Mechanics from Heaven!

We drove on away from our kind friends offer to stay in the downstairs cave in search as usual for a place where we could upload and update the website… as we drove on Cappadocia was starting to really show off it was clearly massive area and we came across a view point which was like something from lord of the rings for these incredible caves splattered around and dotted in-between the lights of touristy buildings and normal homes… It doesn’t maybe sound as beautiful as it looked….

Here we where shown around a beautiful hotel in the disguise as hotel writer guides looking for a discount… our guide was not the friendliest however it was one of the best meals he had had for some time… the whole Istanbul kebab thing had been starting to wear very thin. In fact for such a cosmopolitan city it was a surprise how little good variation of food we managed to find…. But back to our awesome meal as we walked down to get our bags we chickened out of the return journey up the hill and snuck in to a lower hotel and a friendly owner. This guy had converted the room he was born in to a bedroom for his hotel he also spent some lovely time showing us around the next day and doing a brief interview giving us some great info on the area… we did find out later that it was a sales technique to sell some rugs from his shop and when it became clear we weren’t too interested the tour stopped hehehehe…. Time for bed.

We went to check that morning if we could fly in the hot air balloon tour we had booked as we had been up since six that morning to see over Cappadocia.. the mist said it was not going to happen so we where refunded and headed off this time our destination was now a two or three day drive to Iran! Headed away from the glory of Cappadocia and on towards colder climates of Eastern Turkey. Now we where Central Turkey and our window was proving to be very annoying as a certain someone (mention no names but remember there are only two of us) was ruining the atmosphere. We put it down to the enforced kebab diet and to not have window access at will was proving a little stifling for me! So we decided to get it fixed, we had heard local mechanics where amazing! This news had come from the great guys in footloose4x4.com the experts who put our cars together.

So at the next town we went hunting for mechanics to solve our niggles with the car….. We headed down a oily looking high street where cars had been piled on top of the buildings to save space and slowly rust out of sight as mechanics tinkered away keeping the very expensive priced old cars of turkey running… we wandered over to one of the many yards and asked if they could help with our small list. Firstly our headlight was down and considering some of the late driving we had experienced and some of the many many near misses we had had with truck we wanted that fixed first…. In no time at all we had two cups of chai and someone of the team of seven all around ,had his face in the bonnet the light out and fixed! Cheap fixed and done!!!! Not like London. So our confidence brew and we then started to think what could we do next? The window… so a few mimes and sound effects later we where led to our next man to fix the window… the locals described this guy as the Professor! All of them seemed in awe of this intriguing gent whom again in no time had us drinking Turkish tea and watching as the door came apart the offending instrument removed a new one rebuilt from bits and bobs and then replaced 20mins later a fully working window!!! OK whats next the radio! It had been hanging out ever since the crash and Jonny had been given a gift from George Lamb a Ipod with a world of new music for our long days in the car… so a bit more mime and to our next shop stereo land where again it happened….

We left that place in awe and if insurance had allowed it we in hind sight would surly have preferred our car in those guys hands and surly would have been on the road a week after the incident may even still had two cars! Drove on late that day to get some distance and to enjoy the new world of music… looked at a few stops but ended up in a big seventies monstrosity one third closer to iran!

Love it!!!

Cappadocia Cave man…

Cappadocia is a large area with many villages joining to create this special place. What makes it special is that the entire area thousands of years ago was covered with a massive explosion from a volcano leaving a splash like formation of these huge cone shape or stalagmite type pumice stone towers… And then just to top it off about 4000 years ago people from the area carved an amazing amount of homes into these rocks which have not changed to this day… even so far as to say there are people still living in them.

So we are by the hairy camel and wondering what to do next to add to the glory of the view behind the tourist shops there is a layer of snow everywhere and I notice a friendly guy who shows a little interest in our car… so In a way which has now almost become second nature I invite him to see the map which is laminated onto the side of the car and shows the rough route we have driven along with our destination…

He invites us to go and see his home in the caves. Jonny at this point is wandering back from a break in the toilet and is unsure about the whole idea of wander of to strange caves with a feral looking and slightly smelly wanderer. He is fairly rough looking however it’s also clear to see strangely enough, that he is not a strong guy and certainly not a fighter… which I suppose is something I have learnt to spot when travelling into bizarre situations.

