Event Bulgaria Fest - Task complete

[HMC]

Hoping for a Phil Llewelyn style road trip travellogue. My fave road trip write up evah was when he took a then new R8 convertible to the Normandy battlefields. Anyone remember that one?

[MiniMort]

We are racing towards the Serbian border, so communication will be slow for a few days. Unless we decide to cross tomorrow. Not sure. Will see how the time looks when we get there.

Racing? Don't overdo it, you own an Invacar for a reason, I’m sure...

[hairnet]

Hoping for a Phil Llewelyn style road trip travellogue. My fave road trip write up evah was when he took a then new R8 convertible to the Normandy battlefields. Anyone remember that one?

Or the 1990 metro round the 12 capitals

 

Blimey wonder what happened there

[Louise2cv]

Bogi says she is going over in July so let her know if you need anything.

 

I think she is quite touched by this endeavour. Or... she thinks you are a bit nuts and need humouring. One or the other

[loserone]

Love the reg  - SLUG!

 

Would be interested to know what the food is like, beyond obviously delicious

[MiniMort]

I assume the lack of posting means they have arrived in Serbia...

[egg]

I assume the lack of posting means they have arrived in Serbia...

 

Yup, Ian has posted as such on Facebook.

[dollywobbler]

Indeed. Serbia is amazing. We just don't have time to post the images we've taken already. If anyone wants to pull them across from Facebook, feel free. Our internet access is minimal.

 

Over 400km covered today. No problems!

[egg]

I think this gives a good flavour!

 

 

[egg]

Moar.

 

Vicarious thrills.

 

 

[dollywobbler]

As you can see, pretty amazing. We're shooting footage on two phones and two cameras, so the post-event report will take some compiling.

[MiniMort]

How is the gear linkage now?

[egg]

Their guest house, and the view from it...

 

 

 

 

[vulgalour]

That guest house looks like it's made from Lego.

[dollywobbler]

How is the gear linkage now?

Second gear is still a problem. One we overcome by using third instead, though I think that after 200km, I'd just about got the hang of it.

[chodweaver]

Has that been a chore, with much A and B road mileage, or has there been lots of motorway?

[dollywobbler]

Barely any motorway. Mostly single carriageway after Pitesti. Some dual in places.

 

Oh and we've got sod all in the way of spares, as it was a public holiday in Romania today. We're just hoping nothing breaks. We DO now have a headlamp levelling knob though!

[dozeydustman]

We DO now have a headlamp levelling knob though!

 

Luxury!

[catsinthewelder]

Another long day, we bid farewell to Bogdan (Tatabobo) our landlord and his car hiring friend Florin (who looks like he might be Hairnets dad)

 

 

We first drove to the Bricomart to buy supplies and some nuts to attach the gearshift plate that wasn't attached. After a false start I managed to buy M6 and M8 nuts which were both wrong. Claudiu heard of our dilemma so met us near Potential and retrieved some M7's from a scrapyard but after an hour of tinkering we couldn't fit it without loosing reverse.

 

 

The drive up was interesting as sticking to the speed limits in Romania would have caused accidents so we just tried to keep ahead of the HGVs. They have crawler lanes on hills which end suddenly and the cars don't let the lorries in which saw one truck have to skid to a halt.

 

We stopped here

 

After spotting these in the hedge

 

I was so caught up in the abandoned moment that I stepped out of the way of Ian's camera and was nearly knocked down by a 4x4 that had entered the layby at 70mph. We beat a hasty retreat as the driver was quite cross.

 

We then drove for another 60km or so until it was time for fuel. As we slowed down to enter the garage I saw these through the hedge so sent Ian to investigate.

Then I drove to Serbia. More when I wake up.

[vulgalour]

There's an anchor to your left, is that a Zastava Yugo to the right?

[Asimo]

Antonov AN2: real airliners have radial engines and pairs of wings!

[hairnet]

 

Over 400km covered today. No problems!

this says it all

 

excellent

 

ps bring the ascona back please

[davehedgehog31]

Much more verbose updates than expected. I was expecting something along the lines of;

 

At border STOP cavity searches STOP send help STOP

[catsinthewelder]

Alas we did not.

 

The 1310 has been driving well but does suffer from fuel vaporisation which means it can be a struggle to restart it when hot. We stopped a little before the border so Ian could take a photo and had to wait a while to get it going. While he was gone I saw my first Zastava 45 since leaving BG. The turn for the border isn't very obvious so I missed it and we drove 10km up the Romanian side of the river before being able to turn round. This wasn't to upsetting as the scenery was amazing after 700km or so of flat plains.

Once we had turned around we headed down to the border. After a short wait for 2 other cars I stopped too far from the window so had to get out which slightly flustered the guard. I based him the passports which caused him to do a double take at the car. He asked for the documents mostly by pointing at the car and saying Dacia. A quick check and he waved us through looking rather confused.

 

The Iron Gate Dam was quite spectacular and very brutalist. The other side was a huge queue of trucks waiting to get into Romania so we had to squeeze past the odd car coming the other way.

 

We were dreading Serbian customs but it was quite easy. He took our passports, asked our names and destination. We replied and he stated that this was Serbia. We nodded he gave up trying and handed our passports back and pointed to the next booth where taxes were paid. The next man asked us a question in Serbian looked at us and the car and clearly decided that it was too close to home time to worry about 2 hairy idiots in a shitty old car so lifted the barrier and waved us through.

 

The change was immediate when we crossed the border. Where Romania felt frantic Serbia was quiet and calm. The road up the west bank of the river is amazingly beautiful with cliffs and tunnels, twists and turns. Rather than dozens of Logan's the most popular car appears to be the mk2 Golf with loads of other chod such as Asconas, BXs and plenty of Zastavas and Ladas.

 

 

After a few miles we reached the small town we were aiming for.

 

 

As we aren't in the EU mobile internet is expensive so we tried the old fashioned approach and found the tourist information office. We got lucky and he spoke English and booked us a night at our lovely guest house for about £9 each.

 

The view is cracking

 

On arrival I was treated to a taste of the owners homemade rakija which with a dry throat and empty stomach brought tears to my eyes so he called his wife to bring me water and poured me another.

 

 

They offered to cook for us but we declined and headed into the village where a little more currency was acquired and photos taken.

[dollywobbler]

Cats is now asleep. I am not. I thought it was half seven, but that's because I failed to notice the change in timezone as we crossed the dam. So, I spent all of yesterday evening thinking it was an hour later than it actually was...

 

I ate too many sausages last night so have barely slept. Also, my mind is buzzing due to so many wonderful things. Today may be hard work...

[egg]

Take it easy, looks like a slow journey through Serbia will be rewarding. I make it you've done 258 miles from Bucharest, so 10% of the way home!

 

Belgrade looks doable today...

[dollywobbler]

We're aiming for Bosnia. Will report back later hopefully!

[Wack]

I've been thoroughly entertained by this thread , hats off to you , if this was being done on TV they'd have a team of support vehicles , you've got a socket set and some spanners, I need more adventure in my life 

[beko1987]

I've been thoroughly entertained by this thread , hats off to you , if this was being done on TV they'd have a team of support vehicles , you've got a socket set and some beards, I need more adventure in my life

Ftfy

[Liggle]

Great progress. Some great scenery too, am looking forward to my next continental jaunt more and more following this thread!