Joomla Login LightBox powered by WowJoomla.com

Day 2 of the Mongol Rally

Following on from yesterday's blog, we awoke to find ourselves in a very peculiar place - a small scraping of common ground next to a field, complete with horse. Despite looking like an enclosed forest clearing at 3am, they were in fact but a single row of trees, patchy at best, the only things separating our temporary home from Brussels - in particular, a busy road and train track. For the first time, quite possibly ever, Mackey was the first to arise - not just from Scilly Mission, but from the whole convoy. Up, tent packed, and waking me up by 7.30am. I have no idea what happened, how it happened, why it happened, but it did. Mackey was not the last to arise. This brings me hope for the forthcoming challenge; miracles do happen.

As this was the second night we'd camped in our tents, we feel we are getting somewhat confident and skilled in the art of tent erection. Even bringing them down happens with swift and grace, even if we have never managed to fit everything back in the little tent bags (poles and pegs now have their own home within the boot). By 8.30am, we were off - the first team to break away from our small convoy, but we had plans for the next day.

Our idea was as follows - drive down to Bamberg in Germany, where we'd meet with a friend and stay, then head to the Czech Out Party on the Monday - a short 4 or 5 hour drive. (For those of you not in the know, or I haven't told a thousand times: the Czech Out Party is the only check point on the rally, held in a 13th Century Castle in very south west of the Czech Republic. It's a lot more of a party than a check point though; thousands of people, live music, free gin (yes, gin) that party the night away, the stragglers retiring to the convincing luxury of their tents).

Packing up camp was a quick affair, but didn't involve us breaking out our Whisperlite Stove, so we needed sustenance. Enter the service station; our giver of life for a few days. We've visited so many in the last few days, the usual topic of conversation upon re-entering Pete the Saxo after a visit usually spawns a 5 minute conversation identifying the good and bad points about it. This rally is hardcore stuff. Our first stop was before we entered Brussels, where we needed to eat/drink/wash/the rest, and we happily finished off the freshly baked pastries and drank freshly ground coffee. (See what I mean? You can bet Taunton Deane Services don't do that).
I won't go on about the negative and positive points in each; the Rally is a long affair, and it affords us time to discuss these in detail. Time, i'm sure, you don't have (or certainly as much as we do)

I took the first shift of the day after Mackey's guide to driving on the right; and it wasn't too bad at all. No real life threatening moments; instead, I took the boys for a completely deliberate tour around Brussels city centre for about an hour. Also, I learnt that you can't and shouldn't cross a row of dual carriageway traffic whilst turning into a side street. Luckily though, those fuming drivers fell in love with Pete the Saxo, and instead forgave my almost grave mistake.

This Brussels tour lasted about an hour. But, it also gave us a chance to go wifi stealing. It's our new hobby - basically, to get this blog up on the internet, it involves driving up and down every street we can find at 5mph, constantly refreshing the laptop to see if it pops up with any unsecured wireless. Should we struggle to find one, then it involves us walking along the street with a laptop, trying to home in on the signal. Belgian's are incredibly lax, and a good 50% are free to hijack. 

Once we'd escaped the ever tightening grip of the EU capital, we began to make our way down to Germany. European motorway driving is very similar to our own; obviously on the other side, but a few other little differences as well, such as always leaving the other lanes free in case of overtaking (too many middle lane cruisers in the UK). Soon came Liege, followed by Cologne, and Frankfurt approached. I was told off by Mackey for going to fast - apparently 80mph isn't fitting for such a tuned machine such as Pete the Saxo. By this time, I asked my comrades if someone could drive - a 5 hour sleep proceeded by a 5 or 6 hour drive really takes it out of you. Will stepped into the driving seat, Mackey in the navigator booth, and I crashed out within 5 minutes in the back.

We headed on down past Frankfurt and to Bamberg, with Will experiencing the shock and horror of right hand driving for the first time. As it turns out, he had no near death experiences, and we were very happy with him. Hitting the Autobahns was fun, albeit Pete the Saxo didn't enjoy much of it, keeping to a sensible 70mph. We have to say a big shout out to Mr Nick Shiles; the man is a genius. Touch wood, the car has performed incredibly; the occasional groan when it's climbing a 10% incline, flat out in 5th gear yet only reaching 45mph, but other than that - superb. Thank you, Mr Shiles, wonder mechanic.

Germany - now that's a country that's surprised us all. Perhaps its the deep seated hatred still in our minds, burning after all this long time, about the past history we've got together. You know, the 4-1 defeat to them in the World Cup. But we were astonished - the roads were so much better than the rubbish that was Belgium's network (complete with our first pot holes), the scenery was fantastic, and the service stations! Wow. Ok, so 20 cents to use them - but it's all automated. Have a little tinkle, and the urinal lights up. Use the lavatory, and once finished, the thing CLEANS itself - literally scrubs the bowl, cleans the seat, sprays air freshener, and basically wishes you have great day. I need to get me one of them.

