Day 19 Nis to Belgrade

Informal transit again today.  A quick trip, its less than 300km and it’s a motorway with a 120kph speed limit. After that, we became tourists again.

The Metropole Palace Hotel, where we're staying, is pretty good. We took a tram downtown, had lunch, saw parliament and various government buildings, the Belgrade Fortress (left) and the ‘Bohemian area’ (below).

Mark getting a new key cut, and outside the Serbian Parliament.

While we were out, we found an optometrist and had Marks glasses adjusted, and we happened upon a key man who did us a new car key to replace the one I lost a few days ago.

When the rain started to pour down, we cut short being tourists and were lucky to get a taxi home. 

Servicing the rally cars in the hotel carpark in the rain.

Competition resumes tomorrow - two stages are scheduled.

Day 18 Sliven (Bulgaria) to Nis (Serbia)

Last night’s red wine was pretty bad. In fact, the service at dinner last night was non-existent. After waiting 90 minutes, we were prepared to take anything that was offered at the table and share it between us. It wasn’t necessarily what we ordered, but we were prepared to take anything.

The Z car on the Sliven stage

Today we had our first competition in Europe. It was 33.8km of relatively smooth tar. It was very twisty with lots of hairpins.  It started and ended near Sliven and had a service park in the town square. The stage was run three times.  On the first run, the Sandy Dalgarno Escort burst an oil pump line and lost all its sump oil over the last 15km of the stage.  This made it more interesting on the second and third runs, having to take lines to avoid crossing the usually visible trail of oil.  He was towed back to the service by the Shane Attwell Falcon. A few cars reported spins and offs after hitting the oil.

A pair of Porsches at Sliven

(The above photos are from albums posted on https://www.facebook.com/SydneytoLondon2014, by Plamen Petrov and Todor Kirchev.  See those albums for many more action photos from that stage).

Looking at today’s results: We were faster each time we did the stage. But so were most people. Joost was 42 seconds quicker than us each time. We did get 8 seconds back off Geoff Olholm but he should be in conserve mode now - he has an 11 minute lead.  Joost took 42 seconds off us every 34km. He is now just 6:37 behind us. There are six stages to run in Europe and five in the UK for a total of 260km. He will get close and that’s assuming no one has any problems along the way.

After three runs of the stage, we transported 500km to Nis in Serbia. We were first to reach the border, and as expected, got parked off to the side while the officials made phone calls and had loud discussions with each other. I think we paved the way for everyone else.

Bulgaria and Serbia seem to consist of green rolling plains and hills. Bulgaria had a very nice motor way for several hundred kilometres. The speed limit is 140 KPH. Quite a lot of cars travel above that speed. Plus, there's heaps of trucks. Not good on the non-motorway bits.

Tomorrow is another ‘free transit’ day.  We drive to Belgrade, the Serbian capital….

Day 17 Istanbul to Sliven, Bulgaria

A big day really:

• ·       First a briefing telling us nothing new.
• ·       Someone has tried to get into my side of the car and broke the mechanism.
• ·       Lost glasses and keys by driving off with them on the roof.
• ·       Incredibly treacherous road conditions.
• ·       Hassles at the border crossing.
• ·       Stopped by police. 

There will be at least 2 stages tomorrow (29^th) and they will run the last one again if they can.
30^th No stages.
1^st May, two stages.
2^nd May will be a rest day in Rijeka (ie no stages).
3^rd May will have two stages run twice.
Beyond that, possibly nothing until the UK

So, after the briefing, down to the car and my door doesn’t open! Seems someone has yanked on it and broken the mechanism.  I put my glasses and the car keys on the roof while trying to sort out the door.  They probably lasted there until we accelerated into the not insignificant Istanbul traffic.

The border crossing seemed to have four parts to it.  We sailed through the first.  At the 2^nd one it turned out that when the car was checked in at Ankara they had entered the number plate incorrectly.  There was a 2^nd ‘H’ on the end.  This seemed to be an enormous problem for the guy and he eventually had to call his manager.  
We then moved to the next spot and he had the same issue but his solution was to send us back to the other point.
Eventually they sorted this out and we moved to the Bulgarian side.  These guys wouldn’t accept that our rego was legitimate.  They wanted the original copy (we had a photocopy only) and they wanted proof that it has insurance.  They spent a lot of time discussing it and making phone calls.  But eventually we were through.

Another one with paperwork issues at the border
 - an official parked and waiting while it's sorted out.

At a town down the road we were stopped by a policeman at what looked like a RBT but after he pointed at the headlights and looked happier when Mark turned them on, we worked out that he wanted them on.  Looking at other traffic it may be the law here that you have to have them on. He then spoke one word loudly GO!.

