Overland 2 Oz

Sunday Driving with Petrolhead Nirvana

2010-02-13T18:02:00.010Z

Sunday 7th February saw unusualy mild weather for the time of year. So, who was I to turn down a chance to get the roof off and go for a brisk winters day blast? Meeting up at our favourite London haunt, the Ace cafe, we headed through the city and down to the coast.

Driving from London to Southampton would normally take around an hour in average traffic conditions via the M3 motorway.......but where's the fun in that!? I clamped a camera to the roll bar and off we went by a slightly more twisty, round about, route. The group included an Audi R8, BMW M3, Tazio, Ferrari 355 and f360 spyder, TVR Chimera, MX5, Cosworth, MGF, New GTR and my Sebring SX. We must have been driving very slowly because it took us much longer than the usual hour. Four hours later we arrived at the Jolly Sailor pub on the Hamble River had a leisurely lunch then took another 2 hours to drive home again.

Toy Run and New Years Day Meet

2010-01-03T13:20:00.033Z

Well I've been back from my Overland to Oz trip for a couple of months now. Pedro arrived back shortly after me and is currently back in the Dreamshack having his engine rebuilt; it seems I may have cracked the crank case during that incident fording a river in Pakistan!

I've still been finding time for a bit of driving though; as well as regular meets at the Ace cafe with Petrolhead Nirvana we've also managed a few days out. Even at full fitness Pedro wouldn't stand a chance of keeping up with these guys so my Sebring is out of storage and back on the road. I realise most people store convertibles through the winter and use them in the summer but things have worked out a little differently this year.

On 30th december I met up with members of Petrolhead Nirvana, Fueltopia and Pistonheads at the Ace Cafe in London for our last drive together in 2009. Getting into the festive spirit we loaded our cars up with toys and headed across London to the Shooting Star Hospice in Hampton.

The Shooting Star Children's Hospice provides care, support and advice for children and young people with life-limiting conditions and their families. These care services are offered free of charge to families, 365 days a year across the western half of London and north Surrey. The care services are based around the needs of the whole family, so as well as caring for the children and young people, there are activities for siblings and support groups for parents and grandparents. This makes a real difference to families who find themselves in unimaginable circumstances helping them live life to the full by providing opportunities for fun and laughter, as well as helping them through the tougher times.

Shooting Star House provides expert care throughout the course of a child's illness and in the final stages of their life, supporting the family at all times.

Despite the Bad weather we had a good turn out of cars and received a warm welcome from the staff and children at Shooting Star who all wanted to take turns sitting in the cars, beeping the horns and hearing the engines rev. I think the smiles say it all.

We all loved meeting the children, families and staff and they certainly loved seeing the cars. It was really wonderful to see so many happy, smiling faces, hopefully we can return in the summer with even more interesting cars for them to play in.

Well we didn't get far into 2010 before the Petrolhead itch struck. Somebody suggested a New Years day drive and before you knew it we were tucking into hangover breakfasts at the Ace Cafe and set out to start the New years in style.

A new addition to the club joined us for the run down to the Phoenix Green "Weird and Unusual" car show, Mike and his white Audi R8. Also in the convoy were the usual suspects, F360, Viper SRT-10, BMW 130i, Mazda MX5's, Toyota Supra, Cosworth, Hawk Stratos and of course my Sebring SX.

Phoenix Green certainly lived up to the "weird and unusal" tag with a huge variety of fun, interesting, classic and, in some cases, quite frankly just odd vehicles which made everyone smile.

Someone mentioned Brooklands museum had a New Year car meet on too and we hit the road for a quick blast up to Brooklands. When we got there however we all decided we were too tight to pay a £9 entrance fee when we'd just had a great car show for nothing so spent the money on a pub lunch instead. It was a sunny but very cold day and I had the roof off so suggested one of my locals which I knew had a roaring open fire. Despite being in sunny surrey the Kingfisher aren't used to this kind of line up in their car park!

Australia

2009-10-30T14:07:00.022Z

Things have been so hectic since I got back from Oz so my blog has been a bit neglected. I was back at work the day after I flew back to London and pedro arrived back in the UK last week, he's straight back in Mark's garage, Dreamshack, so I'm sure he'll have the engine out and the oil leak cured in no time. Further investigation will tell but his theory is that I've bent the crank case when I hit something underwater fording a Pakistani river. anyway, more of that later meanwhile back to where I left off.....

I flew from Singapore into Brisbane where Tracey, my best mate from school days, lives with her husband Gary (aka Reg). They emmigrated to Cairns about 11 years ago and only moved into their new house in Brisbane a week before I arrived!

They were surprisingly organised...not a box in site...they were all hidden in the garage! I did however hear the occassional cry of "Where's....?" "I can't find.....?" etc Apparently Nelson the dog doesn't travel well, Tracey spent the 3 day drive from Cairns hanging out of the window to escape the smell of his farts! Reg found this highly amusing as he was in their other car towing the boat. Nelson seems to have settled into his new home now though.

In need of some rest, I spent a couple of days chilling out, walking Nelson round the bay, drinking copious amounts of wine and rum in the evenings and eating yummy aussie seafood!

I've been to Australia a couple of times before so as I only had 12 days I decided i'd rather spend the time catching up with friends and family than sight-seeing. Tracey and I did manage one day out though, we drove along the coast and took the ferry over to North Stradbrooke Island.

After a huge seafood platter lunch we figured we'd better walk it off with a stroll round the coastline.

Tracey insists she saw two turtles in this inlet, I couldn't spot them....it seems every time I turned away they resurfaced, hmmm.

Big signs warned of weak cliff edges......

This didn't stop Tracey showing off her builders bum though!

I didn't spot the turtles, we did both see whales off this headland though! Unfortunately they were too far off shore to catch them on my poxy compact camera (my slr lies in a watery grave and the insurance didn't pay up quick enough for me to get a replacement before this trip) I was stoked anyway, I've paid for whale watching trips a couple of times and never spotted anything so to see them unexpectedly, just off the coast was amazing.

After a bit of shopping in the fab little shops on the island we had to floor it back in time to catch the ferry!

After Brisbane it was a (relatively) short flight down to Melbourne where my cousin Jodie and her husband Aaron met me at the airport. Jodie's going to hate this photo but she kept trying to escape the camera so it's the only one I have. If you look closely you'll see Aaron in the background preparing the traditional aussie barbie.

last time I saw Jodie she only had one baby, now there's three! Have you ever seen such cheeky looking monsters? Charlotte, Harley and Britney.

Britney was desperate for me to see her riding her pony so here she is at Pony club. They have four horses and on my first day in Melbourne i had the dubious pleasure of accompanying Jodie to the vets where her horse Cruize went in a stallion and came out a gelding! I'll spare you the photos!

Uncle Ted, my mum's brother, and aunty Carol. Really good to see them again after so long and mum was over the moon to see pictures of her brother looking so well.

The night before I had to go to Melbourne for my flight the children tried to feign illness so they could say goodbye. I placated them by agreeing to go to school with them in the morning.

Harley, Britney and Aaron's daughter Lauren.

Jodie lives in Toongabie which is a 2 hour drive from Melbourne, she drove me back in to town and I spent my last few hours before my flight with aunty Carol's sister Valda, her boyfriend and her son's Matthew, Robert and Nathan.

Last time Valda and the boys saw me I was in hospital with lots of tubes in me! They had come to the UK on holiday a few years ago. Towards the end of their stay we headed to Dublin for a few days where I collapsed and was rushed to hospital! It turned out I had Pancreatitis caused by gall stones...a LOT of gall stones (I told my doctor my stomach hurt!!) I was kept in for two weeks before being deemed fit enough to travel back to the UK for further treatment which wound up being five ERCP procedures and open surgery resulting in 6 months off work!!

With flights to catch it meant Valda and the boys had to leave me in hospital, catch the ferry back to Wales and drive the car, which I'd borrowed from a friend, back to London. They felt terrible about leaving me when I was so ill but really had no choice and my travel insurance were brilliant, they flew my mate Beth to Dublin to accompany me on my flight home.

All the same it was an emmotional reunion and they were very happy to see me back on my feet. Valda managed to dodge the camera though....I'll get you next time!!

Thailand and Malaysia

2009-10-10T23:30:00.020+01:00

After visiting Cope I was keen to get to Singapore as quickly as possible. I have to be back at work in London on 14th October which doesn't leave much time in Australia. So Thailand and Malaysia passed by quickly. I didn't want to waste time lost in Bangkok traffic so I took the ringroad, stopping for the night at Damoen Saduak.

The rooms in the guest house were dusty, dirty, had more cobwebs than the Addams family house and the bed sheet was a giant towel which was bizarre. The place had a kitsch wild west theme but was in a beautiful setting built over the canal and of course, near another gorgeous temple!

Damoen Saduak is famous for it's floating market on the canal. The guide book says it's not as "touristy" as the floating market in Bangkok. Of course the danger of guide books saying things like that is that it attracts tourists and the locals will cater to the tourists. Hence an abundance of tiger balm sales men and stalls selling tourist souvenirs. I have to confess to buying a few souvenirs and some of the beautiful silk scarfs.

