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tabriz, iran crossed the chaos that is the border to iran. Trying to get out of this crazy city! Hope to meet other teams soon ...

tabriz, iran crossed the chaos that is the border to iran. Trying to get out of this crazy city! Hope to meet other teams soon

broken radiator!

Sumela, turkey. at the car shop waiting for a new radiator. need to be in iran tonight because car insurance expires today!

istanbul

Here we are... ın Istanbul!

Thıs cıty ıs HUGE and even after you feel you are ın the cıty you are nowhere near the centre...whıch ıs where we planned to go to meet up wıth Justın from Just a Steppe Away. However wıth only one stop at a gas statıon where we receıved one word - Aksaray - we were headıng on our way towards the centre.

 Amanda and I have fıgured out a very good system for cıtıes... I navıgate whıle she drıves. We seem to do very well and wıthın no tıme we had found the centre and a parkıng spot ımmedıately next to one of the major sıghts to see! After a wander, some lunch and a walk to the beach (durıng whıch we got a bıt lost ın the wındıng streets and met a young gırl who asked for her pıc to be taken, and even saw wool dryıng on the sıdewalk) we decıded to meet up wıth Just a Steppe Away to stay on the outskırts of town at a ranch style home for free!

Now for those who have never been to Turkey... the drıvıng ıs INSANE! When there are two proper lanes, cars are ın 4 lanes. no sıgnals. aggresıveness lıke I have never seen before! So props to Amanda for drıvıng ın thıs chaos!!!!! Unfortunately ıt makes ıt very dıffıcult to follow anyone and after only about 10 mınutes of beıng out of town we lost them and went over a brıdge they dıd not and almost got sıdeswıped! I screamed so loud I dıdnt know I had ıt ın me...I thought our trıp was over! Thankfully no accıdent but now we were goıng ın the complete wrong dırectıon wıth no way to turn around and no clue where we were. after one questıon ın the snarled traffıc to a local we were at least goıng to rıght dırectıon. then we saw a sıgn wıth a place we recognızed and aımed that dırectıon. In no tıme we had once agaın navıgated ourselve all the way back to where we had started 2 hours before (ıt wasnt beıng lost that took so much tıme...ıts the ınsane traffıc! We have ıt so good ın Vancouver!)

 Sınce we could no longer meet up wıth the other team we chılled on our rooftop wıth a few other rally teams, drank beer (even me!) and then went to a hooka bar. Chılled on huge comfy cushıons and enjoyed good company. At the very end the entıre hooka toppled over and the ash went all over me, burnıng a hole through my dress and a small blıster on my thumb. nothıng more serıous thank goodness. We made ıt home at a decent tıme and slept on the rooftop of the hostel. We actually PAID to sleep on the rooftop! I thınk we may have gotten the best deal though as ıt was nıce and cool and had a beautıful vıew of the Aya Sophıa mosque lıt up.

Today we are meetıng up wıth Darcy, Erıka and Terry from The Khanucks to do the whole tourıst thıng!

ahhhh....what lovely tımes ın Istanbul

Currently in Greece

Quick catch up...

After leaving the fabulous Westin in Zagreb, Ro and I headed out on the road alone in search of our Croatia beach destinations Split and Dubrovnik. Black Betty was getting a little hot on the uphills through the mountains, but she made it just fine. We didn't think we'd see anyone for the next few days. Then, out of the rear view mirror we see another rally car come up behind us!! Haha! We met Dan & Pasco from Genghis Khar team and travelled with them for the next few days. Spent the first night just outside of Split at a cute little camp ground where we found an outside bar where we had Croatian beers and swam in the ocean. Got back to the campsite later that night and figured I'd go swimming again. Bad call. Very long story short, I basically stepped on an underwater hedgehog. That's right folks, spikes in my feet, knees and hands. Booooo. A nice guy frm Slovakia took me to his campsite where his whole family attempted to get the spikes out of my feet. Ouch. Didn't get them all out but it was too painful to try. Funny story, but I have 5 minutes to update you so I'll press on...

