Liam and Luke's Overland Adventure

2009-12-30T02:41:00.004+01:00

The car was put into a container on the 10th of December, destination Dublin hopefully around the 17th of January.....trip over, thanks for reading.

Some of the port...just like the rest of India

Some of the many observers of the stupid white man. Counted 11 around the container at one stage, none of them with any involvement in the process. I wounder does all cargo going out of the port get such a send off...........

Car in container

Goa

2009-12-05T10:50:00.010+01:00

A little traffic in Goa

Bridie the beast after a long day soaking up the sun

Presents for the Germans

A market in Old Goa

One of the many churches in Goa

Locals unloading a boat full of clay

My Dutch tourguide leading me in the wrong direction

More Churches

Not a bad view is it...Anjuna beach

Our beach hut for a few days at Arembol beach

Some people we met along the way

The truck was so overloaded the bridge caved in under its weight.

Goa is Indians second smallest states, with a coast line that is almost littered with picturesque beaches, palm trees and in some parts hippies who never left the party after Goa's infamous hash-fueled hippy era. Along its coast Goa's beaches change as much as its clientèle. In the North you can find beach with sea shore huts with there main residents being backpackers and hippies. As you go further south to what some say are the nicer beaches you'll find package holiday central. At various places in the middle there are some late night outdoor rave parties still continuing on from there hay day in the late eighties and nineties. Even dough the local government banned loud music in open air spaces between 10pm and 6 am to curb the ever increasing party scene, thankfully with a little bribery these parties, all dough considerably smaller and less frequent, continue today.

As arranged with our shipping agent we needed to be back in Mumbai by the 2nd of December in order to complete the week long exportation process and finally say goodbye to the car. That gave us just under 2 weeks to soak up the sun and drink several lemonades on a few of Goa's beaches. At the time of writing, Ireland is attempting to be the first western country to become fully submerged under rain water. For those who are reading this from the motherland, I am thinking of ye when I wake up at around midday to a clear sky and 32 deg C heat. I probably spend another few minutes wondering how you are getting as I lay my towel down on the beach and dive into the beautiful warm Arabian sea. After about 4 or five hours messing around on the beach, its in the evenings when I worry about you most. Luke normally consoles me by dragging me out for a few beers in a local bar or a party on the beach. Unfortunately this process just seems to continue everyday here. I think you can all tell how home sick I am.

Road to Mumbai

2009-12-01T07:30:00.008+01:00

Mumbai outside the Taj Mahal Hotel

The Indian Gate, across the road from the Taj Mahal hotel

Some camals

After hours of rain we came to this river. This tractor just happened to get stuck on the bridge. 4x4s could drive through the river but not us. We (me with all the Indians laughing) tried to push the tractor but no go. Then they want us to try and pull them out but I told him to get fucked. Next I tried to squeeze passed the tractor, luckily it worked with half the front wheel over the edge of the bridge.

A Tiger reserve with no Tigers, Indians know how to fool tourists. Its a gift they all have.

One of the many shit roads, thankfully we got off this dirt track before it started to rain, otherwise we would still there stuck in the mud.

Elephants clearing some forest along the way

We were able to leave Kathmandu easily enough. Found the road we needed and just followed the signs. After talking to some people we meet in our hotel we found out the quickest route to India or at least the best road.

From Nepal we were four long days driving to Mumbai. Not much happened, just the normal near death experiences that happen to you when driving in India. The first night we stayed in Gorakhpur, a fairly big city which is mainly a transport hubb between India and Nepal. It turned out to be quit difficult to get budget accommodation with safe parking so we had to upgrade to the President Hotel, it still was a bit of a toilet but we weren't complaining after an 11 hour drive.
The next few night we stayed in some serious shit holes. From Gorakhpur we made it as far as a small town close to the city of Katni. The next day we reached Bhopal and on the forth and final day we flew into Mumbai.

In comparison to all the other cities iv seen in India, Mumbai is by far the nicest. If you can get over the three or four kids under age 5 sleeping on the street outside your hotel or the many beggars with missing limbs (The more limbs there masters cut off the more money they make) constantly harassing you, you should love the place.
We stayed in southern Mumbai, around the corner from the Taj Mahal Hotel. It was a cool area with various types of restaurants and bars to suit all budgets. It also is a big tourist area so it was relatively easy to meet people on a night out for a bit of craic.
Our main reason for being in Mumbai was to find a shipping agent to ship the car to Australia for us. We found an agent handy enough but unfortunately the shipping time was quite long and if we shipped the car, it would only arrive in Melbourne a week before I was due to go home. Due to this small detail, obviously it was pointless shipping the car to Oz so it was decide to send it straight to Dublin. We had planned to stay in India for another three weeks and as we didn't need to ship the car until the last week we decided to keep it and travel down to Goa.

While we were in Mumbai we left the car into Volkswagen for a well over due service. In India there are no Volkswagen cars older than 2 or 3 years and they currently only sell the Passat. The garage was full of new Passat's and our 11 year old covered in dirt. After two days they were finished with the only problem being that we needed to change our front break pads soon.....After 12000 miles through some of the worst roads and deserts in the world that's not bad. The car is officially a tank. So far only one flat tire and two broken wing mirrors, oh and the small scratch that I put into the passenger side door in Turkey, I think we have done quite well.

Nepal and Everst Base Camp

2009-11-10T12:20:00.006+01:00

On top of Kala Pattar with the boys

Freezing my ass off on the way down...ginger beard and all

The Tourist Base Camp

The real Everest Base Camp about a 20 minute walk from the tourist one across a glazier

From base camp the valley the expedition teams go up to Camp 1 Everest

Myself and Luke at EBC

Trekking by myself for the day from Pheriche. 5200m

The Kitchen in one of the small lodges we stayed in. The fire burned dried Yak shit.

Myself and our slave for the two weeks...Tashi the ledgend

Road to Kathmandu

Road to Kathmandu

Difficult road conditions

We crossed the border into Nepal at the crossing close to Birgunj and again it was a fairly straight forward process as all our paperwork was in order. Almost instantly we noticed a change for the better with regards driving conditions. Nepal is considerably more orderly and less chaotic. There are several possible border crossings between India and Nepal and we chose what we thought would be the most direct. Unfortunately for us we failed to notice that the most direct route went over a mountain range reaching a peak of 2800 meters and all the roads were switch backs, winding back and forth, up mountains and down into valleys. Progress was exceptionally slow as it was nearly impossible to do more than 25 mph. The initial part of the trip was amazing for us as it was so different from India. The landscape, so lush and green, the little villages along the road side so busy with the locals working in the fields and preparing there produce for sales in the nearest towns and cities. A big change was in the way the people look compared to their Indian or Chinese (Tibetan) neighbors.
While driving through the hills we came across two Maoist (Communist Party in Nepal) check points. The Maoists, labeled by the US as a terrorist group are raging what is called here a peoples war. For tourist it doesn’t really affect us much except when they have a strike day transport networks are shut down, which for us means we should not drive on the roads around the Katmandu Valley (The day of writing, 10th November is a strike day and the reason why we cannot leave for India until maybe tomorrow). Maoist main source of funding is said to be from robberies and extortion. At the first check point we came across we were ushered through without having to pay anything but at the second one a guy stood in front of the car and jestered us to pull in. Being kind of stupid and Luke shouting to “keep going” I put the foot down and raced up the hill. We were told later that it wasn’t a good idea as they could have thrown stones at the car or even worse shot at us....you live and learn I suppose...
Kathmandu was a welcomed site that evening and with all the white people walking around the streets of Thamal (Tourist area of Kathmandu) we knew we could get a good feed some where. We found our hotel for the few days at 500 Napali per night (100 = 1.12 euro) then headed straight to Kathmandu Steakhouse and order the biggest one that could be got. After eating noting but chicken and mutton over the past few weeks, a massive lump of cow was nice to see.