A lot of tourists were hiring boats to "tour" the market which seemed like a bit of a con to me as you can walk round it all by the shore.

I bought some fruit from the boat ladies, just one condition, first I wanted to take a picture!

Just south of Damoen Saduak something rather special happened.....Pedro went round the clock!!!

00000 miles! Now if I want to sell him I can advertise him as "low mileage, careful lady owner, never raced or rallied" ;-)

At Hat Yai, a Thai town close to the Malay border, I faced a moral dilemma. These birds were for sale. I desperately wanted to buy one, set the bird free and then take the beautiful cage home for decoration, I thought they would look lovely with a trailing plant inside. Ultimately I talked myself out of it, figuring although I would have the satisfaction of seeing one bird go free, I would be encouraging the trade.

One of the more amusing juices available in Malaysian service stations!

Driving on to Penang Island I spotted a Volkswagon garage, Pedro wasn't sounding too great so we stopped in for a quick tune up and a carb cleaning.

White teddy enjoyed the surfing and I relaxed on the beach with a few Mojito's before a long, stressful drive to Singapore the next day leaving trails and puddles of oil behind us! The oil seal was replaced twice but didn't last long.

Due to the problems in China there is not enough time for me to drive around Australia, looks like I'll have to come back and do that as a seperate trip :-)

Pedro is now in a shipping container heading back to the UK. He wasn't allowed on the roll on/roll off ship because of his massive oil leak. I pointed out that technically he wasn't leaking oil anymore as it was all on the road, not in the engine. Unfortunately the shipping company like to be able to drive the cars on and off of the ship which would have neccesitated putting more oil in the engine....bringing us back to problem A. There's just no pleasing some people. I mean, the poor old car has just driven over 20,000 miles on some of the worst roads in the world!

Actually the shipping agents were wonderful; they made all the arrangements for Pedro to be shipped and got my flights booked so I was on my way to Oz next morning!

more Laos

2009-09-16T12:10:00.037+01:00

From Vientienne I took a bus north to collect Pedro from the China/Laos border. A rock fall blocked our way so several of the guys got off the bus and moved the rocks. Sadly the Chinese transport company taking my car to the Lao border were not bright enough to use there initiative in this way. I received an e-mail from the Chinese tour company, who had already delayed us by over 3 weeks, saying that the transporter was stuck on the road because of a rock fall! It would be at least 5 days late! Border towns are usually pretty dismal, dodgy places so I decided to stay in Luang Namtha, 30km from the border, until it was time to collect Pedro.

Luang Namtha is a popular base for hikers, surrounded by rivers, paddy fields and a national park. Most of the other tourists I met on the bus to Luang Namtha were heading straight off hiking. As the tour company hadn't given me a definite date when my car would be delivered to the border I couldn't go on any hiking trips. Luang Namtha is a lovely, friendly town but quite small, after a couple of days walking around, looking at and sampling some of the gross food in the night market and buying bead bags and jewellery from the Akha ladies; I was running out of things to do.
Then I met Nicky, a kiwi girl, travelling through on her way to China. She suggested hiring motorbikes to explore some of the local Akha tribe villages. The only flaw in her plan was that I have never ridden a motorbike. So, I opted for an automatic model(the red one).
The Akha houses look quite flimsy, made from wood, reeds and straw. So it was quite surprising to see the odd satellite dish! Shortly after we set off it started raining. We parked the bikes under a tree in a village and were beckoned over by a local lady to shelter on her porch.
The family were lovely and offered us water. I was constantly amazed at how clean and smartly dressed the tribal people were despite their humble homes with no running water. The ladies clothes are beautiful and the men always wear sparkly white T-shirts!

When the rain stopped we rode on, arriving at a river, too deep to cross and with no bridge! We had to turn back, waving at the villagers as we passed through again. What a shame we couldn't speak each others languages, they could have told us "don't go that way, there's a deep river"

The tracks were pretty muddy and slippery and my first time riding a motorbike was quickly followed by my first time falling off a bike! This was just before my fall a little further up the track. I later realised that applying the Beetles off-road technique of gunning it through the soft stuff is entirely the wrong thing to do on a bike!

Eventually the day came when Pedro was due at the border so I got up early and took a bus from luang Namtha to the border town of Boten. I hung around the border all day but no Pedro. I had to find a place to stay in Boten and return next morning. Boten was exactly as I expected. Most of the hotels were full so I ended up at an over-priced Chinese monstrosity. I was kept awake all night by doors slamming and girls running around the halls screaming! I asked the concierge in the morning, were they prostitutes and completely un-phased he said yes. Apparently most of their customers are Chinese who come across the border to gamble in the hotel casino and use the prostitutes. The hotel and casino only accept Chinese currency so the Lao people do not benefit from this and the prostitutes are young girls from the local Lao tribes being exploited by the Chinese! It goes without saying I didn't like the town!

Pedro arrived at the border late the next but there was no way i was staying in Boten another night so I drove back to Luang Namtha. The guest house manager finally understood what i'd been talking about when i turned up with my car!

Next morning I went back to the border to finish the customs process then it was time to head south again. Arriving back in Luang Prabang I drove past a VW camper parked outside a guest house, well I had to stop! The camper lured me in, the gorgeous wood panelled room and massive bath sold it to me. A soak in the bath was just what I needed after my fall off the motorbike!

The camper turned out to be a bar so after a wander round the night market it was back for cocktail's and Lao Lao whiskey shots round the camper! Steph, a german lady I met in the market was clearly in need of a drink, she's been cycling round India and now Laos.

Worlds smallest Irish bar!!

The drive from Luang Prabang to Vientienne was stunning. How many times have I used that word in this blog! But it really was, I'll let the photos speak for themselves!

30kms from Vientienne there was an almighty bang and Pedro started running rough as old boots! I pulled over and took a look. Even with my limited mechanical skills the problem was obvious. Pedro had spat out one of his spark plugs. It was dangling on theend of the HT lead. The engine was far too hot to put it back straight away. Fortunately Pedro had picked a very pretty temple to break down in front of (although, as someone pointed out, you'd be hard pushed not to break down near a temple in Laos!) so I went for a look round while he cooled down.

I've never changed the spark plugs before and as it turned out I didn't do it very well as it popped out again about half a mile later. This time we were in front of a petrol station and the boy who worked there called his friend over to help me. The lads then invited me to have a beer with them. Their parents were a little confused to come home and find an English lady sitting in their front garden. Of course I drank mostly water with a few polite sips of beer as I still had another 30kms to drive into Vientienne.

Back in Vientienne it was time for Pedro to visit the Cope centre, of course everybody loved him and took his picture. I wrote about Cope in my last post but this time Rica and I were able to look around the workshops where the prosthetic limbs are made.

A diffused bomb on display in the Cope grounds. thousands of unexploded weapons like these litter the Laos countryside!

Donate to the Cope centre via my just Giving fundraising page at: www.justgiving.com/ozrally

Vientienne, Laos

2009-09-16T09:48:00.021+01:00

Laos really is a land of temples. It seems like every corner you turn in Vientienne you are greeted by guys like these! Wouldn't want to meet his dentist!

Every part of the temples are covered in intricate details, This is just a small part of one of the carved wooden doors.

Vientienne has a reputation as the most relaxed capital city in the world and I can't disagree, it's so chilled out. The gates of the temples stand open, nobody tries to sell you anything, you wander around and take your photos with just the odd smile or nod from the orange clad monks.

It's really hot and humid here though, I did have a problem with the camera lenses steaming up! this temple was beside the Mekong river which is lined with dodgy food stalls. Gave them a miss after my hospital stay in Pakistan!

I shared a Tuk-Tuk with a local lady when I went to the Cope centre, She didn't speak English so was rather bemused when she got out at her house and I started pointing and shouting "Hey, I've got one of those! I've driven it all the way from London." What a shame we couldn't understand each other! In one day I saw 3 beetles in Vientienne; a very good sign if I need a mechanic in town!

Also in Vientienne is our reason for coming to Laos, the Cope centre. Cope is one of the charity projects we are supporting on the rally. They provide rehabilitation for landmine victims. Laos was bombed heavily during the Vietnam war and the countryside is still littered with unexploded weapons of war like these.

People become injued through ignorance or through desperation. Children are curious and don't understand that the shiny metal thing can kill them. For adults, often they know the risks but scrap metal is worth money and they are living on the poverty line so they take a chance.
Cope are able to help firstly by providing education about the risks thereby, one hopes, reducing the number of victims injured by these weapons.
Secondly they help people who have already been injured by providing them with prosthetic limbs and rehabilitation.

With the benefit of arms like these victims of landmines can return to work and once again support their families.

Legs allow mine victims to walk again. Many people in rural areas are managing with crude homemade legs fashioned from pieces of wood.

For the more severly disabled Cope also have a wheelchair manufacturing unit.

