. The month of December when we were there is the perfect time for oysters before it gets too cold.

Johan was the oyster opening champion in the Galway championships in 2010 and he told me how he came to be competing there. In Gothenburg they had a contest between all the different restaurants that serve oysters, to promote the fish restaurants in Gothenburg and Johan won that competition which qualified him for the Swedish championships where he came second enabling him to go to Ireland to attend the Galway contest. He had such fun over the 3 days that he decided to keep going back until he could become the world champion which happened in 2010. At the contest in Galway each contestant opens 30 oysters per heat although in the Nordic championships they would open three times that so their hands are pretty sore at the end of the contest.

Johan prefers to serve the oysters very cold and fresh (the ones he served us were hand caught the day before) and as natural as possible with just a splash of lemon. You can cook them as they do in the US and serve them with Tabasco, but Johan’s preference is to taste the natural flavours. His recommendation is that you must chew the oyster and not just swallow it down if you want to get the full taste and flavour.

Oysters at Gabriel in Feskekorka Fish Market

Feskekorka Fish Market in Gothenburg, Sweden

After our meal at Gabriel we hopped on an old fashioned wooden tram to take us to the entrance at Liseburg, the biggest amusement park in Sweden which at Christmas becomes the biggest Christmas market. We used our Gothenburg city card to get into Liseburg and found the whole park lit up with lights covering every branch of every tree (50 million of them and counting). There were lots of stalls and rides and we just caught the end of the ice show. As it was the end of the day we were rather tired and the park was very crowded so we didn’t stay too long and took the tram back to Haga where there are cafes and shops and cobbled streets – but at 6pm on a Saturday night it was dead with hardly anyone there – they were all at Liseburg instead!

On our first day we had tried the good value lunchtime menu at the cosy restaurant, Sjobaren (The Sea Bar) in Haga which is typically served in many local restaurants for office workers. This normally comprises a choice of salad which you help yourself to from the bar, bread and a main dish which is served with water and coffee. It’ a good way to try different local dishes if you’re on a budget, as for £8-10 you can get a hot lunch with salad.

We also learned about the Swedish customs around snaps – a spirit that’s drunk during all the main Swedish holidays at Easter, Christmas or in the summer at the crayfish parties – it works especially well with herring to cut through the slightly oily taste. You can sip it or drink it down and there are many snaps drinking songs that encourage you to knock it back with the Swedish toast of Skol!

Christmas marching band in Haga, Gothenburg

Cafe Kringlan in Haga, Gothenburg, Sweden

On our last morning we returned to Haga, the old working class district of Gothenburg with pretty houses and narrow cobbled streets where there are many interesting shops and cosy cafes that are the ideal place to have a fika – the Swedish for coffee break. This is where you might meet with friends for a coffee and a chat and perhaps eat one of the enormous cinnamon buns or the saffron buns that are served at Christmas. We found a space in Cafe Kringlan on the main street of Haga, where we tried a huge cinnamon bun and found a Christmas market of stalls selling interesting food with choirs singing and a marching band parading along the main street of Haga Nygata.

Jeanna Kanold at the Kanold shop in Gothenburg

Cafe Kanold in Gothenburg, Sweden

On the way to get the tram back to the airport I popped into the Kanold chocolate shop in Viktoriapassagen to buy some Gothenburg truffles as a gift and met by chance Jeanna Kanold who was serving in the shop that morning. Her family own the Kanold business and she is known in Gothenburg as the inventor of the Gothenburg truffle which is topped with sea salt and I asked her what was the inspiration for making the Gothenburg Truffle?  Jeanna told me she was going to a competition in Stockholm and she was trying to come up with a chocolate flavour that would epitomise Gothenburg and the West Coast of Sweden, perhaps some combination that included seafood which is so spectacular here. After a while the combinations of seafood weren’t tasting so good and then she realised that she could use sea salt to represent the sea and the seafood of Gothenburg. Now she’s started a trend for chocolate with salt and she told me that it’s particularly good to try with champagne.