So I lead off Jonny takes the camcorder slightly and cautiously lagging behind as we wander up a steep slope towards loads of this incredible Castles as our pigeon English friend describes… In fact the whole time we spent with him was a little like being in an episode of hello hello from the eighties, for not quite being able to understand and for the unusual double meanings which can arise when English has not quite been mastered…
We had a lot of fun. He led us to his awesome home which had been carved high up one of the previously described towers of rock and showed us inside where many beautiful rugs where hanging ….

We where introduced to his very sweet lady and then after a small chat invited to their living space and to see a real slice of what was going on instead of if you like the show room…. We pulled back a heavy rug to go through to a smaller room which in the centre had a potbelly stove blazing away and a small baby girl nine months old and sleeping in a cradle on a wolf skin, I can’t remember her name although it was surprisingly epic considering what had gone before… what an amazing contrast to the shop fill Istanbul which had been starting to become our norm….. this was a treat of the top order to see who simple and fantastic some peoples daily lives are… these guys loved their home and everyone who visited also loved it very very special….

Several cups of chai later and also we showed him as we had others the newspaper cutting from the Istanbul Turkish Newspaper, explaining our adventure and recent crash, which sign language and mime can’t quite express… we then made a move back to our car where we launch one of Jonny’s Chinese lanterns much to our new friends delight and headed of to the next village in search of a good hotel hopefully in our own cave…
Love it!

The open road and wonderful Cappadocia!

So we awoke to a heavy covering of snow and a motorway inn early as we where both renewed at last with being on the road and with a very interesting destination of Cappadocia to aim for…. Breakfast was not too flash something we where getting used to. We got a destination typed into sat-nav and a rough idea on our oversized map of turkey and headed off with big smiles on. It seemed to get colder as we headed further inland we pasted many more and more interestingly loaded trucks as no longer where we surrounded by European rules and regulations. we where now discovering the amazing loading ability of Asian truck drivers and the way they turn a ten ton truck to a twenty tonner, with extra boarding, precarious extra loading and it would seem a large dose of optimism….

Then landscape was open and snowy with large pine forest on ether side we headed down the motorway toward the capital of turkey Ankara or at least its circular motorway and on around that down toward Cappadocia. About half way between Ankara and Cappadocia we briefly stopped in a town to check we where on the right road and where greeted by a very chirpy gentleman… who was fluent in German and just about every language we weren’t good at (which is no impressive list counting up to about two and a half) however we are good at communicating past the language barrier, in fact I have decided its my favourite thing to play with this form of language. Sound effects, smiles and mime are a great way to get laughs and good vibes flowing. And it amazing how much of a non communicated conversation you can walk away with… for instance if I remember rightly we found that This guy was Turkish Lived and worked in Germany for seven years and now lived with his daughter who was married to a dentist. All this with lots of smiling, good wishes and jazz music coming from our stereo, as he pointed which road was our next target and waved us of on our way.

Many of the Homes where basic and not too attractive and then land had become fairy endless Mooreland with a mild mist dropping in and out of the grassy snow covered valleys… then I caught may first glimpse of these impressive rock formations and the most incredible river bank which must have been shaped by centuries of wind and water leaving a very impressive wave formed shape with beautiful ripples and swerves… too fast for a photo and two men on a mission to see something even more impressive….

By the time we got there it was the last light of the afternoon and there was a mist which was hard to see through after 100 or so meters. We saw a camel massive and hairy on the side of the road by all the tourist shops… perfect photo opportunity then as I walked towards this beast looming out of the mist was our first of many amazing rock castle like cave homes of Cappadocia… or fairy chimneys as we where to find out later from the locals

Love it!

Away From Istanbul!!!

So one Car, I and Jonny with a touch of snow in the air and a late start from the land rover centre Istanbul Where finally after a unexpected delay of three weeks and only one car (the load lugger) headed back to the open road and the continuing adventure… Being led by the slightly incompetent but very pleasant Levant (our repair coordinator for the car said with large dose of irony) in his private space-like land rover ….

As he led us past the chaos that is Istanbul driving Jonny went to lower the electric window and we heard a highly unpleasant grinding and crunching as the damaged door mechanism of our motorway pile up, reminded us of our annoying Istanbul mechanical disaster that was the centre who unbeknown to us where concentrated on aesthetics rather than the actual mechanics!!!

