Romanian Review

Romania was really great - we covered some of the most beautiful terrain I've ever seen. The forest-covered Carpathian mountains must be seen to be believed. Romania has absolutely been my favorite country on this trip. The first part of our route was a paved road through the Carpathian mounts - we passed through many small, traditional Romanian villages. I mentioned the horse carts in my last update, but we also came across an overturned car seconds after it happened. The massive puddle a few meters down the road indicated pretty clearly the vehicle had hydroplaned and rolled. We arrived as bystanders were pulling passengers out of the vehicle - everyone involved appeared to be alright.

I would 100% recommend the Oradea-Deva road. It's winding, full of fun curves, and has plenty of potholes to dodge. The road actually continues south to Transti-Jiru, but we headed east from Deva in an attempt to drive the world famous Transfaraguan. Originally constructed to transport military supplies, the road is now a significant tourist attraction. It passes over a mountain and descends back towards a reservoir. It's steep, has tons of switchbacks, and has some incredible views. Words don't really do it justice. We took off the roof of the Jimny and I shot video of the switchbacks while standing up. That was pretty intense, but the footage should be worth it.

It was time to head south. We powered through the outskirts of Bucharest and found a place not far from the Bulgarian border. It wasn't quite as far as we hoped, but it worked. Next stop: Bulgaria and Turkey.

Photos!

Here's a link to my Flickr account. Expect more photos and captions soon.

We aim to make it through Romania and into Bulgaria today. We start heading east into Transylvania soon and we hope to see Dracula's castle.

Is that a horse cart in the road?

It took me a day, but I'm fully recovered from the Czechout party. It was one hell of a get together. The German/Czech border region was very beautiful. Lots of rolling hills, thick forests, and tight corners. Our directions to the party were very vague so it took some quick thinking and navigation to locate Klenova Castle. I spent a semester studying in the Czech Republic in the fall of 2006, but had never explored this part of the country.

We arrived at camp around 7 PM. The camp was quite a sight. Imagine 700 or so people in various stages of drunkenness were surrounded by all sorts of crappy little cars. The ones who had arrived early were easy to spot - they were always the drunkest. It was great to finally encounter some fellow Rally teams. The Jimnys were out in force - we were the only one at the Spanish launch but many more had started from Goodwood. We cracked beers, hurriedly set up camp and headed up to the castle for an authentic Czech dinner.

Most of the revelers were in costume. The theme was "Jules Verne" but most partygoers ignored the theme and wore whatever outlandish outfit they liked best. Several men wore only thongs. I salute them because the night became quite chilly and the bugs were out in force.

The meal was surprisingly good. Chicken, some sort of boiled sausage (it had a slight vinegar flavor but it was very tasty), and bread were served. The party was also sponsored by Hendricks Gin and I received two free drink tickets upon entry.

The gin and beer really started flying once the live music started. A local Czech band rocked really hard - they played a mix of post-rock/noise/dance stuff. Really awesome.

Things got a little hazy after the concert. One thing that sicks out: the generosity of Mongol Ralliers. Rally participants bought me beers. Scott and I completely forgot to grab some czech crowns on our way to the party and they were reluctant to accept Euros. I did have an amazing chat with a BBC foreign correspondent and it was good to see some of my friends from the Spanish launch.

I stumbled into my tent around 3:30 in the morning and managed to sleep until 8:30. Rough. We were one of the first teams out of camp which was nice.

The rest of the Czech Republic was a breeze. We did take a long, meandering route to Slovakia. This cost us some time but the scenery was worth it (how many times have I said this?).

The travel gods smiled on us again last night. We found an excellent little campground in Hungary - we enjoyed wi-fi and a delicious Hungarian dinner. Another interesting fact: we were the first Americans to stay there.

Romania has been wild. We're about two hours outside of Deva. This update is starting to get a little disjointed, so I'm going to wrap it up. Tomorrow is sure to be another long, but enjoyable day. We're heading into Transylvania and crossing into Bulgaria.

Highlight of the day: having to swerve around a horse cart in the middle of a Romanian road.

Photos will be up in the morning, I swear.

Czechout Aftermath

The Czechout Party was fantastic. I drank myself silly in a 13th century castle with hundreds of other Rally participants. The party was sponsored by Hendricks gin and the beer was cheap. The live bands were great as well.

Tonight we're camping near the town of Monsonmagyarovar. The campground has a great restaurant, wi-fi, and cheap beer. We're the first Americans to stay here.