We decided to drive the route of the stages today to see the conditions and maybe fiddle with shock absorber settings.  Roads were wet as it had been raining fairly heavily.  The roads must be above the snow line in winter as there are signs for snow chains being required. The road had many black patches which seem to have no grip at all. If you open the throttle you get either wheel spin or the car snaps sideways, understeer is endemic, and braking is only slightly better than we had imagined. 

 We are really wishing we had the softer rally springs to put back in.  We have backed the shocks off several clicks but that’s not making a huge difference.  But, it’s not only us who struggled.  We have since learned that Joost in his Porsch and Ondrej in the Z have panel and suspension damage from offs.  And the section was being run as transport!!

LATE NEWS:  Joost spun and hit a post.

The Chris Palmer Mustang wasn’t allowed across the border because it didn’t have proof of its rego so they loaded it onto a trailer and took it across.

Francis Tuttle, the Porsche maestro,  is looking for a tyre groover to improve the Porsche's grip in the wet.

Day summary: I have a new stamp in my passport.  I’m in Bulgaria.  I wonder if they have red wine.

Day 16 Still Tourists

We moved hotels from the one in the city to the Novotel Istanbul, the official rally hotel half way between the city and Ataturk airport. 

I was a little worried about traffic as we had struggled with fouled up spark plugs after the slow going into Istanbul yesterday but we had no problems today.

Took the hotel shuttle bus into town this afternoon and did a bit more sightseeing.  We are continually amazed at the number of people about on the streets. There are thousands of people everywhere.  Istanbul does have a population of some 14 million so I suppose you should expect to see a lot.

Mark at Taksim Square, and outside the Blue Mosque

A taxi ride back was a bit hair-raising as well.  We found ourselves travelling amongst the rally crews who had stayed at Eskisehir last night and I think that may have been inspiring the taxi driver.  He passed everything at warp speed and had several near misses.  It provided some entertainment for the rally crews.

There is to be a meeting at 8:00am tomorrow to give us an update on what stages they will be running in Europe.  We are expecting transport again tomorrow to get to Sliven in Bulgaria.  We are hopeful of some stages in Bulgaria.

Day 15 Tourists in Istanbul

The Rally schedule has been changed, and there are no stages around Ankara and Eskisehir, so crews were given the option of following the original time and travel schedule or heading straight to Istanbul.  Mark and Dave opted for Istanbul.

 A leisurely breakfast in Ankara,  then a 500km drive to Istanbul.

Jiri Kojac, who navigates and manages the Czech team we've linked up with, decided we should stay in Istanbul at Taksin rather than spend big dollars at the Novotel where we stay tomorrow night.

The drive was relatively quick. The 120kph speed limit is pretty much completely ignored by the locals.  Traffic was much thicker as we reached Istanbul but it was manageable.

not sure what this procession at Taksim Square was about

We then explored Taksim Square (scene of last year's anti-government riots), took the funicular railway and tram into the Old Town to see the spice market and the Grand Bazaar, before catching Judy and Phillip Morley at the Blue Mosque. (Judy and Philip are touring around over here).

We ate at a local restaurant where P&J had eaten the night before, then it was tine for the tram home again.

Mark and I with Judy Morley at dinner in Istanbul, and catching the tram back to our hotel

Day 14 Ankara

We're linked up with the Czech team, who are servicing our car here in Ankara....
 (Photo from Sydney to London Marathon Facebook page)

A change of plans by the organisers.  All rally stages between Ankara and Istanbul have been deleted , and we're free to make our own way to Istanbul, which we'll do..

Everybody is busy getting the cars ready for Europe's tarmac special stages:

Day 13 Flying to Ankara, Turkey

(above): loading the cars onto the 747-400 

(left):  the Emirates flight carrying the competitors' cars leaves Perth, heading for Dubai/Istanbul/Ankara.
(Photos from the event's Facebook page)

We left Perth 11:30pm and arrived at Doha at 6am.  The clock went back five hours on the way.  We then waited two hours and flew to Istanbul.  A 4.5 hour flight. Waited another two hours and flew to Ankara, a 40 min flight.  
Most people were there already, have taking a direct flight from Doha to Ankara.  

Not sure why we were given the scenic tour, perhaps the direct flight was full.

Qatar Airlines are pretty good although the food isn’t as good as some other airlines I’ve been on.

Istanbul Airport was as I remembered it from last year.  Big queues at immigration and generally chaotic.  

It's raining in Ankara, and the luckily, hotel has wi-fi.

The rally hotel - note the rally cars out the front.

We have just been told we can go and pick up the car if we want. 

Later:  Got the car and it seems OK.  Haven’t got the spares box yet. Tomorrow we can get the spares and repack the car.