Next day, we took off to Split, found a site and spent the day on the beautiful beach. Boys went fishing and we tanned. Beautiful.

Following day travelled to Dubrovnik where we saw the old city at night. It was absolutely amazing. Unfortunately we didn't take a camera as the boys had theirs so when we get the pictures we'll post. I"ll have to go back there for sure. So amazing.

Next morning we woke to a thunderstorm and total downpour. Not super great when your camping. And it wasn't just a little rain, it rained ALL DAY. We packed up camp in the rain, said goodbye to the boys and started off on our own again to get through Montenegro, Albenia, Macedonia and stay in Greece. Turns out that was a little ambitious. The roads in Montenegro were one lane streets the whole way and traffic was backed up the whole way. It took us all day to go what should have been maybe 2 hours. Boooo. When we finally got out of the one way lanes it was almost the end of Montenegro (where we were going to stay and beach it one more day, but due to the weather, decided not to).

 As soon as we passed one accident with an hour long line behind it, we ran into another. As we attempted to drive around the mess on the road we didn't quite make it and within a few feet Romanda heard and felt the tire...it had a bolt in it! Our first flat :-( AND our only spare tire. However, Amanda and I rocked it and changed it within 10 minutes flat (hahaahaaa). Putting the air in was a bit more challenging...they have this technological space air compressor. BUT we did it and were once again on our way...finally a bit faster than the earlier part of the day

 After a few gas station directions, we headed down a "serpentine road" in a National Park to the Albanian border. And from here it just gets CRAZY.... Stay tuned!

Day 9 - Lost in Albania!

We know we haven't been blogging as much as we hoped. We have had so many crazy things happen in the past 5 days that I won't be able to do much right now as very exhausted and finally have a bed. However, I will let you know that we have arrived safely in Greece, staying in a city called Thessoliniki. It's almost 12 and we only arrived just under 2 hours ago from a LONG trip...two days long actually!

 We have to go and buy new tires tomorrow, get our oil/filter changed and have them possibly adapt our air intake pipe to be higher so we can go through a bit deeper of puddles. We did finally manage to pick up a jerry can, as we heard the gas prices in Turkey are out of this world...so will try to bring another full tank in our can.

 I will upload pics tomorrow, write a bit more and give you tons to laugh about! Sorry for the delays....you'll find out why soon enough!

Finally a mini break

Ok folks, we've finally hit a break in the action. We're at the Westin in Zagreb. 5 star hotels on the Mongol Rally?? I think I can handle this :)

As it turned out, our vehicle registration (V5 document) never arrived in the mail at Shawn's place. That’s a problem because we need to prove the vehicle belongs to us when we enter and exit countries and if (heaven forbid) the car breaks down and is not repairable, we need it to properly hand the car over to the authorities. As you can see, problem. 

To correct this we had to head to the DVLA (equivalent of the motor vehicle branch) to get things sorted. Problem = there are no DVLA offices in downtown London. They’re all out in the suburbs of London. Kind of like travelling from Vancouver to Langley by public transit. It takes a long time and uses up your whole day. In the end, we did get there, to what seemed like the middle of no where suburbia, waited in line and got a temporary document. Hopefully this will work. By the time we got back to London, we were too exhausted to do anything else, so our scheduled shopping for gear had to be pushed to the next day.

Last we left off, that schedule change had put us in a bit of a timing problem on Friday landing us in a bit of a nightmare with our Mongolian visa's. That would have been enough stress for me to last a week, but of course this is the Mongol Rally, so the visa's were more of a warm up for what was to come.  

*Side note: honestly, I should have been more dedicated to that runnning room thing I'd signed up for. I thought I was gonna die. I've never sprinted so fast for so far in my life. If my airway could speak, it would have said "sorry Amanda, I'm not doing this, you're on your own" kind of thing. The poor woman at the embassy couldn't even understand me when I got there because I was trying to suck air into my lungs. I was coughing for 2 days after that... But anyway, you've heard all that...