We had discovered this fact as we had walked past our newly fixed car and Jonny spotted that the front right wheel had a massive dent in the hub which had thrown the whole wheel and steering out…. To be honest we where furious (not a trait myself or Jonny often show) because just that morning we had delivered a perfectly good set of wheels attached to a written off land rover in to the arms of Turkish customs, which I might add we were legally obliged to do…. At the customs yard there where a flurry of rat racing scavengers at whom where probably biding and dismantling as we spoke with our slightly nervous Levant who was fully aware of our frustration and disappointment… And it was becoming very clear that they had never looked under the hood. A big lesson learnt there and then about things which we would take for granted at home… To think that a car involved in a big pile up would be thoroughly checked out before allowed back on the road to travel the world is not necessarily to say it or know its being done…. We had to let go of this stress and the wheel was repaired free of charge the car well…. We just had to trust that it was as we suspected fairly sound mechanically speaking and hit the road again, that was after a few hours repacking two cars into one….

We struggled to wind the window back up… laughed at Levant and headed off towards double figure minus temperatures and adventure.

On our way at last! Tolls galore before we even left Istanbul and we went over a bridge and started to see the snow line growing… as I mentioned earlier Istanbul is warmer than the rest of turkey because of its position surrounded by sea… inland the temperature drops to at least -10c so we where travelling towards way more serious weather than we had come across so far and it was late in the day night had fallen, however we wanted to get some distance between ourselves and Istanbul. I think that night we travelled around 400kms and eventually found a motel on the motorway checked in still with the buzz of freedom and passed out!
Love it!

3 weeks of Istanbul

We arrived at the Istanbul Land Rover centre with two battered rides as it was getting dark so we sorted all the admin, told them what we wanted to have looked at, gathered all our gear and found a hotel near the airport to get in gather thoughts and plan ahead…. Our biggest problem was that we had arrived at a most awkward time… It was celebration time for the locals and holiday season had landed Luna calendar wise at the same time we where hoping to fix our cars just after the local holidays finished our Christmas season was due to kick in and that would slow insurance details so we where trapped in Istanbul…. For about three to four weeks waiting and exploring… In hind sight it was a bit of a blessing as it grounded us in an adventure and made sure we knew we where driving on a epic quest…. We had up till then travelled fairly fast and that had ment a lot of our route was motorway so we where forced to make the most of Christmas new years and Istanbul…..

Istanbul truly is the cross roads of the world. The country is placed geographically in a position which has meant that past and present transportation has had to travel through this city. Making it a shopping extravaganza especially in comparison to places like Bosnia and Serbia it is clear to see a level of cosmopolitan shopping and goods availability rise… It is also much warmer than a lot of the countryside surrounding it due to being on a thin stretch of land with seas north and south which stay warmer than land in winter, so we where blessed with far milder weather than most of turkey as we where to find out in the coming weeks…

There is a kind of sternness in the Turkish smile in Istanbul and It takes a while for the locals to warm to us but when they do they where great… we also found ourselves getting special treatment when It came to paying the bill at a lot of the restaurants we visited. We started to wonder if we where getting a special calculator pulled out each time we arrived as bills sometimes doubled and trebled their value! A classic manoeuvre pulled we imagine on western faces. Sadly we never seemed to work this out until we where well clear as we wandered back to our various hotels in the city… But is more experience and a skill we developed do our own maths before the optimistic calculators made it in to the picture.

So three weeks spent in Istanbul we met some wonderful characters including Edip a man of large stature and a kind of cross between OB one Kenobi and Oliver Reed he steered us to many interesting events and wonderful places mainly to do with Sufism a traditional religion which Whirling Dervish’s originate. One I will never forget was in a hall in the back streets of Istanbul and we walked through some fairly uninteresting gates where I, Jonny, Michelle and Lee ended in a courtyard. We followed others in to a area where we washed our feet then by a series of gestures from various Turkish men in White skull caps we found ourselves sitting on rugs in a side room of a large circular hall in which many men had formed a series of circles all with their arms inter locked and they where chanting and swaying back and forth as they circles the central dervish whirling with his head tilted and one hand pointing up to the heavens and one hand pointing down to the earth channelling as we where told later the energy from the heavens to the room and the earth…

The chanting and swaying physically moved the room and the pace of both the chanting and the collective dance was increased and slowed like a drum rhythm. The chant was simple and a prayer for the love of god and we where explained toi after that the men do this in a circle so not only do they say their prayer for the love of god and life but as they face each other this intension also is for each other… A most powerful experience and truly touching ceremony as these smiling men who all made us feel welcomed all gathered after to smoke and drink the chi or Turkish tea….