Just $50 buys a leg! That seems like pretty good value to me, so if you would like to donate please visit the Cope website: www.copelaos.org or donate via my Just Giving page and if you are a UK tax payer you can claim tax back on the donation making it worth even more!
www.justgiving.com\ozrally

Borneo

2009-09-11T15:44:00.011+01:00

We flew into Kuching in Borneo for a few days. kuching means "cat" in Malaysian and there are reminders of that all around the town. If the multitude of four legged felines roaming the streets aren't enough to remind you where you are then the massive statues adorning roundabouts and junctions won't let you forget!

Sea serpents steal the scene from the cats when it comes to the riverbank, swallowing up passing boats.

No visit to Borneo could be complete without a visit to the Orang-utan sanctuary. I was so busy with the video camera that I didn't get many photos. I'll upload some video of the gorgeous mum and baby when I get back. we only had an hour watching them; the park rangers are reintroducing them to the wild so try and limit their time around humans.

Malaysia

2009-09-11T15:36:00.006+01:00

Flying out of Lhasa was a nightmare. We needed to go to Laos to collect the car but there are no direct flights and the car wouldn't be at the border for a couple of weeks anyway. We had to fly from Lhasa via Chengdu, Beijing and Hong Kong to Kuala Lumpur!

Kuala Lumpur is knock off central, there are more fake Louis Vuitton bags here than any chav could wish for! Rolex watches. Mont Blanc pens, you name it, you can buy it on the market stalls in KL.
I decided to get away from the fake stuff and head out to see the real Malaysia on a day trip to the Elephant sanctuary.

No, thats not rica on the Elephant with me, she didn't make it out of bed in time, it's aussie girl, Nicky who was also on the tour. We were actually the only to people on the tour which was a bit odd.

The Elephant sanctuary was packed with tourists and it felt more like a circus than a sanctuary. The first elephant we saw was stood in a field swaying from side to side, obviously bored. It looked so unhappy that neither of us felt comfortable taking it's picture. The elephants were lined up to walk around in circles with tourists on their backs, they didn't look happy and I didn't take part. The "swimming with elephants experience was a similar affair with tourists getting on the elephants back, it walking a few feet and then dunking them in the river. Knowing how much elephants love water I didn't feel bad about taking part in this and as we were the last 2 people we got a little more time with the elephant.

We stopped at "Deerland" on the way to the elephant sanctuary. To be honest I was expecting this to be a sad affair with bored animals locked in cages but I was pleasantly surprised. The owner himself took us around the park and you could see the animals were well cared for and had a real love for him. Because the owner was with us we were even invited into the enclosures with the animals and fed deer, parrots and yes, even this bear! This was baby bear, he delighted in rolling on his back while being fed condensed milk from a bottle. The owner even put condensed milk on my hand for the bear to lick off which was an incredibly sticky experience! When we were leaving the bear followed the owner, rubbing against him like a pet cat and they then started play fighting or dancing I'm not sure which, judge for yourself in the photo.

Tibet

2009-09-11T14:56:00.024+01:00

My chinese driving license!

China! Where do I start? If you've been looking at the pictures then you probably think we had a wonderful time in China but pictures never tell the full story. Tourists are not permitted into Tibet without a tour guide so we had to pay a hell of a lot of money to a tour company to provide a guide and the permits for our drive through Tibet and Yunnan.

The problems started before we even entered China. When entering China through Tibet it is not possible to apply for your visa in advance. Instead, we had to apply for them in Kathamndu and NAVO, our tour company, had arranged for a small company called Terai Tours who are based in Kathmandu to take care of this. Unfortunately we were a few days behind schedule and NAVO had not ammended the dates on our permit to reflect this. That meant we would only have 10 days to complete our tour which was not enough time. The guys at terai were very helpful and called NAVO to try and fix the problem. The girl we spoke to said it was no problem, that the visa could be extended once I was in china and not to worry about it. So I went ahead and payed $120 for my Chinese visa which Terai had for me the next day.

Then, I received a phone call from the tour guide "Joe". He was wondering when I would be arriving at the border because we didn't have much time on my visa! He said that it could not be extended once I was in china. I called Terai who made some calls and confirmed for us that in fact the visa could NOT be extended once inside China, so NAVO had got it wrong. This meant another couple of days hanging around Kathmandu while NAVO got a new permit with the extended dates and I paid another $120 to re-apply for the Chinese visa with the new dates. We asked NAVO to apply for the permit for 21 days even though we had booked a 14 day tour to allow for unforeseen problems. Instead they made it for 17 days, giving us just 3 extra days should we have problems.

When we arrived at the border NAVO's guide, Joe, handed us a letter from the company asking us for more money! This was to cover the cost of the guide waiting at the border while we were delayed. The money was to be paid immediately and the guide would not provide us with the Tibet permit to enter the country or help us with the entry process until we handed over the money! Foreigners are not permitted to enter Tibet without a guide so they were effectively blackmailing us! They eventually agreed with us that we should only pay half the amount they were asking as half of our delay had been caused by their paperwork being wrong!

After all that when we tried to enter china we discovered that the dates on the Tibet permit they had for us were wrong, It gave us only 1 day to cross Tibet! So we were left waiting at the border while the guide went into town and arranged for a permit with the correct dates to be faxed through!
.....and things were set to get worse!

Pedro with Mount Everest in the background.
This viewpoint was a short drive from the village we stopped to have lunch in. Rica and I wanted to eat in a Tibetan restaurant. We went in and sat down, the owner was a lovely lady who immediatley offered us tea but then Joe, our guide walked in. Ignoring the lady he walked into the kitchen declared it dirty and said we couldn't eat there. He later said that all Tibetan's were dirty, that they lie and cheat and that he "couldn't get used to the way they smell!!" Pretty shocking from a tour guide who is supposed to be showing us the highlights of the country!
As none of the restaurants met his approval we wound up buying noodle boxes(like pot noodles) and sitting in a bus stop eating them with stray dogs and children begging around us! When we discovered the viewpoint we wondered why our guide hadn't suggested we eat lunch there instead of in the street!

Prayer flags, at the same viewpoint as above. It was a really beautiful spot.

White teddy enjoying the mountain views in Tibet.

The road to Everest!!

Pedro was feeling the effects of the altitude here. We had been warned in Kathmandu that this would happen and that we should get the mixture adjusted on the carb. Our "guide" said that the road to Everest was very bad and our car wasn't suitable for that road, so I said OK, we'll leave the car with a mechanic in town to make the adjustments and hire a landcruiser to go to base camp.
I can't begin to list every one of our guides f##k up's without writing a book but this is a pretty major one so deserves a mention! I dropped the car off at the garage with him in the morning where he told me that no landcruiser was available but the garage owner's brother would drive us in his car. "and" he said "because it is a small car it is only 400rmb"
"That's great" I said. The night before he had told rica and I that a landcruiser with a driver would be around 1200rmb so that was a really good price....or so I thought.
Rica decided not to go when she saw the little mini-van. She was still pissed off because, in 3 days, our guide had failed to find anywhere she could exchange money.
So I set out with Joe and the driver and eventually we stopped at an office to buy tickets. 120rmb per person plus 400rmb for the car. 400rmb for a ticket for the car...as it turned out the car hire was another 1200rmb on top of that! I had been mis-lead big time!
A little further along the road we reached a police check point, Joe went in with his folder of paperwork. Returning to the car he stated that his paperwork was not valid for that day and the police wouldn't let us pass. He told me because we had already used the permit when we came through the previous day, we couldn't use it to go back again.
He didn't seem to concerned, casually saying to me "Do you really want to go to this place?" I was a little confused as we had passed signs back down the road that said "Everest base camp" So picked up the tickets and asked him where it was he was taking me. I said "Are we going to Everest base camp, or is this just a view point to take this picture?" indicating the photo on the ticket of a mountain range including a very distant Everest. "You just take this picture here" he said. So I told him "I saw Everest from a distance yesterday. I want to go to base camp". "Ok" he said "Thats back the other way".
So we returned the tickets and headed back the way we had come. Almost an hour later I asked him again "Where are we going?" because Everest which could be seen occasionally from the road seemed to be getting further away. "Everest base camp" he said. "Really?" I questioned him further "THE Everest base camp? The campsite at the base of mount Everest where the climbers start out from". "No" he confessed. It turned out he was actually taking me to a campsite with a distant view of Everest which just happened to be named "Everest base camp".
I exploded at him "Why the hell did he think I'd want to go there?, I've been saying for days I wanted to go to Everest. Surely that is where all tourists want to go when they ask for Everest Base Camp? Has he actually worked as a guide before?"
So we went back to the police check point. Again he went inside and returned saying the police would not let us pass. "right!" I said "I'll speak to him". Joe tried to stop me but I was not going to let his incompetence stop me from seeing the worlds most famous mountain which I had driven all this way and paid so much money to see! I don't know how much English the guard understood but after my shouting at Joe in front of him begging him not to punish me for having such a useless guide and finally crying he agreed to let us pass.