After eating our way through some fantastic food, enjoying the atmosphere of the Christmas markets and seeing some of the sites of Gothenburg we’d highly recommend the city for a short break or for a longer visit to see something of the beautiful coast of West Sweden.

Places mentioned in the Podcast

Elite Plaza Hotel in Gothenburg – An elegant and stylish 5 star hotel housed in a 19th century building that was once the headquarters of a Swedish insurance company. Address; Västra Hamngatan 3 404 22 Göteborg

Strömmingsluckan – A food stand selling traditional fried herring with mashed potato and lingonberry sauce – only open at lunchtime on weekdays. Address: Magasinsgaten 17, 411 18 Göteborg

Da Matteo – recommended for excellent coffee with two branches in the Magasingaten courtyard, one of which is a Panneteria where they make sourdough bread and I’ve heard they do excellent pizzas. There is another small branch in Viktoriapassagen.

Kanold Chocolates – An old family business making chocolates and known for their Gothenburg Truffle topped with sea salt invented by Jeanna Kanold. They have a café on Grönsakstorget where you can buy some of the chocolates and a larger branch just for chocolates and hand-made candy nearby at Södra Larmgatan 14 (beside Viktoriapassagen) as well as a workshop in the Saluhallen food-hall. These are all very close to one another near the canal in the Inom Vallgraven neighbourhood.

Basement – One of 5 Michelin Star restaurants in Gothenburg and the only one with a female head chef, Camilla Parkner. The restaurant is open in the evenings serving a seasonal tasting menu and if you want something simpler you can sit in the cosy bar area which is not bookable in advance. Address; Götabergsgatan 28, 411 34 Göteborg

Gabriel – One of the two seafood restaurants in the Feskekörka fish market and is co-owned by Johan Malm with his father. He was the oyster opening champion in the international Galway championships in 2010. Check out their Facebook Page. Address; Feskekörka 411 20 Göteborg

Sjobaren- The Sea Bar situated on the main street at Haga which served excellent fish and seafood with good value lunch dishes. They also have a second restaurant at Lorensberg Address; Haga Nygata 25, 413 01 Göteborg

Liseburg – The biggest amusement park and Christmas market in Sweden with many rides and attractions for all ages – ideal for families.

Visitor Information for Gothenburg or Göteborg

• The local tourism site Göteborg.com is full of information on the best things to see and do
• For information on West Sweden visit the West Sweden Tourism site or follow them on Twitter @WestSwedenTB or on their Facebook page and you will find their blog at ExploreWestSweden.com
• Another useful site for all things Gothenburg is I Love Göteborg
• If you plan to do a lot of sightseeing it’s worth getting the Gothenburg City Card which will allow you entrance to all the major attractions as well as public transport. Look out for the deals that some hotels offer that include a Gothenburg Card with the hotel booking.
• We stayed at the elegant 5 star hotel, Elite Plaza Hotel which is right in the centre of Gothenburg in the Inom Vallgraven district and walking distance from most things.
• We flew to Gothenburg from London Heathrow with Scandanavian airlines, who have 2 flights a day to Gothenburg from London.

Music Credits: The entry music on the podcast is Venus as a girl by Andy McGee on Musicalley.com and other music was recorded on location in Gothenburg

www.flickr.com heatheronhertravels’ Sweden – Gothenburg photoset

This article is originally published at Heatheronhertravels.com – Read more travel articles at Travel Blog Home

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19 – Travelling in Egypt – Alexandria, Marsa Matrouh and Siwa – Podcast

In Travel Podcast Episode 19 I visit Egypt where I spent a week travelling with a friend who lives in Alexandria. I took a walking tour of the city where many of the houses are crumbling away and where we bumped into a wedding procession hooting horns and letting off fireworks. We drove west to the popular holiday resort of Marsa Matrouh and turned south-west to the desert oasis of Siwa near the Libyan border. I found Siwa to be a truly magical place and we explored the old mud brick fortress of the Shali, visited the ancient tombs at Gebel al-Mawta or the Mountain of the dead and watched the sun set over the lake at Fatnas island.