So once I'd started breathing again we headed from the embassy to Hillingdon to pick up the car. Ro's leg was still wrecked so the stress is mounting because I have to drive this thing from Hillingdon (suburbs of London) back to Shawn's place. Re-cap: wheel now on the right of the car, stick shift on the left, driving on the wrong side of the street through round-abouts. Crap. We get there, test drive the car, and we're off. We were there for about 45 minutes but it felt like 2 to me.

Got onto the highway by some sort of miracle. I think Ro was more stressed being a passenger than I was driving!! Took the exit off the highway to get to Shawn's and trouble started. For those of you that don't know, there are NO STREET NAMES in London. And if there are, they are placed on the side of the street in such a way that you have no idea which road the sign is referring to. Couple that with the fact that there are round abouts at every intersection and one way streets everywhere and, well, you're screwed. We drove around for an hour trying to get to Shawn's, asking people on the street, navigating round abouts, etc. Thank god we didn't have the Canada flag up at that point because the people of London thought we were idiots. When we finally got to Shawn's and the car was parked, Ro was saying "good job Betty" as I was saying "black Betty made it." It was fate. Our little automobile is now affectionately referred to as Black Betty.

Saturday was an early start as we packed Black Betty, said goodbye to Shawn and we were headed out on the road for day 1 - Launch Day - at Goodwood Motor Circuit, Chichester, England.

With a few hours driving ahead of us we were up at 7 to leave by 9, which would give us plenty of time to get to Goodwood Circuit. Our ETA was about 11:30 just as the bands would be starting and giving plenty of opportunity to connect with other ralliers and check out their trusty steeds.

Since we had gotten horribly lost coming back into town yesterday we were very excited to see it would be the same route out…no problem since we had just come from that way! Now Google maps are decent, I'll give them an B for directions (I will take some responsibility for getting us lost, but like I said before, London has some VERY unclear signs!) but when it comes to actually giving the proper times, they suck. For what was going to be a 2 hour drive to the rally start point, we were on the road for 5 hours. It took us almost an hour and a half just to get out of the city and onto the M25 (the large circular motorway that surrounds London). That was more than half our travel time and we had only traveled 40 km. Booooooo.

There's no stop and go on the M25, it's more like race and stop. It took HOURS to get through the highway. We asked the people stopped beside us if this was normal - apparently it is. How do people commute??? After some more city traffic and some difficult navigation (good job Romanda!), we finally arrived and were put off to the side with a few other late teams.

Off we went in search of the registration where we picked up our T-shirts, bandanas (I LOVE THESE,  We’ll take pics with all the different ways you can where them and will post it soon). We also picked up the carnet de passage papers for us to get through Iran.

I was also responsible for grabbing D’Arcy & Erika’s papers and goody bag because they would be starting the rally from Belgium.

(although that would only be to realize how unsuitable ours really is in comparison!)

Some sad news for our fellow ralliers…one car was out of the running only 30 minutes after our victory lap around Goodwood. They had parked it at the side of the road and a car rammed into it, completely writing off the car!!!! However, they were not to be deterred from their ultimate mission of getting to Mongolia and managed to catch lifts with other teams. Now that is determination!

After the drive around the track, 'trip set' was set to 0 and we were off. We followed a team with GPS (Thanks to Shut Up and Fish!) all the way to the Dover ferry where we were held up because they over-booked and had to wait for the 10pm boat. So much for reservations...

That got us into France at midnight and we still had 2 hours of driving to meet up with D'arcy and Erika in Belgium.

I was done. I was super tired so Romanda took the wheel from France to Belgium. She did a great job navagating through the countries by herself (no borders by the way, wierd) and got us into Belgium where we then had to try and find our friends. We thought we were doing really and were super happy to find the house so easily... or so we thought. It was # 43, which was our address, so we figured, perfect, this is it. We tried the door, but it wasn't open. It HAD to be it, so we knocked. Some poor lady, asleep in her bed, awoke to 2 random strangers at her door speaking to her in a language she didn't understand. Oops :) Wrong house. We were preped to sleep on the side of the road when we thought we'd just drive down the steet a little more. Thank goodness because we saw the flashing red light and a canada balloon! Apparently there's a #43 on every block. Good thing we kept driving. We crashed as soon as we got there and awoke the next day to drive to Germany.

