NZinavan

New Zealand

2008-09-26T07:21:00.006+01:00

G’day!

Well without further ado, we can now proudly announce that we have officially driven from UK to New Zealand in a van (with small cameo appearances from 2 big ships and a few aeroplanes), and our global challenge ‘NZinavan’ has successfully been completed!!! We arrived in a rainy Auckland in mid-winter on the 13th August, exactly 15 weeks after we left Britain, and completely froze after having been in such hot places for so long!

Aside from the English Channel ferry crossing, we drove every inch of the way from humble Hastings in Britain, to the mighty metropolis of Mumbai in India. Our onward overland route was barred by political and beaurocratical (that’s not a word) restrictions in Tibet and China meaning that we had to resort to using a ship to carry the van to New Zealand whilst we flew to meet with it again on the other side. Our trip has taken us across grassy plains, deserts and rivers, through forests, cities and villages, and past whole seas, tribes, nations and even continents. We have driven on 8 lane Autobahns, Pot-holed ‘car-breaker’ tarmac, dirt, sand dunes, mud, loose rocks, snow, and through sewerage pools as well as crystal-clear mountain streams. The temperature has ranged from -1 to +47 degrees Celsius. We have stood under the baking Middle Eastern sun, just as we have the cascading Indian monsoon and the snow of Britain. We have delved 28 meters below sea level to the shores of the Caspian Sea, and up to 5200 meters in the Himalayas. We have crossed 95 degrees of longitude, 180 degrees of latitude, and have driven over 11,000 miles.

The most incredible thing is that the whole way, we never even got one flat tyre! The van just kept on going without even a hiccup. In fact, the only trouble we had was when 2 of the suspension leafs on one of the rear wheels snapped after bouncing over a mountain range continuously for 4 days (understandable). That was easily fixed, and the only other thing we did on the way was change the engine oil – once! We found it quite funny because we arrived in NZ and hired a car, and on the second day the tyre blew out!

From around the middle of Turkey onwards the van started belching out black fumes from the exhaust pipe, especially at altitude, and going up hills. But that’s just because (we discovered) the diesel in these places has around 200 times the amount of sulphur in it (and other nasties no doubt) as it does in Europe…and you wonder why they have poor air quality. When we were going through the dry dusty places (ie. most of the way), emptying the air filter was almost a daily chore. This involved banging it against a wall until there is a sizeable pile of sand/dust on the ground, and you are completely powdered!

Rhona got pregnant the day before we left, yet she still managed to climb a 2500 metre ice capped mountain in Slovakia, survived India in 45 degree heat with morning sickness, and took a rabies injection, antibiotics, and malaria tablets before we even found out! We figured that our baby will either be extremely tough, or will come out with its middle finger up! Now Rhona is 23 weeks in, and has a sizeable bump.

Sometimes the most memorable moments are the small things that make you laugh, cry, shiver or just think. Some of these might have seemed too small to put in the blog, so we have a few of them here.

Indian Laundry is one such memory. Even if you stay in a hotel, what many might not realise is that when you give them your clothes and towels to wash, it is passed on to a laundry boy, who then takes it and hand washes it. This may be done in a private tub, but quite often it seems to go to either a large communal laundry pool or down to a river! It mostly came back crushed, a nice brown colour, and smelling distinctly of stale curry – lovely! Oh how wonderful washing machines, irons and nice smelling detergent are!

One of Rhona’s favourite experiences was all the really pretty clothes, jewlery, and colours we have experienced in many countries, especially Turkey and India. Also how people take real pride in their appearance even if they are just doing their daily chores. The aroma of the spice markets was wonderful with a whole display of interesting and very different ingredients.

For Simon one of the most shocking moments was using a urinal in a restaurant in Kathmandu, only to find out that it was in fact not plumbed in at all, it just emptied itself on the ground at his feet! Lovely!

As we’re talking about toilets, there was another incident in Iran when we desperately needed to empty our portaloo. We passed a fuel station, which was under construction but appeared to have working toilets. There was nobody around so we snatched at the opportunity at last to empty our overflowing waste tank. As we poured away, we got that very satisfied feeling almost as though our sins were being washed away (they were particularly bad this time)! It wasn’t until we had finished and properly cleaned it out that we realised that the foul smelling semi-liquid had appeared oozing out of a bare pipe round the side of the block and had spread all over the building site! “Oops” said we, and planned to leave pronto (we weren’t sure what punishments were dealt for such a crime in Iran). Just then, a truck load of builders arrived back from lunch, and started curiously inspecting the strange blue/green trickle with half digested brown lumps and soggy paper that had mysteriously appeared in their building site! We said our “Salaam”s and cleared off!

Having just confessed that we now actually have to say that among the worst discoveries we have made about the world would have to be the pollution. Something has got to be done about this. Ghastly (that’s a good English word) at best, suffocating at worst, this just represents a dark stain of human pillage on the earth. It’s all seemingly because governments are too interested in trying to become the next world superpower than to look after their own country and people.

Among the best discoveries is certainly the overwhelming power of humanity left in some people that would compel a person with nothing, to offer two dirty travellers with whom they have zero in common, everything they have without want for reward. It moves you to realise that this still exists, and hurts to wonder where this has gone in the western world.

We have seen many wonderful places on our travels, and have certainly been witness to some gloriously enchanting scenery, food, hospitality and culture. We didn’t set off with any grand scheme in mind – we didn’t even raise any money for charity (which was a bit lame), we just had an amazing chance to enjoy some of this planet that has been given to us, and we took it. We had no idea what we would discover about this world we live in, or ourselves, if anything. Maybe we would just come out of the other side with more to offer? You may wonder if we left the UK because we were searching for something, but I think that this trip has proved to us that we were not. If anything it has shown us quite clearly that we have everything we need because our God is going before us! The drive was good and all, but it hasn’t “opened our minds” or “changed us forever” as some would claim. It has mostly made us realise how privileged we have been to have been born and brought up in a country such as Great Britain.

We’re not just talking about wealth here, for one, Britain has world-class scenery: walk around the rugged coast of Cornwall, drive up the breath-taking Glen Coe in Scotland, see the spotless beaches of southern Wales. If you haven’t been to these places then go there, and you will know that you have seen real beauty. We also realised that Britain has good food! From breakfast right up to supper, this is the land of proper nosh – enjoy it! You can get fried breakfast or roast-beef-with-all-the-trimmings in other places, but it just aint the same! As for historic marvels of architecture, just do a tour of Scottish castles; go see Stonehenge, or the tower of London – these all match up to the best of them. When it comes to cities, you might think that the traffic is awful in British cities, but it really isn’t! Nowhere else will you get the romance of walking down the high street of a city of a million people under a castle perched gloriously on a high crag above you than in Edinburgh. Nowhere else will you sample the grandness of Buckingham palace or the houses of parliament on your way to a U2 gig. As far as hospitality goes, well the other thing you just don’t get anywhere else in the world is the welcome of a warm cosy pub where you can sit down in front of a fire to thaw out with a good pint that was brewed just down the road - aaaah! There is also nowhere in the world where there is a coffee shop like Mr Beans! You can enjoy all this without the constant worry of disease carrying mosquitoes, snakes and other nasties. Consider all these things (and we’ve not even started on public freedom), and Great Britain a pretty good place!

We feel incredibly blessed to have been able to do this trip, and have had an ace time doing it, but we still think (in all seriousness) that for us, the best of the world is back in Britain… that is until we got to New Zealand… Wow this place is awesome!! We left the rain of Auckland behind us and headed down to Motueka in the Nelson region of the South Island where we will be spending the next year and a half, and the beauty just blew us away: calm translucent water gives way to golden sands which in turn rise up to snow capped mountains all around you. Every kind of outdoor activity imaginable is at your doorstep and is the best in the world. We have already seen the largest and clearest fresh water springs in the world, seals giving birth, glorious deserted beaches, stunning alpine scenery deep in snow, and all under a bright crystal-clear blue sky. The Nelson region has the highest amount of sunshine-hours in the country and it is rare for two days to go by without one of them being glorious. We feel very at home here – we’re enjoying rather British food (including great fish and chips), the scenery is quite Scottish-like, and so far people have been incredibly friendly and accepting towards us.

After finding a place to live and sorting out various things in Motueka, we headed back up to Auckland to wait for our van to arrive. This turned out to be a tormenting 3 week wait more than what we expected, and when our van finally did emerge from it's dark box it had 6 weeks worth of damp mold growing all over it and everything in it. The quarantine inspectors were about ready to send it the incinerator, but instead recommended that it be given the full deep steam cleaning treatment, everything short of dipping it in acid! Comments such as "you should have left it in India", and "is that a van?" were noted. We reminded them of it's glorious track record but didn't want to displease the people who's decision it would be to let us have it back! After it's embarrassing 'army bath', we took it to the garage to get a Warrant of Fitness (MOT), and the guy took one look at it and basically said "you must be joking!" Sure enough, one look at the underside would make you believe that they dragged it along the bottom of the ocean rather that in 'containerised transport' for the amount of rust it had developed. So, at that point we realised that it was just not even near worth spending any more money on it than we already had getting it here, and we are ending this story with our most stalwart companion going to the scrap heap. What a dissapointment...not mention money down the squat loo. It got here, and completed the mission, but we should have left it behind!

So now we are very much looking forward to staying in one place for a while. We have found somewhere to live, Simons flying course is now under way, and the transition to our new start seems to have gone incredibly smoothly. On that note we are saying ta for now, and thank you so much to all the people who have read our blog and been so positive about it. We are especially thankful to those who have been praying for us. We really appreciate it. It is safe to say that it kept us going at times! Still watch this space, there’s talk of a hard copy of this, and who knows what we’ll get up to next!

We will have more adventures, but that’s another story!

The End

Singapore and Malaysia

2008-08-12T06:50:00.003+01:00

Selamat tengah hari!

In our last week in Mumbai, we found out more than ever, that India is a very manic place, and Mumbai is the most manic place in India! This coupled with trying to sort out all sorts of things that would have been hard for us in our own country, we had a very stressful last week! We were up late the night before we were due to fly to Singapore, going in and out of internet cafe's, our shipping agents' office, and trying to courier documents back home. Basically our bank refused to let us transfer any money unless we actually went into a branch in the UK which was obviously not possible! Thanks to our great parent agents back home, we were able to sort it out though and we managed to fit in a fine curry on our last night.

So we waved goodbye to Indian roads, Indian driving, dirt, taxis (that you can't fit into!), smells and got on our lovely Singapore Air plane. Arriving in Singapore from India must be one of the biggest contrasts ever! We were amazed by what felt like the smoothest roads, most courteous driving, cleanest streets, and fanciest buildings we had ever seen! Our hotel was in the 'red light' district as that is where the cheapest hotels are and many locals seem to think it is a terrible area, but we found it to be quite pleasant with the coolest eating scene in Singapore.
Singapore is all about shopping, and although we tried our best not to we came away with a few bits and bobs and...a video camera, so that's cool! Lovely city to wander round anyway, being so clean and quiet with heaps of classy waterside restaurants and bars lining the river and coast.

We only spent one day there though before we shot of to our tropical island paradise of Pulau Tioman in Malaysia. Here we stayed for 9 days, and really became complete beach bums! It was very beautiful indeed and a lovely strip of sand with clear bright turquoise water and silky soft sand. Lovely - we felt like we deserved it! With out making you go emerald green with envy,

Simon went scuba diving down to an old wreck which was particularly exciting as we had bought a big triple set of famous five books, and had just been reading about the five looking for treasure on their wreck! He couldn't wait to get back to tell Rhona who was quite happy sunbathing. We stayed in a wooden chalet (shack) right on the beach, and it was just one step down onto the sand.

Back in Singapore, we are just counting down the hours until our

flight leaves early in the morning, and that is where we are now, so we see you then!

India - Bombay

2008-07-27T16:30:00.001+01:00

We headed off from peaceful Udaipur in the direction of Mumbai - the big city of India, spliting the journey at a city called Baroda. Once again the state of the road was a pleasant surprise. It was a beautiful tarmac motorway most of the way,lined with stone work and marble stalls. We are very tempted to buy a slab of marble while we're here to make a coffee table out of as it's so readily available and probably very cheap. Baroda however was not so pleasant! Described as a cultured, harmonious university town, it is in fact a pretty dirty, smelly and unfriendly place. You don't seem to be able to get away from the beggars and children constantly tugging and pulling at you to get some money. We had a bit of a hunt for a reasonable clean hotel, which was also difficult to come by. We ended up in the aptly named Swastic Hotel with Nazi symbols everywhere! We were greeted by stares, not a smile to be seen which is not our general experience of India so far, and very brash, un-trusting hotel staff. We decided only to stay for one night, but when we discovered wireless internet in our room we were so exited, and stayed two nights spending all day on the web only venturing out to eat!! Brilliant!

Our drive to Mumbai was to be the final long drive in our van until New Zealand, as the plan is to stay in Mumbai and sort out our visas for NZ and arrange the shipping of our van, get our medicals etc. Quite a daunting task. To be honest we were not really looking forward to Mumbai as we were expecting another smelly, dirty, hectic and very expensive city, where we knew we were probably going to have to stay for at least two weeks. On the other hand it was quite exiting because we knew this was one step closer to getting to New Zealand which is getting more exciting by the day.

The road this time, despite suposedly being the best in India and lined with toll booths, let down its reputation! It took us 10 hours to get to Mumbai which we expected to be just a short hop. It was a very pretty drive though, through quite a rural and very green, hilly part of India. We stopped off for lunch in a roadside "Dhaba" which is always quite a fun experience. The menu is quite often in Hindi and we really have no idea what we are ordering - we just pick things at random and see what we get! The great thing is Rhona is feeling much better these days and is managing to eat curries and other spices quite regularly now - phew!

Entering Mumbai felt sort of like entering Glasgow - on a very big scale! We crossed the bridge onto Mumbai island, marking the edge of the urban sprawl, and then passed a sign saying 'Mumbai 53km'! The highways into the city are brilliant and not too crowded which is the most common problem in Indian cities. High rises both fancy and completely decrepid line the sky and we were very exited to see the sea for the first time in ages! Rickshaws are banned in the centre of Mumbai and are replaced by hundreds of black and yellow taxi cabs. Red buses, almost like London buses are also numerous. Its crazy to say, but in one of the biggest and busiest cities in the world there is a real sense of peacfullness. Modern shops and coffee houses can be found everywhere, which can be a refreshing taste of home when needed. We have found the hustlers and sellers a lot less pushy and in fact people generaly leave you alone after you say no once. The people are very friendly, and will make pleasant chit chat whithout ending with "Look at my shop". We have spent our evenings so far miandering along the sea front, enjoying the atmosphere whith hundreds of locals, while horses and carts decorated brightly speed along the sea road.

Our first day here was a Sunday. We got up quite early and made our way to the train station for our first Indian railway experience. Because Sunday's are quiet we decided we'd try traveling second class, (20p return for both of us), which on a week day would normaly be packed tighter than sardines. The trains here are super efficient and leave so regularly you never need to hang around waiting. We jamp aboard the ancient carriage and sat ourselves on the metal bench seats. It was great fun. We love the way everyone just hangs out of the open doors when the train is moving even if there are loads of spare seats! Our stop was about 30 mins away where we had arranged to go to the church that our church in Hastings is closely involved with. We felt so completely at home at once there! We were greeted by so many people as we walked throught the door and the service was so lively and passionate! We spent the afternoon with the pastor Franco and his wife and children which was really special and we would really love to return again.

We spent the next day traveling across town for a meeting with the shipping agents, which was very sucessful. Everything is under control in that department, and shipping our van should now be relatively easy. The day after we had our medicals performed which we need for our visa applications. That was fine and we should be getting our certificates in a few days time. At one point we were approached by a man on the street, and asked to be extras in a Bollywood movie in the making, which we thought would be a fantastic laugh, however it was a full 12 hour day and happened to clash with our medicals! Bummer!

Its also pretty amazing how, though highly illegal, we get offered marijuana and coke, almost as often as taxi's! And that the red light distict is listed as "must-see", "women at work for so many years!", tourist attraction by taxi drivers along with all the other temple's and historic sights.
Our map of Mumbai isn't very good, and we've managed to get lost the couple of times we weren't using a taxi or train. The best was when we ended up in the middle of a large bazaar market! It took us ages to push our way out of it again through throngs of people. It was great to see though, and we didn't have the hassle of trying to walk past all those stalls without buying anything!

Following that, we got a bit of bad news, in that we've found out that once we've submitted our application for visa's they take between three and twelve weeks to be processed! This changes our plan once again, and could possibly make things very tight for Simon getting to NZ in time for his course starting, not to mention being in India without our passports for all that time. So.. we are not completely certain what our next plan is, but we will probably be in India for another four weeks and possibly will visit the south as originally planned, whilst waiting for our visas. Our van can only be shipped once we leave India (something to do with customs), and so we will still have our transport. The shipping agents can make instant arrangement to put the van in its container and seal it for sending as soon as we have our plane tickets to NZ.