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On my first day in Alexandria, I drove along the corniche that stretches along the coastline, past the Alexandria library which surprised me for being a modern building, not ancient as I had imagined. My new friend Gordon, an Englishman who lives in Alexandria took me on a walking tour of the old Italian, French and Greek neighbourhoods. The impression is of buildings that are peeling and run down, as the rents are fixed and the tenancy can be handed down the generations so the landlords have no incentive to renovate their properties.

We wandered through the souks where we found a street for every different thing you might want to buy, such as the stationary street and the party decoration street . Gordon told me that the Alexandrians celebrate all the festivals for each different religion, but they can only start decorating 2 weeks before. We walked through the fruit market where strawberries were in season & the fresh figs would soon be available in June and finished in the jewellery quarter where although most shops were shut I still managed to treat myself to a necklace.

Beau Rivage Hotel at Marsa Martrouh

Beau Rivage Hotel at Marsa Martrouh

The next day, we drove westwards out of Alexandria along the coast road past a succession of holiday developments, each closely built in a different architectural style with only the occasional break through which you could glimpse the sea. These are popular with Egyptian families although they are only used in the summer months although I preferred it when the developments petered out and we were just driving through the desert. We passed El Alamein, the site of the famous World War 2 tank battles, passing the Italian, German & British war cemeteries. We arrived after a few hours at Marsa Matrouh where everyone in Alexandria comes for their summer holidays with a lot of apartments and hotels. We noticed a few military checkpoints, partly because of the recent revolution and partly because Libya has claims on this part of Egypt so it is treated as a military zone.

We stayed at the Beau Rivage hotel on the edge of town, with views over the beautifully landscaped gardens and over the pool and towards the sea. We enjoyed relaxing on the sun loungers on the beach and took a dip in the intensely turquoise sea – but after a while we felt everything was a bit too perfect so we took a walk beyond the hotel walls and found a bit of normal Egyptian life outside the hotel compound. We came across a man fishing and another with his children making a small fire of brushwood on the beach where he was brewing up some tea and showed us a small fish that he was keeping alive in a rock pool and was planning to cook later.

That evening we decided to drive into town for dinner to look for a good fish restaurant as the Alexandrians take great pride in their fresh fish. Our Egyptian friend, Said, inspected all the fish that were on display on ice and we chose what we wanted and then it was weighed and we paid for the weight. We were asked how we liked it cooked – grilled, fried or with a sauce and of course we over-ordered a huge spread of giant prawns, octopus and fish served with meze and salads. After dinner I was getting internet withdrawal symptoms and we found an internet cafe which was filled with men watching football and smoking the shisha pipes. I puzzled over the problem of logging on to the Wifi since the password was in Arabic script, but luckily a Libyan medical student came to our rescue and managed to copy the password from his phone onto my laptop to log in. Meanwhile we drank hibiscus tea and a creamy desert topped with fruit and coconut.

The next day we drove on to Siwa about 3 hours south west of Marsa Matrouh, through the gritty desert landscape with the odd military base and a cafe half way in the middle of nowhere. Suddenly the rocky outcrops that surround Siwa rose out of the desert and we saw the lake ahead of us (and it’s not a mirage!). The oasis is based on underground springs that keep the oasis green and enable date palms and olive trees to grow. We stayed at the lovely Siwa Safari Gardens Hotel – an oasis within the oasis with a spring-fed pool in the middle of the garden and our rooms in the 2 story buildings around the garden.

The traditional buildings in Siwa are made out of rock salt and mud clay and the Siwa people are keen to preserve their culture and the tranquil atmosphere with sustainable tourism. Since it was not long after the revolution and the Libyan crisis was still going on, there were not many tourists although we felt very safe in Siwa.