When we finally reached Everest Base Camp it was getting dark. The little min-van Joe had hired for us struggled on the dirt track with it's tiny wheels and I couldn't help thinking that we'd have been better off with Pedro. Landcruisers shot past us! It was really cold at base camp. I was stressed and upset, add to that the effects of the altitude and I soon became ill. My head felt like it was going to explode with the pressure and I felt really sick. We had to turn around and head back almost immediately. I didn't get a chance to look around base camp or soak up the atmosphere. It was even to dark for a photo, this one was taken on the approach road just before it got to dark. The video camera works better in low light so I took a quick video of base camp in the dark and we had to turn back.
I felt so sick, I curled up in the back and tried to sleep. The road was so bumpy it just made me feel worse but I didn't have the energy to sit up. The guide and driver were unconcerned and stopped for dinner, leaving me in the car. I tried to sleep but it was so cold that eventually I went inside to find them. I tried to eat a little food but couldn't, I was still handed the bill though!
Back on the road my head was feeling worse and I started vomiting out of the car window, crying out in pain whenever we hit a big bump which was a lot!
It was 3:30am when we got back to town and instead of taking me to a hospital Joe dropped me off at the hotel and asked me for more money for the driver because we were so late returning. I told him I didn't have anymore money and he should give him the 100rmb's he has asked me for earlier in case he had to bribe a policeman!
It wasn't until the following morning when Rica saw how sick I was that she asked Joe to call a doctor. The doctor gave me oxygen and a pile of tablets. He said I would feel better when we moved to lower altitude and wrote a note recommending that I didn't drive on the high plateau.

Rica drove out of town but struggled to reach the brakes and with the gears on the hills, so when I was feeling a bit better I took over. We thought we were driving to Lhasa which is lower altitude but instead Joe said we would have to stay in Shigatse as we had to do the police process there to get my Chinese driving license and car registration. I thought this would have been done at the border rather than several days into the trip. It was also not allowed for in NAVO's itinerary so put us further behind schedule.
Joe told the police that the doctors note was for Rica, not me and I passed the medical and driving test as required. The police loved the car, as you can see in the above photo at the police station!

Potola Palace, Lhasa

In Lhasa the guide had another surprise for us. He said that the road from Lhasa to Kunming was very bad and we would have to put our car on a truck as far as Kunming. The truck would cost 6500rmb! Of course we said no, this is a car rally, we've already driven 20,000 miles to get there on some very bad roads. The guide said No, that our car wasn't suitable for that road and only 4x4's could pass. We said, if the road was that dangerous then why couldn't we go the same route that the truck would go. He said that they didn't have the permits for us for that road. I asked why? Why if the road was dangerous and only suitable for 4x4's WHY had they arranged a tour for us travelling on that road with no alternative? They knew what car we were bringing, I had e-mailed photos from every angle and all the details they had requested about the car right down to the weight, engine size, chassis number etc. If the car wasn't suitable for the road they had bought us permits for then it was their fault as the tour organiser and if they insisted on us putting the car on a truck then they should pay for it!

This stand off went on for 10 days, not only putting us behind schedule but also meaning our Chinese visa was rapidly expiring. Finally with our visa almost expired we had to submit once again to their blackmail! Of course as our visa would be expired before the car reached Kunming it meant I had to pay for the truck to take the car all the way to the Lao border and Rica and I would have to fly out of the country. The cost; 10,000rmb's which the tour company have refused to take any responsibilty for. They act as if they are doing us a favour when in fact they have taken thousands of pounds from us for a tour which we didn't even get to complete half of! I am so angry at having to put the car on a truck when there is nothing wrong with it. All because our racist guide who has never even owned a car thinks it isn't suitable for a bad road!

The only plus to all of this was that we were able to spend some quality time sight-seeing in Lhasa. We asked the "guide" what there was to see in Lhasa but he said he didn't have time to tell us! So we left him at the hotel and had a much better time on our own.

Potola palace and man with prayer wheel

Prayer wheels around the walls of Potola

Our hotel seemed quite respectable, it even had this sign on the back of our room door. But when Rica suggested a massage in the hotel "spa" we were in for a surprise!
The "Spa" was a thinnly disguised knocking shop, I'm just glad I only asked for the foot massage! The girl who massaged my feet was wearing lingerie and when Rica asked what one of the more expensive items on the "menu" was she was taken to see a full on sex room complete with vibrating, swinging bed! The staff all found it hilarious and always had a smile and a wave for us when we passed on the way to our room.

The rent boy who worked in the brothel in out hotel.

Yep, it was an equal opportunities brothel, there were boys working there too...NO, I wasn't tempted! Rica thought he was cute but with her limited mandarin she was unable to discover whether he went both ways or not.

The main square in Lhasa

White Teddy in front of Potola Palace, Lhasa

Jihong(?-I'll check the spelling later) Temple.

Prayer flags outside the temple.

White teddy soaking up the sun in Lhasa, Tibet.
The "blind massage centre" is in this square. After our last massage experience I should have known better when Rica suggested we go in! The massage was actually very good, if a little to firm at times, we both ached for days. The boy who massaged us was very talkative but slipped up a couple of times. Firstly after telling me his girlfriend had hair longer than mine he then told Rica he was single. Then he span us a sob story about how he had been hit by a car and his white stick got broken so he was having trouble getting around........a new one would cost 800rmb and he couldn't afford it. Hmm, what's that white stick leaning against the wall then?

Kathmandu, Nepal

2009-08-17T17:45:00.015+01:00

After a thorough battering on Pakistan's roads, India's pot holed dirt track to the Nepal border proved too much for Pedro. He limped into Kathmandu leaving a trail of oil behind him. The oil leak had got so bad we were pouring in almost as much oil as petrol and even had to stop and buy more on our way into town.
Our plan was to find a hotel before it got dark and then track down a garage but Pedro had other ideas. One particularly steep and busy hill was too much for him, he died and refused to restart, causing a major traffic jam! Enter Sonam, who enlisted the help of some 20 or 30 people to push us up the hill to a safe stopping point. Then he helped us track down a garage. Much to our surprise we found there is a thriving VW scene in Nepal. Most of them were driven here by hippies in the 60's.

The garage crew were like a well oiled pit crew. They had Pedro jacked up, wheels off and checking everything in seconds. A compression test on the engine showed, err, none. So out it came for further investigation. I'd been driving for 5 days with virtually no brakes so I was delighted when they found a new master cylinder to fit, along with a new handbrake cable...it had become rather stretched from overuse when the footbrake wasn't enough.
Pedro's back end has been grounding out on every bump for the last few days. I suspected new shock absorbers were in order but hey just needed adjusting. He also had new rubber bushes, a new wheel bearing, new ball joints, a new clutch.

The mechanics father still works with his son in the garage despite his 70 years and did an expert job stripping the engine. Oil was leaking from around the "push rods" (forgive my lack of mechanical knowledge). They also replaced the piston rings while the engine was apart and cleaned everything.

Various members from the Nepal Beetle Users Group kept dropping by. They said they had heard from people at the border that a foreign Beetle had entered the country and had been looking out for us. One of the guys also told us they have been trying to plan a drive to Everest base camp for a long time because no Beetle has ever been driven there - Pedro will be the first!

Pedro was in the garage for 3 days but now drives like new! We were so lucky to make it as far as Kathmandu and we found Shantu Maharjhan and his father. True enthusiasts who went over Pedro with a fine tooth comb finding and fixing every little problem. The other Baja on the rally broke down in Kazahkstan where there was no help available and had to call it a day. I really feel for them, it could so easily have been the same story for us. I'm very grateful for the flower power generation driving their bugs here in the 60's and creating such a cool VW community here!

So after spending 3 days hanging around the garage and sorting paperwork for Tibet that left us just a few short hours for sight-seeing! We've been staying in the Thamel area which is a really cool area to hang out in. Loads of cheap shops selling hippie clothes, prayer flags, Tibetan singing bowls, Thanka's, rugs, tea and brand name trekking gear of dubious origin.

We only had time to visit one other area of the town so we chose Durbar square which is full of temples, shrines and touts trying to sell flutes, bags, necklaces, anything you want, or don't want really.

Beef is on the menu here but the cows still lounge around in the streets unmolested.

This ugly chap had people pushing things into his mouth, I'll refer back to the guide book later and find out what that was about.

One of the many bag sellers. I said I'd buy some if I could take her photo, so look out for one under the christmas tree this year!

The Thanka shop. Thanka's are beautiful, intricate paintings made by buddhist monks. I bought a couple of small ones so will post photos when I can take one that does justice to them!

Terai tours here have been very helpful in sorting out our paperwork for China. We are now all set to enter Tibet tomorrow morning. Our first stop will be Everest base camp. I'm guessing there won't be any internet access or mobile signal there so don't worry if you don't hear from us for a while.

India

2009-08-13T17:52:00.006+01:00

India had a lot to live up to after Pakistan but Lahore to Delhi in one day is a long drive. We arrived in Delhi late and got very lost in the slums. This is the part of India the tourist board doesn't want you to see and is pretty shocking. After seeing how the rickshaw owners sleep in squallid condiations, near naked on their rickshaws at the roadside, you can forgive the constant hustling for business.

Agra was more enjoyable, although we were beseiged by small children selling everything from water to Taj Mahal snow globes! We stayed in the Maya Guest house which was really lovely, relaxed and had an ecellent restaurant. As you can imagine we were both pretty road weary after the long drive so we decided to put on our glad rags and pose for pictures in front of the Taj as all the Indian families do. I wanted to take a photo of white teddy at the Taj too but security wouldn't let him in! He had to wait for us in the locker room, sorry James but he is safe and well and I will upload another photo soon.