We decided to do a bit more sightseeing around Mumbai to take our minds off the complications, and took a small passenger ferry to 'Elephenta Island' about an hours boat ride away. There aren't actually any elephants there but some ancient caves and temples carved into the cliff face. It felt like we were in an Indiana Jones movie, walking into these huge rock-cut pillared caves. They were truly enormous, and had huge carvings of various gods and other creatures all over the inside walls. Quite spectacular. We also walked up to the top of the hill where they had two huge old war-time cannons to protect the harbour. They were joined together by long underground passages and rooms, and if we had thought to bring a torch then we probably could have made it from one to the other (about 200m apart)!

We have now decided that it is not a good idea to submit our visa applications in India, it seems to be possible to do it after we arrive in New Zealand on visitors visas, where we can be a lot more relaxed about it. So with that decided, we are now going ahead and putting the van on the next available ship, and flying the relatively short hop across to Singapore. We have had another meeting with our shipping agents, and have booked our flights for Thursday the 31st July, and the van will be departing on 3rd of August. We'll still spend a couple of weeks relaxing around Singapore, and going to a stunning island off the coast of Malaysia, before catching a plane from Singapore on the long haul down to Auckland. we'll wait until then to update the blog further, so unless we run into some complications, the next time you hear from us we should be in New Zealand and mission accomplished! Here's hoping!

India - Rajasthan

2008-07-18T11:07:00.006+01:00

Jaipur was a city of luxury for us, we stayed in an amazing hotel (compared to most of the other hotels we have stayed at), with air conditioning and everything! The city is also quite historic and is surrounded by hills each with ancient forts and temples on them overlooking the city. The old city walls have always traditionally been painted pink, and so has been dubbed 'The Pink City', and glows when the sun goes down. They have been renovating all the pink walls, and old buildings, fixing them and making them more pink, and we thought that it all started to look a bit tacky. We stayed for just three nights before re-thinking our budget and getting bored. We had a day of sightseeing where we went to see the old city palace which was rather dull, another viewing tower for the ladies of the palace which was just completely covered in scaffolding and builders rubbish, but was quite cool none-the-less. It had some tiny passages, staircases and cubbyholes with minute wooden shuttered windows that the ladies could watch the processions below from without drawing attention to themselves.

Lastly we saw an ancient astlology and astronomy site. It was basically full of enourmous sun and moon light measuring equipment, including the largest sundial in the world (27 meters high!), all built out of stone and marble. The instruments were built near the beginning of the 18th century and still work perfectly today. The large sundial measures time accurate to 2 seconds!! Unfortunately the day that we went it was pouring with rain and none of it was working at all! This was very interesting though, and quite a bit different to all the normal palaces, forts and temples that we have become quite accustomed to. A highlight was walking to the top of the big sundial, and getting the view of the old city and looking down on all the different instruments scattered around the area. Walking around town that day was quite interesting as the heavy rains combined with poor drainage caused many of the streets to be flooded. Wading through them is a bit of an unknown quantity - you don't know what you are walking through!

We found ourselves getting quite irritated by all the hecklers around here, you can't walk for 1 minute without about 5 rickshaw drivers telling you where you should be going, and how cheaply they will take you there. You can also almost guarantee that anyone coming up to you to talk, no matter how honest they seem is going to try to extort money out of you. One time a friendly man came up to us and said, "can I just ask you something? Why do western tourists not like to talk to Indians?", "we do" we replied, "it's just a bit irritating when they're just after our money." "No, no, no" he said, "I just like to talk and make friends....anyway would you like to see my shop..."! Another time someone caught us coming out of a restaurant making very friendly conversation and ended up piling 'gifts' of beautiful hand made puppets on us. We said we couldn't give him anything for them but he said "money is not important, I want you to have these things", he wouldn't take them back, but when we said we had to go he said, "so what can you give me?" When he realised we weren't going to give him anything, he took all his things back and cleared off! This has become quite typical of very many of our experiences with Indians.

On our first night in Jaipur, we found a roof top restaurant (most of the restaurants around here seem to be roof top) just around the corner from our hotel that was just fab, we almost just decided to go there every night! All the tables and chairs were individualy wrought iron in a kind of modern art style which was quite cool. We could have just spent all our time between our hotel and this place infact! Sadly, a lot of our time was spent trying to sort out our New Zealand visas and the shipping of the van from Mumbai, now that it is all a bit more difficult than before. It is possible though and it will be done!

We are just realising how excited we are at the thought that we are going to New Zealand and that Simon is doing his flying course. He has had 'I believe I can fly' stuck in his head ever since finding out, and keeps driving down the dotted line in the middle of the road as though it was a runway!

Our Next stop is Udaipur, about 400 kilometers south of Jaipur, but we are in a bit of a dilema. Basically, we are trying to sort out the shipping of the van to New Zealand, but the shipping agent can't do that unless we have our flight tickets to Auckland to prove that we will be there to pick it up; We can't book our flights until we have our NZ visas; we can't get our visas until we have receipt that the flying course fees have been paid; we can't pay the fees until our bank gets its act together, and we are waiting to hear from them. To add to that, we don't know if we will even be able to arrange our visas in Mumbai, or if we have to go all the way back to Delhi to do it. Oh well, we just decided that we have to keep moving in the general direction of Mumbai, and if one or both of us has to go back up to Delhi then so be it.

Udiapur is a very beautiful city - they call it 'the Venice of the east', due to its position on a lake with palaces out in the middle of it. Indians had a great mindset back then, whereas in Europe they would designate a small lake island a protected reserve due to a rare species of plant that might only live on that island, the Indians just build a stonking huge palace on it covering the entire island! It gives a very fastastical and romantic feel though. Unfortunately at this time of year the lake is mostly dried up, and it is not until the end of the monsoon that it starts to get full (before promptly drying up again!), so it is not quite as beautiful as it could be. The locals are very proud that large portions of the James Bond film 'Octopussy' was filmed here, and most of the guesthouses show it in their restaurants every evening, and have done so since nineteen seventy whatever when it came out by the looks of things! We watched it the first evening we arrived on our guesthouse roof top terrace, and we must say it was extremely cool to watch a fairly well known iconic film, during which we would look to the left and say "oo, that's over there", then to the right, "that was down there!"

Our guesthouse is very handy being only about £2.40 a night. Our room kind of reminded us of the servants quarters that people in Kenya had, but that's fine, it's very pleasant, clean, quiet, quite pretty, and does good food. We found out that we can infact submit our visa applications in Mumbai, which is good news, but we may spend as much time as we can here sorting things out rather than in MUmbai which is the most expensive place in India to stay by about double the nearest competitor.

Now that we are eating out every day, we are discovering that almost any restaurant you go to is basically a carbon copy of all the others. They all just do Indian food, and then all kinds of Italian, Chinese, isreali and continental food with a strong Indian twist. We just resigned to the fact that once you have found a decent place, you're just as well going there every night! It is rather tiring though having no variety what-so-ever.

We did the tour of Udaipur with its impressive stone carved temples, and city palace overlooking the lake. All very grand and ornate, infact the whole city is really beautiful and much quieter than any of the other cities in India. We think it is definately the nicest in India so far, and one of the best cities on our trip. We also got an elephant ride here which Rhona has been going on about ever since we arrived in India, so that was good and a lot of fun. When we were lumbering down the street, our elephant would keep getting distracted by things, like fruit stands where it would try and pinch some snacks! The stall keepers didn't seem to mind though, and they would give it mangoes which kept him happy!

We spent four nights in Udaipur overall as it was so relaxing, and have really tried to make the transition from living in the van to living out of a rucksack in preparation for the month of backpacking through South East Asia before going to New Zealand. It felt wierd to be packing the van away so soon, almost like it was signalling the end of an era. Well we have to move on and it's the only way forward, so we'll just look forward to what will happen next!

Total distance travelled: 10,537 miles

Max temp: 35 degrees

Scottish Highlands to the Taj Mahal!

2008-07-11T11:02:00.004+01:00

Walking along the high street of Shimla was like walking along the high street of any old town in Britain. It was built by the Brits and became the summer capitol of all of India, when all the Viceregals and officials came up here to escape the oppressive heat of the plains in Delhi. It is litterally perched on the top of a very steep narrow ridge up at 2200 meters in the himalayan foothills. The views either side would have been amazing if not for the fact that it was pretty much foggy the whole time we were there. The buildings were all very typical stone built Victorian architecture with bay windows, slated roofs and all. We could so easily have been in England - the weather, temperature, and there were even lots of Indians walking around! The only difference was that being in India and surrounded by forest, there were heaps of Monkeys everywhere.

The problem we had was that being on such a steep slope, there was nowhere flat to park the van and camp, and the hotels were all comparatively expensive. We found a half decent one and stayed there for three nights before deciding we couldn't afford to stay any longer and moved on. We walked up to the very highest point in Shimla which is through the forest up a very steep hill to a Hindu temple, dedicated to Hanuman, the monkey god. coincidentally there are lots of monkeys all over it, although we think that is possible more down to the habitat. It was very cool to see the monkeys climbing and swinging on everything so close up though, and the babies were so cute! This was far more interesting than the temple itself!

After that Simon went to see the 'Viceregals lodge' which is where the rulers of British India lived at the full extent of their power, and held meetings whilst they were there in the summer. Kind of like the 10 Downing Street equivalent. It just looked like a really grand Scottish castle which was quite amazing. It was completely untouched and unrepaired, with all the origional cast iron outside staircases that looked less than safe, and huge gardens that they couldn't keep up with. overall it was much more origional yet complete than anything you might see in Scotland. It looked ideal to have a posh cup of coffee and a piece of shortbread in. Unfortunately, it is in India and they have converted it into an advanced study college, and actually gives off a bit of a Cambridge University college feel. We were given a tour of the inside where we saw the rooms where famous meetings with Ghandi had taken place, and the table they used to redraw the borders of India at independance. A very big chunk of Indian history really.

That evening we decided to treat ourselves, and went to the poshest hotel in Shimla - the Oberoi Cecil for dinner. It was very posh! It would be the equivalent to one of the fanciest places in London, tailed butlers and all, with rooms costing hundreds of pounds. We weren't quite sure what we were celebrating, but we decided that it was for our new future family member! The next day Simon found out that he got on his pilot course in NZ so it could be for that as well. We just thought that if we can't do this sort of thing in India, then when will we be able to do it? To put it into perspective, with starters, breads, mains, wine and everything it came to around £30 - about the same as a normal meal in UK! not bad! We'll go back to dhal and rice tomorrow!

After Shimla, we waved goodbye to the beautiful cool mountain air that we had enjoyed for the last two weeks, and set off on the huge 12 hour drive down to Agra, one of the hottest parts of India - in the middle of summer! Luckily (or unluckily - we're not sure yet) since the monsoon has come in the temperatures have dropped a little, so instead of 50 degrees, it's only around 35, but the humidity is something else. Even at night time you are just constantly sticky with sweat - it's desgusting!

We arrived in Agra around 8 pm, and found a guide-recommended place that had parking enough for us to camp, but it turned out was a mosquito infested patch of boggy mud for us to park on. We went to the reception and they wanted 600 rupees a night!! (we normally only pay 50-100) They wouldn't budge below 500, and due to the late hour we had no choice but to stay there. Needless to say we got eaten alive that night, and we also discovered that the toilets were gross, the showers were cold, pool was green and the restaurant was rubbish. We kicked up a bit of a fuss and refused to pay, but they didn't seem to see how their top class establishment could be thought of as below standard, and called the police! Eventually we just paid them off and left promising to tarnish their name wherever we went, but they didn't seem to care since they had their money! So, anyone planning on going to Agra - don't go to Mayur Tourist Complex on Fahetabad Road!! We found a hotel around the corner with air cooler for 400 rupees!

Anyway, we headed off for our tour of Agras sights with our cycle-rickshaw man who had attached himself to us. 1st stop - Taj Mahal which was quite spectacular, and so much more impressive in real than in photos. It was worth getting a local guide who showed us how the floral designs that covered the entire building were all intricatly made up of tiny pieces of semi-precious stones all from many different countries. Inside the mausoleum, even though you are not allowed flashes or lights, he took in a torch, and showed us how as you move it over a flower design, each gemstone would light up and glow individually - it was so beautiful. Amazing to think that it was all just for one persons tomb! It was built by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan, for his wife Mumtaz Mahal who died giving birth to their 14th child in 1631! Supposedly Shah Jahan wanted to build a mirror image Taj on the other side of the river in black marble (way more expensive than white) for himself, but his son Aurangzeb overthrew him and imprisoned him in Agra fort for spending all the kingdoms money!!

We went on to see Agra fort next, 2 km up the river, which has good views of the Taj. The classic thing to do is to get a picture of you on the rampart with the Taj Mahal in the palm of your outheld hand - we did that... It was getting a bit hot at this point, so we turned down our rickshaw drivers offer to take us to all the other sights in Agra and went back to the hotel!

We have been quite surprised by the quality of the roads outside of town, in that they are actually quite good. There has just been an explosion of national highway building in India lately, and if any of them are not dual carriageway, then they are being made so. The problem is that Indians don't seem to inderstand the concept of dual carriageway being that one side is for one direction, and the other side is for the other direction. They (mainly motorbikes and rickshaws, but also cars, buses and lorries) just use each side as a separate road. Normally you can see them coming, but at one point Simon was driving, and we had been trying to get past a lorry for ages, and eventually he pulled over and we began overtaking. At this point Rhona started freaking out, Simon looked at her, then at the lorry, then questioningly back at Rhona who was by this point practically sitting on the headrest covering her face, then looked forward, and there was a rickshaw driving up the wrong side of the road straight for us! We weren't going too fast and he had stopped by this point so we were ok, but it definately keeps you on your toes!

So that was on the way from Agra to Jaipur - our next stop in Rajasthan where we are now. We have passed a major landmark on our trip, and have driven over 10,000 miles since we left Hastings which is pretty cool.

Total distance travelled: 10,005 miles

Max temp: 35 degrees

The Great Escape

2008-07-08T10:14:00.004+01:00

When we drove over the mountains the first time, we found that although very beautiful it was quite a tough experience. The roads were bone-shakingly awful, we were stuggling to breath, couldn't sleep, and had constant headaches from the altitude, the dust was so thick in the air that it just infiltrated everything until you could feel it gritting between your teeth, and the isolation of it kept us a bit worried. Long before the end we were quite keen to be getting off the mountain and into the comfort of civilization, but at an average speed of just 10mph (in some sections we were only able to make around 3mph), the end was a long time coming. So understandably we were a little grumpy about having to do it all again - and we'd seen it all already! But we set off, this time planning on doing it in just two 12 hour days. We kind of got it into our heads that we just had to do it, and stangely came around to the idea more then. What we didn't expect was that we would actually find it much more enjoyable the 2nd time, and the 2 days seemed to go by very quickly.

For a start, because we had already done it, and then stayed in Leh for 4 nights at high altitude, we were much better acclimatised than we were first time around, and even at the top of the highest pass we didn't feel the effects of the altitude at all. We managed to get a system going to combat the dust, as whenever a truck went past, or the wind blew kicking up a cloud, we would quickly wind the windows up and close off the air vents, before opening them up again when all was clear. That seemed to work well. Unfortunately though, the roads hadn't got any better, and not too long after we started up the first pass, we heard a crack from the back of the van, followed by a clattering every time we went over another bump. We found out that on one of our rear wheels, 2 of the 3 leaf suspension springs had snapped, leaving it hanging on just one. There was nothing else for it, we just had to nurse it even slower over the remaining distance back to Manali, hoping that they final leaf spring didn't snap as well.

At one point, we came across a couple of motorbikes stopped at the side of the road. We slowed down to make sure they were OK, and it turned out he needed some tools to fix something on his bike. We tried all ours, but they didn't quite fit, so we left them to it. A short while later, having collared someone else to help them, they overtook us, but literally 5 minutes after that they were stopped at the side of the road again, this time with a flat tyre! We once again offered our tools, but in trying to fix it he put one of our screwdrivers through his new inner tube! Once again we had to leave them, this time with an army truck that had stopped, but we never saw them again, so hope they are OK?! Talk about having a bad day!

All the way along the road there were groups of workers employed to just live up there all summer and repair the road. It looked like horrible work using the most basic tools to break up rocks and shovel dirt into holes in the road. Everytime we past a group they would try to stop us and we realised that none of them had any water or food for the work they were doing. This was quite a shock and we wish we had brought more food with us to give out. It seems that they survive on donations from truck drivers and other road users. We had nearly run out of water by the time we reached our mid-way camp! They must work every light hour of the day and probably get paid 50p a day or something.

If anything, the views seemed to be better this time round. Maybe just seeing them from an opposite angle gave a different perspective? The sky was the most amazing deep blue colour we had ever seen, compared to the first time which was rather more overcast. This alone made it quite spectacular. At the high halfway camp at Sarchu, the first time we had felt so rotten and didn't sleep, but this time we felt fine. We almost wanted to stay there for a few days! It was great to feel the cold (down to around 2 degrees), and the stars at night were just stunning.

When we got back to the Rohtang pass, thankfully it was open, and it sort of felt like a gateway back into India! Ever since crossing it a week before, and moving into Ladakh, everything has felt so different, peaceful and disconected from the rest of India. This was like a wake up call, because all of a sudden the crowds were back in full force, and people were trying to sell us everything. When we got back to Manali we were surrounded by all the shoe fixers, masseures and snake charmers (it's ok, Rhona soon got rid of them), and we just said "welcome back to India!"