We visited the Temple of the Oracle, with mud wall construction and the remains of the stone built temple at the top with amazing views towards the lake and over the city. Then we stopped at Cleopatra’s spring which is a large round pool with clear green water with the bubbles coming to the surface, reminding me of the Roman springs at Bath near where I live. We sat and had some lemon grass tea in a cafe next to the Cleopatra’s spring and we were offered a small fruit the size of a cherry but with the flavour of  an apple. The date palms and olives are the main cash crops in Siwa- vegetables can also grow here but they are sold locally as they would cost too much to transport.

We visited the Siwa House, a museum of Siwa culture, where the curator told us the story behind the wedding dresses worn by the Siwa women. The dress worn for the wedding night is made of embroidered green silk, although many of the women now wear western style wedding dresses. The creamy white silk dress with embroidery like the rays of a sun is worn on the third day after the wedding when the bride’s relatives come to visit her, although her mother does not visit her until the seventh day when she wears a black silk dress with embroidery and mother of pearl buttons for decoration. The mother of pearl buttons were brought on the caravans by traders who would exchange wool, carpets and wheat in exchange for dates and olive oil. The dyes used to colour the silk fabric and the embroidery thread are made from dates – the traditional colours of Siwa are only green, yellow, orange, red and black – each colour is produced from the dates at different stages in their ripening. The trousers and shawls are also made from natural silk embroidered with the coloured threads.

When the female relatives of the bride visit her after the wedding they are offered part of the heart of the palm as a special treat, but the mother of the bride receives a whole palm heart decorated with fruit and sweets. This is considered a great sign of hospitality as the palm is considered a valuable plant due to the dates it produces. From the age of 10 to 13 when they get engaged the young girls start to embroider their wedding dresses helped by their mothers and their aunts. The parents will arrange the marriage for their children, choosing the husband based on the knowledge of the families rather than financial considerations.  The hair of the women in Siwa is braided in different styles depending on whether the woman is single or married. The unmarried girls will have many braids on each side of their heads while the married women have 9 braids which cross over the forehead.

We also visited Gebel al Mawta or the Mountain of the Dead, the ancient burial place of Siwa. We climbed to the top of the mound and looked down on all the rock hewn tombs below, some of which can be viewed with a guide and are painted inside. You can hear the wind blowing at the top and from there I got a great panorama over the oasis, looking across to the ancient fortress town of the Shali.

Mint tea at Fatnas island in Siwa in Egypt

Sunset at Fatnas island in Siwa in Egypt

That evening we drove to Fatnas island to see the sunset setting over the lake although in recent years the lake level has dropped so it is more like a salt marsh. Sitting in rattan chairs we sipped sweet mint tea and looked across the lake to the eco-lodge where Prince Charles and Camilla stayed when they were in Siwa. We chatted to the man who owned this land and had set up the tea kiosk as a business – he is a storyteller who had travelled all over the Middle East including a performance for the Queen of Jordan. In the darkness we drank our tea under the date palms as we watched the sun go down.

Other podcasts you may enjoy

 Papua New Guinea podcast – interview with Beth Whitman
The Mongol Rally with Sherry Ott
Visiting the Christmas Markets in Munich

www.flickr.com heatheronhertravels’ Egypt – Alexandria photoset

 

This article is originally published at Heatheronhertravels.com – Read more travel articles at Travel Blog Home

You’ll also find our sister blog with tips on how to build a successful travel blog at My Blogging Journey

Don’t miss out – subscribe to Heather on her travels

18 The Mongol Rally with Sherry Ott and the Social Media Syndicate – Podcast

In Episode 18 in my travel podcast series, I talk to Sherry Ott about the Mongol Rally and her adventures driving from London to Mongolia with three other travel bloggers. I met Sherry, who blogs at Ottsworld, in London just as their Social Media Syndicate (with Deb and Dave from ThePlanetD and Rick from Midlife Roadtrip ) were preparing to leave England starting from Goodwood. Now Sherry’s safely back from the Mongol Rally we caught up and heard about their adventures driving on dirt roads when the tarmac ran out, through rivers and over rickety bridges, although all this seemed tame compared to what happened to some of the other teams. In 5 weeks they made it to Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia where all the Mongol Rally cars were sold to raise money for charity and there were not one but three finish line parties to celebrate the achievement.