We put in a lot of long driving days in India to try and get back on schedule for our pre-arranged China tour guide and we thought we were ging to manage it. Our only other stop in India was Varanasi where we took an early morning cruise along the Ganges. Actually "cruise" gives the wrong impression.....we were rowed along the Ganges in a leaky wooden boat in the early morning drizzle and mist. It was still fascinating to see the "ghats", the stepped areas along the river where the locals were out in force washing themselves and their clothes, praying and even burning their dead. We were told that when a person is burnt the ashes are then scattered in the river. If the person has died of leprosy or small pox it is considered a curse for bad karma in a previous life and they cannot receive the blessing of being burnt. Instead rocks are tied to the body and it is dropped in the centre of the river - except sometimes the rocks come loose and the body floats up! Oddly, and I didn't quite understand this one, a snake bite victim is tied to a log and floated downstream.

Burning Ghat on the Ganges

The traffic has been a complete nightmare in India! The streets are filled with Tuk Tuks, rickshaws, bikes, motorbikes, cars and lorries and they all go where they want. There don't seem to be any rules of the road. It's not uncommon to be driving down a nice bit of dual carriageway and find traffic coming at you from the opposite direction! Sometimes this is because the traffic on the opposite carriageway has been diverted without any warning to those on the other side. Sometimes it seems they must be drunk or on drugs. You certainly have to keep your wits about you, especially in the cities. At railway crossings the traffic doesn't queue but pushes forward as much as possible on both sides of the road with bikes and rickshaws filling every available space. Then; when the barriers open you're facing the same situation on the opposite side of the crossing and have to fight your way through the traffic. It was at one of these crossings that Pedro's sump guard bent again and was dragging the ground so we had to stop, and block this free for all of traffic! I got out and started taking the sump guard off which was pretty difficult with a 5 deep crowd pressing around trying to see what I was doing. I found that the hardest thin in India, when ever we stopped the car would be mobbed with people pressing in from all sides, for the most part just blankly staring. There was never any malice, it was just a little difficult to cope with at times. Some of the guys did offer to help with the sump guard when they saw what I was doing though and it was soon bent back into shape and back on the car. The problem is that Pedro's rear suspension has suffered first on the rough roads in Pakistan and then on the bumpy Indian roads. He really needs new shock absorbers which we will find in Kathmandu.

Pakistan - biggest surprise of the trip so far!

2009-08-05T07:24:00.015+01:00

The main road out of Loralai, a truck had gone off the "road" blocking traffic in both directions till the digger pulled it out!

Pakistan is hot, it's touched 50 degrees here which is absolutely draining!
It's dusty, the roads are non-existent.
I got food poisoning and found myself in Quetta hospital for 2 days.
Pedro suffered on the "roads" too, we had to drive through a river where the bridge was being constructed which bent the sump guard and damaged the car. It's been so hot that the brake pipes have actually melted.
Even if you can find an air-conditioned hotel you won't enjoy the cool air for long because of the regular power cuts!
Pakistan is a seriously harsh place to live! So why do I love it so much?

Melon sellers

There is such colour and diversity of life here. In Quetta brand new 4x4's share the streets with donkey carts, camel carts, tuk tuks, lorries and even the odd herd of sheep or goats can be seen being driven round the roundabouts.
The lorries are works of art, elaborately decorated like gypsy caravans.
They crawl along at a snails pace but who can mind being stuck behind something so beautiful.

Pedro with some of the colourful trucks.

Then there are the people. I almost didn't come to Pakistan because so many people gave me dire warnings about kidnappings, terrorists, bandits, tribal feuds and how much westerners are hated.
I think this is why Pakistan has been the biggest surprise. The people have been so unbelievably friendly and welcoming.

When I crossed the border from Iran I was immediately offered tea, the paperwork could wait, tea came first.
That's another thing, the little bits of Britishness that make you smile when you're away from home. In Pakistan they drive on the left and everything stops for tea and cricket.
Despite my reservations when I said I was English I always received a warm response. The British may have ruled over Pakistan but they also built all of the railways, bridges, schools and hospitals and this hasn't been forgotten.

The prettiest little girls in Pakistan.

Little did I know I was soon to experience one of these hospitals first hand as I went down with a bad case of food poisoning!
Becoming violently ill in the night, I was admitted to Quetta Christian Hospital for 2 days. The ward was hot with just ceiling fans for cooling and flies buzzing around.
As far as cleanliness goes it was probably on a level with Southampton General Hospital. I noted that all needles did come out of sealed, sterile packs.
The nurses were a lot nicer than the ones I met in Southampton general though and I was seen a lot quicker! IV fluids were given to me via a canula in the back of my hand along with antibiotics and pain killing injections.
One of the nurses, Sheenez, spoke excellent english. She's marrying her boyfriend in london and moving there next year!
The ladies in the ward were curious about me and Shenez translated, mostly they were saying I had beautiful skin and wanted to know what face cream I used!
And of course the first question all Pakistani women ask me "are you married?"

A lovely family I met.

Saying goodbye to my friends in the hospital I took one of the colourful tuk tuks to the hotel and was reunited with Pedro. I had been given police escorts since the Pakistan border, although kidnappings are rare, they take tourist safety very seriously.
They didn't seem concerned about my security in the hospital but insisted on escorting me out of the city. One of the guards sat in the car with me and kept touching my leg - so I slapped him and shouted at him if he touched me again he could get out of the car!
He didn't touch me again and the escort left me at the city limits declaring the road ahead safe.

I had originally planned to take a southerly route through Pakistan as I'd been advised that was the safest route but when the police asked me did I want to go south to Sukor or north through Loralai, I chose Loralai, partly beacause it looked a quicker, more direct route and partly just because I liked the name.

Every village I drove through on the way greeted me with smiles and waves. The final stretch of the road to Loralai took me through some stunning mountains, then I rounded a bend in the road and was flagged down at another police check point. My heart sank, I didn't really want another escort after the leg feeler!
All of the men were uniformed except one. Nasir approached my car window wearing light brown salwar kameez and aviator sunglasses - Pakistan Miami Vice!
He told me he was anxious because they expected me 2 hours earlier. I explained that Pedro is not a fast car and I also missed the first turning because he road signs weren't in English.
He asked if he could travel in the car with me, I was a little hesitant given my previous experience but agreed. Nasir was very considerate and respectful. He treated me like I was a princess and he was my bodyguard. Yes, I was quite taken with him and have been missing him since leaving Loralai but, as luck or fate would have it, he is coming to London in March to train with the Met Police for at least 6 months. . .

Lahore Mosque

Rica rejoined me in Lahore and we headed to the border where there is a nightly flag lowering ceremony involving much pomp and ceremony. Pakistan are on one side and India on the other both shouting support for their countries while the guards stamp, march and shout. It's great fun but of course Rica and I were supporting Pakistan.

Rica and I with one of the border guards at the flag ceremony

Oh yeah, I made the paper too!!

Iran

2009-07-24T16:08:00.018+01:00

Driving from Esfahan to Shiraz Pedro developed a bit of a misfire. Iranian "Benzine" is only 80 octane and can be pretty poor quality "Super"is better at 90 octane but only available in big cities if you know where to look. I figured Pedro must have picked up some dirty Benzine so pulled into a garage, with a life size david Beckham cardboard cut out in the doorway, in the town of Adabeh.
The guys didn't speak english but as I was pointing to the carburetter indicating that there was dirt inside Ali appeared. Ali explained to them what I was saying and said they would take care of it. They cleaned out the air filter and blew air through the carb which I wasn't convinced was the best way to clean it but ought to clear a blockage and the charge was only 10,000 rials (about 80p).
Ali then insisted that I go back to his house and meet his family. Sure enough I arrived at his house and saw his wife, Roya, peeping around the doorway without her headscarf on, the first time I had seen any iranian lady without a headscarf. Ali had to go back to work but his wife Roya and daughter Neeloofah took me out for the evening to Roya's sister's house.

Here I am in Roya's siters garden with some of the family. Roya is in the orange top and Neeloofah in the blue. Note that I am dressed more conservatively even than Roya's mother(to her left). I was suprised to see that once the headscarves and outdoor coats come off everyone is dressed very casually in jeans and T-shirts. Even granny who arrived in a full chador was dressed just like an English granny might underneath. As for the boys, they played football in the yard and squabbled like children everywhere and like little boys everywhere their hero is David Beckham.

Roya's sister kept a constant supply of Tea and food coming all evening and I learnt a new word "Bocco" meaning eat! By evening I was about ready to burst but it was all lovely. Flat bread with honey, walnuts, cheese, butter, yoghurt, salad etc
The next day I was sorry to say goodbye as I headed on to Persepolis. Unfortunately the fault with the car was still there. He was running at a fairly normal speed but still had the annoying miss-fire which if anything seemed to be getting worse.