Our plan for Nepal was to try to trek to Everest Base Camp 5340 m and Kala Pattar 5545m (mountain from where you can see the top of Everest as you can not see it from base camp). In Kathmandu and on the Internet there are literally thousands of tour and trekking companies who are happy to take your money off you for a very straight forward trek that you can easily organize yourself once in Kathmandu. Prior to arriving in Nepal Luke had done a little research on the net and found out most of the detail of what was needed (TIMS card, climbing permit, flight tickets, renting trekking equipment etc.). We were definitely a little naïve when we arrived at first thinking that we could just walk to Everest base camp with our normal camping equipment we had for the trip plus an extra jacket but after talking to a few people they quickly put us on the right track.
In the end we rented a proper 4 season (good for -10 deg C, it was – 18 degC when we were at base camp), bought thermals, gloves, hats, boots and a few other bits and pieces and we were ready to go. There are hundreds of small shops around Thamal selling cheap/fake The North Face clothes, boots and climbing equipment. If you’re thinking about a trekking trip in Nepal and you need something for your trip buy it here. With our equipment sorted the next thing was to book flights to Lukla, the kick off point of out trek. From the main office we got flights for 200 US return each and finally after three days of running around we were set to go.

On the 25th of October we flew to Lukla for our 15 day trek to EBC and Kala Pattar. Because we had a lot of stuff with us and neither of us would have had been able to carry it up the trail, when we arrived in Lukla we hired a porter to carry our Rucksack (Porter normally costs between 6-8 dollars per day but you need to bargain). This was our plan all along and we got very lucky with the porter we got. His name was Tashi a twenty year old Napali guy with Basic English but lots of fun. Normally porters hang around the airport waiting for the tourists to arrive, once they get a client they will show them the direction to start walking and set you off. These guys can travel over the trail twice as fast as any tourist as they do it every day so it’s not a good idea to try and follow them. The porter normally just carries your bag to a pre-organized town of village where you'll stay for the night but in our case Tashi stayed with us all the time and pretty much acted as a guide more than a porter. His incentive I think was to improve his English and practice being a guide so it works out on both sides.
All along the route to EBC and Kala Pattar there are lodges and guest houses where you can stay and get fed for about 10 Euro per night, but it does get more and more expensive the higher you climb

The first three days were difficult for both of us. After spending most of our time sitting in a car for the previous month neither of us was properly prepared for the long walks over rough terrain. After the initial shock to the system we were feeling better and better every day until we got to about Tengbouche 3700 meters. On the fifth day Luke started getting headaches which is a initial indication of altitude sickness, he started taking diomox which are tablets that help with this problem. The next day we trekked up to 4200 meters and Luke still wasn't feeling well so we called into the Medical center that is situated in Pheriche a small village in a massive valley. The volunteer doctors at the center told him that he should be fine as long as he took a rest day in Pheriche and then only if he was feeling ok to continue the climb to the next village.
I was lucky that the altitude didn't affect me at all so while Luke and Tashi (they got very close on the trip) rested for the rest of the day I decided to climb one of the mountains beside the hotel. It was nice to be out by myself going at my own pace. By the time I reached the top I had climbed 1000 meters up to 5200 meters and the view from the top was unbelievable. The air wan notably tin but once you rested and slowed your breathing you were fine after a few minutes. To help with the acclimatization they say that it is good to climb to a higher altitude during the day then you will sleep at that night. Once I went back down to Pheriche I was tried but feeling pretty happy with myself.
The next day Luke was feeling better, well enough to continue up the trail, so we pushed on the 4 hours walk to the next village Lobuje 4800 meters. From here on up it started to get notably colder even during the day when the sun was shining and the wind picked up a little. Normally during the day you were quite warm as you were moving around and the sun was fairly strong but at night it was very cold and you had to stay inside the cabin. Getting up to go to the toilet at night was a bitch.
From Lobuje we trekked 3 hours up to our final stop Gorak Shep. Once there we left our bags in the guesthouse and continued up to Base Camp Everest. There is an old and a new base camp. The old one is for the tourist to take a picture at the sigh which we happily obliged but then we headed across the glacier to the new base camp where we could see from where all the expedition start from. At the time we were there there was a small expedition ongoing. A film crew was hiking up to camp two to get some footage. It was interesting to see what a real Everest attempt might look like from the start.
That night we went back to Gorak Shep and slept there. It was not easy to sleep as I kept waking up feeling out of breath which is fairly normal for that altitude until you acclimatize. The next morning we were up early to tackle Kala Pattar and get our first proper view of Everest. It was bitterly cold on the way up and with the altitude the trek was made incredibly difficult. Once on the top we hung around for a few minutes, tock some photos then got the hell out of there.
Getting back to Lukla was considerably faster than going up. This is mainly because on the way up you need two acclimatize/rest days where you stay in the same town for two nights and naturally you can go down a lot faster than going up. In all it took us 4 days to get back to Lukla and flew back to Kathmandu the next day.

Thinking back now I enjoyed the trek but at the time it was hard work and getting food poisoning on the way down didn't help the fun factor of the trip. Jumping in to the bushes or behind rocks just off the trail for a quick evacuation didn't add to my experience. The one good side to trekking like this is that you get a chance to meet a lot of interesting people, from experienced climbers on there way up, to normal tourist like ourselves. On the other side we meet an inconceivable amount of fat Americans, loud Germans and old Japanese tour groups that just get in the way....
On our way up we did meet one guy from Kazakhstan who had attempt to climb Everest the previous spring and reached Camp 4 but then got sick and had to descend. It was fascinating to hear his story which he obviously told a lot. Suppose if you spent $35000 on an attempt and didn't reach the top, telling everyone your story would be one may of getting your monies worth. He was going to Everest base camp to organize the removal of his friend from the mountain who had died in an avalanche during there expedition Not sure of all the details.
We also heard that the guy from “Touching the Void”, Simon Yates, the one that cut the rope, was two days behind us on the trail but I think people talk a lot of shit when there up in the hills.

Back in Kathmandu we just chilled out for a few days, eat well, slept a lot, sent some emails and basically done fuck all. The one thing I did do was get the flat tire in the car fixed. There was such a big piece of metal stuck in the old tire that it was useless, a new tire was needed. Apart from that we just eat, drank and slept.
.

India Part 1

2009-11-08T11:54:00.006+01:00

View from the Hotel in Dehli

Eco my ass

A happy sign after a dry month

Cosy

Just over the border...some massive building

With about 8500 miles on the car we arrived in India by chance just in time for Diwali (Hindu equivalent to Christmas). We crossed the border from Pakistan at ...............with out any problem and from there headed to Delhi. Once over the border you could really tell that you were into another country. The people, the landscape and more annoyingly the road conditions were far more difficult. In general the road surfaces are ok and you can see that money is being spent on improving the road network but the way motorway and roads are used makes driving anywhere difficult to say the least. People, bicycles, tuk tuks, rickshaws, tractors trucks and animals form the majority of the traffic on the motorways, leaving you with endless surprises when someone decides to walk across the road to speak to there neighbor or a cow decides to sit in the middle of the road to catch the evening sun. It seem like a national sport to drive in the wrong direction down the “fast lane” of the motorway at night with no lights on. There are police around but they have bigger problems with the numerous overturned trucks, smashed up cars, bike and probable people you see on a regular basis.
The biggest change is the amount of people this country has. They are every where and anywhere and when you are not used to being in such a busy environment it can be and was difficult to adjust. In Pakistan I don’t think is much different in this respect but driving was made easy by having the escorts clear the path in front of us but in India we had no such luck.

