The story so far.

We reach the end of week 1 sipping coffee in a café in Istanbul and have now left Europe behind us. In summary so far we’ve clocked up  2,000 miles and 10 countries. ( France, Belgium, Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria,Turkey).

The Smart seems to be in great shape still and we’ve only bottomed out the sump guard 6 times so far. Although to be fair 2 of those were before we left the UK!

The undisputed highlight of the trip so far has to be the Transfagasaran Highway in Romania. Some say it’s the best road in the world, we agree. It’s a 90km mountain pass which reaches an altitude of 2,000m and 30km of it can only be described as a giant scalextric track made real. It really is worth a major detour to see it and to drive it. (although next time we might try it in something other than a Smart!)

Over the past week we’ve slept in the grounds of a castle in the Czech Republic, on a boat on the Danube in Bratislava and were the only guests in a sprawling hotel at the end of a dirt track in Transylvania. We stayed in a very nice  “English” (??) guest house on the Romania/Bulgaria border and are currently ensconced in a 30 Euros per night self catering room in Istanbul, just by Taksim Square and are giving ourselves the luxury of a 24 hour stopover. Our two key priorities for today are to work out how we get our Turkmenistan visas sorted out and to decide whether it would be a mistake to use the dishwasher in our room to do our laundry.

Along the way we’ve met some great people and have been struck by the positive energy that driving around in a little Smart that’s covered in stickers and is clearly a long way from home can generate. Our travelling companion, Pride the Lion has also been a big ice breaker for us .

Wolfgang at The Park Hotel in Cologne is a top man, our friend with his “I Love You Pants” who we met near the Czech/Austria border will live long in our memories, and Kalin, a white van man in Romania navigated us through the streets of Agrad and saved us hours in traffic gridlock. In fact  we were struck by how friendly and helpful the Romanian people were. Driving through Bucharest, a city that has the absolute bare minimum of road signs was made highly entertaining by the quizzical looks and smiles that our pathetic attempts at serene progress generated.

Istanbul has already proved to be extraordinary. As we approached the city last night we witnessed a major fight (with knives) in a queue by the motorway tolls and have since learned that road rage is a very big deal in Turkey. The turbo-charged madness of the Istanbul rush hour has to be seen to be believed and without GPS we did a couple of laps of the city before diving into a multi story. It was great fun but once is enough!

We know that the easy part of the Rally is behind us now, but so far it’s been everything that we’d hoped it might be.

Transfagasaran Highway – Big Boys’ Scalextric

A great day’s driving on one of the world’s most spectacular roads

All the way to Romania

Safely away from Blighty & across to Calais on the ferry. From there to Cologne where we met Wolfgang from the Park hotel (see Gallery) & on to the Czech Out Party at Klenova Castle. After a few beers the camping was only marginally more tolerable (very little sleep) before we set off for Bratislava. Managed to stay at a hotel on the Danube close to the centre of town, but saw little of the city. Spent the next day driving through Hungary to get to Romania – interesting already! Run down, more trucks on the roads than we’ve ever seen & managed to meet our first policemen asking for money (yes, even a Smart car can speed!). Off to drive one of the most spectacular roads in the world tomorrow – the Transfagasaran Highway. Can’t wait…..

Arriving in Romania

And they’re off….!

An incredible assortment of more than 280 vehicles assembled in glorious sunshine at Bodiam Castle,East Sussex  on July 14^th for the UK launch of the 2013 Mongol Rally. Finally we are on our way!

Our Smart is fully stickered up and looks great. We’ve acquired an extra, over-sized passenger in the form of Pride the Lion. Pride doesn’t yet know that he won’t be coming home with us, but he was getting bored sitting on a sofa in Surrey and hey, you only live once..

We’ve spoken before of the amazing support that we have enjoyed from family, friends and local businesses. At the Rally launch “The Old Blues Brothers” were announced as the No1 charity fund raising team. We haven’t reached our target yet but our current total of over £14,000 is fantastic.

We are now heading to Klenova Castle in the Czech Republic for the full European launch on Tuesday July 16^th.

We’ll keep you posted!

Before we go… a thank you.

So the vaccinations are finished, our passports have been returned to us, the Smart finally has a sump guard and we are now frantically getting ready for the big departure this weekend. It seems like a good time to reflect on the amazing support that we have had from so many people over the past few months. We have both been incredibly touched by the enthusiastic response we have had from so many people, some of whom we hadn’t met until we asked for their support. These people have given their time without charge and we are very grateful

The list is a long one and hopefully we haven’t missed anyone out but here goes…

Peter Hilton and Simon Smith and Hilton Coachworks for donating our car and being so helpful in getting things done.