The heat at Persepolis was intense. It's hot in the car withno air-conditioning but with a constant supply of water and the breeze through the window it's barable. "Don't you have a hat?" asked a girl in the car park. "No" I said it hadn't actually occured to me to put a hat on top of the headscarf I was already wearing but she was right my face would get burnt without one. "Here" she said, handing me hers, "my gift to you" She showed me the way into the complex and then said goodbye. Most of the women were wearing similar visors on top of their scarves and even over Chadors.

The ancient site of persepolis was incredible, everything that I had expected and more. I've seen statues like these in the British Museum but nothing can compare to actually walking around the site they have stood on for thousands of years.

I had intended to continue to Shiraz but the pakistan border lay in the other direction and with the car playing up I didn't think I could afford the time. I stopped in another garage on the way out of Persepolis and indicated my dirt in the carb theory again. They did the same as the first garage but again the problem persisted.

Some miles up the road with the mis-fire getting worse I stopped in another garage and then I discovered why the mechanic's hadn't actually seemed that competent. A ploiceman stopped to buy some oil and I discovered these roadside places are just simple oil top up or change joints not proper mechanics. The policeman showed me the way to a mechanics where Pedro drew a small crowd. The fault was eventually traced to the condenser but not before half the children in town had Petrolhead Nirvana stickers on their bikes! I suspect a number of the cars got stickered too. The car in the background here is a Paykan 1600 and seems to me exactly the same as an old Ford Cortina.

In Yazd I missed the ring road and got lost in the city trying to find my way onto the road for kerman. Then I saw my first iranian Beetle!! A blue 1303s. I pulled in for a chat with the guys who were as excited as me to see another Beetle. They were fascinated by Pedro's baja style body kit and had lots of questions about who made him that way and where can they buy one. I think they now have plans to come to the Uk or Germany, buy a Baja and drive it home. Sorry for the bad photo, I think it's time I cleaned the windscreen and it was really too dangerous to get out and take photos in the traffic!

I spent the night in Kerman intending to continue to the border town of Zahedan the next day but Pedro had other ideas. We only made it as far as Bam when his throttle cable snapped. I coasted to a stop at the roadside and was attempting to fix it with some gaffer tape which to be honest was never going to work when first a van and then a car stopped. the van driver gave me some cold water while the well dressed man in the car made a phone call and spoke into his walkie talkie. A police nissan Patrol arrived, the policeman saluted the man in the suit (i found out later he was the head of all the police in the area). They towed me to Akbar's guest house and along with another police car went to find a mechanic. the problem being that it's friday and friday is the day of rest here, nobody works.

Well as I've been writing this the chief of police, Akbar's son and 2 different mechanics have been calling around and just now I heard the engine fire up! They found a cable from another car and he's fixed!

So tomorrow I'm heading to pakistan and the chief of police has arranged for a plain clothes policeman in a plain car to follow me to the border, apparently there has been a little trouble in this area. A couple of tourists were kidnapped by drug smugglers who then demanded the authorities release one of them who was in prison. The tourists were treated very well and were released a few days later but it would still be nice to avoid the experience so I'll take the offered escort.

I missed a bit at the start of this post as I'm having trouble uploading my photos from my other memory card of Mount Ararat and the Mongolian Rally guys I met at the border so will try and add that later. right now I need food, a shower and sleep in that order.

Kosovo to turkey

2009-07-15T18:52:00.015+01:00

Rica was keen to visit Bill Clinton so we had to say goodbye to the MAT guys and head on our way. This may come as a suprise to some people but Pristina in Kosovo is the home of Bill Clinton.

Unfortunately Pedro didn't appreciate the heavy rain and miles of muddy road to get to Pristina. Their were major road works going on and Pedro chose the busiest, muddiest section to cut out. No amount of tinkering, which for me amounted to spraying lots of WD40 around the by now soaking engine, was working. Pedro attracts a lot of attention though and before long a polish doctor stopped and offered us a tow to a garage. He spoke excellent English so translated the problem to the garage before heading on his way.

So. stood at the side of the road, in the mud and rain and who should appear but Artur from MAT with his wife Nicky, children, Lisa and Jan and also his niece who is called Fiona! They had been shopping in Pristina and were on their way home when they recognised the old Beetle in the garage!

The fault was eventually traced to a small part of the carb which sends a sugnal to the throttle so that it doesn't cut out when you take your foot off the accelerator. I'm sure someone can tell me what it's called, we didn't know the translation from kosovan. Luckily, the garage owner, who was wearing a splendid pork pie hat, found one the same on an old russian carb in his workshop.

So, we said goodbye to Artur and his family again and were on our way again. It was still raining and very dark when we drove up Bill Clinton avenue in Pristina but Rica got her photo!

A lot of effort to have your photo taken with a former president but I understand the fascination. Most Americans would struggle to find kosovo on a map and yet here is a country who proudly fly the American flag, have named the main street of their capital city after an American president and display a 4 metre tall picture of him in the centre of town. All out of gratitude for the help offered by America during the war with Serbia. Most of the mines and cluster bombs being cleared by MAT are american but they don't feel any bitterness about that because it was neccessary to end the war with Serbia. Britain also helped during the conflict, so the British and American's are very warmly welcomed in Kosovo.

Of course this put us well behind schedule again so we had to high tail it through Macedonia and greece. On entering Macedonia Rica managed to convince customs that they were part of Europe so we didn't have to buy car insurance, well 50 euros for 3 hours in the country did seem a bit steep! It did cause a small problem when leaving the country but the officials eventually decided we weren't worth the paperwork and let us go.

Greece went by in a bit of a flash of mostly night driving but at the border we met a group of Polish 4x4 drivers. They were on a tour from Poland to turkey and back in a fleet of landrovers - Light weights! Of course they loved Pedro and we found ourselves posing for probably the millionth photo of this trip! There must be pictures of Pedro all over the internet by now!

We arrived in Istanbul later that night, where Rica had arranged to stay at a couch surfing flat. For those unfamiliar with couch surfing, it's a website where people advertise floor space, a spare bed or sofa in their house free to international visitors. well these guys had obviously been doing it for a while because they had a flat full. Apart from rica and I there were 2 Australians, a Slovenian girl and 2 chezch girls were just leaving. It turned into a bit of a couch surfing party with different flavour Shisha being smoked.

To get back on schedule I had to leave early the next morning for the drive to cappodocia. Rica's Iranian visa didn't arrive in time so she is flying to meet me in pakistan. I arrived in Cappodocia very late, Pedro was running very slowly, especially up hills. As the staff in the hotel here speak perfect English I asked them to direct me to a mechanic.

Mustafah didn't speak any English but unlike a lot of men that I've met since arriving in Turkey was very kind and respectful. He understood the problem and set about stripping down the carb. It seems I'd picked up a bit of dirty fuel. The air filter was also filter so that received a petrol bath and a blow out with the air line. He didn't like the way the carb moved around so made a little bracket to secure it. He was also concerned about a crack in one of Pedro's fibreglass wings. I didn't have any way to tell him it's been like that since I bought him so I let him rivet a plate underneath, I think the idea is that it will stop it getting worse and add a little strength.

The guys in the garage were all very sweet and even shared their luch with me. It really changed my attitude to Turkish men who I was starting to think were all just out to chat up western women and Pedro is now running great again.

Unfortunatley after the garage I stopped at some market stalls where I was instantly harrassed and some bloke stuck black eye-liner on me! I didn't want it but thought I'd end up with it stuck in my eye if I moved!
So, with rica still in Istanbul I set out to expore Cappodocia with our other passenger. If you've read my earlier post then you'll know that James beauchamp has sent his best friend `white teddy` travelling with us. Here he is enjoying the cave homes in Goreme national park.

I'm videoing this journey too but it's a little difficult while I'm on my to film and talk to camera at the same time. I set the camera up in one of the caves to record myself, the 2 new yorkers who walked in didn't see the camera and thought I was a crazy person talking to myself.

The camel doesn't look too convinced so I didn't bother!!

Got to run now, on the hotel computer and other guests are waiting to use it, hence the hurried post - apologies for any typos!

Mines Awareness Trust, Peja (Pec), Kosovo

2009-07-10T18:35:00.007+01:00

When we crossed the border into Kosovo the MAT landcruiser was waiting for us along with Danny, Artur and the trusts founder Ben. Danny and Ben were just over from the UK for a few days and hadn't received the e-mail about our jourey so we were really lucky to meet them.

It's a steep drive down from the mountains to Peja in the valley below. Poor Pedro's brakes were smoking so we stopped for a little rest part way to say hello to our hosts. MAT have an office in Peja with a couple of rooms for visiting staff from the UK. Ben and Danny very kindly gave there rooms up for us and called Zippy to send some gorgeous local food up from his fathers restaurant......including cows brains!

This morning we said our goodbyes to Ben and Danny who had to fly back to the UK. Artur first took us into town where we left Pedro for a check up at the local garage. Everybody loves Pedro, he gets so much attention! There are VW vans everywhere here but very few Beetles and I don't think anyone has ever seen a Baja. they find him fascinating, especially the big tyres which several people have asked to buy!

So leaving Pedro with the mechanic we jumped into the Landcruiser and headed up into the mountains to visit two MAT project sites. At the first site we met the team of de-miners and their specially trained detection dogs. The handlers were kind enough to demonstrate how the dogs work in a team of two to search out explosives.