The first evening in India was difficult driving. It was eight or nine hours to Delhi from the border and with our progress on the roads being so slow and unfortunately our first flat tire...(a flat piece of metal about half the size of a credit card sliced through the rubber) we stayed in a road side hotel for the night. The next morning we got up early and left for Delhi. Previously Luke had downloaded the Satnav maps for India so Susie was back in action. The maps are not as detailed as the ones I had thought Europe but they were still handy to have when we arrived into Delhi. With the help of the bible (Lonely Planet India book) and Susie, we were able to find our hotel for the few days with out much problem. We stayed in the budget or backpacker region of the city which was fine but trying to get through the crowded narrow streets with the car was torture. Having not washed the car since I left home I think really help getting passed the crowds with the layer of dirt almost acting as a force field around us. It was comical when someone would brush off the car and relies that there clothes were cover in crap.

As Incredible India is such a massive tourist destination and after Iran and Pakistan both of us were looking forward to a few beers and a good night out. In Delhi it was a change to see so many tourists “white people” which we hadn't seen for about a month. I almost stopped to talk to the first one I seen but quickly found that they were every where.
We arrived in Delhi on Diwali which is a festival with enough fire works to finish off any issues in Afghanistan. Delhi was fine but the constant harassment by people trying to sell you stuff really annoyed me at first. You get used to it but sometimes it can be hard work, for example if you get lost or are looking for some place you will find people come up and ask if you need any help...they will help you by leading you to the shop they are working for or there mates shop.

We stayed in Delhi for three nights, drank and eat well, meet some good people and even done some tourist stuff but in general I wasn't overly impressed. Too many people, a lot of poverty, very dirty and just crazy.
We planned to go to Nepal to trek to Everest Base Camp so from Delhi we drove north east, stopping one night in ....... and another night at the shit hole border town of.........Our night in ..........was short but we found an excellent restaurant, even if the waiter had a hard time saying the words ..yes and no, instead he chose to jerk his head in some weird way to the left. Think we figured out that two jerks meant yes and one meant no. If you asked a few questions one after the other it was like he was having an epileptic fit.
The night at the border was crap. We had people following us around trying to get us to stay in there friends hotel or chance money and the sickening thing is that they closed the border for the night just minutes before we arrived, not that the town on the other side was any better but we could have saved some time the next morning. I can’t describe how bad the roads were the closer we got to the border. I think the worst thing about that whole section of India is that we will have to cross back through it once we leave Nepal for Mumbai.

Pakistan

2009-11-07T12:58:00.004+01:00

This was the best of the road coditions on this day

Lukes new friends

Security check point Pakistan style

This truck driver didnt get out of the way fast enough so our escort smashed his wing mirror...that some rights the gardai dont have

If you dont pay at the tool bridge this guy will use his pumpaction shot gun on your ass...thankfully we were on government business so we didnt need to pay the tools. The escorts did come in handy some times.

Some of the military that pulled us over

These guys slept outside our room for the night in Jacobabad, they even brought there pjs for the occasion

One of the many friendly police escorts

First stop in Pakistan

Pakistan was a bit of a shock. Before going or during the planning stage of the trip, Pakistan was just a country I had to cross in order to get to India. Although this is practically what happened on this trip I definitely would like to return sometime in the future.
Crossing the border as Luke said was like a time warp, from the relatively well maintained, compact buildings and customs yard on the Iranian to the heavily littered desert for custom and almost mud shacks for buildings on the Pakistan. As always we were led to the front of the queue at the immigration were easily 100 people were waiting to be seen. From there we drove literally through the desert to customs who were very laid back and sent us on our way within 15 minutes. The next port of call was to the police station to pick up our highly trained security guard that was supposed to protect us from the local bandits. Not quite a navy seal but at least he had some bullets for the gun. Once through the border the goal was to get to Quetta, the largest city in the west of Pakistan. I knew it was going to be a difficult drive especially in a car and the trip turned out to be a lot harder than expected. It took us 16 hours of driving through desert, dirt tracks and countless road works.
Due to the unstable situation in Pakistan at this time the Pakistan government required us to have an armed guard or armed police escort with us at all times and we felt it was obviously safer to have someone with us then going it alone. What normally happened with the guards was that every 20 or 30 kilometers there would be a police check point where we would fill in our details and pick up a new guard. At the beginning this was fine but sometimes we would have to sit around waiting for the guard as he was delayed or we would have an escort that would only drive at 40 mph. This annoyed me a lot partially when we new we had a lot of difficult miles ahead. On several occasions if the road was good enough I just put the foot to the floor and left them behind. Sometimes they would race after us and shout “more slowly more slowly” then over take us and return to 40 mph other times they would just stop, turn around and go back to there base.
We arrived in Quetta at 11 pm and found our hotel which was fairly miserable with the exception of the food. Starved with the hunger as we didn't eat for the whole day we had our first introduction to Pakistani food. Basically much the same as you can get in India, (curries and rice) but after a month and a half of kebabs it was a happy site to see.

We left Quetta at 9am the next morning with our new escorts who weren't so happy that we turned up an hour late for our prearranged departure. While on the way out through the city our escorts changed from the Police Toyota Hilux 4x4 with 4 armed police in side to a police motorbike with one armed guy riding on the back. This was quite normal as they would use different vehicles all the time but the funny thing about this situation was that while we were driving out through the crowded streets of Quetta a Military convoy passed us by going the opposite direction. There were two 4x4s loaded with heavily armed soldiers at the front of the convoy and the two at the back. In the middle were two new army landcruisers occupied by some fairly important people we assumed.
Once they passed us we continued on down the street trying our best not to kill any of the locals and more importantly not to scratch the car when all of a sudden, with sirens blaring the convoy we had passed, pushed us over to the side of the road and surrounded us. At first I thought I was in there way so I pulled over to let them by but when they also pulled up around us and soldiers hopped out of the jeeps and surrounded the area. There was easily 10 - 15 heavily armed soldiers around us. I was thinking either im going to pay a massive bribe or there were just going to blow the shit out of us. After about a minute of panic on our side, this bloke jumps out of one of the land cruisers, walks up to us and knocks on the window. He was some high ranking officer in the Pakistan army who had seen us driving by and just thought he would see if we were ok and if we needed any assistance. His English was excellent, obliviously educated in England or lived there for some time from his accent. He asked us the normal questions about the trip and once he figured out that we already had a police escort coordinated all the way to the Indian border, he wished us happy travels and speed away as quickly as he arrived. It was a strange experience but we couldn't stop laughing about it for the rest of the day.
That night we had to stay in a city called Jacobabad which with no surprise turned out to be a dump. In Jacobabad the local police didn't leave out side the whole time we were there. If I went out to get something from the car or when we when for dinner they were beside us all the time carrying fully loaded AK47s, (No manners, bring a machine gun to the dinner table just isn't European). That night two officers slept on chairs out side our room. After dinner, which again was quite good, we asked if we could have a look around the town by ourselves but they said this was not possible but they would be happy to escort us around. We didn't really want this as we thought it might draw too much attention to us. Thinking back now, two white boys from Ireland walking down the street in this part of western Pakistan would have drawn far more attention that two armed guards. That night in our hotel, we were visited by several high ranking police officers in the local area, none of them with much to say, they were probably just bored and wanted to know why we were in there city. We asked on several occasions if we were safe to travel through Pakistan by ourselves and the answer was always yes but the escorts were just there so that our government didn't need to worry about our security while in Pakistan.