The next day we spent in a garage trying to get our suspension fixed, and we realised the disadvantage of taking an old van. That is that when it breaks, it is near impossible to take anything apart as it is all rusted and fused together. In the case of our van, 12 years sitting on muddy building sites in GB hasn't done it any favours, and it took between 1 and 5 people 5 hours to get the old suspension off! In the end they had to cut the last bolt with a welding torch! They of course didn't have the right replacements, so we got a bit of a customised mish-mash of different suspension springs that went together to make it about the right strength, but now one side of the van is higher than the other. Nevermind, after waiting 8 hours for this one, we weren't particularly inclined to insist that they take the other side off and do that as well!

The garage was infact just a dusty patch of oil soaked ground, swarming with flies by the road with a tin hut next to it. As we were there all day, we got our usual attention from the many Indian tourists who wanted to see the van and take our pictures. Some of them were very pleasant. One man (a local taxi driver) insisted on buying us tea and crisps for our wait which was very kind. He took us to the cafe down the road, but when Rhona asked where the toilet was, he took her behind his car parked on the main road, and said "there!", "we are very open in India!". Rhona wasn't convinced, and made him take her to a 'proper' toilet which we had to pay 3 rupees for!

So the next morning we planned on leaving Manali to go to Shimla which is another hill station town at around the same altitude on the way back to Delhi. Hopefully we will be able to stay there for a while relaxing and sorting out things for the shipping of the van to New Zealand and hopefully onward Visas etc. Simon has found out this week that he is on the flying course in New Zealand so that is some good news and we are definately going there! Rhonas nursing registration is still not sorted out, and she is still wondering what she will end up doing in NZ now that she is not quite as 'employable' as before!

Total miles driven: about 9200
Max temp: 26 degrees

Min temp 2 degrees

Trapped in Ladakh!

2008-06-30T17:28:00.004+01:00

Jule!

Everthing seems to be colliding in Kashmir, worlds, religions, land, and people. Basically we seem to have run into a bit of a trouble spot. Just 2 days after we crossed over the Rohtung pass from Manali towards Leh, it was closed down due to some collapse or something. That was lucky we thought, but really that is more like bridge burnt as we won't be able to go back that way again. Now that we are in Leh in Ladakh (separate to Kashmir), there are only 2 roads out of it. the first is 3 days back over the mountain passes towards Manali which is closed off, the other is 4 days around to the west to Srinagar (capital of Kashmir) and Jammu inside Kashmir, which is what we had planned to do. Kashmir is safer now than it has been for years, and there has been very little disturbances for quite a while, but we just found out that the very day we crossed the Rohtang pass, violent protests involving killings began in Srinagar and are still going on now. Travellers are not going through there, and the advice is that we don't either. So as you can see we are in a bit of a predicament. Either we wait for the Rohtang pass to open again, or we wait for the situation in Srinagar to settle down. There is an airport here, but unfortunately we have the van to think about.

I'll give you a brief history of why there are so many problems in Kashmir. Basically it all goes back to the British - it had to really... Around 1600AD, the Brits arrived in India, and by 1858 they had formal control over an area extending to current day Pakistan and Bangladesh. When Independance from the Brits came in 1947, the Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus all wanted their own separate country state. The problem was that there were no clearly defined Muslim or Hindu areas, and when they drew the line separating Pakistan (Islamic state) from India (Hindu State), millions of people quickly tried to relocate to their 'side' of the line. Kashmir was Muslim dominated, but had a Hindu maharaja, so he under military pressure decided to sign his state on as part of India. Pakistan disputed this immediately and within 2 months of independance, they were at war with each other. Two years later, the UN stepped in and drew a line down the middle of Kashmir dividing it between the two countries as a temporary fix, but it has remained the same ever since. Neither country accept the line, they both want the whole lot, so they keep fighting over it. Muslim extremists have caused havoc in the area, committing repeated attacks on Hindu interests.

The incident this week was because there is a very holy Hindu site within the Muslim Kashmir, which thousands of Hindus make pilgrimage to every year. The Indian government transferred some surrounding land to the Hindu pilgrimage organisers so they could put up some huts and toilets for the pilgrims use. Now the Muslims feel very cheated of land, and it has kicked off major demonstrantions. Basically everyone in Kashmir hates Indians and Hindus, and would rather be part of Pakistan, but it's all just religious. Even though the area has been at peace for a while now, tensions run high and it just takes something pathetic to send it loopy. All the same it is causing us some problems as we have no way out of this valley.

After speaking with various other people, and looking up articles on the web, it seems that even a quick dash through Kashmir to get out of the valley would be out of the question. The police there say that tourists should stay as the violence is not directed at them, and they will be perfectly safe as there are large police forces gaurding the tourist spots and hotels. In contradiction I read one article in a Kashmiri newspaper that said that tourists were leaving in the middle of the night to escape Srinagar, So we thought that it must be pretty bad. Just how bad was realised when someone turned up at our guesthouse in Leh who had just come from Srinagar. He was there when the trouble started and tried to leave, but the so called police protection forced him at gunpoint to stay in a particular hotel and pay loads of money. He managed to sneak away in the middle of the night to get over here, but was quite a nasty experience.

There is one other way out, and that is to drive all the way back to just before the Rohtung pass, then take a left. This takes you down another valley on a very long detour of several days back around towards Delhi, but is apparently the worst road in India! Judging on how we managed on the Manali-Leh road, we think it might be pushing it a little!

That said, we are enjoying staying in Leh very much. It has a very pleasant cool climate (jumpers in the evenings), is sunny every day, has very interesting streets, shops and sights, and beautiful views. It's quite funny when you go to a restaurant here and order a beer though, as most of them don't appear to be licenced to sell alcahol, and they call it 'iced tea' along with a wink as a code word! They even bring it out in a tea pot which is quite amusing! When you've finished one, the waiter would come over and kind of snigger whilst saying "any more 'tea' sir?", as though he was a child with a big secret! Most of the restaurants are vegetarian here as well which is rather disapointing. I think it's because of all the hipppies that seem to be here in abundance smoking the green stuff and singing Bob Marley songs by the fire in ponchos! we feel like we are doing everything wrong ordering beer, and the meatiest dish on the menu!

Some other people have said that they think that the Rohtang pass is open again, but can potentially close at any moment, so I think that our only option is to go all the back the way we came, along the mountain passes back to Manali, and hope that the Rohtang pass is open when we get there. We are not particularly looking forward to it as the high passes are quite strenuous, and the high altitude makes you feel pretty rubbish at the best of times. Still, we will leave tomorrow (Tuesday), and hopefully arrive in Manali late on Thursday. Wish us luck!

We have also been re-thinking our plans to drive all the way down to the southern tip of India then up to Chennai to ship our van to Australia, as the time of year is quite horrible to be going to those parts. Instead we are thinking of just getting down to Mumbai, and shipping the van straight to New Zealand from there thus 'skipping' Australia! We will still fly to South East Asia, and spend some time in Thailand and Malaysia whilst the van is getting to NZ before joining it there.

The internet up here is awful, and we have been banned from uploading photos, so we'll add some lovely pics of Leh, stunning mountain views, ancient palaces etc in the next few days...

Max temp: 28 degrees
Altitude: 3650m/12,000 ft

India - Manali to Leh

2008-06-29T08:28:00.008+01:00

Our last of three nights in Manali was lovely, we'd had such a relaxing time there and this really capped it off. As we mentioned earlier, Rhona has gone off all Indian food in her mis-timed 'pregnancy sick', and has been particularly missing a bit of a taste of home. The night before, Sam and Becky had us over for macaroni cheese, yey! But we'd heard about a total British hang-out, and the fanciest restaurant in town, that apparently even had roast lamb with mint sauce on the menu! we decided to treat ourselves; we arrived and it was just spectacular - It looked like the nicest poshest place you could go to in the most beautiful part of Scotland. The specials board was full of classic British pub favorite's like roasts and baked trout. We enjoyed it greatly and it was just what we needed, we went back to the van very satisfied! It struck us that we would never be able to go to somewhere like that in Britain as it would be far too expensive, which made it all the more enjoyable!

Our plan was to head north over four enourmous Himalayan mountain passes to the town of Leh right in the middle of old Tibet, and only accessable during summer when the passes are able to be cleared of snow. After that, if the security situation is all clear, we will continue the loop around to Srinagar and Jammu before returning past Delhi. If not we'll go back the way we came!
The next morning we arose at 4 to tackle the Rohtang pass early before the weather came in, but found to our dismay that half of Manali seemed to have the same idea. The road (bad, narrow, steep, muddy) was completely choka with Indian tourists in guided tour jeeps (big business in Manali) taking day trips up to the pass to see the snow. They all wanted to drive way faster than us and would come up right behind us blaring their horn as if we should just drive off the edge to get out of their way. It was a shame because the scenery was so beautiful. After just 1/2 an hour driving we were in a traffic jam - complete standstill for 1 1/2 hours! The cause seemed to be a patch of slippery steep mud that people kept getting stuck on. Don't know what the problem was though, we just drove up it. The drops would be severe on the one side with no barrier or anything, and on the other side would often be a sheer cliff of rock overhanging over the road. A lot of the way it was just one lane, which made passing a truck coming the other way quite interesting! How close to the edge do you go?! Another 2 hours and we were at the top, which was an absolutly hilarious tourist camp! There was basically a small patch of dirty old snow with about 1000 indians running in it, kissing it, making snowmen in it, and having Yak rides across it? It was quite funny because they were all in massive thermal arctic survival suits which they had been sold on the way up, but it was about 18 degrees! We jumped out in t-shirts and found it quite pleasant!

We quickly moved on down the other side and the change was instantaneous; almost devoid of all vehicles, the clouds, humidity and day trippers vanished, and we were surrounded by big lonely mountains, and blue skies. Averaging 10mph, down an incredibly steep slope with countless switchbacks, we arrived in Keylong, our destination for that day. We filled up at a fuel station that had a sign saying 'next fuel - 365km', and we found that despite being 3300 meters high, it was rediculously hot. It may be raging monsoon on the other side of the pass, but on this side it is as dry as a bone, with a very strong sun. We soon realised how easy it is to get sunburnt at this altitude when we went for a walk the next day, and were slapping on suncream every 1/2 hour.

Rhona has still been struggling with feeling sick every day, and we were beginning to wonder if all this was a good idea, and if we should just pack it in if we're not having a chance to enjoy it properly. The walk we went for was meant to be a short two hour trek up to a Buddist monastry on the hillside, but after 4 hours we had still not made it due to tiredness, so we just went back. Real shame as two things that Rhona loves is Indian food, and walking, and she's unable to do either. Well the altitude seems ok, so we'll continue slowly up the valley and stop another night before going for the big passes which is just going to be so cool!! As long as Rhona can enjoy the views, and Simon can enjoy the driving we're ok!

When we headed off up the valley, the road seemed better than what we had been on so far, and we reached our designated camp spot, the village of Darcha - the last permanent settlement for the next 200 miles by 11am. We (well Simon coz Rhona can't stomache it) got a big slap up Indian lunch from one of the many tent 'dhabas', which cook up cheap nosh for truckers and travellers, then we got a cup of chai...after that we realised that there really was nothing else to do there so we said "sod it, lets just go over the first pass and sleep on the other side!". So we did! This pass takes you up to just under 5000m which is very high, and we were glad of our 5 days acclimatising in Manali and Keylong. At about 4500m there was a tiny remote mountain lake with a man with a single pedal boat thing for hire which we thought was quite hilarious, and were very temped to go on it just because of the bizarreness of it! It was like the one's you get in the boating lake in Alexandra park in Hastings! Continuing onwards the road would be absolutely horrendous one moment allowing us to only crawl along at around 5mph, and then there would be an amazing wide, new tarmac road for a while. There seemed to be teams of men and women all the way along the road just continually fixing it. They would stir their huge pots of tar over great black fires, and chip away at rocks to fill the holes. At one point one of the many rickety river bridges that consist of a couple of steel girders with sheets of steel or wood laid across them had collapsed. They are quite hair-raising at the best of times, and the noise driving across them as the unfixed steel plates clatter and move about is quite undescribable. At some points the sheets would have shifted revealing large gaps that had to be driven over. well with this particular one, the only option was to drive over the deep cascading river at a 'fording point' next to it. We had done this before, but this river looked very deep and very fast compared to any of the other ones. We concluded that other vehicles (albeit mostly 4x4's or trucks) had made it, so we would be able to. I (Simon obviously) knew the engine air intake should be ok as that is halfway up the side of the van by the drivers door, but I was a little concerned about the exhaust going too deep under water and choking the engine. That would be awkward - stuck in the middle of a raging torrent with a flooded engine...hmmm... Well there was nothing for it but to take the plunge, and after a bit of encouraging advice from a motorcyclist (who incedentally, being on a motorbike was able to ride straight over the bridge) we did. I just kept it in first and kept the revs and speed up and hoped for the best. The first section was OK at around 50cm deep, but then we just dropped down a big step and water started pouring over the front of the van up to the windscreen! I knew that the exhaust pipe would be underwater, so I floored it and hoped that the pressure of the gases would overcome the weight of the water. The rear wheels bounced and scrambled over the slippery rocks on the river bed and then all of a sudden we were on the other side! Yey! what fun! I was overwhelmed by an overriding desire to do it again! Luckily Rhona managed to talk some sense into me and we drove on!

Up to the top we were realising just how much the altitude sapped power from the van. It was pathetic, we rarely got out of second even on fairly level ground! Over the top and we were presented with the biggest landscapes we had ever seen, mountains and glaciers close up on both sides, then opening up into a vast wide valley below. The bottom of the valley looked flat and green, but was scarred top to bottom by a spectacular deep canyon. It was quite amazing. We arrived at 'Sarchu' which is a kind of tented sleep over point for truckers, and some travel companys have their own camps there as well. It's at the low point before it begins to climb up to the next big passes (two more to go). That said it was still up at around 4500 meters! We drove off the trail and found a very secluded camping spot by the canyon with beautiful views. Rhona had her afternoon snooze, and then we were moved on by some people who told us that we were destroying the nature by sleeping there. So we drove back up to the dust bowl of Sarchu and parked up with the truckers.

By 10pm the area was completely awash with trucks stopping for the night, so we decided to get up at 4am again to try and beat the rush. we couldn't imagine anything much worse than being stuck behind lines of lorries belching their way up the single lane passes. Our plan worked and we were on the road before 5 just as the sun was rising and the truckers were emerging from their slumber. We had a clear road to ourselves, and didn't see another vehicle for around 2 hours which was lovely. We climbed up to the next pass - 'Lachlung La' which was higher than the last, drove down through more incredible scenery which had become very desert like, and up to the highest pass - the Tanglang La, which at 5328m/17500ft is the 2nd highest motorable road in the world. Incedentally, the highest motorable road in the world at 5601m is the 'Khardung La' just around the corner, and we were quite tempted to drive up it just to say we had done it, but it turns out you need all sorts of 'inner line permits' for going close to the disputed borders with China and Pakistan? So we chose to be satisfied with just the 2nd highest! At one point the road just diverted off into a massive dust flat where you just had to pick your own route across this huge bowl at the bottom of the valley to the other side. The problem was that this dust was like talcum powder up to a few feet deep in places, and it was a little tricky finding our way through the more shallow bits to avoid going under! All said, after 9 bone shaking hours we arrived in Leh with pleanty of time to settle in! The underside of our poor Matatu had received a good battering from rocks, and the engine seems a bit ratty, but all in one piece!

This little excursion has re-written our preconceived ideas on the word 'romote'... We realised that when you drive for three days seeing no permanent civilisation, just occaisional summer-only tents housing people to service the road that are only there for a few months a year, it could be classed as remote?

We have been quite ammused by some of the Random rhyming 'safety awareness' signs that we have seen by the road. Things like: 'safety on the road is 'safe tea' at home', and 'I am very curvaceous, treat me gently'. The best one has to be this pictured to the right...

Leh turned out to be a lovely town. The first thing we noticed was that there was no rubbish anywhere unlike the rest of India which is quite frankly a tip. They have a 'no plastics' policy which is quite impressive. It is also in the rain shadow of the Himalayas, so its annual rainfall is on par with the sahara desert. We found a beautiful guesthouse to stay at though, with stunning views across the valley towards snow capped Himalayan peaks.

Distance travelled so far: 8978 miles

Max temp: 29

Min temp: 3

India - Himachal Pradesh

2008-06-23T10:08:00.002+01:00

The road to Manali was one of those ones that gets longer as you drove along it, or maybe we were driving on a conveyor belt going in the opposite direction, because after 9 hours of driving we had only done about 260 miles and we had to make a night stop. We were still at low altitude, so still quite uncomfortably hot, and we decided to sulk off into a cheap hotel for some cooler air. We met a lovely Isreali couple (well they said they were friends that were trying to be a couple?) driving about on bikes, and got a good nights sleep. Even the next day it was another 5 hours until we arrived in Manali. We had hoped to do it in a day - no chance, the roads were too steep, bendy and bumpy, and far too many desgusting trucks in the way to go much more than around 20 or 30mph all the way. We were really really looking forward to the cooler climate that the higher altitude was going to bring us, as we were quite fed up with the oppressive heat around Delhi making sleep almost impossible in the van. And yes, Manali was much nicer - even under 20 degrees - bliss!

