Believe it or not, some 400 fundraisers are taking on a mission nigh on impossible in attempting to drive from London to Ulaan Bataar in a car worth less than £500. Novice participant Eleanor Garnier blogs from Istanbul on her first week on the road.
Parked life: Alice (left), Eleanor's 2CV, camps out near the Hungary-Romania border.
Photograph: Eleanor Garnier.
A dash across a quarter of the earth's surface in a car worth less than £500 was never going to be easy. My co-driver Henry and I are eight days into the 8000-mile London to Ulaan Bataar Mongol Rally and have so far made it to Istanbul in Alice, our 1986 Citroen 2CV. Her engine is less than 1000cc; we face the obstacles of two deserts, five mountain ranges, bad to non-existent roads and no support crew - plus we know nothing about cars. This trip is a cocktail of disasters waiting to happen, which is exactly why 400 ralliers in 200 cars want to do it. After all, what would be the point of an adventure when the journey is a foregone conclusion? Every car is also raising £1000 for worthy causes Send a Cow, Mercy Corps and the Christina Noble Children's Foundation. Those cars lucky enough to reach Mongolia are donated to charity too.
Naturally, Alice developed problems in England and in the spirit of the rally, we were forced to change her chassis before the trip even began to be in with a chance of making it past Dover. One week before the off she was in pieces in a barn being re-assembled by a bunch of amateurs. On the bright side, it was a good crash-course in 2CV maintenance for us - and once re-built with a few tweaks from some generous professionals we were on our way to Hyde Park in London for the launch.
We completed this first leg of the trip in an elite classic-car convoy with fellow 2CV, Arabella, and a Morris Minor. Surprisingly, we seemed to breeze through Germany and the Czech Republic. In Prague, all the ralliers spent a night in an underground car park (yes, sleeping among cars and fumes). The route to Mongolia divided after that, but we stayed with Arabella's drivers, Jon and Ridha, through Slovakia and Hungary. Driving round Budapest at night was stunning but we didn't stay long. The roads in Romania - and its endless traffic jams of trucks - slowed us down but we pushed on to Bulgaria, driving through the night to make some progress.
Everything was going well until we attempted a long climb up into the hills of central Bulgaria, near St Zagora, accompanied by thunder, lightning and torrential rain. We made it back down but amid a chorus of coughs and splutters from both cars, we were finally forced to stop after Alice's brakes started to make loud, metallic, grating sounds. We made the executive decision that the cars weren't designed for wet weather, waited till the rain slowed up and got back on our way. So far, so good. The car was running, there were less splutters and the brakes were working. We chugged along at 45-50mph - slow progress compared to some of the other drivers who whizzed past. But our two cars are a wonderful sight and have been getting lots of attention.
Arriving in Istanbul yesterday afternoon was crazy. The traffic is mad. People pay more attention to Alice and Arabella than their driving, which has caused some pretty hair-raising experiences but we are very, very happy to have made it from Prague to Istanbul. Next stop, Georgia ...
