Bratislava to Krakow

Leaving Bratislava in convoy, we took the last leg of the trip pretty slowly. Alfie (Team Baywatch’s incredibly high mileage Audi) was starting to struggle. But with just a few stops to diagnose what was aparently some pretty unhealthy noises when cruising, we arrived in Krakow! By the time we made it to Wawel Castle (the finish post for the rally) Alfie had definatly seen better days. The rear suspension had become as useful as a chocolate teapot. But he’d made it!

Innsbruck to Bratislava

The drive from Innsbruck to Bratislava was without doubt the most interesting leg of our journey. The plan was to drive the Grossglockner pass, so we thought it best to make a more premanent job of the coolant pip fix. As it turns out, the pipe that had split was for the radiator for the interior heating. We pretty quickly bypassed the pipe and made our way out of the city.

Strasbourg to Innsbruck

At the start point we decided to take a look at the leak we’d noticed the night before. It wasn’t too severe so decided to simply patch it up. Using a couple of cable ties from elsewhere on the car, and a piece of chewing gum that Matt had conveniently left under the bonnet several weeks earlier (naturally to fix exactly this sort of problem) the hole was plugged.

This was the first day that we travelled in convoy with the awesome Team Baywatch, The Pink Team (as we called them, sorry lads I don’t know your team name!) and the Dollies. This was definately the way to travel.

Calais to Strasbourg

The drive from Calais to Strasbourg was pretty uneventful; a long straight run down the French toll roads. Although, we were pretty impressed by the team that eventually won the rally. Aparently, unknown to us, cars are timed between the pay points on the toll roads and their average speed calculated. In their Honda, the Happy Hippies managed to average 110 mph.

Birmingham to Calais

Well it’s officially been months since we finished the rally, but I’ve finally got a spare few minutes to write something about our trip and thank those that donated.

The first stage of the trip was getting Vicky down to Calais to the start line. The car ran perfectly and attracted quite a lot of attention. We had a few people take pictures of us, a few people give us very strange looks, oh and the obvious police attention. We were followed for a good few miles on the M25 by a police car in fact!

Car update

After months of hard work the car is pretty much ready (other than a few issues getting it started!). And here is the amazing transformation:

A few more alterations tomorrow and we’re on our way!

If I had a hammer…

I’d smash my head lights! The more observant amongst you might’ve notice that we were missing a headlight in one of those last photos… and here’s why!

Whilst making some minor adjustments to the front panel with a hammer, a stray swing took out the light.. Oops!

Action shots 02/07

So with time running out very fast we decided to do some work on the car… first course of order a new paint job. Someone suggested rollers as an easy way to paint the car. It doesn’t actually look too bad, from a distance… with your eyes closed.

Whilst the painting was underway we also set out to create a new front bumper. As always it started life as sheet of metal!

Hostel 3?

We’ve now booked all our accommodation for the journey. We will be staying in…

Formule 1 – Calais

According to TripAdvisor.com one guest was woken by the sound of an explosion in the car park as a car was set on fire! I wonder how flammable our car is now it’s covered in hammerite? Hope we don’t find out!

Ibis – Strasbourg

Quoting from TripAdvisor “although the rooms and food were good I would not recommend this hotel for school parties as some of the staff can be unpleasant towards children.” Wonder how they’ll deal with 4 blokes with a combined mental age of about 15?

Hotel Engl – Innsbruck

“The buffet breakfast is included in room rate but the choices are very limited and the waitress is reluctant to replenish the food in the buffet. I would not recommend this hotel.” Hmmmm.

Kyjev Hotel – Bratislava

Described as “12 Storey Nuclear Bunker”. “As a place to get your head down after a “large” night out – it did the job, but with a hand held shower (no shower curtain) TV on the floor and carpet that I can probably best describe as “alive”, it had most of the qualities of a North London squat.”

City Hostel – Krakow

We splashed out a little extra here to get a private 5 bed-room instead of sleeping in the dorm style accommodation for fear of waking up in a room full of sweaty psychopaths. At least this way I’ll know the sweaty psychopaths I’ll be sharing a room with!

I see you baby…

We’ve now completed work on the rear of the car, including a hefty bumper containing no less than 5 exhaust pipes! Just to show what we were aiming for, heres a picture of the eagle from the first Carmageddon game.