Finding a camp spot in Manali was another story - it is ultra tourist location here, and every bit of developable land has been...well...developed! Hotels everywhere. We eventually found a hotel with a slightly secluded carpark, and they confirmed that it was fine for us to park there for the night...until around 7pm, when they told us that we were't allowed to park there? Oh well, there was another 'overland vehicle' just down the road who turned out to be Brits! They seemed not to have any problems where they were so we pulled in next door!

I think that we can already write a whole chapter about Indian driving even though we have only been through a tiny proportion of the country, but it is certainly the most aggressivly selfish driving we have come across. My favorite is the overtaking tecnique of those huge battered old buses, which is to pull alongside you on a blind bend...and then just move over on top of you. A lot of times the only thing to do is to stomp on the anchors, and swerve off the road, as you can tell by the amount of bashes they have that they would't mind too much either way if you moved or not! The other is when someone just flies up behind you horn blaring as if they expect you to just jump in the ditch to let them past! It's amazing how much pleasure it brings just trying to keep one of these cars behind you for as long as possible - comparable to scratching an itch. The main problem is that on a typical 2-lane-each-way highway, you have people walking at 3mph and rikshaws driving at 15mph on the left, all the trucks driving unmovingly at 20-30mph on the right (to avoid bothering to dodge rickshaws, bicycles and people), and everyone else (cars, buses and swarms of motorbikes) just has to flitter in and out between them.

So we met Sam and Becky and 3 year old Isaac, the Brits who are driving a monster 20 ton ex-army 4x4 truck that had been coverted into a serious off-road motorhome. With the amount of ground clearance I almost suggested that we parked underneath them! Amazing truck anyway with everything you need to live inside. We were still smug though as they have had so much attention on their travels, from people trying to break in, climb on top to get their photo taken, and aggressive police hassle. Our van now just looks like a white minibus with some stuff on an aluminium roofrack covered by a blue tarpauline. Would you believe it almost every other car here is a white bus/minibus/jeep (or 'Sumo' as they call them here) with an aluminium roofrack covered with a blue tarpauline!!! No one even looks at us until we stop and camp! We were even tempted to get some Indian transport graphics painted on the side!

We spent some time in Manali just acclimatising, and enjoying the beautifully perfect climate. We were also preparing ourselves mentally for the mammoth route to 'Leh' right in the middle of Kashmir, and the other side of the main Himalayan ridge ahead of us. From Manali the road climbs up and up to the first (of 4) huge mountain passes, the Rhotung pass at just under 4000m. From there the road to Leh goes down and up to 5328 meters above sea level at it's highest - that's only about 500m short of the summit of Kilimanjaro, and is the second highest motorable road in the world. The road is not always passable, infact it is only open for a few months every year in mid summer when the snow is manageable, and has only just opened up this year. Most people that drive it go in 4x4's, there is no fuel for one 250 mile stretch, the temperature drops significantly below freezing, there are precipitous drops right beside the crumbling road, altitude sickness is a potential problem, and there are very limited medical facilities - we must be mad!! Well we already knew that!!

We are pretty sure it will be possible for us though, and other people seem to think so as well. We will give it a shot and not be precious about it if it's too hard and we have to turn back. We will be spending pleanty of time making sure we are well acclimatized, although that should be fine as at no point will we be sleeping above 3600 meters, and just take it easy really so we'll see how it goes.

Tune in next time for more exciting news from the edge!!

Nepal

2008-06-18T10:34:00.004+01:00

नमस्ते!

The day we arrived in Kathmandu, 5 taxi drivers were killed, and the strikes and critical fuel shortage were causing the whole country to be at a virtual standstill. The security situation outside of the capitol was also virtually non-existant, and there was a particular danger to tourists driving on the roads outside the city, as they are likely to be held up by armed people who would rob them or kill them! We suddenly felt quite wise having decided to take the plane from Delhi rather than driving here, and also very glad of our local friends who we were staying with. That said, we had a fantastic time in Nepal, we received unrivalled hospitality from David and Deepa Silwals' two sons Karan and Kumar who live in their family home whilst they are away.

We were shown around everything there is to see in the Kathmandu valley, and had beautiful Nepalese food cooked for us continually. Unfortunately Rhona's "pregnancy sick" seems to be heightened at the mere smell (not to mention taste) of spicy food...not too ideal here, oh, and were spending the next month in India!! They would keep cooking up an 'alternative' that Rhona would be able to eat, but 'not-spicy' to us means 'only little bit spicy' to them, which means 'quite spicy' to us! So Rhona has been an embarassing fuss pot lately, but we survived! Culturaly we found it strange that they would spend a long time cooking wonderful food for us, then wouldn't eat with us; they would leave us to it then gobble some up later in their room। I think they wanted it to seem like they were waitering us hand and foot!

Due to the security situation, we were not able to go outside of the Kathmandu valley, and many places were closed due to strikes, so we were restricted to the sights in the city which were actually very interesting. There is a lot of Hindu and Budhist architecture which is very intricate and ornate. Quite stunning carved wooden and stone doorways, pillars, cornices and overhangs adorn the old palaces and temples with monkeys swinging from the banisters. There are so many temples around the city, some as small as a telephone box, and some huge complexes. Invariably they would contain a scary looking carved god that people would go to worship, and the atmosphere was very dark and heavy inside. We also went to a gallery of old Hindu art, all of which were again very intricate, but mostly rather graphic depictions of sex and violence.

On one of our walks around the city, we turned up outside the Kings Palace where there were huge crowds and a very large military presence. It seemed like a bit of a demonstration about something, and we were just starting to think that this was the kind of situation that all the advice tells you to avoid, as it can potentially turn violent. We walked away and headed for home. It turned out that it was the ceremony when the new government was taking the Kings' flag down, and turning his palace into a national museum. Essentially it was the king getting booted out of power, and a symbol of the countries new start as a republic. Quite a momentous time, and it was apparently on the world news?

David and Deepa also run a church in Kathmandu which their son Karan is leading in their absence. It was the part of coming to Nepal that we were most looking forward to, and were very excited to get a chance to go there. It was quite an amazing experience, the church members are from the poorest of the poor in Kathmandu, most of them living in the slum areas, and the rest maybe just surviving in makeshift tents next to the horribly polluted river. The men would often have to work up to 20 hours a day, 7 days a week even just to support this life as the pay is so low. The church building itself was a brick shell with a leaking tarpauline roof accessed by walking down a muddy overgrown path. Despite this, it was filled with people that were incredibly friendly, gracious, and seemed to be smiling all the time. The whole morning was such a joyful time, with much clapping and singing. The whole service was in Nepalese, but occaisionally Karan would translate what was going on for our benefit. At one point he invited us up to share something about us and sing a song, but kept on asking us to sing more songs as soon as we had finished one! After the preach, every week they have a time when they pray for sick people who need healing. Most of the church seemed to come forward, and most of them were healed. There is a 93 year old lady in the church who lives in the slums, who when she first came to the church could not walk. Now she seems very spritely for a 93 year old even by UK standards!

On the Monday, Karan took Simon on the back of his motorbike to visit the slums where some of the members of the church live. He goes at least once a week to chat and pray with them, and he wanted to show me some of the living conditions that people live in. I didn't think it was too bad at first, but I was amazed that every house we went into, the owner would run down to the kiosk and buy us some sodas to welcome us. I thought I would burst if this went on, but luckily it was only the first few houses! The homes varied a lot, but were all only one small room the size of a western standard single, for 5 or 6 people to sleep, cook, eat, wash and in some cases work in. Some were quite clean with stone walls, whilst others were very dark, dirty and smelly, walls made of corrugated iron and cardboard with a mud floor. There is no running water or sanitation so you can imagine the smells. One lady had a skin condition which meant she couldn't go out into the sunlight, and was litterally a prisoner in her room. It was very interesting to see though, and definately puts things in perspective.

So after a long weekend we are sad to be leaving Nepal, half due to the fact that we were in Nepal but didn't get to go to the mountains or go white water rafting or anything! We will have to go back and do it properly next time, although we seem to say that about everywhere we go. We are looking forward to getting back to the comfort of Steve and Lori's in Delhi though, and are keen to get back in the van as it has been nearly 2 weeks since we were last driving it.

Max temp: 30 degrees C - lovely!!

Entering India

2008-06-18T06:55:00.003+01:00

Namaste!

By this stage we have started to wonder whether we should be trying to get through borders as quickly as possible, or whether the continuous offers of cups of tea, biscuits, soft drinks, cakes, and conversations with the border officials that slow us down are part of the experience that we are meant to be savouring? Of course the India border was no exception. We always get special treatment as we have to go to different people than everyone else to sort out the vans' paperwork, and often we are the only people in the book that day. So in a way I don't really blame the officials for wanting to make it last as long as possible! Friendly as it was, the fact was that we still had the full days drive to Delhi to complete, and once again we didn't escape the border until the afternoon.

But excuse us for being just a little bit excited.... we have just driven into India! India!! India!!! In 5 weeks!!!! We really can't believe that we have come all this way in our van in such a short time, but it really feels like a major goal has been achieved, and a huge landmark on our journey. We have already driven more than half the distance we have to drive to New Zealand, but we have 3 times as much time to do the rest, so we are really looking forward to taking things a bit slower from here on in...and the first stage of our new found 'slowness' is a stop in Delhi with a couple from our home church in Hastings - Steve and Lori. We hadn't actually met Steve before, and had only met Lori once, but they openly offered their home up to us, and it really felt like we were at home as it was so relaxing. It was also great to have air conditioning, and we wondered how we ever coped without it, as we nearly pass out whenever we go outside now!

Our arrival in Delhi was predictably late at night, and apparently just after the curfew after which lorries are allowed inside the city. That later explained why we were in a complete stand-still jam with countess trucks squeezing us in from all sides. Never-the-less we arrived after having driven over 2000 miles on bad roads in the last 5 days, and just flopped. We stayed with Steve and Lori for another 5 days recovering, as Rhona had started to feel a little dodgy. It was just what we needed.

So we had some time to stock up, sort some things out with the van, and make some plans. We are going to fly over to Nepal to visit the house of our friends David and Deepa who are living in Hastings, but are pastors of a church in Katmandu. We decided that we wouldn't go trekking there, as we wanted to, as the monsoon has hit early, and it is not a very ideal time for it. Instead we are going to head north to Kashmir in the van when we return back to Delhi, and go right up into the Himalayas. The mountains provide a barrier and once you've driven over a 5000m pass, the rains don't get any further than that. So we will be escaping the heat and the rain in one foul swoop, before driving down to the south of India.

We have also just found out some exciting/unexpected news this week, and that is that Rhona is pregnant!!! So that explained why she has been feeling so rough! She is only about 9 weeks down the line, but we thought that we should let everyone know so that you can pray for us! So no more bungee jumping, climbing or scuba diving for her which I know she is devastated about! We will continue our journey as planned, and it will be a very well travelled baby!

So until next time, thanks for reading, we hope you are enjoying hearing about our adventures, and thanks to everyone who has left us messages, we really appreciate it! Ta for now xx

Total distance driven: about 8500 miles

Max Temp: 42 degrees C

Diesel: 45p/litre

Pakistan

2008-06-10T14:23:00.004+01:00

Asalem Aleycom!

Thankfully, on the morning of our border crossing (after what was a very hot sticky night in the van!), we were joined by our friend Fred Flintstone again! If it wasn't for him taking us round all the different desks and pushing in for us, we would never have made it through! A truly honourable Iranian man. At nine thirty in the morning the temperature was already reaching the forties, and once again we were downing the cold water Fred insisted on buying us. About an hour and a half later we left Iran and entered Pakistan, where of course the whole process of customs and passport control began all over again. Our plan was to reach the city of Quetta (400 miles away) before dark, but by now it was already midday Pakistan time, so we were itching to get going. Customs was hilarious! We were welcomed by a very nice officer whith the words " Cup of tea and biscuits".... and then later when we'd been waiting for him to stamp our carnet for about 20mins.... "I am not wasting your time..." He reckoned we would get to Quetta by 6 o'clock no problem .. "very good roads!!" He then told us all about the muslim faith, while we drank very sweet tea. So at around one thirty we were off into Pakistan and the Boluchistan desert!

We very quickly found out what "good road" meant in Pakistan!! A good road may have some patches of tarmac, and at least one lane for both directions of traffic! On this particular 'very good road' there were places where large sand drifts had come right across the road burying it, and in one place it was impassable. At this place we had to divert off the road onto the desert to avoid it, trying not to get stuck in the sand by staying on the rocky bits. It was rather like one of the mazes you get on the back of a cereal packet! In some places large proportions of the road had been washed away, which was rather a shock when you are driving at 60mph, and all of a sudden have just a narrow 'bridge' of tarmac to cross with sharp drops on either side! There were also no road signs, and the main road quite often very deceptively turned into what looked like a quarry road dissapearing into the hills. The only indication of it being the correct way, was the amount of traffic using it.

I can't write anything about Pakistan without mentioning the trucks. Just the most spectacularly overly customised and decorated things you have ever seen. So colourful, with charms and chains hanging from them all around, and huge decorative wooden cabin surrounds that go up high above the height of the truck. At night they would look like Christmas trees for all the lights! Amazing, and must be why they go so slowly - apart from being horrendously overloaded!

So at around midnight, after a long hot day, no lunch and only having had Angel Delight and bannana for breakfast.. we arrived on the outskirts of the massive city of Quetta, with no city map, just a road name of the hotel we were aiming for. OOps!!...not ideal. We found ourselves driving around slum areas trying to find something that would give us an indication of where to go! Just as we entered the city there was a burst sewer that had pooled over the entire road, which we had to drive through like some kind of sheep dip! The smells were horrendous, but thanks to God we found the main road into the city centre, and somehow we managed to drive right into the area where the hotel was. and a friendly policeman then directed us to it just round the corner - incredible! So since it was 1am we showered and went to sleep in our van in the hotel car park without any dinner, but we'd made it!

We were advised the next day that we couldn't make it all the way to Multan as planned, because the road wasn't good. So we had to go to Sukkur, which was to the South rather than the East and was potentially going to mean staying an extra night in Pakistan! The road to Sukkur was actually not a bad road, and the scenery was quite stunning driving down beautiful mountain valleys next to bright rivers. A few miles out of Quetta we were joined by police escort who were to be with us for the rest of our travels through Pakistan. They said it was their duty to keep us safe! It was much more organised than in Iran; after every few miles one police car would stop where another was waiting to take us on. The only problem was they went at their own, very slow pace, and wouldn't let us stop for anything...hmmm. Even so we made it to Sukkur before dark. But...a very big but.. when we got there they didn't stop! They took us around the city and out the other side! We mananged to stop them to ask where on earth they were taking us because once again hadn't had anything to eat since two slices of toast at breakfast, and we needed to eat and sleep. In very broken English we were told that it was too dangerous for us to stay in the city and we needed to go 20km further to the police station where we could stay the night. That sounded good to us, but three hours later we were still driving in the dark! At each changeover we would stop them and ask them where we were going, and each time they would say, "No problem, 20 kms, just follow us!!!" We eventually found out that we were going to a small town called Sadiquabad, a good part of the way to Multan! Apparently the reason was because this town is just inside the Punjab district which is meant to be a safer area for westeners than Sindh province. If they had only told us this before it would've saved so much frustration. The problem was they were all so incredibly nice and friendly about everything, but so frustrating. The escort on last shift was a crack team of special service terrorist busting agents called "The Elite Punjab Police". Their logo on the side of a battered Toyota HiLux looked a bit like a childs fireworks display, but with bullets! They took us to "the best" hotel in Sadiquabad, which looked pretty grotty, and the owner obviously was not happy to risk having westerners there, judging by the very long conversation in Urdu between him and our 5 police escorts, after which we were told, "There is no place here!". We spoke to the man who was obviously the boss of our bodyguards, and told him that we were happy to sleep in our van in the police station but whatever happened we were very tired and hungry and it was late! so that said they took us to a restaurant where we had a Pakistani feast! It was great. We weren't conspicuous at all with five heavily armed special agents accompanying us! We had great conversation with them. After dinner they insisted we look at another "best hotel". Hmmm... after seeing it we managed to pursuade them that we would like to stay in our van at the police station, as it was like home!

So we arrived at the local police station and were welcomed like celebrities by all the bemused police officers there. Another man introduced himself as a journalist for a daily Pakistani news paper, and wanted to write an article about us and our journey! so we were grilled and had our picture taken, and now probably have a whole article written about us in the Pakistani press! Simon of course had to play a song on the guitar once that was discovered by a nosy policeman, and am sure it was enjoyed immensly by the prisoners who appeared at the bars of their cells to listen and look at what the commotion was. Then we went to bed, safe and sound.

Our long tiring day had advantages as the next day we managed to make it all the way to Lahore and so were back on target with our schedule. We managed to loose our police escort though as 60mph was too fast for them and they never found us again! They couldn't have been that worried! Once again we arrived at the city with no clue where to go. We spotted a nice looking hotel on the outskirts, with secure parking and decided to ask if we could park and use their facilities, which they weren't too keen about. We asked how much a room was for a night and they replied "$150..." which is just slightly over our budget (was a nice looking hotel). We started asking about other places, when they told us to take a seat whilst they had a little private chat amongst themselves. The boss who was a very young well turned out Pakistani man, returned to us and said ..."Well I don't know what you think but if you like I will give you a room for the night for $50 dollars, because you are English, and you are my honoured guests!!" So hey presto!! We spent the night in a five star hotel as guests of the owner - amazing!! One comment he made was, "how with such a threat of terrorism can you westeners travel around so openly?" What do you say to that? "Eh... we lost our police!!!"

