The Rally launch was five long weeks ago, so far over a hundred teams have driven, walked, limped, taxied and rolled across the finish line, most of them in anticipation of the fabled second finish line party. All in all it made for a pretty impressive day. To save you reading my relentless rambling I'll present you the highlights mostly in image form.

At 4pm the kids from Lotus Children's Centre turned up to delight us with another performance of singing, music and dancing. despite the fact many ralliers had just arrived and were thinking of little else but a cold beer, the whole finish line bar was quiet and attentive as they drank in  the performance.

As night began to fall we stormed to Fers Nightclub; the arrivals over the last few days were a colourful bunch so this party promised to be impressive and it did not disappoint.

This is Pete and Rich, two thirds of Wheelie Wanderers, together with their team-mate Jan they blitzed the Mongol Rally, along a scenic route including Iraq, Iran, Turkmenistan, & Uzbekistan, they did all this in under 5 weeks before a minor engine failure brought an end to their rally in Bayanhongor 600k from Ulaanbaatar. Pete and Jan then took the particularly unpleasant Uaz 'coach' to the finish line. These fine pieces of Russian engineering may look a bit like a VW camper van, but the inside is more akin to the paint mixing machine at your local hardware store. Rich wisely hitched a lift with another team. We salute these chaps who are too modest to admit the scale of their achievement. Pete is already contemplating the Mototaxi Junket

There are a few key ingredients to a good party; music, booze and folks who wish to get down. These things were available in abundance and if there was ever folks who wanted to get down these were it. With added entertainment from the Mongolian band 'Jonon' and hippety-hop dancers 'B&B' Fers bar was in danger of shaking loose its foundations. Despite the fact that most of these revellers were due at the airport at 5am the next morning the party continued long after the bar ran dry and the cleaners were called in. A ruddy good night indeed.