That's too much writing for now, so we'll update more later with video and pictures. Time to check out of the room.

R & A.

a quick update!

Sorry for the blog delay....we have some written but not edited. We are also putting together a video!!!

 Here is a quick update

1. We made it to Belgium and met up with D'Arcy, Erika & Terry (however, there is a MAJOR story...or should I say stories plural! More later)

2. We enjoyed Nuremburg

3. We arrived at the Czech Our Party and had a wicked wicked night!

4. I have lost my voice and I had to speak to police officers....I will share more on that soon!

More coming tonight!!!

Day 6 - This is not happening

Our day started out great… we were up early (even Amanda!) and went shopping  for the rest of the stuff we needed. We arrived back at Shawn’s with our booty and thankfully received confirmation that we had insurance on our car (even though it is ridiculously expensive!) I quickly checked a few emails as Amanda used her new $5 straightener (trust me, these things have a lot of excitement surrounding them when you are living out of a bag). Checking the time, we realized we should head out to go and pick up our passports and Monglian visas, as they are only open from 10:00-12:30, giving us about an hour to get there…more than enough time.

So…where did it all go wrong!?

Romanda: Looking at a clock that said 12:10, two stations away with a train coming in 7 minutes, my stomach dropped and I asked a passerby if that was the real time! He confirmed it was and I looked back at Amanda with a terrified look on my face! Not only did we have the stations to get through but it was also about 6 blocks away (at least 10 min walking)!!!!

Amanda: At first, it didn’t really sink in that we were cutting the time close or what the repercussions would be. Then when the realization hit, we looked at each other with sheer terror on our faces.

Romanda: Finally, after an agonizing 7 minutes, where every last second was slipping away the train arrives. We hop on, glancing at the clock that says 12:18. Only 2 stations, but who knows how long they take. A 12 minute countdown without any idea whether that was good or bad.

Amanda: As we are pulling in to the next station, with one more to go, the time already at 12:21 Romanda looks at me dead serious and says “you are going to have to run!”. With her ruined knee the pressure was on me to bust my butt to the embassy in hopes of making it on time. My hands were shaking and I was already having a hard time breathing

Romanda: We were almost at the final station, and Amanda and I had already mapped out her direction and I had taken her bag and given her the pick up tags. At this point I am almost having a heart attack…its pounding so hard I can feel it in my knee. All I am thinking is what if they close before we get there!?  

Amanda: Suddenly the train stops, and it’s not at the station. We are in the middle of a tunnel and there is a big bang. We look at each other and I could see in Romanda’s eyes the same “oh Sh%*” feeling that was coming over me

Romanda: As the sweat drips down my face I feel like I am going to pass out. You have to be kidding me! THIS IS NOT HAPPENING!!!! Then the train begins to move again…

Amanda: The doors open and I begin running, dodging people and hitting the stairs like never before…

Romanda: I get to the top of the stairs and see the turnstiles! OH MY GOD…I HAVE AMANDA’S BAG!!!! She must have jumped over the turnstile because I can’t see her anywhere.

Amanda: I am weaving in and out of the crowded street. MOVE people! Oops, I suddenly shoulder check a guy and still running glance over my shoulder and yell “sorry!” (Oh how Canadian am I!?). Already the legs and lungs are starting to burn, but I feel like I am making good time.

Romanda: I am moving as fast as my stupid knee will let me…my heart is pounding so much it feels like it will jump out of my chest. With all this time to think I can’t help but think of the best and worst case scenarios. I start biting my nails (an old habit that won’t go away if I am super nervous) and keep repeating “please, please please please please please”. I have tears well in my eyes, as I think about the worst case…if they are closed we won’t get our passports, which means no trip until Monday, which means a Festival of Slow without us leaving, no Czech party in an old castle, and no driving with D’Arcy & Erika from Team Eh!