Lahore is no distance from India, so the next day we arrived at the border early. Once again we found that music speaks louder than words, and we ended up entertaining the customs officers and workers with guitar and singing before their day started. We were entertained in return by two or three of them who performed some fantastic Pakistani singing with drum accompaniment, and of course a cup of chai! It worked wonders, as the border officers liked us and whizzed our documents through the process early! So On into India, and we really can't believe we have go this far already. We are certainly looking forward to slowing down and recovering a bit. Overall we really enjoyed our time in Pakistan, even though we didn't get a chance to see much of it. All the people are so friendly and smiley, and despite the police presence we actually felt very safe and very welcome. The countryside was so beautiful, although we didn't see the best part - the Karakoram Highway. It was also a shame as Pakistan is total Toyota country - about 2 out of 3 cars and vans were Toyotas! There were so many Hiaces like ours, all with different modifications and customisations. We (well Simon) would have loved to have spent a while here just loading the van up with all sorts of useful things. One person explained, after the standard riducule at our lack of air conditioning, how easy and cheap it was to fit over there, and we were very tempted. Our roof rack has also broken due to too much weight bouncing around in the Boluchistan desert, and we could have got a great one there.

So I think it is one of the countries we would most like to go back to, and maybe when things have settled down a bit we will be able to really enjoy it.

Max temperature: 47 degrees C

Total distance driven: around 7500 miles

Iran pt 2

2008-06-08T13:08:00.003+01:00

Salam!
Well Shiraz was pretty rubbish. That is to say that we had a rubbish time in Shiraz. We started by spending over 2 hours in the hospital to get some anti-biotics for Rhona, even though She knew exactly what she needed. It was quite an experiance just not being able communicate with anyone, and trying to understand what we needed to do. Luckily, again an English speaking man called Muhammed who was visiting his brother in the hospital came to our help when sorting things out. He then took us out to an amazing ice-cream shop for ice-creams. Yummy, but he was meant to be showing us where the internet cafe was... The only Internet cafe that was open was painfully slow, and wouldn't let us onto our blog which was quite annoying. We did a lot of walking around in 35 degree sun heat aswell, as unlike Esfahan, the trees here are not very big and don't seem to cast much shade anywhere. We needed to get shopping, but were getting quite annoyed with being constantly ripped off, and not having the knowledge, confidance, or Arabic literacy to deal with it. Hot and bothered, we just wanted to drop it all and get back home to the campsite. There didn't seem to be much going for Shiraz, there is a big fort right in the central square which we didn't have time to look around, but the rest just seemed to be streets packed full of rather camp mens fashion shops.

We decided to stay a third night at the campsite to get our energy back from being pretty much non stop since we left UK, and to do a few things on the van. We went into the local town - Marv Dasht to try again to post the blog, but being a Friday obviously all the shops and the one internet cafe there were shut for prayers. Never mind, we managed to get some supplies and we will try the blog again in Yazd the next day. The last couple of days have definately been a bit of a low point, but we are putting that behind us and are looking forward to Yazd and onward. It was nice to meet other 'overlanders', and indeed quite surreal to think of ourselves as part of this elite group of people. It seems that whilst you are in Europe you are classed as campers, but once you've crossed into Iran you officially become an 'overlander'...! It is really exciting to hear where other people from different countries have been and are going to, and the stories that come out of it. We are a bit worried though as most other people we have seen are all in 4x4 Landrovers, Land Cruisers or even more hardcore vehicles. We are quite smug about the amount of extra space we have in our plumbers van compared to those cramped things though!

Yazd was very nice, but possibly the best bit about it was the hotel whose car park we slept in... Yazd is one of the oldest still inhabited cities in the world, and the 'Silk Road Hotel' is right slap bang in the middle of it. The buildings are all made of sun dried mud bricks, layered over with more mud, so are suprisingly cool inside. it's amazing to think that all these houses made of mud, amoung miles of narrow streets are so old! The hotel looked like a bit of a wreck from the outside, but through the door and along a passage takes you into the most amazing tiled courtyard with a fountain in the middle, plants, and sitting areas under the shade. Very relaxing. It is obviously a bit of a travellers hang out, as there were overlanders, backpackers, and travellers from all different countries staying there. It seems to be a place where people arrive at and then decide to stay for a while, and we can see why. We met more people who have similar positive stories about Pakistan so that was encouraging. The actual car park was a bit grotty though, hot, dusty, and no breeze. There was a very nice air conditioned roof top terrace with internet access though, so we stayed there most of the day.

We mentioned briefly earlier that we thought that the pollution here was bad, but it is actually quite a serious problem for Iran. No one walks anywhere here, anyone who's anyone has an old motorbike which they ride like lunatics around all the cities. Basically, because petrol is virtually free, the cost of motoring is the cost of an old bike and that's it. Cars, lorries and bikes never get serviced, so are horrifically dirty, and the result brings tears to your eyes. The brown smog with a sign saying 'Tehran' next to it was no joke!

For your comprehension we have compiled a brief list of Iranian driving rules (there aren't many):
1. Drive on the right hand side.

exceptions: Motorbikes - please drive on the left hand side

Reversing - it's fine to reverse down the wrong side of a dual carriageway if you need to

Convenience - If it will be quicker for you to drive on the left then do so

2. Beep your horn continually.

exceptions: ...

3. Whoever beeps their horn first has right of way. If both are at the same time, then whoever has the loudest horn has right of way.

exceptions: Lorries have right of way

Motorbikes have no rights, just drive as if they aren't there

4. A red light warns you that you no longer have a clear junction, you now have to push your way through cross traffic just like any usual junction.

5. Try not to let pedestrians out to cross the road, they are very slow and hold you up. If one does indicate intention to cross, then accelerate and swing towards them.

On a side line, but equally as important, Rhona wants everyone to know that she is too hot.

After Yazd we drove to Kerman, and stayed a night there in the car park of of fancy hotel, very pleasant. After Kerman we drove to Bam which was sadly all but destroyed by a tragic earthquake on boxing day 2003, that killed over 31,000 people. We found our way to 'Akbar Tourist Guest House' (with the help of a friendly taxi driver), and were very warmly welcomed with tea and dates. May have preffered ice cold water though as we are down to a mere 1150m altitude and it was 41 degrees outside. The hostel is being rebuilt as it was destroyed in the earthquake, during which 3 of the people who were staying here died, and the temporary rooms are rather basic. We are now in the zone that the foreign office advises against going to, as about 6 months ago a Japanese tourist was kidnapped from his hotel here, infact our hotel as it turns out, and as a result a lot of tourists have avoided the area. Our friendly host Akbar is very blase about it though, ironically as he picks up the phone to inform the police that we are here, and tells us that if we want to go anywhere we have to be escorted by them. We did want to go somewhere as it happens, the 'Arg-e Bam', which is an ancient citadel made entirely from mud. So once again Akbar got onto the phone to the police, and moments later, a battered old police car turned up with no less than 3 officers armed with AK47s! We squeezed in the back, barrels up our noses, at which point Rhona said, "Ooo, I've never been in a police car before, how exciting!", and they drove us to the citadel, walked around it with us, then gave us a quick drive around it before taking us home again! It was rather strange having armed shadows, but we imagined no one would bother trying to kidnap us!

The citadel was quite something, a sight definately rivalling Persepolis! We were very glad that we came out here. It dates back a couple of thousand years, but was also sadly rather flattened by the earthquake. What is left is still a vast complex city with cobbled streets, huge mud-brick walls, intricate houses with domed roofs and arched doorways. There is a fairytale castle in the middle on a jutting bastion of rock which is very dramatic. It has large gatehouses, towers, and steps, passages and rooms running up the rock all the way to the top still remaining. Around the city there are large piles of debris from when walls, houses and archways collapsed, which gives it a bit of an untouched feel, (added to by the fact that we (and our body gaurds) were the only people there). A long drawn out restoration is in progress which could take quite a while. We thought that it was quite an amazing sight as it was, and probably one of the most impressive ruins we have ever seen, but we have seen pictures of it before the earthquake looking so complete, as though it was just built yesterday, it must have been one of the most incredible sights in the world! What a tragedy to have lasted so long and then to be destroyed so quickly.

The following day was a day of utter frustration. We had to have a compulsory police escort all the way to the Pakistan border (about 300 miles), but what that entailed was a police car would lead us to the end of the road then stop us and call for another car to take us a bit further. This process happened 12 times, so there was quite a lot of waiting. Out of Bam city was into the Dasht-e Lut Desert, which at 10AM was 43 degrees C, and the police cars turned in to camouflage Toyota pickups with masked gunmen in the back. We wondered if we would be able to tell the difference between our army escort or the taliban if they started following us... There were some cool sand dunes though. Our plan was to get to the border and cross it that day, spend the night on the Pakistan side of the border, then get up early the next morning to cross the vast Baluchistan desert, arriving in Quetta late that evening. We knew the border closed at 5, so we gave ourselves pleanty of time and left at 7:45am to hopefully arrive at 2 or 3, but only about 50kms from the border, we were stopped for our last changeover, but this time we were kept waiting for 1 1/2 hours in the middle of the day before we were taken on. We arrived at 4:00 to find that the border was closed because it was some public holiday, and all week the border closes at 3:30 instead of 5 as usual, How annoying! Two bad concequences came out of this, the 1st one was that the border didn't open until 9 the next morning, allow 1 1/2 hours to get through it, then add 1 1/2 hours for entering Pakistan time zone, and we won't be able to set off until mid-day in Pakistan, which makes it a bit touch and go to get all the way to Quetta! The second was that Rhona had a phone interview from New Zealand at 9:00 that morning, but we decided that we would have to leave before that if we were to give ourselves a chance of getting through the border that day. Of course we were stopped in the middle of the desert by the police with no signal, and they wouldn't wait around for anything, so we couldn't get the call. We could have just left later and Rhona might have had a job. So very frustrated we waited in the intense desert heat and camped literally outside the passport control building with the dogs! We were joined at one stage by a very large Iranian truck driver who we thought looked like Fred Flintstone, he didn't speak a word of English, but just chatted away to us all evening which was very pleasant. He just wanted to look after us and kept buying us cold drinks, as he couldn't believe that we didn't have air con in our van. The following day he was to be of enourmous assistance to us.

So we leave Iran with mixed feelings, on the one hand, most of the people seem extremely friendly and welcoming, some are astoundingly generous and gracious, and some of the sights are quite spectacular. On the other hand, it is very hot, and bound by strict Islamic law. We saw an official sign by the border saying "We want nothing...except for the enforcement of Islamic law all around the world", and there is a definate heavyness carried by the people because of this. There are also pockets of people that seem to have quite an anti-western mind set, as one of our police escorts to the border told us in no uncertain sign language that English people are the same as Americans and they get shot around here! Nice! We have found the food here to be so-so, and really fed up with that...bread! Just get me a bowl of crunchy nut cornflakes with COLD milk!

So tomorow we are heading into Pakistan and probably the most worrying part of the trip for us. It is also our point of no return, as any point up until now we could turn tail and head back to UK, but once we have left Iran we won't be able to get back in, and there is no other way round. We will have to make it through the Baluchistan desert, and we can't say "I don't like Pakistan, I want to go home" if it gets a bit heavy, we have to get all the way to New Zealand!

Total distance: 6352 miles

Max temp: 44 degrees C

Iran part 1

2008-05-31T12:57:00.008+01:00

Salam aleikom!

Our last night in Turkey was good, apart from the dodgy kebaps we were served at a nearby eatery. We had to turn down a friendly Kurds offer to go back to his house to drink chai all night, so that we could finish off the blog, and make all our arrangements for the next morning, when we headed off towards the Iran border. Our nights' sleep was slightly disturbed by the whining loud prayer call from the mosque next door at 3:30 in the morning. They always use the same awful horn speakers turned up full so that they just distort, but I think that is meant to be part of the sound they are going for. We just have to imagine that it's a Jimmy Hendrix solo sometimes!

We arrived at the border with a little tripidation, to a very long queue of lorries filling up our side of the dual carriageway, but some helpful standers-by directed us to drive up the other side of the dual carriageway right up to the gate where we were ushered to the front of the queue! Another man pulled up beside us and said "I am customs, I get you through very quick, no problem!", and he did, he took us to all the right people to stamp us out of Turkey. You seemed to have to know who the people are, as they were just milling around in plain clothes. He just got them to stamp our papers without looking! We would never have found our way otherwise! We were then ushered through the gate into Iran where all the formalities started again. But once again someone came to our rescue, a very friendly lady this time, and sorted out all our paperwork for us! Amazing, we were through in an hour and a half! It seems that whenever you don't know where to go or what to do, someone will see you and offer to help, We were trying to find a restaurant that evening, when someone just overheard us and showed us where it was.

We drove on to Tabriz, which has one of the oldest, biggest (and apparently most interesting) bazaars in Iran, and has 35km of streets all inside a 15th century building! I don't think we'll make it round the whole thing! We found a guesthouse for £4 a night, and put the van in a car park around the back. One great thing we've noticed here is that when you park your car in a car park, you pay an attendant who sits there all night and watches it, whereas in Britain (particularly in Hastings), you pay your parking fee, and the attendants couldn't give a stuff if your car got nicked, they just try to give you a penalty....it seems... The hotel as you can imagine for that price was a bit shabby and noisy but it did the job. We had a really great Persian feast in a small restaurant, where we sat on Persian rugs and cusions to eat, it was amazing food and very cheap.

Rhona has now converted to Islam and has to wear headscarfs all day, which is not very popular with her. Poor thing is dying of heat and suffocation! Silly rules!

Iranian driving is the worst we have yet encountered on this trip, the cities are just a complete free for all, with pedestrians just walking out into the middle of a four lane street, as that is the only way to cross the road. Iran has the highest road accident casualties in the world, and it is easy to see why, although we both agree that Kenya is probably slightly worse. We are enjoying the rediculously cheap diesel here of 1p a litre!! So to fill our tank, and our 3 jerry cans (equivaleant to another tank) costs us around £1! Petrol is a bit more, at a pricey 6p a litre. The prices are set by the government, so is the same everywhere. The only problem with this is there is no petrol station (or 5) on every corner as in all the other countries we have visited, infact diesel is very hard to get hold of here, we filled up once near the border, but he only allowed us 30 litres due to short supply, and we didn't see another station selling diesel for another 200 miles! Thankfully we got to one just before we ran out!

Tabriz was good fun, a highlight definately was getting a melon smoothie from one of the smoothie shops that lined a particular street. Simon was a bit sceptical seeing all these pots of freshly made bright green and orange fruit and veg smoothies, but it was cold, refreshing, tasty, and hit the spot perfectly. I wonder why they don't have more of these fantastic joints anywhere else? Another highlight was the bazaar. Our senses were awakened by all the smells and tastes of different foods and countless spices. There are large fruit and vegetable markets with all sorts of fresh produce. There was every kind of dried fruits and berries, nuts and seeds that you could imagine. The biggest difference we noticed between this one and the one in Istanbul, was the fact that in Turkey you would have about five people pulling you from all directions pestering you to buy something from them, whereas in Iran that was not apparent at all. People would just politely help you out if you showed the initial interest. Many people would just chat to us, and invite us back to their houses for dinner, and we had some interesting conversations with people. We get the impression that Iran is somewhere that you can't go anywhere fast for talking to people! I think we are spotted a mile off though. It was interesting to hear that one person told us how a lot of Iranian people find all the Islamic rules and regulations are choking them, and they feel like they are living in a prison here with no freedom.

The next morning we drove an hour down a very scenic road, only to find it was the wrong one! How annoying!! so we had to turn back and easliy found the right one. We visited a village called Masuleh, which is an old village built on a steep mountainside, with the houses all piled on top of each other. The cool thing about it is that the roof of one house is the street of the row above, so you are always walking on someone's muddy roof! These days it looks like its inhabitants live off tourism as it is unbelievably busy with Iranian tourists, and is packed with rows of shops.

We are beginning to feel that we need to be more careful about where we are sleeping now. This was confirmed when we were moved on by a friendly policeman who advised us that it is unsafe to park where there is no security. So from now on we will either be sleeping in hotels or in hotel car parks, if they let us.

We drove along the coast of the Caspian Sea which is 30m below sea level - the lowest we've been, on the way to the Alborz mountains just north of Tehran. Apparently the fisherman still cast their nets into the sea from the shore like in Biblical times, but we didn't see anyone doing this. We were very suprised that there was a lot of wasteland on the coast with no resorts, or even any obvious use. But then women aren't allowed on them anyway so what's the point? On arrival in the Alborz, we were planning on climbing Mount Damavand, the highest peak in Iran at 5670m. The village where the path starts is called Reyleh, but we again had trouble deciphering all the sguiggley Persian signs. We pulled up in a village to ask someone directions, and it turned out we were in the right place, and happened to pull up outside the Iran Mountain Federation base camp hostel! Lovely! The deal with the mountain is that you get a Landrover ride up to the 1st camp, then you hire a mule to carry your bags up the the second camp from where you walk to the summit. We just wanted a map to do it ourselves, but they didn't seem to have heard of maps, we hadn't planned long enough in advance to get one ourselves, and hiring a guide was too expensive, so we decided to just go for a days walk from the village instead. It is so beautiful here, lots of steep-sided valleys and cliffs.

