Today’s lesson: If you hear it’s an “easy day trip”—whether from fellow Ralliers or Google Maps—it’s not. Prepare for hell.
Ending Point: N45°35 E28°35
Distance Traveled: 453.3 miles
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We woke up with a plan to head a little further south to Vama Veche, a hippie beach town we had heard good things about from Rally Veterans (the beach party used to be there) and from current Ralliers who had somehow already stopped there. With itchy feet to be on the road again, we talked to the Long Time No Sea girls and decided to go north for what we thought would be an easy day trip to Odessa. We couldn’t have been more wrong, but we’ll get to that later… The day started out wonderfully. Charla made her scrambled eggs, and we packed up camp. We left Oha Beach and drove through scenic coastal Romania. Reaching the town with thought would lead into a National Park and a border crossing into the Ukraine, we realized the crossing was impassable by car with the help of a kind couple in a Lidl parking lot. So, we headed to Galati for the nearest border crossing, after discovering the boat at Isaccea was just for commercial purposes and then taking a different boat across the Danube and into Galati—this just after the “highway” dead-ended into a ferry terminal. Getting on the ferry was an orderly, timely affair. You could tell the ferrymen had arranged cars on a boat a time or two. Getting off the ferry was every-man-for-himself with every car driving quickly to get through the small space and onto the dock. We’re surprised we didn’t get separated from the girls then. There had been no street signs to indicate major highways in Bucharest, so why did we hope to see them here? We passed Around the World by Trike as we entered downtown Galati, and seeing both team members throw up their arms in a “Where the hell are we?” gesture was not inspiring, neither was the fact that we couldn’t physically get across enough lanes of traffic to talk to them about the journey. We made two stops in town—one at a nice hotel and one at a duty free shop on the Danube—and received contradicting directions. Somehow, we made sense of them and got onto the road out of the city, which soon led us out of the country. Getting out of Romania was a breeze for our EU pals, but we had to wait about an hour. The funny thing about waiting an hour at the Romanian border was that we had no idea whether we were going into Moldova or the Ukraine based on the maps we had, in which the three countries converge at one point. Then we had to wait another half an hour to get into Moldova. The two miles we drove in Moldova were quite nice. Then, the real adventure began. We’re not sure we even have words to describe the Moldovan-Ukrainian border. Our first indications were talking to Ralliers already at the border that had been there for between two to thirty hours. We certainly did not want to fall into the latter group’s case. In the three hours we were at the border, we managed to have the car fully searched, sign legal documents under duress without knowing what they said, nearly go to prison, and run out of cash. We finally crossed much too late in the night and found the girls anxiously awaiting us a few miles away. They had talked to another Rally team for part of the time we were stuck at the border and were hoping to meet up with them. In the dark, a wrong turn led us off into the middle of nowhere, so Pandaland stopped and cooled it for a couple hours. Today’s lesson: If you hear it’s an “easy day trip”—whether from fellow Ralliers or Google Maps—it’s not. Prepare for hell. Starting Point: N44°16 E28°37
Ending Point: N45°35 E28°35 Distance Traveled: 453.3 miles
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We had been thinking about this day for months, maybe even years: the start of the Mongol Rally! It was really happening! The morning was a blur of packing up, stickering, networking, and eating breakfast sandwiches. Then, everyone came together for a series of announcements and an awards ceremony. There were the expected awards like for best-outfitted car and most money raised for charity. The most memorable award was for the over-prepared car; the prize was a large golden TV to take with them on their roof rack. Following the ceremony, there was the traditional joust in front of the castle with two men on horseback and then a less traditional joust with one man on horseback and one on top of a car. The knight on horseback won… Perhaps an omen for the Rally? We hope not. After the ceremony and much anticipation, we finally rolled up the starting platform. No one could forget our start. We were the only team to stall three times getting up the ramp! We lived up to British stereotypes of Americans in that moment, but at least we were memorable, though perhaps less so than the team that had a mother get on the microphone to say goodbye. Leaving Bodiam, we followed Scarlett and Tom to Dover—a short hour-long drive full of Rally cars. At the ferry terminal, we accidentally separated from our navigators as we tried to pick up our tickets at the wrong building. The day changed from there, as we couldn’t possibly meet up with them in Frankfurt, Germany, at a pub whose name we didn’t know. We were lucky, however, to get on an earlier ferry to Calais with lots of other Ralliers. In the waiting lanes for the boat, we met Duncan and Jared from New Zealand and decided to aim for Luxembourg for the night. On board, we solidified our plans as we watched the white cliffs of Dover disappear into the distance. Just before leaving the ferry, we met Dick (we individually commented on his nice car) and he gave us better direction for the afternoon. We landed in France and met the Kiwis at the Calais Wine Superstore just outside the dock. The drive through France was beautiful and easy, until we were stopped in traffic for an hour, and then the drive through Belgium was almost as nice despite the change in road surface quality. Our delay in traffic put us behind in our plan for Luxembourg, so we found a camping spot in Belgium for the night and made some dinner while enjoying Belgian beers. Starting Point: N50°49 W00°18
Ending Point: N50°10 E05°22 Distance Traveled: 254.1 miles |