Sparkie had chosen to return for Christmas Jonny Michelle and me spent Christmas eve with Lee our fellow traveller in steam pool in Yallova a town famous for its hot spring… and on Christmas which is not a huge thing in Turkey we travelled back to Istanbul to deal with the insurance which as tragic as It sounds we did laugh and enjoy ourselves… basically are a little different from most of the travellers that go overland and this made everyone most welcoming and interested in our journey, including the Insurance brokers

By now It was becoming clear that only one car would be able to be repaired and that If we used the doors from the vehicle which had been written off we would save more time and our own money on hotels… so now we had a tough choice to make would we look into getting another van or car in turkey or could we get a car from Land rover to replace our lost ride or was it only wise to go with one… We also at this stage wondered weather we should attempt to go overland through Pakistan or to take the boats to Bombay…. Some crunch decisions where coming our way…

It was becoming clear that we where only going to get one car also Michelle’s deadline for college return was looming up so the decision was made to send her on to India so she could take more photos in a more relaxed atmosphere and that we after much searching where not going to Buy a Turkish car because the Price of any vehicle in turkey is double that of anywhere else… we did toy for a while with the idea buying a transit and painting it up but this would cost 10.000 instead of 5.000 pounds and we made the hard choice to continue as two in one car… Not an easy call for jonny to make on boxing day to Sparkie this news….

It would be ready for us as soon as we had the other car in customs and we had settled up repacked… We where getting ready at last to be on the road again….
Love it!

The Crash

We set off into Turkey the snow was much thicker after the border and many roads had been closed…. So we where detoured off into snowy fields and around a closed road until we reconnected with the motorway. Here we where cruising along at about 50km/hr and then it happened….
Right at the moment I looked up from my book as Michelle said LOOK AT THAT! in the background we had the track Riders from the Storm by the Doors as I watched a yellow truck jack knifing across the motorway, bouncing off both unforgiving concrete barrier’s and sliding to a halt right across both lanes and a bit in the hard shoulder just to complete the bad picture of it all. I then saw Sparkie and Jonny veer into the same concrete barrier and in an unstoppable ice slide, we slid toward our fellow discovery. I told Michelle to get ready as we slammed to the spare wheel a crack exploded up our windscreen then we turned to see another red truck sliding in towards us….
Boom it was a big hit we were tossed around the first car and I looked up to see a ruined bonnet and an apologetic driver sitting in the red truck… I looked down checked Michelle was ok Jonny came running over to see if we where alright and we climbed over the barrier to a space we though would be safe…. More trucks came sliding in I ran up the wall to try and slow them only to see another truck loose control and start to slide in fast it looked awful so I turned and shouted to the others to Run!!! After the last truck settled I grabbed my trusty head torch set it to the Unusable flash mode which I never though I would need and ran up the motorway slowing traffic cause all I could see was going to be a huge pile up unless someone warned the oncoming traffic what was waiting around the bend…
My next hour was spent raising my arm up and down, dealing with cars that stopped to offer me help, explaining what was around the corner and slowing the odd lunatic that was determined to go fast no matter what until the de-icer turned up and shortly after four of the most incompetent police followed… to save the day?
We then got back in to our car which was the most wiped out and amazingly it started and even moved at quite a reasonable rate however both front wheel arches where ripped to shreds. We followed the motorway police to their office by the highway and filled in all the appropriate documents and recovering from a mild level of shock also throwing ideas around as what to do next….
We drove to a near by village Edinea and where led by convoy with a small truck from the police motorway office to our next hotel small cheap clean…. We seemed to be the talk of the town the next afternoon as we where loaded on to a pickup for Istanbul about 200kms away and where loosely strapped in wrapped in sleeping bags and towed to the Istanbul Land rover centre at 100kms along a icy cold stretch of motorway and backwards.
Love it!!!

Sofia the Boarders and onto Turkey!