We headed to Bamberg, to meet up with Charlotte, a friend from Tresco. I had her phone numbers in a Facebook message; but accessing Facebook from the road just isn't possible. Enter the three of us doing some more wifi poaching; trawling the windy streets of a fantastically beautiful town. A fellow rallier mate warned us about the negativity of Bamberg, but we honestly had no idea what she was talking about. A quaint Bavarian town nestled along either side of the River Maine, everything was just nice. Architecture was appreciable by everyone, it was calm, it was clean, it was tranquil; even the people were crazily fit and constantly jogging or cycling. 
Once we'd found a way to get Charlotte's number, we found out she's been taken to hospital the day before - poor Charlotte, and we hope she gets better soon. As a result, we were in Bamberg and were at a bit of a loose end. By this time, it was 7pm, so we thought we'd hit up a traditional German restaurant and have pizzas and beers (I know, pizza isn't the most authentic dish, but pizzerias seem to be everywhere). A walk back to our riverside car followed, admiring the foreign things that were everywhere. I was particularly impressed with their street lighting that hung from one side of the street  to the other. No posts littering the streets. Genius! I took photos.

Once well fed, we set off in search of the Czech Republic. Mackey possessed almost telepathic knowledge of the streets of Bamberg, and we quickly found our way back to the motorways. An hour of not so smooth navigation occurred, which i'm sure you all spotted on the GPS tracker. We visited Nurnberg, although not deliberately, and danced east to west (and vice versa) a few times, before finally finding our chosen path.

Crossing into the Czech republic, things did start to change immediately. First thing, rather spookily, it got cold. It might have been because it was 1am, but as soon as we passed the long deserted passport control huts, windows were wound shut a second layer of clothing added. The roads were quite strange - we travelled uphill for about an hour, constantly straining against the inclines, seemingly on top of the world after all that climbing. Motorways were quite the same, apart from some very dodgy potholes, and long stretches of newly laid tarmac where they thought road markings just weren't needed.

Navigation from here on went a lot smoother - within an hour, we'd found Plzen and our Klatovy turn off, and were confident with our direction. Not long after, we approached Klenovy Castle, unsure with what or whom to expect (considering we were a day early to the party). As it turns out, we were about the 40th team to arrive. Obviously our good thinking, with pushing forward early to enjoy a lazy day, wasn't exclusive to our own team.

A few teams arrived later, about 2am, in a convoy consisting of ambulances and family cars. Whenever two ambulances seem to meet, a battle of sirens and music is guaranteed to follow. This woke up many a team mate camping after a 14 hour driving day, but the ambulances didn't care - they loved the melody battle blaring out of their loudspeakers. Somehow, and we commend this team, a beer pong table was set up, and perhaps the first unofficial sport of the rally was born.

We hit the sack about 3am, after making ourselves some soup to warm us up. Our tents, constantly mocked for their size, still prove to be quite awesome. Who needs head room, or space to get undressed, when they keep you toasty warm?

it was nice to see other teams; we'd travelled for about 6 hours without seeing another, the last being overtaken somewhere near Siegburg in Germany. It's now time to make a move for the day; we have to get a few bits from Klatovy, hopefully find some fancy dress costume for the party this evening (Jules Verne theme…. I know, we're as lost as you). No doubt carnage will ensue this evening, and then we begin the next stage of the rally; leaving Europe in a few days, and beginning to brave the roads of the outback.

Spirits are high, no real arguments yet; fear not though, they'll eventually get here. We're settling in to a good driving pattern - instead of the planned 2 hours on, 4 hours off, we seem to do shifts - i'll do the morning drive, Will does the afternoon, and Mackey concludes the dusk and night driving. I'm sure you can all appreciate how tiring a road trip can be, spending every daylight hour on the road, but our body clocks are slowly adjusting. The most sleep we've had in one stint is about 6 hours, followed by double that of driving. A power nap in the back between shifts usually tops this up. We are becoming veteran travellers, I feel!

The rally is proving to be a little bit expensive, in particular with fuel - we've fed Pete the Saxo a good few Euros worth of fuel. But i'm sure once we get into the 4th world countries of Kyrgyzstan and co, we'll be spending an hours wage for a days driving. We're filming lots - well, as much as there is to film whilst driving in a straight line. We'll get photos up soon. Until next time, our glorious fans....

(A footnote - we're currently sat on a garden wall in a strange little back alley behind a block of flats, just about getting internet. Now that's effort!!!)