Tomorrow we're speeding through the heart of Hungary and heading to Romania. Our route takes us through the Carpathian mountains. After that we head south to Bulgaria. I'm hoping to stay near the town of Vidin. Our route to Istanbul will take us through Bulgaria's Rhodope mountains.

I'll be preparing a big write-up about the Czechout Party. Also, I finally got my copy of Lightroom working. Expect photos soon!

The Calm Before the Storm

As I type this, we are north of Munich and cruising through Germany. Lots of distance has been covered over the last two days. Tonight's destination: the Czechout Party. Mongol Rally teams from all three starting points will converge on an isolated castle in western Bohemia. From what I gathered, it's quite the event. It begins around seven tonight and ends around 4 in the morning.

We abandoned our initial route through central France and Germany. The wind was pretty savage and the Jimny just wasn't capable of handling the high speeds on the French Autopistes, so we headed east for Switzerland. The scenery was quite beautiful. Flipping through the road atlas gave me an idea: why not head for Lichtenstein? Neither of us had ever been there before.

As we passed headed north-east through Switzerland, the scenery became more and more rugged. It looks quite different from the Rockies. We were driving through pastoral green valleys and mountains jutted straight up from the left and right. The roads were also excellent.

We entered Lichtenstein around 7 PM. It was a ghost town. The entire population of the country is only 35,000 and apparently they were all out of town. We drove through the winding streets attempting to find an open restaurant. We finally found a woman who indicated that we should turn around and head to the town centre. Dinner was secured.

Lichtenstein just didn't seem right for us, so we drove 15 minutes down the road and entered Feldkirch, Austria. It was the opposite of LIchtenstein: lots of activity and we could even see other people! Unfortunately, this proved to be a blessing and a curse. Just about every reasonably priced hotel was booked. Scott and I made the decision to avoid camping and stay in a hotel after realizing how close we were to exhaustion. After a search, a hotel with an empty room was found but we paid dearly.

Today began with a beautiful drive through the mountains of Austria. One of the most interesting things: a 10 KM long tunnel we drove through. Crazy stuff. The temperature was quite cool, which I thought was terrific. I had more or less been sweating since I landed in Spain.

The mountainous scenery continued briefly in Germany, but we quickly found ourselves on the autobahn. The Jimny achieved the previously unheard-of speed of 130 km/h. 130 km/h is maybe 80 miles an hour. The truck is happiest at speeds of 100-110 km/h.

That's it. We're a couple of hours from the Czech Republic and the Czechout Party. It should be absolutely, completely ridiculous.

Photos

I'm having some difficulty with my photo software. Once I get this solved, expect a lot more photos and other media.

Rally launch + France!

The Mongol Rally has begun! 350 underprepared teams are speeding east in 350 underpowered vehicles. I want to apologize for the lack of updates. A hectic (but enjoyable) travel schedule in Spain and some behind the scenes technical changes at ExpeditionPortal prevented me from blogging. Now that the Rally is underway, blog entries should be delivered regularly.

My stay in Barcelona was brief, but extremely enjoyable. The attitude was noticeably more relaxed then Madrid. I arrived on the 21st of July and spent the majority of my time doing two things: wandering around the city taking in sights or experiencing Barcelona's incredible nightlife. My lowest priority: a good night's sleep. Scott and I did manage a quick meeting on the 22nd to discuss some last minute details - we wouldn't be meeting again until the morning of the 24th.

The Barcelona launch site opened at 6 PM on the 23rd and teams were able to drop off their vehicles that evening. Scott had the Jimny so we really had no responsibilities until the next morning. There was an informal meet-and-greet-and-drink session scheduled, so I wandered over to meet an American team I had been in correspondence with. It was a very pleasant evening so I covered the distance to the launch site on foot.

The launch site was dead. Two Adventurists staff members were assembling the combination stage and starting line but only three teams had shown up. I introduced myself to the other teams and we quickly realized that only the North Americans had shown up. Out of 44 Mongol Rally teams beginning in Barcelona, only four were North American (three teams from the United States and one Canadian team). We were informed that the Spanish teams probably wouldn't show up until the next morning.

We set out to find the bar where teams would be rendezvousing. As the group ate and drank, Spanish teams slowly trickled in. Around 1:15, I called it a night (this is early for Barcelona, especially on a Friday night) and trekked back to the hotel. It was time to get some sleep. Scott would be picking me up in less then 12 hours.

I awoke with a start at 8 AM. The late nights in Barcelona had taken their toll, but launch day was finally here! During the roughly 8 months I've been preparing for the Rally, I've told many people that just getting to the starting line would be an achievement. In just a few hours that goal would be achieved.