The other side of the coin is that the traffic here is horrific, and we are finding the pollution quite difficult to cope with at times, especially on busy roads where there are just streams of filthy lorries belching out black smoke. Really takes the pleasure out of driving along stunning mountain passes and coastal roads. Being pulled over by the police is also becoming a daily annoyance, they just can't resist it. Even the one's that don't wave us down, we can see regretting it as we drive away.

We took a taxi to the bottom of the mountain, and walked up the path where you are meant to have a Land Rover take you up to camp 2, but we were sure our Matatu would have made it! After that we climbed a bit higher, and realised that we probably could have done the mountain on our own, but we didn't have the information we needed. The walk back was a slog, as we walked back along the road that the taxi had taken us up origionally, we were so hot and had run out of water. At one point though, a lorry coming the other way slowed down to say hello, and a boy in the front produced a large bottle of cold water and gave it to us! We were truly amazed at the thoughtfulness! Once we had got back, we decided to take down our roof box from the van; it held all our treking and climbing gear, but had strangely been drawing a lot of attention to us. Since we have taken it down we have not been pulled over by the police, and no one notices us until they see that the steering wheel is on the wrong side, and we are very white! We are very sorry to the lovely couple we bought it from, but it is now sitting in a yard in the Mount Damavand shelter 1 hut!

The road to Esfahan, our next stop was a long one, but the roads were good, fast motorways. Rather hot though, it got up to 40 degrees, and that's at 1200m altitude! Not looking forward to a day in the Baluchestan desert to get through southern Pakistan! We really felt like we were in the Middle East, driving through endless rolling semi-arid landscape. Just dust, rocks, the odd shrub, and a few jutting mountains all day.

The city streets in Iran really come alive in the evening, as many people have had their long mid-day siesta, the shops are open till late, and everyone is out and about. It is quite obviously more touristy here, as after not seeing another foreigner for our 6 days in Iran, all of a sudden there are 2 big fancy hotels full of retired Brits! Many people would stop to chat to us, and one newly wed couple Gheisar and Elham took us for a walk, and ended up inviting us back to their home. I don't think they were allowed to have visitors, as they sneaked us in past the security desk and up the stairs! They wanted to hear us play the guitar and sing, so we had brought the guitar along. They brought out trays of melons, fruits, tea and sweets, then as the power went out we serenaded them in the pitch dark! All very surreal, but it must have added to the atmosphere as they seemed to be impressed? Again we were really touched by the hospitality, and brings to mind our attitude in Britain when we see foreigners or people who seem lost. We also found out that public performance of music or dance is not allowed in Iran, infact when I got the guitar out of the car, Gheisar took it from me and hid it in a big sack so it would not be seen by anyone!

Esfahan is a truly beautiful city, with its lit up, ancient multi-arched bridges crossing the wide slow Zayandeh river, lined with tidy parks, to the hugely magnificant Imam Square (it's the second largest city square in the world), lined with historic architecture. We once again met up with Gheisar and Elham, and they took us for a tour of the cities most interesting sites. They also insisted on paying for us just to make us feel welcome in their country! It seems to be a very relaxed place, and is full of Esfahanis lying on the grass in the square, or sitting under the arches of the bridges on the river, just enjoying the location. We felt quite honoured to be there. We thought that it seemed incredible that among all this dry dry landscape, there should be such a green city with impressive water fountains on every roundabout, and men with thick hose pipeS watering tall trees, plants and grass lining every road. It was great to have the guides again as you get so much more out of a place, and you get a much better taste of the culture first hand.

Onward from Esfahan, and towards the revered city of Shiraz, takes us through more barren landscapes on more fast good roads. Very occaisionally the dust and shrubs would be broken by the most incredible gorges that would look like a mini lush paradise with thick vegetation, tall trees, and a bright green/blue river pooling and cascading over rocks. We made good time so decided to go and see the famous Persopolis on the way, before going to Shiraz to find cheap accomodation. As we drove towards it, we noticed a camp site! Shock horror!! Lets stay here! We have not seen a proper campsite since .. hmm .. Czech Republic! There was also a Landrover parked there with a tent, so it must be operational? Firstly we go to see Persepolis Which was built 2500 years ago by Darius I (the Great) as the most fantastic palace and city every built. 220 years later Alexander (the Greater - obviously) defeated them and destroyed the palace. What is left behind is still more complete that any other building anywhere near that old and is quite mind blowing. It is definately the most impressive sight we have seen so far. The complex is so expansive that you can stand in the middle and just see huge statues, pillars, doorways and walls decorated with such detailed and exquisite carvings in every direction, as far as you can see. Every enourmous piece of black rock used in any part of the complex, is covered in detailed carvings that tell stories, there is not a blank space anywhere, and many of the pillars and statues reach 30 or 40 meters into the sky! Really amazing! We check into the campsite which is suprisingly nice, and find the owners of the Landrover to be a couple from Kent doing almost exactly the same route as us!

We have been collecting our thoughts about south eastern Iran and Pakistan, and how and if we are to tackle crossing it. We have had varying reports from different people; the south east of Iran, and particularly Zahedan, near the Pakistan border is well renown for its part in the serious drug trade from Afganistan, and is a place that many Iranians would say was very dangerous and should be avoided, or that great care should be taken; we have also heard about kidnappings and hijakings in the area. Pakistan again brings a suprised and silent response from many people that we have told we are going there. Everything on the FCO website, safe travel website, Pakistan Embassy?!, and the British Embassy in Iran says simply "Don't go there", so we are a little apprehensive about that. The other side of the coin is that we have met several other travellers who are doing the same route as us through Pakistan to India, and have been told that the British Embassy has recorded quite a large volume of travelers currently crossing this area trouble free. The way to do it would be to cross it (2 days driving), from 'Bam' in the safe part of Iran, spending one night in the Pakistan border police compound, and getting all the way to Quetta the next day. We would also be phoning the British Embassy in Pakistan for advice and to register with them before we go. We are not altogether ready to give up on our goal, and these amazing words below have been quite an encouragement to us:

The Lord is my Shepherd, I have everything I need.

He lets me rest in green meadows, he leads me beside peaceful streams.

He renews my strength. He guides me along right paths, bringing honour to His name.

Even when I walk through the dark valley of death, I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me,

Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me.

You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies.

You welcome me as a guest, anointing my head with oil. My cup overflows with blessings.

Surely Your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life,

And I will live in the house of the Lord forever.

Psalm 23

PS. Since this writing this, and repeated failed attempts to post it, we have heard from a couple who have just been through Pakistan coming the other direction, and have said that it was quite pleasant, with no troubles at all, so the plan is to go for it as above. We could also go in convoy with the other Landrover if we felt that we needed to.

Max temperature: 40

Diesel 1p a litre

total miles driven: 5000 (ish)

Turkey

2008-05-20T21:21:00.009+01:00

Merhaba!

Well another 20 minute border crossing which is great, overall very organised and friendly, we give 10/10 to Turkey! The roads here are another step up, all motorways and fancy dual carriageways which we are not used to, so we decide to keep driving and try and get to a campsite marked on our map in Istanbul...We had been on the road a long time aleady, and we eventually arrived at Istanbul around 9 in the evening. Then began the process of finding the campsite which was just not apparent anywhere, and no matter what we did we couldn't find it. So at around 11 o'clock after driving up and down the streets of the suburb of Birkakoy, Istanbul, we pulled up on a bit of wasteland behind a derelict fuel station near to what looked like a "homeless glow" and went to sleep in a bit of a grump. The following morning we realised that the "homeless glow" was infact a geese coup, and we were sort of by a park by the sea. There were a couple of police cars down the other end, but they just seemed to be hanging out with some other guys having breakfast. We had breakfast ourselves - fried eggs, mmmm, cleared up and pulled away, but the police saw us and pulled us over. We anxiously said: "oh great, what's going to happen now", but when we pulled up to him he said, "Yes yes! You come in I make you Turkish food! Speciallity!!". We said that was very nice of him, and tried to explain that we were trying to find the camping ground, and he shot off to make some loud phone calls then ushered us around the corner to a guy who was a mobile mechanic and was fixing someone's tyre, but he spoke a bit of English. He said to us, "Istanbul campsite; closed 10 years ago, Atakoy campsite; closed 2 years ago, Birkakoy campsite; closed 5 years ago, but there is one place, they have water.. and parking security...100 meters that way!". Off we trundle, and literally 100 meters further down the road, we come to a gate through which there was a completely derelict, overgrown and as good as bombed lodge chalet place, with a man who said " yes yes, camping no problem, security no problem" and took us down the lanes of this once-was resort to a place where there were about 4 other motor homes parked on a large flat patch of concrete with vegetation sprouting from every crack. He showed us the bathroom which was the broken in door of the nearest chalet which had a...toilet...and a sink with a plastic bowl that you had to fill up to flush the loo as the flush didn't work. "Well we've found the campsite" we said, and realised that at this point we were literally over one wall from the place were we had kipped the night before!!

So we handwashed some clothes and got them up on a line, then headed into town with a chatty taxi driver in a battered old Dacia. We've been excitedly monitoring the "old banger of choice" in each country we have been through, as I (Simon) think that you would all be interested to know that in Czech Rep and Slovakia it's the Skoda 130, in Poland it's the Fiat 500, in Ukraine and Moldova it's the Soviet Lada, and in Romania and Bulgaria it's the Dacia 1310. I wish I'd managed to get photos of the 'pimped' up versions of these classics!

Now Istanbul is a city of 20 million, it is huge, and pretty mind blowing. The history is incredible as the city has been the capital of the eastern Roman Empire, and of the Ottoman empire, and was one of the most glorious cities in the world between around 500-1500AD. Many of the old buildings from this era remain, and we saw the immense Topkapi Palace and its luxurious Harem, which along with its grounds take up a very large proportion of the central area of Istanbul. We saw the Blue Mosque, which makes you dizzy looking up at the cieling due to the size of the space, and detail of the tiling. We didn't bother going to see Aya Sofya which was a church built in 537AD, then converted into a mosque in the 15th Century, then made a museum in the 1930's. It is meant to be one of the worlds most glorious buildings. I think we were a bit glorioused out by that point!

We had overpriced kebaps for lunch, and went for a walk which found us in the Grand Bazaar which is like a mini city in itself. It's all inside an old building but has countless narrow streets, containing some 4000 shops. You can get really amazing (very expensive) rugs, jewellery, clothes, well everything really, and you just have fun haggling your way through it. Rhona learnt the word for "how much" in Turkish, but didn't realise that saying it would invoke a response in Turkish, which we of course didn't understand so had to ask again in English! That's the point when they probably double the price!

We decided to walk back to our campsite from town as it was all along the seafront through parks and promenades and looked quite pleasant. Quite a big thing in parks here is to have an outdoor gym, which is where you expect to see swings and round'a'bouts, you would infact get all these excercise machines, so you could watch mainly ladies in burkas doing all sorts of squats and thrusts! we thought it was amazing that the machines weren't vandalised as they would be in Britain. Another big thing here is fishing, and fishermen line the coast casting their rods. Another big big thing is Istanbul, and it took us 2 1/2 hours to walk home, so another late night for us.

The next morning we were very late heading off towards the east of Turkey. We caught up with our blog entries, sorted some things out around the van and were entertained by a lovely German family who were also using the 'parking site'. We had problems with the water supply! Big problems, which meant that the toilets which were pretty bad anyway were filling up with all sorts of nasties!! We also had a very full porta-loo to empty somehow and with no running water, that was starting to look to bad to be true! - However a few hours later some workers managed to resume the water supply, which helped a little bit but still pretty dire I would say!! But that said we headed off happily at about midday, hoping to get close to Ankara that evening. We arrived at a place called KIzIlcahamam, which was marked on the map as a "Thermal Resort" and a "place of special tourist interest", which we thought would be an ideal place to spend a night. There was also a campsite marked there. We thought it might be some kind of hot springs or something - cool. Alas, it was beginging to become apparent that our days of campsites with all the utilities we needed were probably over! After searching once again for the campsite marked on our map, we again ended up wild camping! So again no shower, we were very smelly but in a beautiful spot high up in the Turkish hills. Rhona was hoping that her hair would start cleaning itself as is apparently meant to happen..hmm... Perhaps a nice cheap hotel would have to be the next stop! And a nice Hotel was the next stop in the city of Sivas after another long drive the next day! We watched the scenery change countless times, from the beautiful forested hilly terrain, to the more barren and rocky, red soil/dust to white! Turkey is amazingly vast with long distances between large busy cities. Outside the cities the roads, (a lot of which is dual carriagway) that we have been travelling on, have been almost deserted.

The 'cheap hotel' part of the plan once again didn't quite work out. It wasn't incredibly expensive but was about £30 rather than the £10 which we were hoping for and fitted in with our budget! We keep reading about cheap hotels but never seem to be able to find them. Never mind it was extremely nice and we and all our clothes ended up sqeaky clean. We tried out the Turkish cuisine again which is extremely bread based but very tasty. For lunch it was a 'Simit' which is a ring of quite heavy bread covered in seaseme seeds..lovely.. and then of course kebaps for dinner...yummy!

The further you drive east in Turkey, the scenery becomes more and more dramatic, and as we continued on past Sivas, the mountains all around were beginning to be snowcapped, then just white with jagged rocky outcrops. The gorges became deeper, the cliff faces sheerer, and the rivers more turbulent. The van had to cope with a lot of strenuous driving, as we climbed mountain pass after mountain pass before twisting back down to the valleys on the other side. At the tops of the passes at around 2200 meters, the temperature would drop as low as 4 deg, and in the valleys (no lower than 1600m) it was never more than 15 deg. The scenery has been so stunning, and we know that our little camera just isn't up to representing the sheer vastness and beauty of what we have seen. Still, I think that those images will be with us forever. I don't know if it was the constant steep hills, or some poor quality diesel, but our van seems to be belching out thick black smoke now. Hmm, well all the other vans and lorries do so it can't be that bad; maybe we'll blend in a bit more? We got just past Erzurum that night before pulling over. We worked out that we are just about 300 miles from Iraq at this point, but that's ok. There are also quite a lot of army vehicles around which is quite worrying. We're alright here, but apparently a bit further south-east, the empty mountain terrain is used for hideouts by terrorists, so we won't go there!

Turkey has been our favorite country so far, although it seems that each country that we go to is better than the last! It would be really great to have a lot more time here, as there are so many interesting things to see and mountains to climb!

Past Erzurum, the scenery continued to astound us to a greater degree than the day before, and as we've just used all our best words on the last paragraph, we really don't know how to describe it any more, apart from to just say "WOW"! We have also seen the people get poorer as we've gone east, from the very affluent Istanbul, to the east where there are nomadic tribes sheparding their flocks and living in tents. The villages are tiny and remote, normally consisting of a few falling-down stone buildings, and mud out-houses clinging to the mountainside. We have continued to feel welcomed here, and every Turkish person we come across seems to want to speak or just smile to us.

It was only a few hours drive from Erzurum to Dogubayazit where we made our next stop, so we were there before lunch. It is a frontier town, being a mere 35km from the Iranian border which we plan to go through tomorow!! Yikes, can't believe were here already! We found a cheap hotel again, as it would be a good base to do some internet stuff that needs done, and sort out all the paperwork for the crossing. Our room has stunning views of Mount Ararat and a great panoramic communal area on the top floor, which makes up for it being very basic and luminous green! The streets of the town are narrow and packed with shops, so we decided to go explore. We found a bakery, and bought a Peda bread that we just saw come out of the oven for 20p, and tried to eat it for lunch, but couldn't even get half way it was so big!

There is quite a heavy military presence here, ever since around Erzurum, every village, town, and even remote hotel has a small company defending it. In Dogubayazit (or Dog Biscuit as the travellers call it) there are large garrisons with tanks, guns, towers, and lookouts on the hills. We are also in the part of Turkey that is inhabited mainly by Kurds rather than Turks. The Kurdish people are a historic people group that have lived in an area that covers parts of Turkey, Northern Syria, iran, and Iraq for centuries, but their identity has always been denied and repressed by their respective governments, with sharp dealings being dealt to anyone who suggested that they should be recognised as a separate tribe, with separate language and culture.

Anyway, after lunch we decided to go and visit the Ishak Pasa Palace, which was built between 1685 and 1784 up on a crag on a nearby mountain, and was very cool. The stone carvings adorning all the doorways, arches, windows and fireplaces was quite something, and its position high up in the crags made it truly spectacular. There was also a mosque, that was built before the palace, but it had been renovated for use, and looked rather like a small methodist hall on the inside! Further up the cliff was a proper fort built into the sheer rock face. This was the best bit, as you could climb up to it, and clamber along some exposed ledges to walk along the walls. There are plans to refurbish it, but until then it is quite a ruin, and you can just explore it at your own leisure. Rhona had a bit of trouble getting up some of the steeper parts, but luckily there were plenty of young Turkish men available to help her out...