We spent two more days in Pakistan but because of the security situation and the fact that we always ad to have a security escort with us we felt the sooner we got over the Indian border the better.

Not the only Irish reg in Pakistan.00 WX 1378, suppose this is were all the old trucks around Ireland get sent to. We seen 3 or 4 Irish reg trucks on this road.

Rest of Iran

2009-11-07T12:52:00.002+01:00

Filling up on cheap fuel before we leave Iran , as always with some help from the locals

We spent ten days in Tehran in total mainly waiting on our Indian visa. It was touch and go whether we would get it or not as the Indian ambassador thought that we should apply in Pakistan instead. After waiting a week in Tehran already at this stage, that wasn't an option for us as it would have meant wasting more time. Thankfully due to a little gentle persuasion and a stroke of luck our visas were issued.
On our last night in Tehran we were invited out for the night by some local who I ad meet via the couch surfing website. It turned out to be one of our best nights in Tehran.

After waiting so long in Tehran, with only 7 days left on our Iranian visas and still having to travel south east to the bottom of the country to the Pakistan border crossing at Taftan, we hadn't a lot of time to see much. We headed straight for Esfanhan, one of Iran's most beautiful cities. From Esfanhan we moved on to Kerman where we only stayed one night but again using couchsurfing we meet up with some locals who took us out for food and a small party with some home made wine. It was a nice night but unfortunately we didn't have enough time and could stay longer.
The following day we headed for the Pakistan border, via the infamous Zadahan. Apparently a fairly dangerous place for bandits and robbers but as we breezed through there at 80 mph at 8 am I didnt see any, maybe they were hiding from us. Just outside Zadahan we picked our first of many security guards. It was funny because the guy who hoped in the car looked about twelve and had no gun on him,how he would protect us I don't know. The one thing he did do was polish off our biscuits, the only food we had in the car for a day in the desert.

2009-10-09T20:32:00.002+02:00

Tehran 1

2009-10-07T18:44:00.003+02:00

The murals painted on the walls of the old US Embassy or as its better known "US Den of Espionage"...I think I look quite well in this photo

Main round-about into Tehran...it was like demolition derby trying to get on and off the bloody thing.

After driving in and out of Istanbul I thought I had experienced the worst driving im likely to see along my trip.....what a fool I was. Lonely Planet description sum's it up perfectly: “Almost anything goes on these roads and often does. Its not unusual to see motorbikes weaving between pedestrians on the footpath in an attempt to escape the gridlock or cars reversing down the highway at speed along an expressway to reached that missed exit The sheer volume of traffic can be overwhelming and makes crossing the street seem like a game of Russian roulette, only in this game there are few empty chambers”. And seeing all this on the first night I thought for sure the car had reached its final stop as there was no way it could get out alive or at least without some major plastic surgery. Our car is no Ferrari but compared to the local shit boxes it might as well be.

An interesting facts about Tehran that I bet you didn't know. Apparently Tehran is the plastic surgery capital of the world. It is reported that more than 90,000 nose jobs are carried out each year and in Tehran alone there are 3000 plastic surgeons. This is not a joke and is really evident on the streets around Tehran. The funny thing is because the operation is so expensive for the locals, between 3000 - 4000 and with the average yearly wage far less than that, it has become a status symbol to walk around town with your nose bandaged up.........to the point where people who couldn't possible afford such an operation walking around town sporting there new bandage for no reason at all.

My first thought of all these noise jobs was that there were pointless until a girl tried to explain to me why it was so popular. Her reasoning being that when you are completely covered up by the Hejab and the only thing anyone outside your family sees is you face, your going to try and make it look as perfect as possible......fair enough but unless you have a noise like Mike Tyson or Alan Gilgar I still think its a waste of money.

The good bits of Iran so far...

Iranian women are hot and really do look quite western but should come with a hazard warning while in Iran. We heard a story about a German guy who had sex with an unmarried Iranian woman and was caught...dont know how he was caught but he was given a death sentence (wonder what would have happened if she was married...killed twice maybe). After serious negotiation they apparently released him back to Germany after 2 years in prison
We heard another story about a tourist who seen kissing his Iranian girlfriend in the back of a moving car by the police....they locked him up....down with that sort of thing Ted.

The Iranian people are by far the welcoming nation I have ever come across. People just walk up to you in the street or on the metro and say hello and shake your hand. A lot of the time they just ask where are you from and then quickly say “Welcome to Iran” and walk off. They respect your space and don't just stand there staring at you like in Turkey. If they speak English they try and make conversation with what ever English they have and to be fare a lot of people are well educated and can speak a reasonable well. But when you do have a proper conversation with an Iranian they always want to know what you think of the country, will you come back, will you tell your friends that its a good safe place to visit. We always advised to never believe what the media says about Iran. For me the people just don't match the government.........

Tabriz Iran

2009-10-07T14:53:00.003+02:00

On route to Tehran

The facilities aka the shitter, takes a little getting used too but practice makes perfect.

Lazy day Luke

Luke just farted....a common occurrence. Its all fun and games until you have diarrhoea.

We arrived in Tabriz destroyed at about 3 am. Luke drove for the last two hours because I just couldn't keep my eyes open. We tried to find a hotel around the center of the city and strangely enough all were full, so I was told by the sleepy receptionists of nearly every hotel with the exception of one...the most expensive in the town. 80 dollars for 5 hours sleep and a crap breakfast, equivalent to more than 5 nights in our normal haunts. It had to be paid and the beds were a nice change to the rock hard mattresses and pillows we had been sleeping on. The next day we found another hotel and had a look around Tabriz for another two days. From what we seen its not the most exciting city but the people were very friendly and welcoming, as far as walking up to you on the street and shaking our hands and asking where we were from.

Iranain border

2009-10-04T16:03:00.002+02:00

Got to the Iranian border in good time, arriving about 2 pm. We quickly realized that something was wrong as no traffic was moving...the border was closed. After talking with some Iranians at the gate we were told that it should open up again at 8 pm. Six hours later and everything went a bit crazy. Only one gate opened and about 100 cars and buses all tried to get through the gate at the same time. The Turks and Iranians don't seem to know what queuing is and instead of taking there time two idots blocked the gate trying to get through before the other. It was bumper to bumper stuff. I literally had to touch the bumper of the car in front of me so that no other fool could cut me off and this game continued until we got through. I don't know how the car wasnt scrapped or damaged in some way. Absolute kayos is the only way to describe the border crossing with I don't know how many army and police were just looking on.