I managed to shower, pack, eat breakfast, and check out of the hotel with time to spare. Scott picked me up right at 9:45 and the drive to the starting line was a short one. We were one of the first ten cars there. This was actually my first ride in the Jimny. In fact, I hadn't even seen it in person until we met on the 22nd.

We had some time to kill so we unpacked the truck and went through our gear. By the time we finished this, it was time to register. After picking up the t-shirts and applying vehicle decals, it was time to relax for a while.

It was very cool to walk around and check out all the different cars and ambulances. There were no other Jimnys and the only other vehicle with 4WD was a van driven by a Spanish team.

Around 1 PM, the launch ceremony started. The MC called each team on stage and quizzed them about their plans. Unfortunately, I couldn't understand what 40 of the teams were saying but they did draw some laughs. I am officially on the record as wanting to marry a Mongolian woman and live the rest of my days in a yurt.

Once the team speeches were completed, we hustled back to the vehicles - it was time to depart! Each team had a chance to drive across the podium and get their photo snapped. We quickly removed the top of the Jimny and I climbed up on the roof. I haven't seen any of the photos yet, but they should be very entertaining.

We were finally on the road! We made a quick stop at a mall to eat lunch and grab some last minute items. Our plan: drive to a small village to Avignon, where we would be staying with Patrice Ryder and his family. Patrice owns Outback Import and has been extremely generous to the Great Roadway Bazaar. He has donated time, parts, and most important of all, his hospitality.

The drive to Patrice's home was pleasant and uneventful. We did have one moment of excitement. I was staring out the window when I heard a loud bang and the car sputtered. Scott shot straight up as the car sputtered again. Scott quickly realized we had run out of gas - there was no light indicating when we needed to fill up! The jerry cans were full so this would only be a minor setback. Fate soon intervened. We spied an on-ramp up ahead and Scott decided to go for it. He shut the engine off, put the car in neutral and hoped for the best. Our travel karma must have been at an all time high - the exit ramp led directly to a gas station and we coasted right to the pump. If the pump had been 20 yards further we wouldn't have made it. After laughing maniacally, we filled the tank up with 39.16 liters (it's a 40L tank).

It had been a long but enjoyable day. Patrice and his family had prepared us a delicious dinner (curry!). After the meal, we tried to do some planning for the next day. Neither of us had any energy left, so we called it a night.

Update from Spain

I apologize for being so silent lately. I landed in Madrid on July 11. Since then, I have rarely thought of the Rally - a somewhat welcome change! Mongol Rally thoughts and preparation have consumed my brain since I first paid the entry fee last November, so this is the calm before the storm. Between purchasing a car, obtaining visas, and making travel plans it has been rare for more then a couple of hours to pass without a Mongol Rally-related thought entering my brain. I've been using my time here to relax and enjoy myself.

My stay in Spain has been incredibly pleasant. An old friend of mine picked me up from the airport when I arrived and was a fantastic tour guide. The highlight of the day: tapas-hopping through the Barrio de La Latina. La Latina is an older neighborhood and up until a few years ago was considered the dangerous part of Madrid. It's now an area of town famed for it's restaurants. Later that evening we went to watch the World Cup final. When Spain scored the only goal of the match, the roar from the crowd was unforgettable. After the victory we spent several hours marching around town with the other celebrants.

I spent several days in Madrid recuperating from traveling, seeing sights, and enjoying life. Madrid doesn't have the cultural cachet of Paris, the ruins of Rome, or the reputation of Barcelona (the preceding sentence was blatantly stolen from my Lonely Planet guide) but it is a fantastic city. As my guidebook described it: Madrid is a is cross between Penélope Cruz (beautiful and quintessentially Spanish), Madonna (sassy and getting better with age) and an ex-convent schoolgirl who grew up, got sophisticated but never forgot how to have a good time. The Museo del Prado and the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza are both must-sees. Madrid is also a great mix of new and old architecture.

After five days in Madrid, I set out for the south of Spain. I wanted to visit Andalusia, which as a very unique history. Andalusia formed the heart of the Muslim region Al-Andalus (from which the name Andalusia is derived). Muslims invaded the Iberian Peninsula in the early 700s and were finally expelled from Granada in 1492. This has given a lot of the culture in the area a unique flavor. After seeing the remnants of the Muslim architecture, I almost wish they had stayed.

I spent several days in Seville and Cordoba. Both are incredibly beautiful regions, but during this time of year they are both extremely hot. I spent most of my time sightseeing and staying cool. Seville has many language schools and universities - I ended up exploring the nightlife with some Americans I met. There's nothing like arriving back at your hotel after sunrise.

