Day Thirteen: Quarter way point celebrations

Good news! We got the drugs! YAAAY!

The nice lady from the British Embassy phoned us back, perhaps deciding that we didn't sound too suspicious, and she said that as long as copies of the prescriptions were in the package (which they were, Thanks Mother Dowling!!) then they should not get held up by customs. If they did then we would have to deal with it at the time but there would be nothing we could do before hand.

We tracked the parcel after speaking to the British Embassy and it already appeared to have passed customs, so we speedily drove to just outside Komotini (where we were collecting) and set up camp for the night right next to the beach.

Next morning, (which was yesterday) we sped to Komontini, not quite sure how we would find the collection point, when we just happened to pass a DHL office as we pulled off the motorway for petrol! We popped in and I think the collections point must have been a few hundred meters away as the lady get on the phone to someone and about ten minutes later there was our enormous box of drugs! It is quite enormous, not quite sure how we will carry it without our trusty steed but we have them nevertheless!

It was at this point that we noticed a rather strange smell following us around. At first I thought it was the trees near the beach where we camped the other night, then I though it was the bustling city smells of Istanbul yesterday. But it wasn't until the smell had followed us nearly 500km that it dawned on me, it probably was the car. We've peeped under the bonnet and not being mechanics we can't see anything obviously leaking, hanging or dripping so we have concluded that it must just be a little smelly in the heat... Right? It smells a bit like burning. Also it's OK for the battery to hiss once you've stopped the engine isn't it?

Well just incase it's not, we've given our little Micra a whole day of rest! We arrived in Istanbul yesterday and booked two nights at the same Hostel which means a day without driving :) A well needed rest I must add after driving in Istanbul!

Firstly we managed to get onto a toll road without paying for it as there was no barrier, but when we got to the end there was not unly a barrier but endless amounts of fast moving traffic piling up behind us. In a space of a couple of seconds we were at the front of honking line of lorries hurriedly trying to convince the machine that it wanted to accept our visa card instead of the motorway card everyone else had previously purchased. Luckily we were causing the man at the booth to become so exasperated he let us go through for free.

When we reached Istanbul we encountered several wide roads, no markings, with cars, bikes, lorries and people just storming freely left and right without care nor regard for anyone else on the road! Trice I saw a car driving the wrong was up the motorway on the hard shoulder, and in the centre Taxis who clam they have right of way cut us up frequently with a loud honk and screech of tyres. Navigating through all this chaos caused us to drive in circles, taking the same road over the bridge about three times but eventually about 2 hours later we found our Hostel, tucked up a side street with no name outside or any indication that it even existed. Thanks.

Panic over we managed to hook up with three other teams on the rally who were in Istanbul for one night. Two of the teams are on Scooters and the other team are in a Suzuki. We spent the evening chatting over beer and Shisha, celebrating making it a quarter of the way, with plans of checking out the clubs in Taxim, but unfortunately a few drinks and green shots later that plan went out the window and at about 4am we got a taxi back to our hostel.

A couple of them are getting the Trabzon-Sochi ferry but I think they will be travelling slower then we are so not sure if we will be able to convoy (and scooters will be little help when we want a tow over a river...) Also our Russian visa does not start until Tuesday the 9th August I think, which is a lot later than most of the other teams we have met, and we've heard that there are only two ferries a week, either Sunday and Thursday, or Monday and Thursday, so it doesn't look like we will be on the ferry to Russia until next Thursday at the earliest!

Will have to delve deeper into the folds of Turkey for a few more days.

Morale: Good
Car: Resting
Current Thought: This room was supposed to be air conditioned. With the window open we have the chorus of angry horns to serenade us through the night...
Country Count: 12 (+ Turkey)
Miles: I'll get back to you

Day Eleven: Greek Chic

Bratislava was interesting. We decided to camp in a field just outside the city and seconds after trundling down the dirt track we got monumentally stuck! It had been raining all day and the track was like a deadly bog which was hungry for our car. Not quite sure why we decided it would be a good idea, but anyhow after about half an hour of shoving rocks under the wheels, twisting and turning and pulling the car with the tow rope we eventually manages to wriggle free. The car now looks like this:

It definitely looks like a rally car now! Although we are getting some strange looks still being in very well paved Europe..

Anyhow, since then we've stopped off in Budapest, Belgrade and Sofia but I must admit I am glazing over at the thought of Churches, Chapels and Monuments now... 

Trundling down the motorway yesterday we had our first run in with the Police! We were in Bulgaria and they pulled us over with their little stick resembling a giant lolly from Charlie and the Chocolate factory. The Policeman didn't speak any English but knew 'Passports' which we gave to him. He had a good look over them, then muttered something in Bulgarian. We shrugged and he made some hand gestures that I assume meant either 'slow down' or 'do more press ups'. We will bear both in mind.

We have had to make a slight detour to Greece and are currently hanging out in Thessaloniki. To try and cut a long story short we are going to Asia after the Rally and obviously need to have Malaria tablets, but 'someone' didn't get the prescription until the afternoon before we were supposed to leave the country and funnily enough we couldn't find any pharmacies within about 100 miles of our route from Cambridge to Dover that had 440 Doxycycline tablets stocked and ready to go. So we had to leave the prescriptions at home in the hope that the drugs could be sent on to us at some point on the journey. We thought that they could be sent directly to Ulaanbaatar which would give them plenty of time to arrive before we got there, however, we have now discovered that it would be near impossible to ship such a large amount of drugs outside the EU so we need to collect them before we leave Europe. We thought it might be nice to spend a couple of days on the Greek coast so asked if they could be shipped to Komotini in Greece where we should be able to pick it up on route to Istanbul. The package left England on Saturday and should be winging its way to us now but it's not that easy... In order for us to safely receive the package without being detained for importing copious amounts of drugs into the country we need to contact the national drug administrator in Greece to get them to issue us with a document that we can provide to customs should the drugs get held up. Unfortunately typing 'National Drug Administrator Greece' into Google doesn't show anything useful, so we have been on the phone to the British Embassy in Greece who appeared slightly suspicious ('why did you have to leave the country so quickly', 'why can't you stay in one place to wait for the prescriptions', 'why do you need so many!') but they have promised us a call back today, so hopefully they will have some good news, otherwise our slight detour might last longer than anticipated.