Then they had a special surprise for me! This morning the team discovered two grenades and a mortar. These had been wired up for a controlled explosion and Artur offered me the chance to press the button! Flora, the famous lady de-miner who has been featured in Vogue, helped Rica and I on with flack Jackets and helmets. We were shown where to stand and where to set the video camera up to catch the explosion. So, hiding behind a tree in my flack jacket Artur began the countdown, at "three" I held my finger on the charge button, then at "zero" pressed the detonator. The sound echoed around the surrounding hillsides. It felt good to remove those three devices from exixtence. We passed children playing in the mountains, they are aware of the threat of mines but what can they do, they still need to live their lives. It's good to know that at least three of these potentially lethal explosives can no longer harm anyone. All I did was press the button though, the mine team were very careful to ensure our safety at the site. They are the ones who risk their lives everyday to continue this work.
The afternoon was a much sader occasion as we visited a second site where clearance work has ceased. The whole area is littered with cluster bombs. Cluster bombs scatter over a very wide area so it is very time consuming to survey the whole area and remove the threat. Some bombs lie as close as 200 feet from family homes. The Mines Awareness Trust desperately need more funding so they can continue where they left off clearing this site. Their team is currently only 10 de-miners and without extra funding it will take many years to clear these areas. As the years go by the mines and unexploded weapons of war become harder to detact as they become covered in layers of leaf mulch.

If you would like to support MAT you can do so by sponsoring us at: www.justgiving.com/overland2oz

Montenegro

2009-07-10T17:15:00.006+01:00

Finally back on schedule! We spent the night in Podgorica.

Next morning we headed on towards Kosovo through the stunning mountains of Montenegro. Everytime we stopped to take photos other people would stop and take photos of us!

Goodwood and the Crazy Canucks

2009-07-09T09:22:00.010+01:00

Wow, hasn't been much time for blogging! I am tweeting though so keep an eye on the twitter feed on the left.

We left fromGoodwood on 4th July. Met Jay Kay there, he wouldn't wish us luck on camera :-( but he was very polite about, contrary to his reputation with photographers.

Thanks to everybody who turned out to see us off and Happy Birthday to my niece Penny.

Our first problems came at the Channel tunnel. We lined up to drive on to the train right by the Italian "Riders for Hope" team who are heading to Tajikistan on the Roof of the World Rally. We were hoping to have time for a chat but then disaster struck...Pedro wouldn't start!

The Channel Tunnel recovery guys were very sweet and tracked it down to a dodgy starter motor. Whacking it with a hammer got it going but we would have to find a new one as that trick wasn't going to keep us going all the way to Australia. Luckily for us the "European Bug in" was on in Belgium the weekend we left so guess where we were heading! If there was any chance of finding a new starter and some help with the bug it would be there.

We had a nightmare finding our way into Chimay. Open petrol stations were impossible to find and without a fuel guage in the car it was inevitable we were going to run out. We emptied one Jerry can into the car but it cut out a little further down the road, probably down to air in the system where we got so low on fuel. While we were trying to get the car started a lovely Belgian couple stopped to help us and escorted us into Chimay. In Chimay the car died again. Rica went off with one of the Belgian guys to find petrol and came back with some french guys in Beetles. They helped us get the car going, syphoned a little fuel from one of their cars, showed us the way to their campsite and when we got their put a much needed beer in our hands.

Next morning we headed for the Bug In. The European Bug In is a big VW meet and drag race event. I was looking for a friend of a friend that I knew was there to ask for help, instead we found the Crazy Canuck Drag Racing Team, a Canadian/British team who offered to help us. The whole team spent all day getting Pedro running perfectly. I tracked down a new starter motor at the show which Sarah (aka Beaver) fitted, Shane(the canadian element of the team) removed the electronic ignition system which he said was part of our problem and switched it back to point and condenser. Even Ginger Bob picked up a spanner and tightened the battery terminals, apparently Ginger Bob holding a spanner is a rare event so we were very honoured. As it was Shanes birthday we were then obliged to spend the evening out in Chimay drinking any strange spirits that could be found. The Zi Zi Coin Coin went down very well, although I think my personal favourite was the meths coloured Pisang Ambon which was allegedly guarana and lime flavour. Will have to add the crazy canuck photos later as they're on Ricas camera.

Trying to put our tents up in the dark after a heavy night was interesting. Right next to the Porta loos. Nice!

Next morning the guys did some last minute fettling and branded Pedro with a Crazy Canuck team sticker and we were on our way with some serious catching up to do.

The rest of Europe has been a bit of a blur and I'm pretty exhausted right now. We put in a lot of motorway hours driving, still saw some stunning scenery in the Austrain Alps especially.

Then it was on to Slovenia and Croatia. Finally pausing for a little sight-seeing in Dubrovnik.

We have an extra passenger onboard Pedro, James Beauchamps friend "white teddy". He is very happy James and enjoyed his first sight-seeing tour in Dubrovnik.

2009-07-01T09:44:00.007+01:00

Latest photos of pedro the Baja. Next to the British Ayres Rock, part of the Cricket AM set at Sky TV and on display at supercar Sunday at gaydon.

We leave on friday so very busy with last minute preparations!!

Donating to charity doesn't cost an arm and a leg

2009-05-31T19:47:00.009+01:00

Overland 2 Oz is raising money for No More Landmines. http://www.landmines.org.uk/

One of the projects supported by No More Landmines is the Cope centre in Laos. http://www.copelaos.org/

During the Vietnam War, the conflict spilled over into Laos in a secret war leaving it one of the most heavily bombed countries in history. Many of these bombs and other devices did not explode at the time. So, even though the war ended in 1975, the country is still littered with a significant amount of UXO's (unexploded ordnance) which also contributes to poverty, hunger and disability on a daily basis.

At Cope victims of landmines and UXO's receive treatment and rehabilitation including the manufacture and fitting off prosthetic limbs.

We will be visitng the Cope centre when we reach Laos and we would like to ask people to help in 2 ways. A donation to No More Landmines will go towards supporting projects like cope and also the clearance of Landmines and UXO's. You can donate any amount via our Just Giving page: www.justgiving.com/overland2oz

Alternatively, if you would like to give a more personal gift, why not donate an arm or a leg to somebody in need. An arm costs $140, a leg $50. Arms and legs can be bought on the cope website: http://www.copelaos.org/donate.html
Please mention Fiona and Rica and the Oz rally when donating so we can keep track of how many people our friends have helped.

Hot Laps of the Top Gear Track 16/05/09

2009-05-31T18:46:00.007+01:00

"Dad's Day Out" at Dunsfold Aerodrome, home of Top Gear. The day was organised jointly by the PetrolHead Nivana Club and Club Scuderia. Club members volunteered their time and their cars to offer fast passenger rides around the Top Gear track. Proceeds went to the Chidrens Trust Charity.

My Sebring was in the static display on the runway. I left the track action to much faster cars and instead took a camera along to video the action.

Bachi's Ariel Atom was one of the fastest accelerating cars there with a 0-60mph in 2.7seconds! Nancy took me round the track in it. Have you ever put your hands in one of those Dyson Airblade hand driers and watched the skin go all wobbly when it's blasted by the air? Well thats what happens to your face when the wind blasts you in an Atom! The acceleration is awesome! It was overtaken by a KTM though and in his desperate attempts to regain the lead Bachi span out, luckily I had the camera mounted on the car at the time so can now share that moment with the world......sorry Bachi :-) and apologies to Peter too, who realising he was going to fast for the corner in his Murcialago, overshot rather than risk a spin and headed off the track in the wrong direction al la Jonathan Ross. I can't help wondering if I'll be invited back if I keep catching their little faux pas on camera. Ah well, it'll be fun watching it back at the Ace Cafe club meet next week and it was all for a good cause.

http://www.petrolheadnirvana.com/

Ace Cafe

2009-05-13T21:50:00.012+01:00

The Ace Cafe in North-West London has been a biker haunt since the '50's. Burnt down and then rebuilt it is now popular with petrolheads on two wheels and four.
http://www.ace-cafe-london.com/

They hold monthly themed nights for different car clubs and marques. Monday night was Petrolhead Nirvana night. The Petrolhead Nirvana club seems to be open to anyone with a passion for motorised vehicles, though the membership definitely leans toward the fast 4 wheeled variety.

Jaguar XJ220 attracted the most attention. Nice, but I'd hate to have to park it in a crowded car park!

As much as I appreciate the more modern cars I'm still in love with the 60's styling. As you can tell from my car, the black Sebring SX in the foreground.

I'm often asked what my favourite car is or what I would buy if money were no object. I usually say, I already own it, the Sebring has classic styling, a fibreglass body that will never rust and a quick, reliable Nissan straight six engine. It's heavy to drive but so much fun! I was looking through some of the photos I've taken at Goodwood over the years though and I have found a favourite! (one of my favourite men sat in it too)

For any readers who don't have petrol running through their veins, it's a Ferrari 250 GTO. They very rarely come up for sale and when they do they tend to sell for somewere around £3,000,000. As much as I love it I think, even if I did have a spare £3 million, I wouldn't buy one. Let's face it; I'd be terrified to drive it and cars are made to be driven! I think I'd rather have a well built replica which I could use and abuse to my hearts content without making half the motoring world cry if I scratched it!