So sat-nav guided us toward Sofia we headed toward the centre and saw the first sign of a cosmopolitan trading town that we had seen for quite sometime maybe even since Italy. In total contrast we also saw perhaps the roughest shanty town of haphazard buildings on the outskirts of this dazzling car trading town….. It was clear we where back on the route which most people travelled to get to the Middle East from Europe and visa versa.
One thing I will always remember from Sofia was a small thing but they had a count down timer on each traffic light. So as we waited for the lights to change you could see the time ebb away, raising the level of excitement as we moved in to the ten second count down. Then with out fail cars all took off on the -1 and stopped again as close to the limit as possible…. We moved slowly in traffic and found the central square a clever trick of Jonny’s is to pull up in full Indiana Jones style to the flashest hotel, to chat up the doormen drop them 10 Euros and to get advice on where to eat whilst also having trusting eyes watch over the wonderful cars which very much look the part.
We hit a large franchise restaurant and had a cheap meal. Then after a bit of group politics we headed back to the hotel and after a coffee some promotional clips of the door men wishing us good luck and onward to the last major town before our Turkish boarder P-something? It felt like a long drive we where tired and dipped into some small towns in the hope that we would find a great spot to stay… but no luck we pushed on to the P-something town and to a grand hotel for a brief stop before our most dramatic day yet.
Up early for a walk around the p-something town It was rough to say the least. Graffiti has been a part of every place we have been it seemed and this was a tough looking place I wandered off the beaten track to see what was behind the scenes many rugged looking buildings manly high rise and not appealing in anyway a large river I followed back towards the hotel car park.. met with the gang in icy winds and we mounted up drove out of town escorted for twenty meters by a most impressive Russian army truck known as a Zil dwarfing our cars as it chugged off the main road and we continued into icy fields and towards unbeknown to us Greece….
We hadn’t planned to duck into Greece it is always nice to be able to add another country to the list of fifteen we started with. However there is the risk that boarders guards and paperwork can take a lot longer than needed. There had been a habit occurring of extended delay and we had no idea till we had practically stopped at the dotted line that we where entering Greece fortunately Greece being a more touristy country the boarder was swift and effective with no fee for insurance…. We breezed through and press on toward The Turkish border through about 30kms of snow filled highway and icy roads.
The border kind of snuck up on us as we pulled up to a small town then to our left was a office Greek half of the check points followed by an official stretch of road to the Turkish half….. This was the first military crossing we had been through we passed army bases for both side assuming that they spend most of their time watching each other then arrived at the Turkish entrance and collected our papers for the border officials…
Love it!

Serbia to Bulgaria and beyond

We agreed me and Jonny the two drivers that evening that this was one of the best roads we had ever driven on… a long winding road over an alpine mountain top and one of the better surfaces we had come across in the last few days too.
So this was Serbia we found a road side café to sit and relax in Michelle befriended the staff especially the wife/chef and we eat very well. After our meal we asked for a good hotel and where guided by our hosts 4kms up the road to a motel for truckers… coming into the car park for the motel we had our first car glitch it seemed the green one (or ninja stealth ride as I had nicknamed it) did not want to start? A little tap on the starter motor soon changed its mind. The next morning we started fresh into Serbian territories intrigued to be seeing the difference between here and Bosnia….
These countries all strike me as Russian like in there appearance not that I have ever been but after a healthy dose of British propaganda as a youngster I feel like I could have…. Plenty of old ladies with head scarfs and heavy bags of wood basic shopping …. In between the rows of cars the odd horse drawn hay stacked cart looking like it’s on it’s last legs, with a large gent glad to pose for Michelle’s camera the housing has remained much the same since we crossed the iron curtain with every now and then a fully glamorous tulip topped complex structure dotted in between.
Today was a day of valleys and moors with heavy snow on the top of each wild hill and it all of a sudden felt much cleaner and no sign of any battle which is a natural relaxant…. Basically looking like a scruffy Swiss mountain villages again… at one point we came across some stubborn wild ponies determined to claim the road as there own… we slowed until they shifted grabbed some snaps of them licking the road for salt and zoomed on to Sofia and the Bulgarian boarder.
Our most sophisticated boarder yet, with it’s own disinfectant spraying section cleaning the undercarriage of our rides pulling up along side probably the angriest (I don’t want to be there) face in a port-a-cabin I had seen yet. But we even managed to squeeze a smile out of his face, as we explained we where driving to India handed him a business card and he waved us on to the next set of boxes with the grin still there! This boarder had about ten rows of check-in points, green card sections and security areas to navigate although. Strangely we seemed to breeze through! This could not be said for the trucking community which had a very healthy cue growing in both directions…..
So Bulgaria and back to the world of motorways we headed straight to the capital Sofia now we had one focus and goal which was to cover some miles, the last of Eastern Europe and to get ourselves to Turkey, Istanbul and the Middle East. Specifically we where headed toward a Sufi gathering in the centre of Turkey. We where also finding the twenty four seven factor a bit of a strain in some areas.
Love it!!!!!