We got over the Turkish side and into the Iranian border control where unfortunately things got a little worse for us. Firstly we stupidly trusted some guy that told us he was an Iranian Tourist guide working for the Iranian government to help fast track tourists through the border. I think he screwed us and I am just sickened that I didn't see through it sooner.
The other more serious problem that we had was that the Carnet de Passage (car Passport) had the wrong registration number on it. A mistake I never noticed before then and made by the RAC in the uk who produced the Carnet. Instead of 98 MO 5314 the carnet showed 98 MO 5315. This caused of a few problems at the border but thankfully they let us through with a little persuasion. They quite easily could have sent us back to Turkey but we got lucky again. A few Euro lighter and a Carnet that was almost useless we drove into the night to Tabriz our first stop in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Van in Turkey

2009-10-03T10:22:00.006+02:00

Luke in Van on our car

After Iraq we we all stayed in a city called Van in the east of Turkey. Not a very exciting place but we did meet some locals who took us sightseeing one of the days. Van was the last stop with us for Thomas and Seje as we were all heading different direction to continue our travels. We had a few beers the night before we all split up and had a good laugh about all that had happened. The following day myself and Luke hit off for the Iranian border and all the problems that that brought.

Iraq photos

2009-10-02T15:38:00.006+02:00

"Welcome to Iraq" I thought it was very nice of them

Thomas,myself, Luke and Seje

Old town in Erbil, in the early stages of the war 2-3 thousand people lived here, now they all have nice new appartments. It will probably be a major tourist attraction in the future.....there isnt much else to see.

2km line of trucks waiting to cross the border

Seje onroute to the Iraqi border

In Turkey On the road to the border. Family sitting in there car on the back of a truck on the motorway...funny as hell when we seen it

Iraq

2009-10-02T15:29:00.005+02:00

We were all very brave men when we were telling everyone that we were going to Iraq but as we came closer and closer to the border a little bit of worry/panic started to set into us all. Nervous laughs and jokes was the order of the day. Seje was the worst by far and to be fair he had good reason being an American and standing out of a crowd like he did didnt help the situation. I have to admit I was worried he might attract some unwanted attention to us which could escalate into something more serious. We had a sneak preview of this when we stopped for breakfast in a small town just before the border. We were walking around looking for something to eat and getting the normal stares and laughs from the locals but when I stopped and asked some kids for direction to a restaurant, within minutes we were surrounded by lots of kids and some adults which was fine but then someone in our group shouted to get the hell out of here and I was happy to drive up the road a bit away from the crowd. Nothing bad would have happened, the people were only curious but when we all sat down for breakfast you could tell it had freaked us all out a bit.

We got to the border and it was funny how straight forward it all was, well on the Turkish side at least. We had never intended to drive in Iraq, the plan was to leave the car in a town close to the border and then take a taxi in. I wasn't so happy about how safe the car would be in the town we passed and thought it could be damaged or even worse stolen so decided to try and leave the car in no-mans land between the borders. After talking to some of the people at the border in the little English that they had this didnt seem possible so we had no choice but to cross over ourselves.
The boys got there visa's within and hour but the car was a total other ball game. Nobody spoke English and being Iraq nothing is computerized, everything written by hand and has to be signed off or stamped by what seemed like 20 different people who all had offices in different parts of the complex and decided to take lunch or go for a good old prayer and a cup of tea when I needed them.
I did get kind of lucky dough. I meet an Iraqi guy who lived in Germany and was temporally importing a car like me so I basically followed him around the place.
To import the car the number plates had to be changed, I had to stump up 500 dollars for a security bond and hand over my passport so that I wouldn't leave the country via another route. I then began to have images of being stuck in Iraq with no passport and down 500 dollars.

After 6 hour of fun at the border it was 8 pm and we pulled away in to deep dark Iraq. We had no map, had a general idea where we wanted to go but we didn't think it was a good idea to just drive off into the night by ourselves in case we came some land mines or get shot at by some locals. To think things out a little we stopped at a gas station to get something to eat and to claim the nerves a little as we were all a little edgy at that stage. I knew I would have to drive through the night so I slepted a little in the car and let the boys do what ever. When I woke up the boys still weren't back so I went to look for them. They had had a stroke of luck which always seems to happen when your in the shit while traveling. They got talking to the owner of the gas station who had a friend willing to drive us to our destination through the back roads, which would prevent us from being killed on the first night there (He forgot to mention how bad these back roads were and how fast he would be driving). For 130 dollars we were happy out. The owner of the gas station could only speak Kurdish and Swedish.......(lived there for a few years) and as we had a Norwegian with us (Danish,Norwegian,and Swedish are very close and they all understand each other) we were sorted. While we were waiting for our guide to arrive we were brought in for tea and made feel very welcome. Within the hour our guide Mohammad arrived. He had perfect English and had worked for the US military as a translator during 2003-2006 and only stopped working for them because he was able to get better money working for International companies trying to get a toe into the Iraqi market. For us the most obvious of such companies are the American car giants Chevrolet Chrysler Ford etc. Nearly all the new cars, 4x4s and trucks we seen on the roads are American built and it was unbelievable the amount of trucks we seen loaded up with new cars on route to the different parts of Iraq.
We left the gas station after the customary cup of tea, photos and lots of hand shakes oh and the last minute fish sandwish which was fairly good. It turned out that Mohammad didn't really know the road to Erbil that well but he had a friend that did. I cant remember his name so ill just call him Steve. I tried to explained to Mohammad that his 6 cylinder Chevrolet was a lot faster than our fat Passat and to take it handy on the road.....well he didnt. Driving at 80 -90 mph on back roads in Iraq was an experience especially without any road markings or cats eyes to help see where the edge of the road was, just two read break lights that I had to keep up with.
Along the way we were stopped by several security checkpoints. All went well I think only two of them asked to see our passports, mainly because they were bored sitting in the middle of nowhere all night.
We arrived in Erbil at around 11:30 pm and soon realized that we couldn't get a hotel for the night and that we had to sleep in the car. We arrived in Iraq at the end of the Muslim fasting period of Ramadan, after which you have Eid ul-Fitr.

“The Islamic holiday of Eid ul-Fitr (Arabic: عيد الفطر‎) marks the end of the fasting period of Ramadan and the first day of the following month, after another new moon has been sighted. The Eid falls after 29 or 30 days of fasting, per the lunar sighting. Eid ul-Fitr means the Festival of Breaking the Fast; a special celebration is made. Food is donated to the poor (Zakat al-fitr); everyone puts on their best, usually new, clothes; and communal prayers are held in the early morning, followed by feasting and visiting relatives and friends. The prayer is two Raka'ahs only, and it is optional (mustahabb) prayer as opposed to the compulsory five daily prayers. Muslims are expected to do this as an act of worship, and to thank Allah (God).”

As Kurdistan is one of the safest regions in Iraq, during the 4 day holiday of Eid half of Iraq flocked there. Syria also closed its borders to Iraq that week so we were just shit out of luck with regards accommendation. That night we slepted in the car in a hotel car park which was not very comfortable.
The next day we organized a guide to give us a tour of the city Erbil. It was obviously his first time doing such a tour as his top tourist attractions were the airport which we weren't allowed into( we were so disappointed cause id never see one before)....and the supermarket, it sold food and clothes just like you would expect. There wasn't mush to see and do as you would expect from a city that was almost completely flattened during the early stages of the war, so we were told. But it was cool to have a look around for a few hours. That evening as we had no place to stay in Erbil and we really didn't want to sleep in the car for a second night we moved back up the road towards the Turkish border. Unfortunately there was the same situation of no place to stay in that town as in Erbil. As none of us wanted to sleep in the car again and not to mention how unsafe sleeping out in the open could be there, the decision was made to get back over the Turkish border and in to a nice bed. Our Iraq trip was short but we were all glad we went.