Petrolhead Nirvana @ Goodwood Breakfast Club

2009-04-07T00:38:00.002+01:00

Time for another run down to the Goodwood Breakfast Club. This month I met some of the Petrolhead Nirvana group in a collection of TVR's Ferrari's, EVO's etc for the drive down.

I took the Sebring as Mark has the engine out of the Baja for some major surgery and it's still not UK reg'd....Just aswell, there is no way the Baja would have kept up with that lot!!

The only problem with the Baja not being available for the trip was that this months theme was "four seat family favourites"...hmmm, how to pass the Sebring off as a 4 seater?

The conversation with the Marshalls went something like this:

marshall: You can't get 4 people in there
me: I'll have you know I've had 6 people in this car (cheesy grin, flutter eyelashes)
Marshall: Hmmm
me: I have photographic evidence to prove it
Marshall: Oh alright then, go on

Claire, my PBC co-driver, came along for the ride so I made her hang out the car with the video camera, then I did a bit of filming down there too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylfMrFcXJ40

Pedro attends Volksworld Car Show

2009-03-31T21:08:00.001+01:00

I'd arranged months ago to take Pedro, my Oz Rally car along to Volksworld, one of the UK's largest VW gatherings. There were one or two small issues to contend with, firstly his engine was out for major surgery. Secondly, as customs still haven't sent me the form to prove that I've paid the import tax, I have been unable to UK register him.

The solution? Mark, aka:Dreamshack, quickly swapped in the engine from his beach buggy for show then knocked up a heavy duty A-frame so I could talk my long suffering, older brother into towing Pedro all the way to the showground at Sandown Park, Esher.

Pedro was displayed on the Baja Club stand. To fit in with my forth-coming expedition the Baja Club opted for an Australian themed display. Lots of sand, a blow-up kangaroo and some mock roadsigns later and you'd have thought you were in the outback! Well, maybe after a few tubes of Fosters!

I painted some DANGER! MINES! signs to highlight the cause I'm supporting on this rally, No More Landmines, and hung a few of their collecting tins around. Almost everone who walked past the car took a photo! Just £50 can provide a prosthetic limb enabling a mine victim to walk again. Just think how many people we could have helped if each person who took a photo had made a donation! Sadly, very few did. I did manage to sell some of my "Bug to Banjul" DVD's though which, with the profits going to No More Landmines helped boost the fundraising. I don't want to break the seals on the fundraising tins so can't give you a total on that yet but the DVD's made around £70, not bad going.

Just Giving tab

2009-03-16T18:55:00.001Z

The observant amongst you will have noticed a Just Giving widget has appeared on the top right hand side of this page. You'll also notice that the fundraising total is zero! This doesn't mean that my drive to Australia has raised nothing for charity, it just means I have a new fundraising page.

You can still view the old page here:
http://www.smartgive.com/showpage.php?url=ozrally&ms_id=

So why the switch from Smartgive to Just Giving? It's all to do with my employers, Sky Television. Sky have changed their charity fundraising partner, so to ensure I still benefit from their generous employee match-funding scheme, so have I.

Donations on the old page will still be processed by Smartgive and forwarded to No More Landmines in the normal way but new donations should be made via the Just Giving page.
Sorry for the confusion but it really is worth it Sky match my fundraising total up to £300 and will also add another 50% to all donations made by other Sky employees direct from their payroll.

The downside is the zero balance on my new page! Fortunately you can do something about that. Please give generously. No More Landmines is a very good cause and just £50 is enough to allow a landmine victim to walk again.
http://www.landmines.org.uk/

Big Earth

2009-03-09T02:26:00.000Z

In other news this photo, which I took in Western Mongolia, just won me a photography competition.

I won a Nikon D60 camera which is going to come in very handy on my journey to Australia. To see the other photos entered or to enter next months competition visit the Big earth website:
http://byanymeans.bigearth.tv/site/pages/nikon.php

The Dreamshack

2009-03-09T02:05:00.000Z

Mark at the Dreamshack kindly volunteered to do a little work on the Beetle I'm driving to Australia this summer. I think he got a little carried away, not that I mind, "Pedro" is looking great. He's built side bars and bins for our Jerry cans, a heavy duty roof rack with access ladder and is now working on a roll cage:

I dropped in to lend him a hand. I'm sure he would have got twice as much done without me there but he taught me how to take the engine out, check the clutch plate, tighten the gearbox mounts and clean the carb's.

"Pedro" has recently arrived in the UK from California and is totally rust free! I want him to stay that way so before we(ok Mark) put the engine back in I sprayed the underside with lots of gooey, rust-inhibiting underseal:

Goodwood Breakfast Club - March '09

2009-03-01T23:42:00.000Z

Today I drove down to the Goodwood Breakfast Club.

The Breakfast Club is an informal car gathering at the Goodwood Motor Circuit in West Sussex. Each month has a different theme, this months theme was Small Sporting Runarounds although this seemed to be quite loosely translated. Parked on the famous tarmac were everthing from Classic and modern Minis to vintage tourers. I love the way this guy had matched his socks to his wheels!

This Noble was parked in a little corner of it's own....not sure about those wing mirrors!The breakfast rolls and Tea were a little overpriced but as this is an open event with no entrance fee you can't really complain at £1.50 for a cuppa. A cash machine on site would be a useful addition though.

After a morning of pure petrol hedonism, fellow Oz rallier, Rachael and I headed down to The Kennels for lunch. I've been a Goodwood Road Racing Club member for more years than I care to admit, for fear of revealing my age, but I've never visited our clubhouse - The Kennels.

Rica, my rally co-driver, is going to wish she was on this side of the Atlantic when I decribe the lunch we devoured! To start; a lovely delicate pasta with chestnuts and a yummy sauce. Main course; pollock with orzo and tiny shrimps in it. (Sorry Rica, I realise my descriptions are lacking something for a chef - and I didn't take any pictures for you)

We hadn't intended on ordering dessert but everthing else was so good, how could we resist? White chocolate mousse with bitter dark chocolate sorbet and raspberry's!

When we went for lunch I'd left my baby Sebring(right of frame) parked next to two Austin Healey 3000's and an MGA.

When we returned they had been transformed into 612 Italian horses.
I may have been tempted to swap for a moment but I've owned "Killer", thats his registration, for 11 years now. I've been tempted to sell him a few times and been offered far more than I paid for him but I just can't do it! It's terribly cruel of me really. If I'd sold him he could be living in the lap of luxury in an air-conditioned garage BUT, as I've always said, cars are made to be driven!
Like me Killer is starting to show his age, we both have a few grey hairs but they are marks of all the fun we've had over the years. I hope he doesn't get jealous of the old Beetle I've bought for the OZ rally!
Watch out for Pedro, my Baja Beetle rally car, at the Goodwood Breakfast Club next month when the theme is family favourites.

The Plan

2009-02-26T09:42:00.000Z

In January 2007, I bought an old VW for £99 which hadn't run for 15 years and then drove it from London to Gambia, crossing the Atlas Mountains and Sahara Desert.
We raised £2,000 for Great Ormond Street Childrens Hospital.

Our car was then auctioned in Banjul with proceeds going to Gambian chrarities.

I enjoyed the experience so much that later that same year I joined a team taking part in a charity banger rally to Mongolia. By August I was half way across Mongolia in a Nissan Micra drinking Yak butter tea next to a Yak dung fire.

When I got back to the UK I still had the rally bug but this time i wanted to go even further. Australia is the opposite side of the world from the Uk and well, it looked like an interesting drive!

So. on 3rd of July I am setting off on a drive of over 31,000kms from the Uk to Brisbane, Australia! Our route will take us across Europe, through Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, India, Nepal, China, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia to East Timor. In East Timor the cars will be loaded onto a ship bound for Darwin, Australia. We will fly over to meet them and continue our drive through the Northern Territories to Ayers rock then south to Adelaide and Melbourne and around the coast to Sydney and our final destination of Brisbane!

As if that weren't enough of a challenge I have again chosen a car for its fun factor rather than practicality. A 1969 Baja Beetle. If you've never seen a Baja before then imagine the mutant love child of a Landrover and a VW Beetle.

I love the fact that by taking these crazy trips I can use my travelling to raise money for charity and this expedition is no exception. I like to give something back to the countries I visit so this time I have chosen to support No More Landmines. They work to clear minefields around the world and also support mine victim rehabilitation centres. It's incredible to think that just £50 can help an adult or child who has been maimed by a landmine to walk again!

I'm not doing this alone. My co-driver Rica is flying over from Texas to join in the fun. My friend Rachael, who I met in Mongolia, is joining me in another Baja Beetle with Kiwi lad, Tom. They are also bringing a Baja Beetle. Then theres Mark and Beth who will be driving a VW camper and breaking the VW theme we have Simon and Pat who are emmigrating to Australia so are taking a massive Landrover based camper.