Bosnia

The meal at our Bosnian hosts was amazing the lady of this home (which was down right palatial in comparison to others we had seen) gathered some food from the store cupboard. The meal proved to be the most amazing flavoured pork and salami I have ever eaten. We sat and where served a meal fit for Bosnian kings! It was great a lot of fun and laughs I managed to paint two paintings in the youngsters rooms to show our appreciation for their hospitality and before we went to bed launched one of Jonnys sky wish lanterns just to top the evening off one I think both we and them will remember for a long time….

The next day started with a decision on to Sofia or down to Sarajevo, Bosnia or Bulgaria I think after a few coin tosses and some wavering choices we plumped for previously war torn Sarajevo… this is one of the most intriguing landscapes I have ever travelled through.

The houses here where much the same as Croatian and Slovakian homes. Apart from the odd bullet-hole and shell shrapnel blast decorating the unpainted plaster. Nestled in autumn valleys and looking pretty lonely in the landscape you could imagine groups of soldiers moving from home to home as they travelled further along their routes to destructive destinations. Really brought home and eerie reality to this recent event… so It is possible that this imagining layered a veil over Sarajevo for me it was the unhappiest city we have travelled through, the buildings and people still show a uncomfortable something like I said maybe it was me?…

Another thing I will never forget as we drove into the city where two beggar children running along side the cars. As I lent out to hand them a marble of with a map of the world in some vague hope that it may make them smile I felt this little boys hands and they felt like the hands of many fifty year old builders I have worked with in the past rough and worn… as we moved along further we pulled up to his partner in money searching and I looked face to face with a tiny girl who had slept many night rough and dirty… our cars moved on and I saw in our wing mirror the two of them comparing their unusual gifts for the day…

We drove through the centre after stopping briefly at a hotel for wireless updates of the web site and saw building which had been shaken to the core with mortars then the landscape transformed in to ravine and similar housing but nestled in untouchable cliffs and obviously this had been a place that the warring may have found hard to reach… we drove on through this into the night and toward the boarder….

We came here across our first bit of paper work complications and had to detour to buy our green card a third party insurance for Serbia and then back to the border with the good roads…… after an extra 2hr we made it through and drove up and over a snowy windy road… it always seems that as we have gone through these boarders there has always been a change in landscape and weather… strange but true…

Love it…..

A snowy morning in Croatian pine forests.

We had snuck the previous night behind base in this mountain top village and found a open space in the pine forest to camp and set up for our first adventurous night in the roof tents….. Wild style. The views that morning made me think of Scandinavian pine forests such tall, full trees all well spaced and with deciduous trees scattered throughout. The snow had fallen thickly even on the extreme ends of the twigs. My self and Jonny rose first and took the opportunity to walk along the road seeing the odd tracks of earlier visitors.

We pushed on to Zagreb at this point we had concerns about our web site important to make sure we had enough footage, photos and script to entertain our donator’s and friends watching this charity ride to India. So Sparks and Jonny decided they wanted to catch up with that side of our mission whilst Michelle and I decided we wanted to visit the Plitvice lakes otherwise known as the falling lakes. A world heritage site and a place I had heard many good things about so that night Jonny and Sparkie hit a hotel and myself and Michelle drove 100km’s plus to Plitvice.

The next morning we found the entrance to the national park and we only had a brief time there as we where due to catch up with the others at Zagreb at about 11am. A steep slope zigzagging path led down to crystal clear water. Many lakes pouring into one another with some spectacular waterfalls of all shapes and sizes. The place truly lives up to it’s reputation as the most beautiful national park in Europe and I was well pleased we made the effort to go and see it. We got some great shots and lived life on the edge trying to negotiate the wooden pathways which where extremely icy and not British health and safety standard at all.

At Zagreb we gathered again all updates done and some fresh footage from the falling lakes to add then headed to the eastern motorway roughly aiming at Sofia.

We ran out of light and decided to find a town for food inadvertedly pulling over at a boarder town to Bosnia and dealing with Bosnia a lot sooner than expected. Once though the boarder with our freshly purchased green card insurance we brought some food.

So now it was time to find somewhere to sleep I was with Jonny in the front car and we decided it would be a good idea to take one of the many side roads to the small homes and when we saw someone outside ask if it would be ok to find somewhere to put up our roof tents on their land and sleep the night. The first person we pull up next to was an old Bosnian lady who did not speak a word of English. Our next victim was a young lad cleaning a car and listening to techno…. (bonus) His name was …… and he asked his father if it was ok if we parked on his land then whilst we were attempting to put up the roof tents they insisted we eat and sleep in their home.

Love it!!!!!

Eastern Europe

Right well it’s been a while since I have typed…. So here goes catch up time..

