Khanna be lost again - Mongol Rally 2022 Pole of Inconvenience adventures

Khanna be lost again - Mongol Rally 2022 Pole of Inconvenience adventures Follow the experiences of four intrepid travellers as they travel across the wide expanse of Europe

17/08/2022

Home!
Away 40 days
Visited 25 countries including England and Scotland
Miles covered 10610
1 puncture
1 snapped stabiliser rod
Crisps consumed... uncountable 😁
Countries with the most interesting driving skills...Albania and Armenia, need eyes in the back of your head, any lane will do, we can go 3 abreast no worries, and they love to beep you. Plus in Albania if they can miss out the traffic lights by taking shortcuts through petrol stations and carparks at speed they will. Highlight of the day watching how many cars can beat the lights.
Most tractors...Turkey
Scariest road...Turkey, D915
Busiest roads...UK
Best roads to drive, Turkey; Transfaragasan highway, Romania; Croatia.
Animals on the road...dogs, cats, cows, sheep, goats, horses, bears and a tortoise
Poorest country in our view... Armenia with Kosovo close behind
Worst border...Georgia into Armenia...4 hours partly due to lack of internet!
Best border...Bulgaria into Serbia, it was very small
Friendliest border guards...Turkey
Amazing bridges, Turkey across the Dardanelles and Croatia, the new bridge opened this July by-passing the need to go through Bosnia
Best campsites Bulgaria, Albania (both) and Croatia (2nd one)
Best meal...Panoramic restaurant on last night in Istanbul
Worst meal...a kebab shop in Ardahan,Turkey
Most disappointing visit... Bran Castle, Romania a bit tacky, John even deleted his photos afterwards
Best toilets in Turkey...Shell petrol stations!
Worst toilets in Turkey...everywhere else not a Shell garage 😄
Best experience...hot air balloon flight Cappadocia, Turkey
Country that surprised us most...Albania, considering that is was once a fairly closed country it was very open and friendly with a fair amount of new infrastructure and buildings.
Highlight of the whole trip....the people we met, from fellow ralliers to individuals in each country, memorable for all kinds of reasons.
It's been grand!

15th August. Had our last camp yesterday at a lovely site, well I camped and John slept in the car as his airbed had a l...
15/08/2022

15th August. Had our last camp yesterday at a lovely site, well I camped and John slept in the car as his airbed had a leak, he paid 20€ for the pleasure. 😅 The views this morning were lovely.

So we are in Liege, nearly 600 miles away from where we started this morning. The journey through Austria was really scenic but Germany just seemed to go on and on and on.

Staying in a really posh hotel for the last night...I wish... we're in a cheap Campanile on an industrial area of Liege....nice!

Tomorrow is an early start to get the ferry at 1255 fingers crossed.

Lake Bled! How lucky am I to be able to visit such beautiful places?!
14/08/2022

Lake Bled! How lucky am I to be able to visit such beautiful places?!

14th August. Croatia a land of islands, mountains, bridges and tunnels. As we drove through it was really impressive, ar...
14/08/2022

14th August. Croatia a land of islands, mountains, bridges and tunnels. As we drove through it was really impressive, around the bends and turns you would glimpse inlets of glistening water with yachts moored by pretty villages. Rising above them mountains of greens, greys and amber colours. We kept a watchful eye out for the bears and wolves that were signposted as being in the area but not a one.

As we drove onto Slovenia, must of taken the wrong turning as we came off the motorway and drove through rolling hills on windy roads, a contrast to Croatia but reminded us of England or the borders of Scotland. Really pretty, green with smal villages and houses becoming more Alpine like as we went on. We stopped off at Lake Bled for tea and a quick walk around. I was very good, I had a salad... only to make way for Bleds famous cream cake, and very nice it was too.

Onward we travelled up to Austria and our longest tunnel so far, about 7.8km and currently camping at a lovely site near Seeboden and Lake Millistatt.

Sat watching the night sky and shooting stars, a lovely end to the day.

13th August, it must be Croatia! We set off this morning and headed north along the coast of Montenegro, what a beautifu...
13/08/2022

13th August, it must be Croatia! We set off this morning and headed north along the coast of Montenegro, what a beautiful drive, a stunning country. An added bonus was a ferry trip, between Kamenari and Lepetani, only 5 euro but saved us an hour plus driving. The thing with coastal routes is they are very windy and pass through numerous villages and towns which slow you up, 46 miles in 2 hours. Then we hit the border area, sailed through Montenegro customs and set off in high hopes it would be the same for Croatia and it was... except for the 1.5 hours it took us to get between the 2 customs posts, all up hill.

Once through we headed for Dubrovnik with the aim to walk around the walls, on the way we stopped to take a photo of Dubrovnik from up high and as we drove out the layby, noticed someone sitting on the roof of a car having a picnic...fellow ralliers, Jack and Callum from Team Pandrover, so all stop and a good chinwag was had.