Amanda: My heart is bursting…I can’t run anymore! I have to, there is no half hearted effort here…this is it….I am almost there…

Romanda: I turn the corner looking for Amanda at the end of the street. Nothing. Then suddenly she is there and looks defeated. I yell “AMANDA!” hoping she will look at me and scream with the passports in hand. But no….it wasn’t meant to be. She looks my way, exhaustion visible even from this far away, and then sits down…

It seems the Mongolian Embassy closes exactly at 12:30 and we were just, by mere seconds, too late!

Amanda: I didn’t know where the voice came from. I couldn’t see Romanda and I was struggling to catch my breath, and I had to sit down. I look up and see her coming close and I excitedly pull out our passports and scream “YES! I was literally a half block away when I saw the woman close the gate and lock it. I tried to yell "no, wait" but it hardly came out because I was breathing so hard. Thankfully she heard me!!! She said "I was wondering where you two were". Umm....running for my life! 

So there you have it folks…this was only the first half of an epic day!  We have our passports, have our car insurance, have our temporary car registration which should work just as good as the regular! Amanda will write more about picking up our awesome car (I think I am trying to convince myself that it is awesome) and oh boy…that’s the second HUGE story. Stay tuned!

Day 4 - uh oh...

So...

(1) We don't have insurance on the vehicle. Apparently since we're not residents of the UK and we only want to insure the vehicle for 15 days, the companies here are not able to help. Funny enough, it's looking like an Australian company is going to insure 2 Canadians to drive a car registered in the UK through the EU. Make sense?? :)

(2) We don't have the registration documents for the car. They've been mailed twice and not recived either time. Instead of sight seeing today, we're headed to the suburbs of London to get to the DVLA (equivalent to our Motor Vehicle Branch) where we can hopefully get this sorted out. They can't fedex the documents because of the "sensitive information" but they can send it (2x) in regular post and have it lost. Hmmm.....

(3) We have to pick up the car on Friday (tomorrow) which means we have to get the insurance by today at the latest and we leave on Saturday, which means tomorrow's the last day for the registration docs.

Perfect. I think Kent was right when he said at the going away party "this is going to be the best, worst time of your life." Haha :) Yup.

On a happier note, London is awesome. The buildings and the city are amazing and the people here can actually pronounce my last name right! I like it :) We've been able to get around the whole city quite easily on the tube (their transit system is WAY better than Vancouver) and the area we're staying in has a TONNE of eastern european food shops - translation: the best Greek food I've ever had :)

Will keep you posted on the results of today. Cross your fingers!!

Amanda.

Day 3 - safe arrival!

We’ve survived a 24 hour travel extravaganza!!!!

I initially thought that my injury was going to be a big drag, but it actually worked out for us. We were able to skip lines, including security and customs, and I was wheeled everywhere never having to lift a finger! We scored great seats on our long haul flight from LAX to LHR, 2 seats each, giving us leg and sleeping room. I think there were a few young guys who had their eyes set on them and were a bit peeved that we got them, but the woman who we would have shared a 3 seater space with said that I of course take precedence over young healthy boys! And I have to give a big thank you to Air New Zealand… they really made our flying experience wonderful! The staff was attentive and so friendly, and we even got extra cheesecake for dessert!

My friend Shawn, who is in London doing his masters, has kindly welcomed us into his home. He even came out to meet us at the airport and carry my bags back to his place as I stumbled with my crutches. What an awesome, amazing friend!!!! The great news is…these past days of staying completely off my foot have helped and I was able to half crutch the walk to his home. I am able to hobble on both feet now, although I have to be careful as the knee can’t go straight yet and it’s prone to tweaking and spasming.

We still have so much to do! Our next step is getting insurance. We have emailed and called the company but have yet to hear back from them. Thankfully Ben from Hillingdon Motor Co (where we bought our car) has given us another number to call and hopefully we can sort it out tomorrow. Ben has offered to keep the car there for the rest of the week as well…which makes the costs of parking it in London much easier to swallow. We’ll likely pick it up on Friday afternoon, so that we have time to pack it and get it ready for it’s ride to Goodwood race track (our launch point).

So, with that and so much more hanging over our heads we must say ciao for now!

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