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Show Notes

The Mongol Rally is a car adventure for teams to drive from London to Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia, preferably in a totally unsuitable car. The Rally is organised by The Adventurists to support a different Mongolian Charity each year and all the cars are sold at the end with the proceeds going to support the charity.

Before they set off Sherry’s Social Media Syndicate team arrived in London to prepare the car that they had bought over the Internet, making sure they had all the spare parts they needed and well as getting all their paperwork in place. The challenge was that the team knew very little about car mechanics even though on average each Mongol Rally team has 9 breakdowns en route.

The team comprised Sherry Ott from Ottsworld, Deb and Dave from ThePlanetD who are based in Toronto and Rick Griffin from Midlife Roadtrip - their strap-line was “4 travel bloggers over 40″

Each Mongol Rally team can choose their own route and Sherry’s team planned to travel through 14 countries; Belgium, Germany, Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Moldova, Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Mongolia finishing in Ulaanbaatar. To decide the route to team had got together on a Skype call with Google maps and plotted what they thought would work, but there was no detailed plan. There were times when Sherry wasn’t sure if they would make it due to delays at borders, problems with paperwork and mechanical difficulties, not to mention the terrible roads.

The team are all still friends but it was stressful always being in a car together and having to make constant travel decisions such as; what road do we take, where do we eat, where do we stay, what was that sound in the car? The team worked out any disagreements by sitting down and talking out the pros and cons of each decision, such as whether to change their route.

At the start of the Rally at Goodwood, everything came to life with a circus atmosphere and the organisers even arranged actors to impersonate Russian Border guards. It was exciting but everyone had their hoods up and was looking under the engines which made Sherry anxious that the other teams were better prepared than her team was.

A lot of the vehicles were ambulances and one was a small school bus named the “Too big to fail bus” which lived up to its name and made it to the end even though they had a few problems driving their bus through the streets of Istanbul. There were a couple of fire trucks and a car covered with long purple fur, called the “Fast and the Furriest” which by the end was completely grey with dust. Another car was completely wrapped in duct tape and the team had a lot of problems at borders because the officials couldn’t understand how to classify the car.

In Europe they enjoyed staying with travel bloggers in Cologne and Brussels and Prague was highlight where they stayed for a day to look around. Then they drove through Hungary and Slovakia and Sherry loved Brasov in Romania, a beautifully kept town surrounded by mountains. Sherry was sad not to be able to see more of these places but they were focused on keeping going and too many stops would put them behind on their schedule and even then they wouldn’t have time to see it all properly. There were also constraints due to the visas which determined that they had to enter Russia on 4 August as they only had 30 days to cover several countries then cross back into Russia again.

Kiev Ukraine Church on the Mongol Rally

Visiting Prague on the Mongol Rally

Until they got to Romania there were no border crossings but as they crossed into Moldova and into Ukraine things changed because there were border crossings and this meant delays over paperwork and difficulties in communicating as the language and alphabet changed and these countries had much less tourism. At borders they had to be patient and wait it out to get through without too many bribes. The border crossing took from 1.5 hrs to 24 hrs at longest with an average of 4 hours. Often they would have to act dumb and pretend they didn’t understand what was going on to avoid paying bribes.

On the roads crossing from Russia into Kazakhstan the roads got worse, because although they are tarmac they were poorly maintained and pounded by huge trucks with massive potholes or pot hills. If you went too fast the road condition could change quickly and you could scrape the bottom of the car, risking damaging it. In Mongolia the roads were also difficult as they were dirt and it was not always obvious which route to take.

Road choices in Mongolia on the Mongol Rally

Camping in Kazakhstan on the Mongol Rally

Sometimes Sherry felt a little vulnerable at night in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, when they would pull off the road and drive into a field to camp, as she feared that they might be robbed, although in the end they had no problems of this kind. All the locals who came up to them just wanted to talk to them and find out what they were doing.