Got to Dubrovnik as it started thundering and lightning and heavy rain, and heavy traffic, so gave it a miss and carried on northwards towards a new bridge that only opened last month. I only recently realised that Croatia is split in 2 by Bosnia, so Croatia has built a bridge to help get around having to go through a border crossing. An impressive bridge it is too.

As we drove along the Croatian coast it's beauty is really impressive, the islands, the villages and houses with bougainvillea; olive oil, garlic and honey for sale beside the road, roads dropping down to small coves with boats moored up. Must come back for a proper explore.

This evening we have ended up at a lovely campsite called Camp Biokovo, would recommend it if anyone comes this way. Much nicer than last nights, loads of space, great facilities and a glass of wine from the hosts...what more can you ask for.

12th August. A long day! With little mileage, it took us 4 hours to do 125 miles. In all it took us over 7 hours to do ...
12/08/2022

12th August. A long day! With little mileage, it took us 4 hours to do 125 miles. In all it took us over 7 hours to do 171 miles. Not good!

As we set off we drove around Lake Ohrid, it is one of Europe's deepest and oldest lakes and the border of Albania/ North Macedonia goes across it. It was beautiful, surrounded by mountains. Once we got near Tirana it was one long traffic jam, reminded John of the M1 and M25.

We pretty much crawled to the Montenegro border which we passed through without really noticing.

Now camping at Camp Oliva by the sea. The blurb looks nice, the reality not so. We are crammed in, pretty much on top of each other, we are about 3 feet from our neighbours, squeezed in between a caravan and van. There is music playing, people are singing and partying, such a change from the quiet rural site we were on yesterday, so I am 3 G&Ts and 2 beers in, with the hope if I get drunk I won't hear the noise. 🤔😅. Tomorrow we head for Croatia.

11 August. We left Greece and headed into Albania. Once again another long drive but the highlight was the lightning rol...
12/08/2022

11 August. We left Greece and headed into Albania. Once again another long drive but the highlight was the lightning rolling around the mountains, it was a mixture of sheet and forked, with torrential downpours. John missed it all as he was asleep. 😁 So no photos.

We arrived at the campsite with rooms near Korce, pulled up at the front entrance and about to get out when we were beckoned in and told to park. There was no escape.😁

Actually it was a lovely place, Vila Verde, near Korce in Albania. John camped and I took a room. The evening meal was great including the homemade Raki we were offered. The hosts were lovely and would recommend the place if anyone is travelling that way.

10th August. We're in Greece! Another long day of driving, 470 miles. Crossed an amazing bridge onto the Galipolli Penin...
10/08/2022

10th August. We're in Greece! Another long day of driving, 470 miles. Crossed an amazing bridge onto the Galipolli Peninsula, plus picked up 2 French hitchhikers, our good deed for the day.

Staying at a lovely campsite and had one of the best Greek Salad ever with a massive slab of feta cheese. John is under the weather, coughing a bit and feeling rough so we will need to see how tomorrow pans out.

I'm just chilling with a beer and getting bitten alive before going back to finish putting up my tent which was soaking wet and smelly from our last night camping in Georgia 5 days ago.

9th August. Today we drove and drove, trying to break the back of Turkey. We managed 476 miles. Currently in Polatli, th...
09/08/2022

9th August. Today we drove and drove, trying to break the back of Turkey. We managed 476 miles. Currently in Polatli, the tractor town we passed through on the way to Georgia. Still plenty of tractors for sale if anyone is interested.

09/08/2022

8th August...some D915, otherwise known as the Death Road videos. In no particular order. I have more but unable to download from the camera. But you really don't need to hearmy commentary on one of those, there were a few gentle swear words.😅

8th August...important day, my brothers birthday! Plus John and I decided to go on an adventure. After a leisurely break...
08/08/2022

8th August...important day, my brothers birthday! Plus John and I decided to go on an adventure.

After a leisurely breakfast, the choice was interesting, we headed for the coast...the Black Sea. A quick pit stop around 11.30 to ensure we were ready for our trial of nerves and we headed up onto the D915, which seemed very pleasant at the start and were perhaps lulled into a false sense of security. Some may of heard of this road, it is known as the Death Road and has been identified as one of the deadliest roads in the world.

What fun it would be to do we thought! Yeah right. Bloody scary comes to mind. I found it worse lower down when I could see the drops, when we hit mist and cloud it was a lot easier...as I couldn't see the hundreds of feet drops. Also I gave myself a job of inspecting the 13 hairpin bends and filming/photographing John going round them. Luckily we only passed one car on those bends and it was at the top of the final one. Also near the top was an interesting sign..full of bullet holes.

Once we were over the top the road became tarmac again and the views were fantastic. The hairpin bends were a doddle after what we'd been up. Well worth the 2 nervous wees as we climbed.

The buzz of doing it was fantastic, John got a big hug when we stopped in Bayburt. He was brilliant. Would we do it again? Absolutely not!!!

Coffee and cake time by the Black Sea...funny though it is quite blue.
08/08/2022

Coffee and cake time by the Black Sea...funny though it is quite blue.

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