The rest of Turkey

2009-10-02T14:36:00.006+02:00

Cappadocia

Istanbul

Selcuk 120909

2009-09-25T13:53:00.004+02:00

The Library at Ephesus

Another pıle of rocks

On the 12th I moved up to Selcuk, a small town about an hour up the road from Kusadasi on the west coast of Turkey. There is some old pile of rocks called Ephesus just outside of the town so I decided to stay for the night as I was in no rush anywhere.

After I done my tourist bit I drove back to the hostel where I met an Australian (there every where) guy who was going the same direction as I was so I offered him a lift the next day back up to Canakkale.On the 12th I moved up to Selcuk, a small town about an hour up the road from Kusadasi on the west coast of Turkey. There is some old pile of rocks called Ephesus just outside of the town so I decided to stay for the night as I was in no rush anywhere.

‘Ephesus was one of the seven churches of Asia that are cited in the Book of Revelation.[2] The Gospel of John may have been written here.[3] It is also the site of a large gladiators' graveyard.
Today's archaeological site lies 3 kilometers southwest of the town of Selçuk, in the Selçuk district of İzmir Province, Turkey. The ruins of Ephesus are a favorite international and local tourist attraction, partly owing to their easy access from Adnan Menderes Airport and via the port of Kuşadası.’
After I done my tourist bit I drove back to the hostel where I met an Australian (there every where) guy who was going the same direction as I was so I offered him a lift the next day back up to Canakkale.
Turned out he was some kind of ancient Roman-Greek history buff so I spent 5 hour (with a stop off in the middle to look at some more rocks) listing to him dribble on about rocks. To be fair a lot of what he was saying was interesting but we all have our limits when it comes to the subject of rocks.

Kusadası 10-110909

2009-09-25T12:29:00.003+02:00

Walters photo shoot in from of his hotel

I stayed one night in Canakkale, and headed down to Kusadasi to meet up with Walter and Mark. I arrived around midday and started looking around for accommodation. Because Kunadasi is a big package holiday town it is quite expensive compared to the rest of Turkey so I opted to camp instead of a hotel. Turned out my campsite was considerably better located than the two boys hotels and for 5 Euro per night im sure a little bit cheaper ...haha.

The Campsıte, wıth clothes line included in the price

That night I meet up with Walter and his girlfriend Rachel (I think Walter was more happy to see the car than myself but that’s the way it goes I suppose). After Walters’s photo shoot with me and the car we went out and meet up with Mark and Erin. It was nice change to go for a few with people who know ya already rather than explaining the same old story…...where your from, what your doing, how long your traveling for..etc.

I stayed in Kusadasi for 2 days and had a good time but that type of holiday just isn't for me I think, not yet at least.

Road to Turkey

2009-09-24T17:51:00.003+02:00

Today is the 20th of September and im writing about leaving Montenegro 2 weeks ago....just not enough time.

I left Montenegro with Sandy the Dutch girl in the hostel. I was heading to Kosovo and then down into Macedonia. Sandy had never been and decided to tag along for a few days.
Too get to Kosovo I first had to drive into Serbia and then down into Kosovo. It all went relatively smoothly except on the Serbian border I had to pay 120 euro for insurance I already had but again being so prepared I didnt have the original document with me to prove it. To add insult to injury minimum days you can buy insurance for is 40..which I still think is a scam and that the border guards pocketed at least half the cash if not more. Considering I was only going to be in the country for a few days, I was well and truly got screwed over....ahahahah.
We crossed in to Kosovo easily, the usual questions at the border...”What the fuck are you doing here in this car” and then carried on for a few hours into Pristine. Only eventful part of this trip was running over a dog that had being split in two by a truck...hahaha, I laughed. Sandy didn’t.

Pristine is a strange city, full of expats who are working for the UN. I say work, but think most of them are at feck all. We had a good look around the city but then headed back to the Hostel, situated right beside Kosovo’s presidents house (It was a fairly normal house from the outside, just a lot of security).
That’s about all we done there and headed out the road to Macedonia the next day. Probably would have liked to stay another day but it just didn’t work out.

Camp Clarke

The road to Macedonia again was straight forward and the border was easy. The one good thing which I am so glad that I found was that the Irish army base was on the Pristine – Skopje road about 10K out of Pristine. I pulled in to the front gate of the base and tock a picture with the car and Camp Clarke sign. Was thinking of driving up to the main entrance to get a picture with one of the soldiers but decided against it in the end. I know if Walter or Luke were with me at the time we probably would have been brought in for some tea and a pack of Tayto or something like that but I moved on up the road.

I landed in Skopje and dropped Sandy off. She was going to stay there for a night or two then get a bus back to Montenegro. For me I wanted to push on to Sofia in Bulgaria. I was moving so fast at this time because I knew Walter was going to be on holidays on the west coast of Turkey for 7 days and I was pushing hard to try and meet him and Mark for a few days. As Walter was meant to be on the trip I thought it would be cool to get a photo with him in turkey and drive him about a bit...so he did actually join for some of the trip.
I stayed in Sofia only for one night. Meet up with some English guys and got wasted with them.

1Km from the Turkish border

The next day I crossed the Turkish border and turned south towards the west coast of turkey. In total I must have drove for 9 hour that day.....I was glad to see my bed that night.

Trogen horse from the movie in the centre of Canakkale

I stayed in Canakkale which by complete chance is actually quit a famous place particularly for Australians and New Zealanders. Firstly, Troy is only 15 km down the road with the ruins of the fortress and a massive wooden horse for tourist to climb into for photos. Secondly Gallipoli Campaign took place at the Gallipoli peninsula across the water from Canakkale from 25 April 1915 to 9 January 1916, during the First World War.
I done the tour and it was interesting but its mainly for Australians and New Zealanders, hence ANZAK tours, or ANZAK day.

Podgorica

2009-09-13T21:17:00.004+02:00

I dont have a clue who that is or what its about...my tour guide was in bed.

Nice Church beside the hostel

The view from on top of the "big hill"

On the road to Kotor

2009-09-13T21:14:00.002+02:00

Montenegro 04_060909

2009-09-13T20:59:00.003+02:00

Kotor from on top of the old castle on the hill.

Montenegro has to be one of my favorite countries so far. Left Dubrovnik with Tom and Mark in the car and traveled down to Kotor a big tourist/ cruiseship stop off for one night. Kotor is situated on a lake and has a cool old town inside these massive old castle walls. We stayed in hostel inside the walls of the city, which for the first time in a long time was really nice and cheap.
That evening we walked up a million steps to the top of the hill to see the castle. Sightseeing done we meet up with a Finnish guy and went out with him. Fairly calm night as it went and I was happy to see my bed that night and a 12:00 check out was good for me.
The next morning we headed towards Podgorica and stopped off in Sveti Stefan in Budvar for a swim and a quick look around.
Driving into Podgorica none of us were too impressed by what we were seeing. Even people from Montenegro will tell you not to go there because it is such an ugly city from the outset but for me once you look around and are there on a weekend you'll think its a great place.
We got to our hostel/shed for the night and through our bags in. The hostel was really a dilapidated old house beside the national football stadium rented out by and old American guy who just filled it with beds. If you can get over the slightly run down look you will soon relies how cool the place really is. That also goes for the city itself.

