Hi everybody, a
thousand apologies for my absence. My reasons, or excuses if you like, are many
and will probably continue until the book and film relating to the journey have been completed. The prostate crisis is now behind me, apart from the shouting,
so I am hopeful that I can set aside some time to continue to write about what
happened as we journeyed around the world. I won’t drag it out but I think that
I should review briefly what happened up to the last entry at 26-01-14. If you
need to refresh your memory you can read the details on earlier blog entries.
Early in the journey we visited Bruxells and the European Parliament
and when driving away we realised we had left our camera equipment case behind. We completed our drive around the Nurburgring,
attended a photo-shoot at the Suzuki dealership at Brenshiem and received a
cheque on behalf of Save the Children.
We then drove north 770 miles to Gdansk Poland to meet and talk with Mr
Lech Walesa retired president of Poland (that was something special, a great
man). Driving south to Budapest,
Hungary, we visited Auschwitz to pay our respects, descended underground at the
Zarbrze coal mine at the town of Gliwice and squeezed in a day of sightseeing in
Vienna before arriving at our destination, Thursday 11th April day
12 . The following day we received the V.I.P treatment with escorted tour of
the Suzuki European car manufacturing plant at Esztergom, 40 miles outside
Budapest. We had had a problem involving our cameraman Tom, if you have been
following our progress you would have read about the unpredictable and unstable
Jekyll and Hyde situation that developed with Tom, well there’s a lot more of
that to come!
To recap when I was trying to get the crew together and at
short notice I was notified that the stage one crew couldn’t make it. I was
well and truly in the Poo!! at that point. Thankfully Roland Spencer and Keith
Twyford saved the day by stepping in at short notice and drove with me from
Southampton on March 31st, the start of stage one through to
Budapest Friday 12th April. As part of the arrangement they had
organised for their wives Jill and Chris to join them at Budapest when they
arrived. What I didn’t know was that Vi my wife had also decided to join them,
a real nice surprise for me. While at Budapest we got Tom our cameraman sorted
out. Tom failed to mention when being interviewed for the job that he had not
worked for 8 months and that he was taking medication for depression. Tom also
failed to mention that a few days before arriving at Budapest he had run out of
the pills that kept the depression under control. Tom was examined by the hotel
doctor who supplied a prescription so we were able to purchase medication that
would last him until he returned home. In the meantime, he had agreed to drive
03 from Budapest to Warszawa and stay with me until we met up with Mariusz, a
Polish friend, who would drive 03 during stage two. The start now to be from Warszawa leaving
Tuesday 23rd April and finishing at Novosibirsk Russia 9th
May.
Saying our goodbyes, especially to Vi, was a sad moment for
us both as we would not see each other for some time. Tom and I left Budapest on 16th
April heading for Warszawa Poland. We met Mariusz on the 23rd April
as arranged, and drove that afternoon to the border town of Chelm, ready
to cross the border the following morning into Ukraine. Once across, we drove
to Kyiv, passing close to Chenobyl the
site of the Nuclear reactor disaster. Staying
overnight, not at the reactor, but at Kyiv, we arrived at Luhans’k and Donetsk
Ukraine- Russian border at around 5pm the following day 26th April
day 27. With no accommodation available at Donetsk we had to drive a further 50
miles to Kamensk- Shachtinskiy. Next morning we were on the road again, a 222
mile 7 hour journey to Volgograd to complete, better known as Stalingrad, scene
of some of the fiercest fighting of WW2. While at Volgograd I found out why the
camera batteries didn’t seem to last long. Taking an opportunity to have a
close look at the battery charging kit, I noticed that we had been charging the
camera batteries with the wrong charger. It was under powered so would only charge to
half capacity. I asked Tom why we were
not using the correct charger. Looking embarrassed he said it was in the bag we
lost at Bruxells. We not only lost the main camera charger that day, we also lost whole lot of equipment that he
didn’t tell me about! Luckily I was able to replace the lost equipment which
was brought out to me by the guys who were to join me at Novosibirsk for stage
3. Sunday 28th we were on
the road once more leaving Volgograd mid-morning, heading east to Saratov, a
232 mile 7 hour journey. I remember Sunday 28th very well, the
standard of driving was so bad I started to drive the way they do, particularly
when overtaking and tailgating occasionally. I got a bit too cocky for my own
good and during the afternoon there was a line of cars driving to close to one
and other. I guess I was thinking about everything other than my driving and
suddenly there was a bang ahead somewhere, tyres screeching, vehicles
hitting each other and I came to my senses instinctively turning to the right
just missing the truck in front ending up on a bit of rough ground and stopped.