Days begin and end late here in Spain. It's rare to see much going on before 9 AM. The streets are empty from 2-4 PM. No one goes out for dinner before 10 PM. Bars usually close at midnight or 1 AM. Night clubs don't even open their doors until 1 AM and they rarely close until dawn. The relaxed pace of life is very pleasant. I'm already plotting ways to avoid returning to the US.

As I write this, I'm back in Madrid for a night. I'm heading to Barcelona tomorrow. Scott and I will rendezvous there and we begin our journey to Mongolia on the 24th.

With the Mongol Rally rapidly approaching, expect a lot more content from me. I plan on writing extensively about the journey to Mongolia.

Chuck

Random thought: my mother was kind enough to loan me her Barnes & Noble Nook, which I absolutely have fallen in love with. The e-ink display the Nook and Kindle feature is extremely easy on the eyes. I was able to read for hours at a cafe today, which most certainly would not happen on an LCD display.

Another random thought: you can purchase gazpacho soup at the McDonald's here in Spain.

Some history, pt. 2

It's been an exciting two days: the car was just delivered to southern France (where some slight vehicle modification will be performed), the vehicle registration documents have been delivered, and we just received our last visa. The passports may even be back tomorrow!

This post is going to focus on all the planning and logistic management that's been completed. Instead of trying to put together some sort of roughly chronological narrative, I'm going to break it up into individual categories/areas/factors/etc.

The Route

Selecting the route has been one of my favorite aspects of Rally planning. There are two main Rally routes: north or south. The northern routes tend to pass through Belarus, the Ukraine, and Russia. Some northern routes might even dip into Russia. Southern routes head through Turkey and usually feature trips through Central Asia.

The southern route tends to be more challenging. There is much less infrastructure and the terrain is much rougher. Naturally, this was the route I had my heart set on. The Pamir Highway immediately captured my imagination I knew it would be one of the trip highlights. At this point, I had a rough idea of the countries I wanted to pass through.

It was now time to do a massive amount of research and actually construct the route. Prioritizing was key: it's easy to find useful information on Western Europe, but it takes time and money to find information on Central Asia. I used three main tools to gather information: Google, maps, and guidebooks. Each had plusses and minuses. Quality Central Asian maps? Long out of print. Finding the mileage between two cities was almost impossible. The time it took to cover said distance? Much easier to find. It was a symbiotic process - individually, each information source lacked a crucial piece of information, but with enough cross-referencing the answer could be found. My single most valuable resource? Lonely Planet's Central Asian guidebook. The bus timetables turned out to be worth the price of the book.

Now it was time to commit the route to paper. I printed two sets of calendars (July, August, and September) and lined up my maps. Using my maps and guidebooks as a reference, I penciled in the rough stopping point on each date. To make things easier, I decided that we would attempt to stop in or near a city/town/village. Once I had something that worked, I double-checked it and made another copy in pen. The calendar is extremely important, and plays an important role in obtaining visas.

Even with all the time and effort invested in route planning, it's still no more then a suggestion. Flexibility is key, especially when traveling in a region like this. What if the road is closed? What if the map is wrong and there is no road at all? That's why it's important to focus on the journey and not the destination.

Here is a rough map of our route.

The Vehicle

We had to deal with two major constraints when selecting a vehicle: age and engine size. The Rally rules state that the vehicle must be a 2001 model or newer and must have an engine no bigger then 1.2 liters. After some consideration, we decided that the perfect vehicle would be a left-hand drive Suzuki Jimny. This would give us four-wheel drive capability, which would allow us to tackle tougher terrain.

We then had to determine where to buy the vehicle - the US or the EU? After our experiences shipping trucks back from Panama, we quickly ruled this out. Further research revealed the fact that the United Kingdom is the only nation in the EU that allows non-residents to register vehicles. We would have to find our car in the UK and find someone willing to let us use their address to register our vehicle.

As luck would have it, my very first Google search produced some fantastic results. We found a left-hand drive, 2001 Suzuki Jimny for sale in Shropshire, England. It was exactly what we were looking for! It even had all the bells and whistles - removable hard top, air conditioning, and a tape deck.

It took roughly a month and a half to purchase the vehicle. We initially contacted the seller in mid-April and the vehicle was delivered to our agent in France on June 20.

It looks like I lied in the opening paragraph - this entry has been longer then expected so I'm going to post this content and attempt to tackle one of the most frustrating aspects of travel: visas.

