Not surprisingly, our thoughts have turned to navigation.

While we hope to be able to get through the Rally with our tech, we realise that this may not be the case.  And that redundancy in the form of different media is a good things.  Also, one can draw on paper :)

So, after a bit of research into maps etc, we went on a minor binge at Stanfords*, who seem to have a pretty good selection, at pretty good prices (well, compared with New Zealand, at any rate!).

Our list is as follows, in case anyone else is interested:

Russia (Lonely Planet) – guide

• Russia: West (Reise Know-How Verlag) – map
• Russia: Urals to Lake Baikal (Reise Know-How Verlag) – map
• Eastern European phrasebook (Thomas Cook) – phrasebook
• Mongolian (Lonely Planet) – phrasebook
• Mongolia (Reise Know-How Verlag) – map

Also, we got a hammock and one of those nifty pegless clothes line jobbies.

We ALSO have a Lonely Planet guide for Mongolia.

And as to tech?  Dane had fun buying a TomTom offline map for Europe (not inexpensive, ouch!).

Hopefully, that’ll see us right.  Hopefully :)

The only source of frustration?  aimee forgot to put in to the code that gets Mongol Ralliers a small discount.  ‘Cause she’s an idiot :P

* Additionally, buying in the UK means we don’t have to carry our maps and books over to there in our luggage – they’re going to wait there for our arrival, instead.