I turned the engine off and just sat there for a moment looking at the mayhem
that somehow I managed to avoid. I continued to drive along the rough ground
until I was clear of the carnage then re-joined the road once more. You were lucky
that time, I said to myself, let that be a warning. The dressing down I gave
myself about the standard of my driving that day was one of far too many I had
to give myself before the journey’s end. Arriving late at Saratov we managed to
find a sort of lodge that served food and had a few cool beers, can’t be bad. Here
is where we pick up from where I left it last time.
Monday 29th April, day 30, On our way to Samara,
a 257 mile 8 hour drive, the road was real bad. Potholes and deep cracks
everywhere, trying our best to miss the potholes, but by avoiding one you ended
up driving head first into another. I mentioned previously that 02 carried
about 120 kilos more than it should have but seemed to handle it fine. At some
point during the morning one of the potholes claimed 02 as another victim. We
stopped at a rundown roadside service area for a coffee break. Tom noticed that
the rear left shock absorber on 02 was hanging down, the bottom bolt had
sheared. Not surprised at what had happened, I had to make a decision as to whether
to carry on to Samara and fix it there or get it welded where we were. There
was a small workshop attached to the petrol station and Mariusz explained what
had happened to the young lad who ran the workshop, pointing to the dangling
shock absorber. He said he could weld it together but it would take an hour,
indicating that we should and wait in the rundown building they called a café.
To check the damage I crawled around under 02 to get a closer look, making
myself a bit grubby. I indicated to the lad, by rubbing my hands together, that I
wanted to wash my hands. Laughing, he pointed towards the café. It was getting
near lunch time so Mariuzs, Tom and I sauntered over to the café. It was a bit
of a dump but the coffee and pies looked safe. There were a few people sitting
at a table and indicating with my hands that I wanted to wash them, they
started laughing. A young guy with black teeth, still laughing, pointed to a
door at the far end of the room. Turning the grime encrusted door knob I entered
a passage with three or four doors leading off each side and a partially opened door at the
far end. The whole place was painted
fire engine red and smelt of stale sweat. There was no indication as to which
door was the washroom so I went to the end of the corridor and pushed the door
open a little and looked in. Instead of a washroom it was a
small room with an iron framed bed and mattress that had seen better days. Sitting
on the bed was a plump round faced lady clad only in bra and knickers looking
strong enough to pull your head off if you tried to pay her with a credit card. At that point it dawned on me, it was a Brothel!
Realising I had spent too much time in the room I held out my hands to indicate
I wanted the washroom, but she must have thought I was going to grab something.
Startled, she stood up ready to start throwing a few punches but seeing my hands
were dirty she realised I wasn’t a customer. She gave me a cheeky wink and
pointed to a door along the corridor. I cleaned myself up and passed more scantily
clad ladies on the way out. Everyone in the café was laughing as I said to Mariuzs
‘that’s one hell of a washroom’.
The young lad welded the shock absorber back into place. The
job looked a bit amateurish, so with fingers crossed, we headed to Samara,
finally arriving around 5pm that evening. I’ve already mentioned the potholes as we
drove to Samara, well the city of Samara was something else. The roads are in
such bad condition you couldn't drive in a straight line, even though there are
two lanes each way. To go forward you join a single line of traffic that
resembles a snake as it twists and turns across two lanes avoiding unbelievably
huge potholes. We checked into a small hotel in the centre of the city and I contacted
Ksenia Grebenkina the Suzuki PR Manager who had been awaiting our arrival. She told me the arrangements for the Press
conference and photo-shoot for the following day at the Suzuki dealership.
Tuesday 30th, April day 31. As the press
conference wasn’t until late in the morning we had a leisurely breakfast, checked
the vehicles and gave them a clean for the benefit of the cameras. A courtesy
car arrived and the driver asked if we
would follow him to the venue. On arrival we were manoeuvred into a position in
front of the show room, then the press and photographers went to work, the
session lasting a little over an hour. After lunch we visited a local orphanage
to hand over the presents given to us by the Suzuki Management at the
production facility at Magyar Hungary. I was a bit apprehensive about visiting
the orphanage but I was glad I made the effort. The children I met didn’t want
for anything materially, the presents we brought were of momentary interest as they
had lots of toys. I could see in their faces what they wanted more than
anything was the love of a mum and dad, I felt real sad when I said goodbye.
I thanked the Suzuki team on behalf of Mariusz, Tom and
myself for their kind hospitality, then we turned east once more for the 72 mile
2 hour drive to Sukodi and the Russia- Kazakhstan border crossing. From here on events really start to liven up.
Until the next time ........ Les