Some history, pt. 1

When I describe the Mongol Rally to someone, I usually receive two questions: "Why on Earth would you do something like this?" and a close second is "How did you hear about it?" This entry should answer these questions and provide considerably more insight then I usually offer when I'm describing this after a few beers.

I have difficulty remembering the exact moment when I discovered the Mongol Rally. I believe it was sometime in the spring of 2007 when I encountered a trip report written by a father/son team from the UK. It piqued my curiosity but it just wasn't an engrossing read. There was very little flair for the dramatic, almost as if they weren't aware of how difficult the feat they accomplished really was. Despite the less then thrilling prose, something about the idea of driving across entire continents in underpowered vehicles struck a chord with me.

There are two more recent events that lead to my enrollment in the 2010 Mongol Rally. The first would be my participation in the Central American leg of the Expeditions West Ends of the Earth Expedition (try saying that three times fast). It was my first real exposure to overloading and an absolutely fantastic experience. The second would be Paul Theroux's novel of travel by train, The Great Railway Bazaar (I highly recommend this book!). After finishing the aforementioned book, not only did I want a trip of my own, but I realized it was very possible to put one together.

Fast forward to November, 2009. On a whim, I checked out the Mongol Rally homepage and discovered that registration was open for the 2010 Rally. On an even bigger whim, I registered for a spot on the waiting list (some part of me wanted to be selected - I chose Barcelona as my starting point because I figured the waiting list was fairly short). A week later, I received an e-mail stating I had a spot on the 2010 Mongol Rally and had two weeks to pay the entrance fee or else my spot would be released. The two-week period happened to fall over Thanksgiving, which gave me some time to think about what I might be getting myself into.

It goes without mentioning that I was extremely excited about this potential opportunity. Before I forked over the entrance money and committed to the race, I wanted to get some outside advice: my mom and dad. They were for supportive for the most part (although I did promise my mother I wouldn't visit Iran). I paid the entry fee and officially signed up en route to an Overland Training alumni trip in Baja, Mexico.

My first and perhaps biggest obstacle: find a teammate. I needed to find someone willing to make a real commitment to crossing the finish line. Many friends were interviewed, but no one was able find the 6-7 weeks necessary to participate in the Rally.

Three months passed and I gingerly began collecting research material and planning my route. Things were picking up but without a teammate, I wasn't able to fully commit myself to the Rally. It was now February, 2010. If I dropped out of the race by March 31 the majority of my entrance fee would be returned to me. It was imperative for me to find a teammate.

Since I reside in Prescott, Arizona I knew there was only one person I could turn to: Scott Brady. I knew Scott would be a great addition - he possess many of the hard skills I lack and has a global network of contacts. I knew both would be important if we wanted to take this trip to the next level. He accepted - now it was time to buckle down and make things happen.

An Introduction

For those who aren’t familiar with the purpose of this blog, it’s a simple concept: chronicle the adventures and exploits of Charlie Nordstrom and Scott Brady (aka “The Great Roadway Bazaar”) as they attempt to complete the Mongol Rally and do some good along the way.

What is the Mongol Rally? It’s a trans-continental auto race (I use that term loosely as there are no prizes for winning – in fact it’s a point of pride to finish last) across Europe and Asia. Teams start in Western Europe (this year starting points are located in Spain, Italy and the UK) and finish in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. Each team travels about 8-10,000 miles depending the route selected.

The Rally also has a charitable component. There is really only one hard and fast rule: each team must raise £1000 and donate it to a charity. However, the vast majority of Rally participants donate their vehicles to charity. Here’s what happens: a third party collects the vehicles and auctions them off to Mongolian families. This serves two purposes: it provides automobile ownership to Mongolians who may not be able to afford it and gets us around needing a carnet.

The Mongol Rally has three rules:

1. The “On Your Own” Rule. There is absolutely no race support. Each team is entirely on self-reliant after leaving the starting point. No route is comfortable or safe. Damage to vehicles, robberies, and minor injuries are quite common. As the race becomes more and more popular, a corresponding increase in car accidents has been observed. Each team is entirely responsible for providing their vehicles, visas, airfare, accommodations, etc.

2. The “Charity Money” Rule. Each team is responsible for raising £1000. If they fail, it must be paid out of pocket. Pretty simple.

3. The “Vehicle” Rule. Each team’s vehicle must be old and it must be small. Engine size is capped at 1.2L and the car must be ten years old or younger. Due to cost concerns, vehicles tend to be on the older side of the spectrum.

That should give everyone a rough idea of what the Mongol Rally is. Be sure to check out the Mongol Rally homepage for all sorts of cool information and media: http://mongolrally.theadventurists.com/

- Chuck