Morale: Pretty good

Car: Still going strong, except the muddy escapades in the field outside Bratislava have caused the passenger window to seize up so it needs to be nursed up and down by hand.

Current thought: I hope customs don't confiscate our drugs!

Country Count: 11 (6 below plus Slovakia, Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria and Greece)

Miles: Not sure exactly but over 2,000

Car photos

Photos of the car after the beautiful sign writing (finally) as promised

Day five: Church of Bones

To continue from where I left off first...

On the first night we made it to Oostende, Belgium and not finding anywhere we could camp inconspicuously we stayed at a camp site, complete with bar and corner disco.

Day two we drove through Luxembourg aiming for Manheim in Germany but didn't quite make it so decided to come off the motorway at Kaiserslautern and find somewhere to camp. Wanting to keep costs down and adventure up as much as possible, we opted to camp wild and picked  a nice spot of grass next to a field just behind a large army barracks.

Day three we drove to Klatovy in the Czech Republic for Czech out! Set in a beautiful castle ontop of the rolling hills of CZ we were supplied with Czech sausages, strong rum and music. Spirits high,happy in the knowledge that we were all now in the statistic of adventurers making it to CZ we regailed in the tails of 'the ambulance that never left goodwood' and 'the team that broke down on the way to Dover'. The castle is probably best described by photos so will leave it at that.

Yesterday everyone was rather worse for wear especially some guy who hadn't even mad it into his tent and had passed out inbetween a few of the cars. We milled about searching for other teams going our way and came across Ian and Kev who were not doing the south route like us but were making their way up to Kutna Hora just past Prague to see the Church of bones. Not wanting to miss out on a tourist /photo op we tagged along.

Unfortunately after deciding to take a dip in the lake, which was a lot muddier and shallower than anticipated and stop for supplies (at Tesco nonetheless!) we didnt quite make it all the way there so camped at a campsite for a hot shower.

Which brings us to today! We saw the church of bones and two of the other churches in Kutna Hora and happened to bump into two other Rally teams. They had started a convoy and were waiting for the rest ot their team mates which included the conservatory pick up truck, Ambulance, Smart cars and the Reliant Robin. Some of them were doing the southern route but wanted to head up to Poland before going down so we exchanged numbers and promises of meeting up at a later date. We are now back on the road to Bratislava where we hope to stop tonight and  have just passed the conservatory! so perhaps they will catch up with us later.

Morale: High
Car: Accumulating excessive local produce but otherwise happy
Current thought: Who knew there were tescos in Czech!? Is it wrong to stop there again for some lunch stuff?
Country Count: 6 - UK, France, Belguim, Luxembourg, Germany, Czech Republic
Miles: 1,340

Day One: Waffle waffle

So it begins..

The launch took place yesterday from Goodwood where we were waved off by family and friends. We had a ferry booked for 18:40 which we weren't entirely sure we were going t make considering the launch was still going an it was pushing close to four o' clock, however after our lap of the racecoure and a speedy trundle down the M20 waving to other team as we passed we just made it with about ten minutes to spare.

Undecided on the route we should take from france to the Czech Republic we joined two other groups, Fear and Alex's in Mongolia (Alex and Alex) and another group who i've forgotten the name of right now! Made up of Hugh and Chris. We decided to drive along the coast and camp just outside Oostende.

A trip to Belgium wouldn't be the same without a waffle so we have just been to the seafront grabbed some waffles to go, back to the cars and are now on the way to brussels. The plan is to drive to Ludwigshafen tonight as the road from there to Klatovy (where the Czechout party is) should be straightforward.

Haven't stopped anywhere with wifi yet so no pics to upload as am blogging from my kindle!

Morale: High
Car: Completely intact and full of fuel
Current thought: I wish I had bought another waffle for later
Country Count: 3
Miles: 447

4 days till launch...

Unfortunately after finding the list of cities we are actually travelling through, I have discovered that this map is not entirely accurate....

I have updated our route on the adventurists website, so if you want to have a gander at that, please click below;

http://mongolrally11.theadventurists.com/index.php?mode=teamwebsites&name=banana-hammock&page=route

I wasn't far off!

On the plus side, we have found someone else taking the ferry from Trabzon to Sochi! So we are not the only ones. Might see when they are thinking of travelling as it might be a lonley wait...

Got some more supplies today - mozzie nets and deet spray, chairs (essential), sleeping bag liners, international driving permits etc. Need to get a decent sterile fist aid kit as well although I heard that you need a certificate to say you are allowed to travel with it so might enquire at boots.

Off to get my Malaria tablets now for use after Mongolia.

Oh and I did take piccies of the car, but my camera is being funny, so I'll have to go out and do it again later!

The Route

Six days to go including today...

Passports and visas still not arrived, house to pack up, spares to buy and a whole bunch of paperwork to organise!

On the plus side, the car looks all shiny and professional with it's sign writing. I shall upload some photos this afternoon. Also my netbook has arrived! So hopefully I can blog from the road.

I've done a rough map of our route. I don't have the list of cities we are stopping through to hand, (and no doubt this will change anyway) but this gives a rough idea of how we shall be burning our 8,000 miles.

Still trying to find a few people travelling this way, still yet to find anyone taking the ferry over the Black Sea but I suppose there is still time.