Jon Sheehan and Sean Burns of Burns Sheehan for getting our fund raising off the mark with an extremely generous donation.

Mark Franklin for being on hand at all times to introduce us to people who might offer valuable expertise

Chris Allen for deciding that UlanBataar should be the final resting place for his roof box.

Dave Mercer and his team at Surrey Smart Centre who have been absolutely brilliant in scouring the Smart for weaknesses, replacing various parts  and they really have done all they can to give us a fair chance of making it to the finish line.

Phil Eddershaw for putting his “day job” on hold so that we can have a really impressive awning and some well thought out storage on and in the car.

Kelly and the team at AllKlasseAutos. This is a busy and successful business and the last thing they needed was a Smart made almost entirely of plastic and a request to fit a sump guard. They embraced the challenge with great humour and creativity and hopefully have greatly enhanced our prospects of getting to the finish.

David at Ride Solutions for doing everything possible to improve the robustness of our suspension at short notice. Sadly our Smart really is a shopping trolley, has been designed with nothing else in mind and resolutely refuses to be anything else, but David did his best and his efforts are greatly appreciated.

Steve at Graphix in Stansted Mountfitchet for making the car look so good ( we love the map on the rear windscreen)..

We must  also mention the amazing generosity of our supporters who have donated to our chosen charities. As at July 11th we have raised nearly £14,000, a fantastic sum and our target edges ever closer. Thank you to all of you. We are acutely aware that there are so many requests for sponsorship and your generosity is something that we will not forget.

And finally we need to thank our families for their support and encouragement.  It’s much easier to go on an adventure of this type when you know that the people who are close to you are excited for you.

 

 

Less than a week to go!

What a truly magnificent British summer this is turning out to be! In a single weekend, we’ve had a Lions tour series victory, a Brit in the Yellow Jersey on the Tour de France & finally a British Wimbledon Champion! What better way to celebrate such success than to head off to Mongolia and tell the world what a mighty fine land we hail from? Visas & vaccinations, spanners & sump guards, washing powder & wet wipes – it’s all ready to go. With a bit of work to do on finalising details of our intended route (there is no fixed route & we’ll pretty much navigate as we go), we’re all set for the official send off this Sunday from Bodiam Castle in Sussex.

The rally launch date approaches..

It’s a matter of days now before we head off to Mongolia and our preparations are gathering pace.  Our passports have finally been returned to us ( after 3 months) fully loaded with Visas. We also have our “Letter of Invitation” to Turkmenistan, and once we have let the DVLA know that we are permanently exporting our little Smart then all the paperwork will just about be completed ( we think!).

The kit list is now firmly on the agenda. Space is limited so it’s entirely possible that once we have stowed the spare wheels, the jerry can, the various spare parts and tools, a couple of rolls of duct tape, a litre or two of insect repellent and all of our camping gear we really may only have room for a packet of wet wipes and a few t-shirts. We are increasingly aware that this is not a trip for the fainthearted!

The car is now at AllKlasseAutos being sized up for a sump guard.  The Smart just won’t make it to Mongolia without a sump guard, the roads will be too challenging, but getting one fitted has proved tricky. Smarts don’t tend to need sump guards and the underside of the car has plenty of plastic where mountings would normally be.  The boys at AllKlasseAutos are taking on the challenge and our car is being sized up by them as we speak.

The first of the stickers went on the car over the weekend. Steve Harvey at Graphix in Stansted Mountfitchet has done a very nice job for us, thank you Steve. There are more stickers to come but the car is beginning to look the part…

2 weeks to go…

It’s week 2 of Wimbledon, the Tour de France is underway and the Lions go into a decider this weekend – the sporting summer is truly upon us. To add to the glory of an English summer, we’ve also had Bruce Forsyth (who’d have thought?!) & the Stones at Glastonbury. But we’re about to leave all this behind & head off to Ulaanbataar. The car is almost ready, our passports are now loaded with visas & we’ve raided Poundland for all our travel essentials (still some last minute essentials – how many pairs of boxers does a chap needs to get through this?).

Want to sponsor us? Please click on the charity links to the right if you haven’t already – any support you can give is very much appreciated.