Day 15 (Bulgaria to Istanbul): 436 miles

Day 16 (Istanbul): 100 meters

Day 17 (Istanbul to Kazilcahamam): 266 miles

Day 18 (Kazilcahamam to Sivas): 360 miles

Day 19 (Sivas to Erzurum): 314 miles

Day 20 (Erzurum to Dogubayazit): 164 miles

Max temp Istanbul: 29 deg C

Max temp Eastern Turkey: 16 deg C

Min Temp Eastern Turkey: 4 deg C

Total miles travelled so far: 3796 miles

Diesel in Turkey is more expensive than UK: £1.30/litre !!! No wonder the roads are deserted!

Romania and Bulgaria

2008-05-18T18:27:00.006+01:00

Buna!

The border crossing into Romania was a lot quicker than the other two we have encountered, although it must be an inherant characteristic of border gaurds to be blunt and aggressive. They tend to just shout at you in their language which they must know you don't understand whenever you give them the wrong bit of paper or something.

Romania has even more horses I think than Moldova, and is green, hilly and beautiful. There are large parts of Romania that are very mountainous, but unfortuanately we can't really go there as we are running behind on schedule if we want to get through Iran before it gets too hot, and to India and Nepal before the serious rainy season start there. So we are going to speed up a bit now and try and get through Romania and Bulgaria quite quickly.

We have had the feeling so far that our presence hasn't been all that welcome in the places that we have been, as people tend to just stare at us and not say anything when we try and talk to them. I think we just need to get to know them a bit better though, and once you've got past the "who on earth are you and what are you driving" stage then they are fine. Rhona asked a passing scowling man with a horse and cart if she could take his picture, and all of a sudden he just chuckled and got his horses into a fine pose for her saying in Romanian something like: "you want a picture of me, I'm nothing compared to what you look like!". And we all laughed!

We spent one very pleasant night in Romania, with baked beans, corned beef and rice on the menu (hmm lovely...maybe should've stopped at that restaurant we saw after all!!). One little stray dog also enjoyed the shelter under our van..so much so we had to chase him away in the morning for fear of running him over - he was very cute, we would've taken him with us if we could. The next day we spent driving along the coast and over the border into Bulgaria; our easiest border crossing yet! All the guards spoke English and we were through within 10mins!! Whoopee! At one point just as we were going south of Braila in Romania, the road on the map crossed a very large river which we assumed would be a bridge or something, but we were treated to a very exciting ferry crossing! The ferry was just like a raft about 50cms from the water surface with an engine! All the cars and vans packed on to it overhanging at the edges, then we chugged across. Definately a highlight. Luckily it was a calm river, I wouldn't fancy it much otherwise!

We would've definately liked to have spent more time in Romania than we were able too. Some of the scenery we drove through was beautiful and I think there is a definate cultural richness that we would have liked to tap into a bit more. (I guess that is a common feeling for all the countries we've been through so far and I guess we're just getting a taster of each for now). Ukraine, Moldova and Romania have really made us think about our lifestyle and question "why" do we have the oppourtunity and resources to be able to go and travel the world when people are slaving away in fields all day just to be able to feed themselves? We have both experienced living in Kenya amidst terrible poverty, but somehow the fact that these are people with the same colour of skin as us, and are a lot closer geographically, has 'struck a chord', so to speak! The nice thing, and perhaps a big difference to what we experienced in parts of Africa, is that people seem to be living very happily, in the rural areas especially. In fact the simplicity of their lifestyle is very appealing although hard work!

So Bulgaria then; well we only had one night here as well (as we were already behind schedule from previous flirtations with Ukraine and Moldova), and we wanted to push through to Turkey the next day. It looks like Bulgaria is going supersonic, just buildings going up everywhere, hotel monstrosities starting to line the coastal areas. Property prices here are soaring as foreigners (Brits) are buying up the villas and houses, and roadside billboards display things like "Brits in Bulgaria" and "Luxury Apartments from 35,000 Euro" (in English of course). The roads here (well the coastal one that we took) are the best since, well Germany, although that's probably just because they are all new.

That said, we can really see why; Bulgaria is possibly the most beautiful country we have been to so far, its' forested mountains are bigger than the Carpathians, the Black Sea is glittering turquoise, the beaches are white and numerous of all sizes and busyness, they have lots of wildlife (we saw wild buffalo by the side of the road, and there are also many bears), and I think I would live here if I could! So I think there is still time - go and buy a house in Bulgaria!!

We are posting this from Sivas in Eastern Turkey, we've really burnt it through the last few days and hope to enter Iran on Wednesday, so we'll post up the Turkey installment then, which will be extremely exciting! Until then, all the best.

Moldova

2008-05-13T10:11:00.003+01:00

Buna!

The Moldovan border looked deceptively calm when we arrived at it, and all was going well until we got to the last desk - Moldova customs, which was a man who insisted that we fill out all these forms (in Crillic Russian) that he knew we wouldn't understand just to be awkward I think. He wouldn't budge, so in the end we had to get one of the other gaurds to let us past the gate into the stalls on the Moldovan side, to find someone who spoke English and could help us with the forms. After two trips back and forth from Moldova to correct insatisfactory entries, the second time coming back with the ladies who were translating for us who also didn't understand what what he wanted from us, he smirked, put our forms in an empty drawer, stamped our label and waved us on...

Oh well, we're in Moldova now, and it looks very nice. The roads are cool, bumpy, but wide and deserted. We will see what Europes' poorest country has in store for us, but an hour in we get off the main road and settle down for the night. That can wait for tomorow!

Moldova is a captivatingly interesting place, poorer again than Ukraine, but still everyone seems to be very busy and working hard...that is apart from the people that work in offices and hotels who have nothing to do! Another interesting thing is that in every villiage that we went through, each house would have a bench infront of it by the road that the villagers would just sit on, chat, and watch the world (and gawp at us) go by. Every house also has a well outside it, and it's amazing to see all the different colours and styles that people have made their wells, from the very basic to the very elaborate with ornate houses built around them! Everywhere you look there are big beautiful horses pulling carts, working the fields, or just tethered at the side of the road chewing grass. A silly thing to say, but they are such a magnificant animal, so much better than oxen or donkeys which you might expect to see in its place. The pace of life seems slower here, and everything simpler, and they are very much less accustomed to seeing western tourists. Wherever you go where communication might be a problem, they normally manage to find someone in the village or family member who speaks English, and ropes them in to translating for us.

I think they knew we were traveling to India when we got to Moldova, as we have just driven through a town called 'Balti', and the word for 'Hello' in Moldovan is 'Buna'! Rhona got them mixed up and kept saying 'Balti' to everyone she met!

We went to visit a monastery overlooking a river that had been carved into the side of a rock cliff by Orthodox monks in the 13th Century. We were the only people there, and the lady in the exhibition centre, with whom French was our most common language, after showing us round all the archaelogical finds, told us to go on up to the monastery on the cliff. We didn't quite understand where she was telling us to go, so we just decided to head off in what we thought was the right direction, which took us down all these terrible dirt roads through villages and eventually up to the bell tower on the cliff (which is the only bit of the monastry you can see above ground apart from windows in the cliff face). When we got up there one of the kids from the village playing about the tower gave Rhona a bunch of soft grasses that he had been collecting - how sweet! The inside of the monastery was incredible, with sleeping quarters for about 12 monks, a chapel with ornate carvings and artwork, and a door out onto a rock balcony halfway down the cliff draped with rugs and candle stands. Incredible, and all hand carved out of solid rock!

We decided to take refuge that night in a nearby hotel with great views out towards the monastry. It certainly made us laugh; The hotel receptionist didn't speak any English or French, and infact didn't really say anything. She kept ushering us to the phone whenever she wanted to tell us something so that her daughter could translate, even when we'd just walked into the room. In all our other countries we've managed to get by using our lonely planet language guide, however there is no section for Moldova!! - not good! We managed to ask for a double room for the night (through her daughter translating on the phone), but turns out you don't get sheets and you have to ask for towels. We tried to order lunch, but eventually she just pointed a dirty finger at one thing on the menu, then shuffled into the kitchen to make it for us which turned out to be lovely chicken noodle soup with bread. When it came to ordering dinner, she once again pointed at something on the menu, and we got the same soup again! - oops!

For breakfast we were half expecting to get soup again, but she said 'omelete', and came out with 2 fried eggs, slices of cheese, and about a quarter of a sausage each, along with the same stale bread we had the night before, Lovely!

Off to Chisinou after that, which is where we sit now posting this blog, so you are completely up to date. Sorry about posting 3 countries at once (don't miss Slovakia and Ukraine below), but we obviously are not as skilled at finding internet spots as we thought we might be! Off to Romainia this afternoon, and yet another language to learn.

Orheiul Vechi night: 103464

Ukraine

2008-05-13T09:57:00.003+01:00

Zdrastvuyte!

Well the border experience was quite something. We had a couple of hours drive before we arrived at it, so we were there at around 11am, and the queue was already starting to lengthen. There was an awful lot of waiting before we were ushered in to fill out lots of forms, to be interrogated (in Ukrainian) and have the van searched several times. We had numerous stamps grudgingly placed on a slip of paper by various different officers that we were shuffled between. It was quite a strain, as there was not a common word between us, and we just had to imagine how it must be for a Ukrainian to turn up at the British border control and expect them to speak Russian. Eventually after three and a half hours we were set free on the Ukrainian side of the border into the unknown. One thing we realised was that we were not sure if we had got the right insurance for driving a car in Ukraine (no one at the border spoke any English, and they said we had everything we needed; we weren't convinced...), and we were worried about being pulled over and taken to prison. To combat this we have adopted a 'police check avoidance procedure' which involves tailing a truck as we go through a police check, so that by the time the police see us it is too late to pull us over! ha ha! You laugh, but it has worked so far!

It seems to be another step poorer than Poland, but there is obviously a lot of hard work going on, and everyone has plantations in their gardens to grow veggies. It seems that everyone in the family from the youngest to the grannies contribute to the farming of crops and looking after the cows, goats, horses or chickens! Rhona particulary loves the horses used for pulling carts and for working the land. It felt a bit like going back in time.

The roads here are consistantly bad, no good bits, not many terrible bits, but just bad everywhere, which made going a bit slow. We arrived at L'viv by late afternoon, and drove straight into town. The entire city centre is cobbled, busy with crazy drivers, and ancient electric trams and busses. The old cobbles have been all but destroyed by the cars and lorries that drive over them, and the streets have been made into a big rumble strip, which shakes our van like a hungary baby's rattle. We decided that we didn't have enough time to explore the city fully that day, so we tried to find a hotel to stay in where we could park the van securely, and tour the city's old town (which we have been looking forward to for a while, and have come a long way to see) in the morning. This always takes a long time, Friday night aswell = no spaces anywhere. Eventually we pull up outside the fancy **** 'Hotel Spudnict' with a definate creak to the rear suspension from the battering it has just received from the cobbles. A bit more expensive and out of town than we were hoping for, but it was getting late, and we were getting hungary. We really went for it for dinner as well, the food is so different here and you want to try everything, lots of pickled meats, fishes and vegetables, marinate cabbage, and lots of garlic! The cooked meats were invariably Kiev-like in style. Still it cost us hardly anything.

Breakfast was another experience with raw fish, hams, salads, pancakes (filled with meat or cottage cheese), meat fritters, but it filled us up for our long day ahead of us. We started our tour proper of L'viv with the hour walk from our hotel into town, and then headed into the old town. We took photos galore, it is so picturesque with many stunning 12th-18th Centry buildings (mainly Catholic Churches), and narrow (cobbled of course) streets. A lot of the buildings are in a state of disrepair, but as soon as you go inside of one the detail is just stunning with incredible paintings all over the cielings and walls, ornamented golden pillars and cornices, and all different periods of archetecture. The city was very important during the 12-16th centuarys, being on both the main trade route to the west, and from Byzantium (Istanbul) to the north seas. There are a lot of outdoors cafe's one in which we enjoyed a sandwich for lunch, although I think we have decided that bread is not a Ukranian speciality!

After lunch we decided to get back to the van (we were starting to miss it!) and get a couple of hundred miles done towards Kamyanets-Podilskyy which is a fortress town built on a buttress of rock in the middle of a gorge towards the Moldova border. We get lost trying to get out of L'viv, but eventually head out in the right direction. Navigation is a nightmare here, as all the signs are in the cryllic alphabet, and the maps we had were in our (normal) alphabet, meaning that none of the names tied in together. You really have to get to grips with the cryllic if you come here! We nearly reached Kamyanets-Podilskyy when we decided to pull over for bed at another beautiful spot down a dirt lane in the middle of the Ukrainian countryside.

The following morning we arose to people walking past us on their way to church in their Sunday best, and made our way to Kamyanets-Podilskyy. This city has an old town that was built on a rock island in the middle of what seems to be a convergance of deep limestone gorges. You get to it by going over one of two dizzyingly high bridges Which you can bungee jump from if you like (and we saw people rock climbing on the cliffs which looked tempting). At the end of one of the bridges, there is an enormous (and still very complete) fairytale castle which you can look around, and go through all the tunnels in the walls, and under the ground. Very cool. This place is still very un-touristified compared to L'viv (which is meant to be the undiscovered treasure of the east), which was nice, and we enjoyed walking around the old towns' squares and streets. There were more multiple weddings here. I think we forgot to say that for the whole time we were in L'viv you could not get away from Brides in meruang dresses. It could be because we visited a lot of churches, but even in the central city square there were always a good handfull at any one time having their photos done. We inadvertantly gate crashed a couple of weddings whilst we were looking around some churches just as a bride happened to start walking down the aisle. We thought we were in a wedding comedy film. Shortly after lunch we headed off for the Moldova border an hour or so away.

l'viv night: 102978
kamyanets podilsky night: 103175
moldova night: 103343

day 9: 119 miles
day 10: 197 miles
Day 11: 168 miles

Still only about 16 degrees in the day and 6 ish over night.

Slovakia and Poland (again)

2008-05-13T09:35:00.003+01:00

Ahoj!

Our Last night in Czech Rep was on quite a high altitude pass between Czech and Slovakia and was a cold one, about 2 or 3 Celcius I think, which for an unheated van is a bit chilly! I'm glad we took Mam's advice and took two blankets and a duvet instead of just one blanket! In the morning we willed ourselves out of bed, and headed across the border into Slovakia which is a very beautiful country. Even though it was raining heavily all day, you could really get a sense of the majesty of the highest mountain group in the Carpathians. This is where we are headed, the High Tatras, and we arrive at the resort town of 'Stary Smokavec' which is instantly apealling. It's a bit of an out-of-season ski resort, but has everything you could want, along with some beautiful old wooden buildings and and old-mixed-with-new feel. Slovakia already seems to be a bit more sophisticated, clean, and has finer scenery than Czech. We then settled down for the night on a side road with amazing views of the Tatras.

Our basic routine so far has been to wild camp for two nights, then find a camp site for the 3rd so we can use the showers, washing machine, fill up with water and empty the portaloo etc. It seems to work quite well, as the van recharges itself when we drive (which is quite a lot), and every night we can boil the kettle, charge the laptop etc to our hearts content. The only thing we can't do is run the fridge all night, so the milk gets a bit confused! That reminds me, milk is still very diffult to get hold of around here, ever since Germany, I don't know what the locals have with their wheatabix, but it sure aint cerstve polotucne!

On Wednesday we climbed up Slavkovsky Stit, which at 2452m is one of the highest mountains in the Tatras, and the highest you can climb without being obliged to hire a mountain guide (and without requiring technical climbing skills). What can I say but perfect mountaneering weather! It was glorious sunshine all day, and despite layers of suncream, we still managed to get ourselves burnt! We weren't quite ready for the epicness of this mountain, and we were walking for 9 hours before we got back to the van absloutely knackered! It started off quite hot through the forest at the bottom, then from halfway up we were wading through patches of waist deep snow, and the whole top was just capped in deep, crisp unbroken snow. We saw one other person (from a distance) for the whole day, other than that, the mountain was ours. It was good to get the crampons on, which Rhona particularly enjoyed as she "just sticks!". The views from the top were absolutely amazing, all jagged snowy peaks on one side and open space on the other. What a day! (but very tiring!). We found a very dubious campsite that night, had showers and went to bed exhausted.

We think it is quite amazing that since we left the UK, we have had quite a lot of rain(storms), infact it has been every day apart from the two days that we have been out treking, which have been spectacular sunshine all day. How about that!

We had a bit of a change of plan at this stage, and we decided that instead of going through Hungary, Romania, and then Bulgaria as origionally planned, it would be far more interesting if we missed out Hungary, and detoured east back into Poland, and into Ukraine, then down into Moldova, getting back on course in Romania again. It would add a little extra distance, but a lot more excitement!

So the following morning we headed off into Poland and towards the Ukraine border. This would be our first 'proper' border crossing, as so far we have just been driving through EU countries and you just drive over with out stopping. We've heard that it can be very tricky negotiating the Ukraine border, as the ex-Soviet regime has left behind a legacy of corruption, and you are certain to be harrassed for bribes at every corner(border crossings being the worst!). Moldova is similar, but we have been assured that the muderous separatists are in east Moldova, so we won't need to go there.