We had manly been following motorways due to sat-nav’s built in favouritism. This was starting to get a bit boring. So with a few adjustments to our route we traversed down a coastal stretch of road on our last section of Italy. Stunning cliff faces ether side of us, making a most refreshing change from the concrete central reservation’s of most euro toll roads. Along this seaside road we could see the Italian Slovakian and Croatian landscapes all at once across the Mediterranean stunning view.

At Trieste our last coastal town of Italy we gathered some scrap wood for some future roadside murals. We then tested the power of our cars up a steep hill climb toward the Slovakian boarder.

Out of Italy and into Slovakia countryside. Rolling hills coated with natural pine forests not a trace of the organisation that is found in the British forests. The homes could best be described as slightly ramshackle Swiss mountain cottages with out the paint or tidiness. It also struck me straightaway that they are based around the pure practicality purposes of living, plenty of dry store firewood. All without fail all have veggie gardens, animals, basically everything needed to live from and with the land. Traits many of us have lost back home to due to the onslaught of supermarket power in the land of convenience.

Then throughout the short drive over the Slovakian landscape we were passed by many nice to average cars something of a surprise considering the state of the homes. But a characteristic that has remained a constant even up until now as I sit typing in a small town in Serbia many many km’s from there.

Slovakia was short lived and we pulled through our first boarder crossing soon learning that there is not as much interest paid by guards when leaving a country as there is when entering the next we stopped unaware that we where in-between boarders and I did my first roadside painting on a scrap picked up in Italy we drove on for a bit and placed the painting on a small cliff on the side of the road for some unsuspecting traveller to find a new gift who knows where it will end up?

Croatia soon became another motorway stretch as we headed to Zagreb the country’s capital. We drove up into the snowline and into full winter weather as the darkness moved in we check into each other on the radios to find a spot to sleep. I forget the name of the village but it was small and quiet town drove through picked up water and headed up a forest track until we found a flat clearing just off the side of the road and set up camp in a tall pine forest with autumn leaf covered floor and the odd mossy bolder sticking out from the ground.

The next morning we awoke to an entirely different vision of snow frost and beauty!

Love it!!!

French Connection and Beyond

Grenoble….. we stayed with my good friend Nolee, who can be described best as a slightly feral wild man from the mountains of France with his finger on the tenci pulse. After we came off the motorway at Voiron we waited for a bit for Nolee to come and meet us. Great to see him again and I knew what a treat the guys had install for them up on Nolee and friends land.

Nolee works for a corporate advisory group and he has just taken on the role of environmental sustainability adviser for the big banks of Europe. And his friends Alex and Maria live on a beautiful patch of land high up in the center of the Grenoble valley in a spot that conveniently hides the industrial side of the town….

We followed Nolee to Champione the small village where their land is and said our hellos…. I visited this land about 2 months ago to come for a meeting about an amazing convoy from France to Australia for the 2012 solar eclipse party in the north of Oz and for a massive gathering in the centre near Alice springs… See below for photos of that meeting. Nolee and myself have been helping promote this and it’s called gaiaganda. For more info on that check out www.gaiaganda.org

So during my last visit I painted Alex’s French army truck as seen below. This time they invested in a Bus to run their vegan catering bizz from which is going from strength to strength…. It was parked up in town outside a indoor skate park which was graffed up to the hilt with some good pieces….. inside and out

So the bus was my first serious target on the journey so far, sadly it was raining as it had been for most of the journey so far so I was restricted to the inside with two clear targets. First being the panel alongside the drivers seat by his feet and second the fridge.

Both done with two or three colours each and videoed whilst running out of daylight so up against the clock…. Success but looking forward to doing a much larger piece in Italy or Croatia….

This morning we left at 12ish in our usual day-missing way. I am sure this will change as we get a little further down the line. But what a drive was awesome!!! A mountain range with snow clearly marking the higher ground like a tidal line, crevasses, waterfalls, rivers, crags, cliffs, forests, rugged houses all framed with golden sunshine which you would not have bet on in the morning rain.

As we came to the boarder of France and Italy we came across about 3km’s of snow my self and sparkie (today’s chauffeur) leaped out the truck at the toll gate and unleashed our cold fury on Jonny and Michelle’s 4x4….. funny enough they didn’t get out? we put it down to shear terror at our awesomeness….

Now we are driving across the flat dark plains of northern Italy and headed to a night’s rest just before the Slovakian and Croatian borders…

Love it!!!!!!

