15th July 2009

(By Martin)
Martin, Baz and Colin’s version since we all thought (apart from Alan!), that Alan (Cuz) was administering the Blog for all of us!
Day 1
Well that’s the first day complete from Baku to Tbilisi Georgia. All went smooth enough for a 10 hr drive I thought. From Baku to Tovuz is 412kms and I used 62 litres of fuel. Which equates to a wee bit above 17 mpg. Dad is driving today from Tbilisi to Trabzon Turkey.
Coming through the AZ/Geo border we got a wee glimpse of Cuz turning into a grump.
We stayed in the Sheraton Metechi Palace hotel for our first night. I took the guys out to a local café last night for a traditional Georgian meal, we had Hinkali – big ravioli things with a spicy’ish mincemeat in them, Hajapuri – Georgian cheese in bread base, Pork Shashlik- to this day, I still say the best pork is in Georgia, and we washed it down with the local lager/beer - Kazbeghi

Day 2
At the moment I am sitting in the passenger seat with my laptop going through Georgia and remembering what a stunning country it is. Georgia, I am sure is going to be a cracking tourist spot one day, it has a magnificent history of wine making and very old monasteries.
We stopped at a Georgian restaurant for lunch, which also was typical excellent Georgian cuisine, it cost us all of a total 12 pounds
A few hours on the road later we stopped for a wee swim in a river that I used to swim in when I worked on the pipeline.
When we got to the border we saw Alan turn into a real grump again, with my dad tried to wind him up even more hee hee. We now call Alan (cuz) ‘moody-me’ now instead of ‘mini-me’!!
We’re in Turkey!!
After a wee tour through the city of Trabzon at dark oclock looking for the hotel, we finally found it and had a well deserved sleep

Day 3
On check up of the cars this morning is seems that Alan has broken a disconnect bracket, and damaged a spring on the back surprisingly on the same side as the disconnect!!! H still blames my welding!!
Today we are told by the receptionist that Sinop was a good spot to stop. We managed to get to Samsun and camped the night. I am not sure who’s idea it was to open the bottle of Rusky Standard but we lost the top for it so we had to finish it!!!

Day 4
We started the day with a lovely swim in the black sea to clear the head. Then set off with intentions for getting to Zonguldak. On the road, we thought we could get a bit further so we decided that if we drove for a bit further then we would treat ourselves with another hotel near Istanbul.
(from Martin) – As Alan (moody-me) would have glorified this part about my crash, I thought it my duty to advise of it. As we came on to the motorway, we had to stop and take a ticket, the booth that I stopped in was not working so I checked all three rear view mirrors and started to reverse out, just as I inched out slowly letting out the clutch. There was a guy HARD up my rear, hiding directly behind me and I hit him!! My spare wheel dented his bonnet and my bumper cracked his grill. I felt terrible!!!
We drove to the side of the road and I offered him my insurance or 300 dollars (which was more than enough for the repair) He took the dollars and shook my hand
We then drove on for almost 10 hrs this day to Istanbul and checked in to the Marriot. And proceeded to get pished, again!


Day 5
Today we left Istanbul, (after taking a few photos of the oil leak that Alan’s car left in the Marriott car park!!), crossing the Bospherous and heading north on the coast road. We decided in the morning that we would deviate from our original plan by taking the more scenic road on the coast. Once we got to the Turk/Bulg border we were all braced for moody-me’s grumps to start again, but we’ve got to hand it to him, he kept his cool and stood in the cue and kept a brave face on, even laughing and joking with the rest of us.
We managed to get to Bourgas in Bulgaria and checked into a local hotel and spent the evening at the bar on the black sea coast enjoying the view.

Day 6
Cuz and Martin left the hotel early to find a workshop to weld Alan’s car, after about an hour we finally managed to find a weld shop that fixed his car.
Once on the road out of the city we stopped ‘again’ to tend to Alan’s car. This time to change out the oil in his gearbox and flush it through. From what we saw in the old oil, it seems that the damage is not terminal and we have a good chance of getting his car to Scotland without having to tow him.
We arrived in a beach camp resort in the north of Bulgaria for a night. Had swim, then noticed it was a “clothing optional” beach, and got pissed again at the beach bar!!!!

Day 7
We packed up and left Golden Sands camp site after our refreshing last swim in the black sea, Bulgaria for Romania.
We got to the border at about lunchtime expecting the usual plaff and the chance to wind-up ‘moody-me’, but to our surprise the border was a passport check and a toll fee for crossing the bridge over the Danube into Romania. At this point it is evident that we are edging closer to the Europe we all know.
We continued to drive to Brasov crossing the truly stunning Transylvanian Alps. We manage to find a nice quiet little camp site, pitched the tents, and went for some Romanian cuisine listening to live Romanian music.




Day 8
Woke up and proceeded to pack away the tents, during this pack away, Alan (Cuz) thought he had a fire in his car so fired off his extinguisher, next thing we knew, we covered in white powder!!!!!! He was trying to pack things away in the car and knocked the extinguisher off of its clamp, it landed on the floor in the back of the car and went off and kept going till it was empty. The car and all the nearby tents were covered in powder. That will make the border crossings interesting as the car looks like it belongs to drug dealers.
So far my car (Martin) has held up really well with only one fault and that is my speedo, it hasn’t worked since we left Baku. I have checked the wiring, and need to dig a bit deeper to find the fault at the next campsite. For now, thankfully I have Mr Tom Tom to advise me of my speed. I did have a blown fuse but that was because of the little crash I had – when I hit the car it damaged my number plate lights and caused the wiring to short, but it is fixed now.

(By Alan)
Today we went from Brasov to Oradea in northern Transylvania just minutes from the Hungary border. After a bit of hunting around we found a campsite at around 8pm. This route took us through some of the most stunning scenery yet. Romania was not really what I expected. We did see some poor areas in fact one area was very poor but generally it looked like any developed country and its villages were well looked after and a pleasure to see. As we drove through Bucharest there were impressive boat sales and Ferrari dealers. They also had some cracking traffic jams and we were held up for some time. There were people by the side of the road selling fruits, cobs of corn nuts and also some ladies of the night selling their own particular produce. The road quality once you get away from the main cities are pretty poor though and progress through the vast mountain ranges whilst enjoyable was slow and not the best for my unhappy gearbox but as Martin points out I think it should get us home. After a quick shower we went out to a Romanian restaurant and had a great feed watching a Romanian band and some Romanian dancing. Early night tonight for an early start in the morning so we can reach the Budapest campsite by lunchtime. At this point we have done around 3500km.