I think we will start eating out a bit more, as we had a big slap up lunch with drinks in a fancy hotel in Poland today and it cost us a grand total of £7.50. Great, and it's gonna get cheaper! I love a bargain!

So for now, end of day 8 we are stopped at a beautiful spot, up a steep windy road in south eastern Poland near to the Ukrainian border. Goodnight!

PS. We didn't sleep loads that night, it turns out that after this very popular spot is Used by couples to have long deep discussions, it is used by rowdy men in vans doing whatever they might want to do in a secluded spot in the middle of the night?

Slovakia dirt road mileage: 102662

smokovec night: 102672

poland night: 102859

day 7: 10 miles

day 8: 187 miles

Czech Republic and Poland

2008-05-06T15:15:00.006+01:00

Dobry den!

Well, we got out of Prague fairly easily considering that there are only road signs on about one junction in four, and they are all in Jibberish to me anyway, and headed in the direction of 'Hradek Kralove' which took us most of the way there to argue on how to pronounce it. We shouldn't have bothered though, as the last word we used our combined brain force to decide on how to pronounce was the Czech word for thankyou: 'dekuji'. We decided on a fairly plain der-koo-gee, but it was after we had said it to about 6 people with varying quizzical reactions that we decided to ask someone...how embarassing, it is pronounced completely differently, more like 'ye-ku-ee', so no wonder we got some funny looks!

I think that so far our main resentment is that we haven't ever made an effort to learn more of the worlds languages; in the van coming into Czech Republic, we managed to remember hello, thank you, 1, 2, 3, yes and no, but we're into Slovakia in a couple of days, and that has a whole new language, as does every country we visit, some with many more than one, so that has been a little belittling for us. I think that we were expecting English to be a bit more widely spoken that our experience has led us to believe, infact no one has spoken any English to us until our fourth day at the campsite.

I love all the really old Skodas and Fiat 500's you get in Czech Rep, I think my next trip would have to be buying one of these and driving it home! I was very temped...Rhona not so sure!!

The next day we treked up to Sniezka which is the highest point in Czech Rep at 1602m. This is part of our sideline atempt to climb higher and higher mountains as our trip goes on. This all started in Arran in Scotland with Ed and Lyd when we climbed Goat Fell at 874m. We'll see how that goes..maybe end with a biggie in Nepal? It was a beautiful beautiful day and the scenery was lovely. Pleanty of snow still at the top and fairly deserted of people....that is until we reached nearly at the top to find a paved road going from some huge huts going up to more huge huts, restaurants etc on the top, and crowds of people brought up on the chair lifts to walk up it. That kind of spoilt it a bit. We both felt like we were on some sort of pilgrimage towards the end. Specially amazed at one girl who was attempting the steep, slippery ascent in high heels!!

From the Czech people that we have met so far, they seem to be a little quiet and grumpy, but then that's what you get for going to Tesco Prague I suppose! Lots of Lidls here as well.

We spent our fourth night in a campsite near the mountains in a place called Vrchlabi. It was lovely and we were the only campers there. It gave us a chance to have showers (well needed!!), wash clothes and refill our water tank. Unfortunately we could not use the electric hook-up to recharge all our batteries which would also have been nice but not essential. The showers were interesting though, they kept going off every few minutes and only stayed hot for about a minute! Hmm, not the best but hey, we ended up clean! We also had breakfast for Ł2 each, which was a really lovely continental breakfast.

So after our little re-cooperation, a morning trying to figure out how to dry our washed clothes,a while spent waiting for me to pick up the courage to give myself my final rabies injection (this is Rhona), at the campsite we headed off again.

We headed towards and over the Border into Poland for a brief little drive through. It was again quite different from Czech Rep. The buildings and houses are very run down, although some are very interesting. Then back into the Czech republic once again to return to our original planned route which was to head on down into Slovakia. We managed to cover quite a lot of ground and found a place to camp at the side of the road just before the Slovakian border. The landscape around the border area is absolutely stunning, with vast forested areas and beautiful, large houses built on the sides of rolling hills. Spring time seems to be a good time to visit as well as there are loads of blossom trees all in full flower and fields of yellow rape seed and little spring flowers!

Nachod night mileage: 102220
Vrchlabi night mileage: 102306
Slovakia border night mileage: 102532

Day 4: 86 miles
Day 5: 226 miles

Max temp 18
Min temp 3

Poland Diesel 0.90 GBP

PS we are posting this from Stary Smokovice in the High Tatras of Slovakia, but will write a full report on Slovakia soon.

The Adventure Begins!

2008-05-03T16:44:00.005+01:00

Well as promised, we set off from Hastings at 8:20 in the morning on the 1st of May 2008 for our ferry from Dover, and away we were into the great wide world!

The last few weeks have been pretty hectic getting things sorted out with the flat and all our belongings, all of which we have now either sold or given away, side from a van load which we took up to Scotland to put in Rhonas parents loft! Thanks Mam and Dad! It really was a last minute ordeal, I was actually on the phone on the ferry frantically trying to phone all of our utilities to tell them final meter readings before my signal ran out halfway across the channel!

We had our circuit of the UK a week before we left, which was a great success. The van drove wonderfully all the way up to Aberdeen and back without a hitch. We spent our very first (cold) night in the van in the Yorkshire Dales on the way back, although the van was still so far from being livable in. We were so busy with sorting out flat things, and tiying up loose ends for leaving the country that we didn't do anything else on the van and we conceded that we would have to leave with it in a half finished state, having tested next to none of the gear on board and just stuff all of our worldly belongings in with my tools, and we'll sort it out on the way!

I think on hind sight we were a little ambitous for our first day to try and get through 5 countries from UK to South Germany including the ferry crossing, but we arrived in a campsite in Saarburg in Germany near the Luxemburg border just as night was drawing, and the rain was setting in. I thought it was a little unfair after having driven all that way, to then have to rifle through the huge piles of our things in the back that had no place to be put away yet, and try to 'organise' them! We just kind of moved them around so that we could find some food to eat and get the bed out and go to it!

The next morning was very fine though, we were planing on driving to Czech Republic, but we hung around in the very pretty Saarburg until around 3 o'clock to prioritise sorting the van out before driving a few hours to near Nurnberg in South Eastern Germany for a night in a forest near the motorway so we could get going early in the morning for Prague. Really enjoyed Saarburg, it was set at the foot of some steep hills and was quite picturesque. when we got up we ventured into town to see if we could find some milk for our Wheatabix. But could we find milk anywhere?! We found nearly everything else including delicious bread (which we ended up having for breakfast!), meat, some pretty old, battered apples and bananas... but the only milk they seemed to have was UHT or sterilised! Germany is definately not a place for fruit and veg lovers, but its great for bread, cheese, and of course all sorts of meat! Most of Europe so far has been fairly similar, very green, lots of forests and little farming towns. We have spent a lot of time on the motorway so far though and not really explored much as was the plan until we hit the Czech Republic. Si I think was a little jelous of the cars managing to whiz past us at prob over 120mph on the German motorway which of course has unlimited speed. We managed to hit 80mph a few times in our little van!!

We are now just finishing this off in Prague whilst having a coffee. Looks like a lovely city in places, but would need a bit more time to explore properly. For now we are going to head a bit further North East into the mountainous area - Cool! We are planing on BBQ'ing some Czech sausages tonight then go for a hill trek in the Krkonose mountains tomorow. Until then See ya later. I've included some trivial info for you muse on. Enjoy!

Mileages:

Day 1: Hastings to Saarberg: 400
Day 2: Saarberg to Nurnberg: 238
Day 3: Nurnberg to Prague: 255

Start mileage: 101228
Saarburg night: 101628
Nurnburg night: 101866
Prague: 102121

UK Diesel: £1.20
France diesel: £1.10
Belgium Diesel: £1.10
Luxembourg Diesel: £1.00
Germany Diesel: £1.20
Czech diesel: £1.00

Highest Temp: 21 (France)

Lowest Temp: 6 (Saarberg)

Unemployed!!

2008-04-14T18:09:00.003+01:00

D-day is fast approaching, and things are getting a little scary now. Our flat is almost void of all furniture, and it is starting to hit us that in a couple of weeks we will be homeless, and living in a van... We are already unemployed, Rhona finished her work on Friday, and we have very little time left to organise everything.

So, what's the plan then? Well, We've got this week sorting things out in Hastings, then on Sunday we are going to spend a week doing a round circuit of the UK up to Aberdeen and back to say goodbye to parents and brothers, and to test the van out on home soil. We've then got a few more days in Hastings to iron out any creases before setting off for New Zealand on the 1st of May. We have 4 1/2 months to get to New Zealand before my pilots training course starts in September..that is assuming that I get on the course, it's not been confirmed yet, but will be on the 1st of July. Let me in Nelson Aviation College!!

Talking of the van, it's in the garage again getting all the belts changed, oh and transmission oil is leaking all over the rear wheel hub, and the wipers have stopped working...oooh it'l be fine!!! As far as the rest of it is going, well it's going rather well actually, we have a folding bed, a fridge, work top, gas hob, portaloo, big water tank, water filter system, storage, blacked out windows, curtains, roof rack, and an auxilliary power supply consisting of a couple of car batteries linked up to power our kettle and fridge and a few other things. Cool! All I need to do now is cut a hole in the roof (yikes!) to put the spinney roof vent in and we're away! Rhona's still picking letters off the side!

Thanks for all your comments, and as Mr Pickering helpfully pointed out, the lines on our map do infact not line up correctly in New Zealand, with the van going to one place, us another, then us in the van going between them. Thank you for that, and I'm glad we can now take the time to clarify the point that all things considered, WE ARE A BIT HAZY ABOUT OUR EXACT ROUTE AT THAT STAGE OF THE JOURNEY!! But I think you will find that if you look very closely there is a very thin green line suggesting that we swim north to meet the van... You Crazy!!

Chris, If we make it to Slovakia, we will be in touch! Can't believe we went up to Scotland the one week all the snow was melting! Hey, we had snow in Hastings last Sunday..amazing! I thought I would drive the van up a hill to really experience it, then quickly realised that the hill was quite a bit steeper than origionally anticipated when the van started slipping backwards down the hill again!! Oops, close one, we're planning on driving to New Zealand, and it was nearly all over in Hastings..lets be a bit more careful next time shall we!

To the Manc lot, any of you are welcome to visit whenever you like, we will probably be there for a good couple of years, maybe more depending on how it goes. I don't know really who's idea it was origionally to do this, we sort of egged each other on trying to prove that we were so much braver than the other, and ended up with this! Thanks for visiting Martin and Becky!

Other exciting news is that we have our Iranian visas stamped in our passports, WAHEY!!! Thanks to Zohreh at Magic Carpet Travel for sorting that out for us, as they are notoriously difficult to get hold of unless you happen to have a sister who is Iranian...nope, not that I know of. We need to make a trip up to London this week to get our Pakistan and India visas stamped in. So it's all starting to happen. Needless to say, we are extremely excited, and very reverant of the opportunity to partake in such an outing.

Until next time...over and out...

Howdy!

2008-03-28T10:38:00.003Z

Well quick update! Not much changed since last entry, however van really starting to take shape and money quickly depleting (savings being dipped into now!) I'll let Si fill u in on the details, all I know is its starting to look really cool! I got an e-mail this morning from Geneva Health to say that there are ICU vacaincies in Nelson and they are going to send them my cv! There is also a Diabetes specialist nurse part time job which i've been shortlisted for and will be interviewed for soon - that would be different, and maybe because its part time i could do a bit of both? Our Iranian visas are now ready for collection so our passports are off to be stamped. So things are slowly but surely starting to happen. I'm in the process of organising an agent for our flat rental, and there is also another tenant possiblility through a work contact.

My registration is still a slow process. Just waiting for my completed police check to come through so I can get that sent of and also a reference and signature from Brian!! (not naming or shaming by the way!!) We love u Brian!!!x

My Turn!

2008-03-22T10:00:00.002Z

Hey Rhona here! Just so u all know, whenever I post it'll be in pink!! Well Si's just off to B&Q and Halfords to get stuff for the Matatu (van). He's desperate to sleep a night in it and my worry is that tonight might be the night. (wonder if he'll feel the same after a few months in it?)
My jobs at the moment are to sell our lovely Peugeot 306, find tenants for our flat, and try to peel off all that lettering on the side of the van!! - a tedious job i'll tell you. Wouldn't be surprised if i'm still doing it when we head off - how about a number or letter every country?!!
Really feels like its happenin' now! My last day at work is the 11th of April. We're packing and selling up furnature and bits n'bobs, so if u need anythin give us a call, we probably have it for u!

Converting the Masses

2008-03-21T13:09:00.022Z

So on 15th February 2008 we bought a 1996 Toyota Hiace Compact 2.4 Diesel panel van with 98882 miles on the clock for £1550 (incase you are interested...probably not, but I'm going to tell you anyway!! ha ha!). The previous owner in Stevenage assured me that the extremely loud noise coming from the back (which I thought was the rear diff on the way out) was just the exhaust pipe rubbing on the driveshaft, so he took a couple of hundred quid off, and we bought it... Then the starter motor which worked fine when we test drove it, just stopped working, and we couldn't start it...doh! not a good start (no pun intended). Well we got it back to Hastings and to the garage: new starter motor, and as I was previously convinced of otherwise, a new rear diff required... Doh Doh!! It's gonna cost a grand to fix.. At this point we were starting to have serious misgivings towards the whole trip, but we got the van back and it ended up being only £400 which was the first bit of good news, and it's been all good from then on in!

The van is great!!!! We have called it "Matatu" due to it's resemblance to the 'African mini-bus' that all who have been there know and love! Sweet engine, sweet gear box...Yes!...this is going to get us to NZ!!

The next task is to get it ready for our expedition. We need a lot of storage space to carry loads of water, food, spare parts for the van, tools, spare wheels, extra diesel, clothes, other equipment for camping/treking, a cooler, gas tank and stove, porta loo, a folding bed, solar shower, electric inverter so that we can charge our laptop and other electrics from the vans battery, other cooking equipment, Lonely Planet guide books, and much more!

I started by paneling the walls and floor with ply wood, and insulating behind it to keep us cool in the heat of mid-summer Asia. We bought a futon for £22 off ebay, and I bolted it in so that it can swing easily down to make a bed, and be secured safely in the 'sofa' position. What fun!

Many thanks to Dan and Andrea for donating their portaloo and roofrack for our use, and in the case of both items I think it's safe to say abuse!

This is Clive. He doesn't have the internet therefore won't ever see this, so I thought it would be funny if I put this picture up and we all had a good giggle at him behind his back?

To New Zealand in a Van!!

2008-03-21T11:47:00.002Z

Greetings and salutations!

Welcome to our blog about our trip to New Zealand in a van! This is mainly to keep family and friends updated with where we are, and also as a useful journal to document all the exciting things that are going to happen to us on the way! You are welcome to just browse the posts that we put up, but we would be delighted if you left comments on the different posts to let us know to what degree you think we have been/are being stupid!(click on 'comments' tab at the bottom of each post). You can also subscribe to the blog by clicking on the 'subscribe to:' tab at the bottom of the page, and you will get an email whenever we post something up (I think), so you don't have to keep checking it to see if it has been updated.

As this is the first proper diary entry I'd better tell you what we are doing, why, and how! Basically my (Simon's) current career (Recording Engineer and Songwriter) isn't going very well, so instead of persevering with it, I'm going to hands-up-and-quit, and re-train to become a pilot which I wanted to do since I was little anyway! It seems that New Zealand is as good a place as any to do this (much better than UK anyway), and as we quite fancy going there ourselves, we decided to make that our destination of choice. Next up we decided that just 'flying' there was far too boring (despite said career choice), so as we normally drive everywhere anyway, we just thought it would be natural to drive there....to New Zealand...

"What a great idea" we started congratulating ourselves, until we realised that Iran is one of the hardest countries in the world to get visas for, Pakistan is in a state of emergency and has regular suicide bombings, both of which we have to go through. We have to go very close to the borders of both Iraq and Afghanistan, and to get anywhere past India overland, you have to go through either Burma (war torn, and you're not allowed to drive through it) or Tibet (rioting separatists) where to drive through it, you need Chinese residency, a Chinese driving licence requiring each of you to take a theory test - in Chinese, re-register the vehicle in China and give it Chinese number plates, not to mention all the local permissions. This alone would cost thousands.

So the plan at the moment is to get to India from where we will ship the van in a container to Australia, then fly ourselves up to Hong Kong, and make our way down through South East Asia to Singapore via buses, trains and boats, where we will catch a flight to Australia to meet up with our van which will hopefully have arrived! Then we will drive through Australia, and finally ship the van and fly ourselves to New Zealand to set up more permanent camp.

Well that's the short of it anyway. We will be filling in the gaps along the way, and hopefully finding out lots of interesting stuff about the different countries that we travel through, the things going on that we should know about, and some things that we shouldn't know about, so watch this space! Please don't be worried if some time goes by without us posting anything, as we are not taking satellite phones or anything, and we probably can't get any Internet access at that point.

I've put a map up so that you can see our intended route which may well change along the way but it will give you a good idea. Click on it and it'll come up full size. Coming up: the ongoing saga that is the van and getting it ready to go! Enjoy..

The Van!!

2008-02-19T23:46:00.000Z