The hostel is called Steve's place (Steve being the 50+ American who visited Podgorica a few years earlier and found that there was no hostel in the capital city and decided to set one up). Steve himself was not around for the first night that we were there as he had went traveling around Europe for 3 weeks but was on his way back. He had asked a guest, Sandra (20 year old Dutch girl) to look after the hostel while he was away (no worries). Sandra turned out to be our party hostess for the night. She took us out showed us where to go, mixed with some of the locals and a great night was had by all. Tom and Mark were moving on the next day but I decided to stay another night.

2675 miles on the clock

2009-09-07T16:35:00.000+02:00

Today

Split_Dubrovnik 31_030909

2009-09-07T16:32:00.004+02:00

Again im writing all this about a week late. I left Zagreb and the two lads and pointed myself in the direction of Split on the coast of Croatia. Although Luke and Pete were good fun to be around it was still nice to be out on the open road by myself again. Its all motorway from Zagreb to Split but even so the views of the countryside, mountains and little villages were amazing.
I got into Split in the early evening and found a cool hostel right beside the old town. On my first evening there I put up a sign on the notice board that I was heading towards Dubrovnik and if anyone wanted a free lift they were welcome. After two days I decided to move on down the coast to Dubrovnik. I had received some requests for a lift but due to timing only one guy was able to travel with me, Alec a Londoner who turned out to be a really interesting guy. He had actually traveled the same route to Australia as I am hoping to do. He did it when he was 18 in an organized tour bus with 35 other people. Naturally enough I had lots of questions for him which kept me entertained on the 3 hour trip. In Croatia the motorway ends at Split. After Split, a long windy coastal road zigs-zags its way along the rugged coastline. Again unbelievable views.
An interesting fact that I didn't know before I drove there is that Bosnia and Herzegovina cuts Croatia into two parts. Bosnia and Herzegovina has a coastline which couldn't be much more than 10 or 15 kilometers long, hence you don't really notice it on a map ........or is that just stupid Liam coming out again. Went through the normal border checks and was out of the country within 15 minutes and back down the road to Dubrovnik.
We found a hostel but unfortunately it was really shit, with the main problem being that there was a curfew at 3 am....(not that I stay out any later than midnight mother..;). Sure we settled in and just happen to meet up with two more English lads and we decided it would be a good idea to celebrate our new found friendship with a few pints. Turns out that they were heading down to Montenegro as I was two days later so I told them they could jump in and id take them down.
While we were out we also meet up with 3 South African guys who were cycling from Scotland back home to South Africa. These guys were lunatics but great craic. They had had a few though days cycling and decided to stop off in Dubrovnik for a week to relax on a yacht owned by one of there family friends. We had a good laugh with them and when we meet about 40 Australian ladies who were on a boat trip along the coast of Croatia, the night really kicked off. The amount of lads who were staying on a yacht in Dubrovnik marina doubled in a second..........best chat up line ever. They did find it a little strange that our yacht had a curfew dough.
We messed about in Dubrovnik for another night but nothing could beat the first one.

2009-08-31T10:37:00.001+02:00

Photos will be uploaded soon

Zagreb 29_300809

2009-08-31T10:36:00.001+02:00

After Bled we drove over the border into Croatia towards the capital Zagreb. Same old story, the lads fell asleep as soon as we started down the road, only stopping to get some breakfast. Zagreb isn't the nicest city in the world but worth a visit.
The first night we were there we meet up with some people in the hostel but I could face going out again. The next morning we got up early to get breakfast (getting very tired of bread and jam thats for sure). Meet up with an Australian girl at breakfast who was traveling alone and she decided to come with us for the day.
The weather was unbelievable for the previous but as soon as we got into the city a thunder storm kicked off and lasted the whole day. There isn't much to do in these cities when the weather is bad so we headed back to the hostel, cooked some food and tried to see what the inside of an empty bottle of wine looks like...several times. As it was Luke and Pete and myself were heading different direction the next day there were a lot of roads toasted. One unfortunate out come for me from this was that I managed to damage my glasses. It wasn't my fault, I blame the shopping trolley and the snorkel I was wearing under the glasses at the time.

Ljubljana and Bled 23_280809

2009-08-31T10:34:00.000+02:00

The last few days have just kind of rolled in to one big session. After Maribor we moved on down the road to Ljubljana the capital city of Slovenia. All was good, it has a cool old town and some good bars (check out the skeleton bar if you ever find yourself there) but not much happening during the week. The good thing about the hostel was the kitchen. I'm getting tired of eat out all the time. Found somewhere to swim during the day and that was us set. We stayed in Ljubljana for three days, while there we heard about a cool tourist town to visit called Bled about an hour down the road.
In Bled you can do loads of adventure sports, (river rafting, sky diving, etc.) . The boys didn't really have the money and I wasn't too bothered and when we meet about ten Irish women and a few Scottish lads the days kind of planned themselves, swimming in the lake...food ....beer.
On the last night I got talking to a couple who had drove from Scotland to Greece and were on there way back to the UK. It was just good to find out what problems they had, how to avoid tolls and what was in store for the next week.

Maribor 220809

2009-08-31T10:33:00.000+02:00

After Vienna, Peter and Luke the two Ozzie's, decided to stay with me until Zagreb in Croatia. The plan thus far is to drive around Slovenia for about a week then head for Croatia. Im happy enough with that as there a good laugh and they stop me from falling asleep while im driving (Pete never shuts up ...:) )

Drove for about an hour from Vienna and reached the Slovenian border. First thing I love about Slovenia...tourists don't have to pay tolls on the road......second beer is half the price of any place iv been so far (2.40 euro). Id definitely come back.

First city was Maribor. It was a nice place but we had a strange experience with our hostel manager. Maribor is a fairly small city and only has one real youth hostel which a 50/60 year old English women runs. Anyways it was fairly obvious very quickly that she was a bit lonely like an idiot I asked her if she wanted to join us for a drink. Well she was dressed and taxi called within 15 minutes. It was all going ok at first and she brought us to some cool bars around the town but then she started asking us some weird questions and feeling us all up. If im honest, she fancied the boys more than me. Im very happy that I was not her “ favorite little boy ” but bit of a blow to the ego all the same .....:) :) We didn't think she was going rape us and then pack us into a freezer or anything like that but the city wasn't that good and the hostel was crap so we didn't stay the second night as planned. Before you laugh iv seen “Hostel” 1,2 and 3. I probably would have stayed the second night but the other two were too afraid ......:0 isn't that right Pete and Luke

Day 9 / 10 Vienna

2009-08-24T15:52:00.003+02:00

Road to Vienna

Arrived in Vienna a little after 4 and found our hostel for the next two nights.We didn't go out that night because we were all destroyed from the previous night so just hung around the hostel playing cards. Unfortunately for us the hostel had been taken over by a religious prayer group who were spending a week on a retreat praying in the hostel.....I didn't understand it either.

The next day we done some site seeing in the morning. Vienna is a beautiful city but I have to admit I am and thankfully the two boys are, pretty shit tourists. After two hours walking around the city in 30 deg heat, we decided to find the spot on the river running along side the city where we could swim.That was the best part of the day by far.Just relaxed and burned the hell out of myself.
We went out that night to an Australian pub some where I had my first taste of a veggiemight toasty and it was alright when your drunk. Good night out but the 4 km walk home wasn't so good.