Holland to France

Blogs Entry NO. 2

Holland was a great way to start this adventure. We stayed with Chris for our first night celebrating the Santa festival and catching up with his family also meeting some friends at a dinner party in his beautiful home. Fantastic extreme from some of our future meals I imagine. Our next day was a slow starter recovering from Dutch hospitality.

I slept on the couch down stairs and was awoken by Donna and Felix, Chris’s children who where probably up at 5.30am with prezzie FEVER… So I was up early woken by giggle’s and excitement. Sat with Chris and his wife Patricia for a quick breakfast then walked back to our cars to do a bit of shopping in the Haag for supplies and for a couple of bit of equipment I wanted. The most important of those being a tape adaptor which plays mp3’s and my laptop through the stereo. Essential!

So kitted up I went back to find the guys at Chris’s place. For the next stage of our adventure a visit no less than to the New Zealand Embassy. We tapped in the post code to the sat-nav and hit the road. It was on the other side of town in minted street and stunning Embassy building and Sparkie’s friend Phillipa Joy working for the ambassador welcomed us at the electric gates. We had a little tour of the elegant building and the guys sipped their tea and chuckling to ourselves about how we where now on New Zealand territory and how we had gone from France to Belgium to Holland then to New Zealand…. All by car.

Due to a very sad event the ambassadors son had died and they where returning to the embassy to fly home to New Zealand. So we quietly moved across to Phillipa’s home which was great in it’s self and we then tucked into our laptops and updated our web site www.goodkarmadrive.org which our video’s blogs photos and anything else we could think of.

Apparently that nigh I snored to legendary levels so our plan of rising at 5.30 and getting a big drive done was missed by about 5hrs. We instead left the Embassy at about Noon Dutch time…. The weather has been shocking and we have been on the road ever since in strong rain. We breezed through Luxembourg adding another country to our preplaned list. Spent a brief night in Dijon at a hotel as to not soak the tents! Right now I am sat with my Laptop in the passenger seat as Michelle chauffeurs me to my good friends Nolee and Alex in the French Alps for the next stage of our quest!

Love it!!!!

The Leaving Of It All

So we Had a great interview at the George Lamb show, said our piece promoted ourselves thoroughly and drove off to the sunset…. Cruising around the M25 toyed with the idea of setting up the tents before dark just out side the M25?….. After some swift discussions decided that was shockingly lame, and we pushed on to the ferry and to Dunkirk…..

A rainbow showed it’s self over our road down to Dover, which for me is a great sign. I just like that stuff…. Then when we went to find our ferry price’s I stepped out of the ferry centre to see a stunning sun set and hit the video diary….

The ferry was fairly epic in its self and had a colossal car deck which the Discovery’s or disco’s as we like to call them, sat at the front…… we wandered up to the deck… eventually I found the open deck where I stood looking at the white cliff’s in true poetic form… getting a bit of an understanding of how immense this dream and journey is! Thinking about what it’s going to take to get to India by two cars…

So we pull off the ferry at Dunkirk and set up the sat-nav aiming us to Holland the Haag and to our good friend Chris….. the plan at this stage was to find somewhere to eat and somewhere to sleep before we get to Chris…. Belgium in winter flat and grey looking and noticeable how few people where around…. We pulled up in a amazing church town market square wandered in to a café which was showing signs of life and they directed us onward as it was the end of their day……

In the next town we pulled up alongside a neon pizzeria sign and took our chances…. Great place, friendly bar staff and good food… at the end we asked advice about finding somewhere to set up our roof tents…. And the guy said no problem put them up behind the restaurant….. tents went up and we slept very well…… day one done1

I awoke early and went for a walk to get a feel for the place…… in a lot of ways I felt the same as I had the night before winter did not suit this town not many people and fairly grey feel to it….

On the road again and drove about 300m to Chris’s…. giving us time to set up sort out the gear and get a feel for uploading downloading and reloading the Disco’s and laptop’s

It just so happened that it is also the time for our Dutch friend’s to celebrate the arrival of Saint Nicolas in Dutch style on the 5^th of December he visit Holland and fills the kids shoes with gift’s and prezzie’s…. So it was great to be with Chris’s friend’s and family celebrate this day…… and we had our first good karma drive party in style till the early hour’s.

Next day

Would you believe invited to the New Zealand Embassy….. who knows what’s next? Love it!!!!!!!

Adventure Overland To India from England 2007

this blog is about a journey to india and the adventures we have enroute also the art I create on the way more to come soon