Once they got to Mongolia they encountered river crossings where they would rely on the advice of locals on the best route to cross the river as they were not always the obvious crossing points. Once they followed 2 guys on a motorbike, snaking though the river and the water came into the front of the car but they kept their foot on the gas and kept moving so as to avoid getting water in the exhaust. Although the driving was stressful, after 5 weeks Sherry was becoming a bit more relaxed about this kind of challenge.

Sherry had visited Mongolia 2 years ago when she spent 2 weeks on a local tour in the Gobi desert. This time she was able to see Western Mongolia which is more remote, but she found that outside the city the Mongol way of life of living in Gers remained the same and the landscapes were just as stunning. Whenever they camped in Mongolia the locals would come to visit them in the morning or evening and bring gifts such as cheese or fermented mare’s milk. As they had a map sticker on the bonnet they could use this to try and explain their journey. Any local visitors would invariably ask to buy their car due to the shortage of cars in Mongolia. Even though people can afford to buy a car, very few are being imported, so even in the smallest villages people would ask to buy the car.

Once the teams arrived in Ulaanbaatar they handed over their car and the paperwork to the Adventurists who organise the Mongol Rally. Some better vehicles get cleaned up and put in a bigger auction but otherwise they are auctioned on the day they arrive. The organisers pay the vehicle import taxes and the rest of the money goes to the charity with many of the cars being sold for more money than they were paid for in the UK. The charity changes every year, but this year it was the Christina Noble Foundation who run a Ger camp that houses orphaned or disadvantaged children who can’t live with their families. At the final party the kids from the camp performed for the teams, singing, playing music and doing a judo display, with around $500 being raised for the charity.

A Ger in Mongolia on the Mongol Rally

Western Mongolia on the Mongol Rally

Because the Mongol Rally has no set end date, with everyone arriving at different times, the organisers set  up 3 different finish line parties, one at 4 weeks after the start and the others at 5 weeks and 6 weeks. This meant that most of the teams could go to one of the parties, depending on when they arrived.

Once Sherry’s team met up with the other teams they realised that their team got off lightly. One team from Scotland went to a disco in Russia and 2 out of 3 got drugged and robbed while the third got in a cab to go to his hotel and the driver took him outside the city and demanded money from him. There were stories of people driving into rivers and their car floating away. Sherry reckoned that the Social Media Syndicate were too busy working and blogging to get into as much trouble as some of the younger teams.

Throughout the trip, the blogging team worked very hard at staying online. When they stayed in hotels they could generally find wifi and would work late into the night to get photos and blogs posted. Until they reached Mongolia they were able to use a 3G Kindle to get Internet access and do some live tweeting en route and check email. Once they were out of 3G range in Mongolia, they could use a world sim card sponsored by Onesimcard to text their tweets to a phone number which would then be posted on Twitter. In Europe they used a Tep wireless device which enabled them to get wifi on the move and they could even get Internet access and do work in the car. The Car was sponsored by Allways Rental in New Zealand.

The team used a satellite tracking device from Track24Solo who tracked their position and posted it onto their Facebook pages – within Europe they were able to track their position on the map but once they got to Mongolia they used it to track distance between villages. In London the team were put up in an apartment by Oh-London and in several other cities, Roomorama provided short term rental accommodation.

Now she is back in the US, Sherry’s current project is a series of meet-ups in cities in the US and Canada through her Meet Plan Go website, inspiring and advising people how to plan career breaks to enable them to travel. After that Sherry is not sure what she will be doing and has a feeling of anticlimax, that nothing can top the unique adventure of the Mongol Rally.

Find out more about the Mongol Rally

The Mongol Rally is an annual event organised by the Adventurists - find them on Twitter @theadventurists
You can read all Sherry’s stories from the Mongol Rally on Ottsworld
Read what Sherry’s team-mates wrote about the Mongol Rally – Deb and Dave at ThePlanetD  and Rick Griffin at Midlife Road Trip
Connect with the Social Media Syndicate on Twitter @ottsworld @theplanetd @midliferoadtrip – they used the hashtag #mongolsms and #mongolrally

All photos are copyright of Sherry Ott

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