Day 8 1485 miles on the clock

2009-08-21T18:44:00.002+02:00

Zurich

The last few days have just flown bye. After leaving France I went straight to Zürich. Having lived there for a summer, I kind of knew my way around and had seen a lot of the tourist stuff already. My plan in Zürich was just to meet some of my old flat mates and just to chill out for a few days.
On the Monday night I meet up with Lukas and Pit for a few drinks. It was cool to meet them again and talk about some of the stuff that happened when we lived there. It was hard to believe that it had been 3 years since I had meet them last.
The next day I didn't really get up to much, just had a walk around the city and went for a swim in the lake which is right on the edge of the city. The water was quality and so was the talent walking around it.
That night I stayed in the hostel and had a few drinks with some people who were there for the night.

The next day I had to check out around 10. Got my stuff together and decided to drive to Innsbruck in Austria. Stopped off along the way a few time just to have a look around but basically floored it all the way.
Stayed in shitty hostel in Innsbruck with a Neo-Nazie in the opposite bed, but meet up with two young Ozzie guys and went out with them for the night. It was a good laugh but one of the lads after we got back spent the night driving the porcelain bus. As all three of us were heading towards Vienna the next day I said id give them a lift.

Day 4 160809 776 miles on the clock

2009-08-17T18:43:00.004+02:00

Camping outside Orleans

Woke up in the morning to a German guy and his wife knocking or scratching on my tent trying to get my attention.....well they did. Apparently there tent was the same type as mine (self erecting....easy to set up but a bitch to pack away again..bit like myself I suppose) and they had spent the previous hour trying to pack it away. Anyways long story short I got up and packed the fucker tent away in seconds (he was sickened) and walked away happy as fuck until I stubbed my toe on a rock. Hid away in the tent for about an hour after that.
I had a great start to the day traveling through back roads and little towns and villages. Ya you can drive 90 or 100 mph on the highway but there boring as hell. Hopefully try and do the same again tomorrow.
Stopped off for lunch in city call Dijon. Had a quick walk around the city but as it was Sunday most things were closed. Nothing much happened for the rest of the day. I tried to couchsurf in Besancon but unfortunately due to the short notice no one was able to host me so I found another camp site and pitched the tent again. Went for a quick run then into the pool for the evening. Tomorrow a Hostel in Zurich. These campsites are cheap and handy (7 euro tonight) but there is absolutely no craic around.

Day 3 150809

2009-08-17T18:42:00.001+02:00

It was hard to get out of the bed after the night before but it had to be done. My trusty medical was called into play and sorted me out. I had breakfast at Gantans and utilized his internet for about an hour trying to find a good p;lace to stay for the next two nights in Orleans (about 200 miles away from Caen and Besancon close to the Swiss border. I said my goodbyes to Marie and Gantan and got some supplies in the supermarket. It was time to give this camping craic a go so I got the address of a good campsite and hit the road.
After getting robbed by 5 toll booths on the way down I finally got to the campsite, payed 10 euro and set up for the night.I had to repacked the car because I had my stuff all over the place and dumped a load of crap that I didnt need

Day2 140809 First Day in France

2009-08-17T18:41:00.000+02:00

The boat docked in Cherbourg at 15:00 and we were off in minutes. The whole process was quick and easy and it wasn't long before I was on my way to Caen.
A few days before I left home,using the website couchsurfing.org I organized a place to stay in Caen, a city about one and a half hours drive from Cherbourg. Thankfully I am so happy to say Suzie SatNav worked perfectly and brought be right to the front door of my accommodation for the night.

The couple who let me stay in there house for the night were Marie and Ganten. Both around 35, born and raised in Cane. First I was shown where I was staying, a massive room with a double bed ( not bad considering its free) then after I changed out of my winter clothes from Ireland in to a pair of shorts (28 deg outside) they tock me sight seeing around the city. Apparently Cane is where William the Conquer was born. After an hour of walking we started drinking. Gantans best friend who is also very involved in couchsurfing was hosting two Swedish girls for that night so they decided to have a bbq and and beer. Needless to say I was happy out. It was a good start to the trip.

Day 1 13/08/09 226 miles on the clock

2009-08-17T18:35:00.006+02:00

Rosslare

Left home around 08:30. It was the best time to leave, everyone in the house was either gone or leaving for work and I really do hate goodbyes. Even dough I come and go so often with work, I still cant get used to it. If it was up to me I would quietly slip out the back door and hit the road, sending a group text an hour later saying 'take it easy, see ya in a few months'.Probably wouldn't be let back into the house if I done that. It was particularly hard this time because I was home for so long, seeing all the family, working with the three chiefs and going on the beer with the lads. But having said all that, by the last week I was getting the itchy feet again (the doctor said there was nothing that could be done......). Time to move Made my way down to Wexford anyways with feck all help from Suzie the SatNav (thought Id give her a name as there is only going to be the two of us talking in the car for a while so we might as well be on a first name basis). She led me up every country road possible and ended up nearly going into some bucks field to pick up a trailer of grass at one stage. Its been a while since iv been in Wexford , at least 8 or 9 years. I was surprised that I remembered some of the places I passed through. I even spotted the road that would take you up and over the hill and down to the church where my Aunty's has a shop across the way. I was so delighted with myself that I tried to show the driver in front of me how happy I was by almost converting his BMW estate into a hatchback. Wouldn't have been a good move. Giving him the two fingers as I over took his ass was the proper course of action, Suzie agreed..

Made it to the boat a little over three hours early...note to self, 'read the bloody departure time on the ticket probably next time'. Id swear Im dyslexic but the teachers in school would never admit it so that I wouldn't get the extra time in exams. Probably would have got all A's if they had.

So im in the queue 3 hours before I should be and if you have never been at Rosslare Port before, my only advice is, go at the right time and read the signs , once your in its hard getting back out. It was a bit like being at the top of a massive queue for a toll bridge and realizing you have no change in the car and you left your wallet back in the house with the dog minding it for ya or meeting a car on a one way street and realizing your the retard. Anyways the roughish good looks and a splash of charm helped sort out that problem.

Made it on the boat in one piece anyways but strangely enough seeing as I was the first in the queue (as I was so early), its funny that I was the last one to drive on to the boat.......a story for another day. Driving on the wrong side of the road tomorrow .......what could possibly go wrong.

2009-08-09T14:09:00.000+02:00

Pre-departure

2009-08-05T21:14:00.003+02:00

Iranian and Pakistan Visa's in the passport. Carnet de passage (car passport) sorted. 11 year old car....has 4 wheels. Spare key for the day I lose the original. Baseball bat for when I need to open a can of beans in a hurry. My kettle for when I want to spill boiling water over my hand. Three man tent for the nights I meet a hot swedish chick and her equally hot friend. Compass....for finding the car in the dark after a skip of pints. Medical kit filled with hangover cures, baby prevention plastic and 1 plaster, incase of an accident. The thickest sleeping bag I could find..suitable for the arctic because I hear Iran has really being effected by global warming. No real destination, map or plan to take me there, sure ill figure it out along the way.

Paper Work

2009-05-19T13:32:00.004+02:00

Must do:
Apply for Iranian and Pakistan vist by the first week of June
Apply for the Carnet de Passage a week or so after
Sort out navigation system......GPS for Europe only so far....must buy some maps
Need to start working on the car and getting some kit together by the end of June.
The rest ill just have to wing it......safety, health,extra supplies....:(