A bunch of Aussies are planning on driving to Mongolia...so they started with a beer.

Say what you will about us Aussies - we live on an island that's deemed too far from everyone else in the world, we have some of the most dangerous creatures in our back yards and we speak a funny language called 'straylian. But we know how to start things right...with a beer!

Thank you to Miranda, Mitchell and Jeremy who joined us for a drink!

Right on the back of our Charity Trivia Night, we headed over to a little bar in Darlinghurst known as the Bitter Phew (we highly recommend it!). Also the owner has previously run in the Mongol Rally but alas he wasn't in that day to give some much needed advice.

Our newest member James had plenty of advice to give us. His preparation for the rally so far has been to buy a map of of our route, a red marker and dedicated bookmark for DFAT (Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade). After we got our craft beers, James brought out the map which seemed to have a lot of red ink on it. As James explained it:

"This is a war zone"

"It's a full scale war here"

"The website says there are terrorists"

James admitted that his marker had started to run out of ink halfway through Turkey. And I'm beginning to suspect that James might turn up to the starting line with a case like Locke's from Lost (the one full of hunting knives).

Fortunately, we had other things to look at apart from a very red map. The Bitter Phew doesn't have it's own food menu but it will order for you from nearby places. So after perusing the differing menus for a while, we settled on some soft rolls with beautifully cooked meats!

With our stomachs full, Haylee and I gave the others some tips we picked up at the Melbouirne Route Beers. We also exchanged some stories that we'd heard from the websites and vlogs of previous teams and even a few scenes from Ewan McGregor's Long Way Round and Top Gear made it into our discussions. Well with all this talking, there was only one more thing we could do - drink more!

And it seems that we're not the only ones without a car. Mitchell and Jeremy are still in the market. Miranda has been quite proactive and has already bought a car (But she doesn't drive manual!!). Miranda is also in a interesting situation where her team mates aren't in Sydney so thumbs up for collaborative effort for their team! And then we ran our of beer again. So it's back to the bar.

We don't know the dude in the cap but James likes to talk to strangers sometimes.

Not sure what Miranda is laughing at - perhaps she's had a few too many.

After having a few more drinks, we decided that we're all nice enough folk to be friends (what we Aussies call mates) so we added each other on Facebook and stumbled off in different directions.

We're hoping to have another catchup with more people from Sydney so stay tuned!