Day 5, Ilgaz, Turkey

Very relaxed wake up call at 8:30 and morning planning meeting in the sun while having breakfast. The topic is still the same, where and how to get the Turkmenistan visa. We called the Turkmenistan consolate in Istanbul and were told that it would take at least 15 days to get it (the application forms go to turkmenistan and back by train...). We don't have 15 days so we will try our luck and head to baku as fast as possible and try to figure out something once there. Unfortunately this meant no stop over in Istambul.

We eventually decided to spend the night in what it seems to be a local ski resort, a small town named Ilgaz. While driving around looking for a place where to stay I jumped out of the car and asked directions to the guys seated in front of a shop packed with guns and rifles. As I told them that I was from italy, the boss went silent for few seconds, looked at me and said "Italia, Beretta!" and starded laughing. My first friends in town are the people with guns. Always a good thing...

Tomorrow we are driving to Trabzon and hopefully we'll have enough time for a quick detour to the sumela monastery which looks amazing.

Day 4, Edirne, Turkey

A solid day of driving brought us to Edirne, a small lovely town in Turkey close to the border with Bulgaria.

The day started with the first "road tax" of the trip. We have been stopped by the Serbian police and got fined because we didn'thave the lights on while driving on the highway. We didn't get a proper ticket but we negotiated the fine from 50 euros down to 10.

We didn't see muchof Bulgaria as we just drove straight through it non stop. The only thing I'll take away is that their main highway is better than the one that goes from Salerno down to Calabria.

 We had a pretty easy time at the Turkish border. In about 30min we had our passports stamped and by 9pm we were having beers on the roof terrace of a local restaurant in Edirne.

Tomorrow we have a relaxed wake up call at 8am and we should reach Istanbul before lunchtime. We need to find the turkmenistan embassy and get the 5 days transit visa as we have been told that it is now required to have one before boarding the ferry from Baku to Turkmenbashi.

Day 3, Belgrade, Serbia

Safely arrived in Belgrade after another long day of driving. In the morning we had our first mechanical problem and w e had to ask someone to plug his battery to ours in order to start the engine. As everything worked fine for the rest of the day we have decided to wait until Istambul to replace the battery or check the alternator.

Good dinner tonight at znak pitanja then straight to the hotel as tomorrow we are aiming to the Turkish border, Istanbul may be a bit to far away though.

Day 2, Wels, Austria

Two days in the Mongol Rally and we have already left 5 countries behind us. This afternoon we arrived in Wels, probaby the saddest town in Austria (maybe it's the weather, maybe it's because is Sunday evening or maybe it's just because is in Austria...) and tomorrow we hope to make it to Belgrade.

The UK launch in Goodwood has been great fun despite the rain. The rain actually kept us company all the way down to Austria. I have just realized that the car does not have AC so I'm sure we will deeply miss this autunm weather while driving in Turkmensitan in the sun with 45 degrees. Despite the lack of AC, the car is fitted with the most amazing technologies. Here below a picture of our touch screen GPS which will reliably guide us to Mongolia...

Dare mighty things

As we are about to start our long journey to Mongolia, for another team the journey is about to end. On the 5th August, a motley crew of scientists and engineers at the NASA will try to land a car sized rover on Mars. These guys don't like to take risks (especially after a 9 months trip and more than $2.5 billion invested) and that's why they came up with a pretty uncomplicated system to land a rover on a planet 225 million Km away from home...

Best of luck to the guys that are really pushing the boundaries of exploration and adventure!

If you think that we'll leave this kind of fun to the big guys at the NASA then you better reconsider your thoughts. The clever people at the Institute of Adventure Research are already working on the Adventure #14 and as the video here below clearly shows, they are not far away from making this happen.

Despite being busy packing for Mongolia we have found the time to jump start our new adventure by designing and engineering the vehicle that will bring us to the moon. Yes, there are few details that still need to be figured out (not sure where to get an interstellar driving permit) but I think we are pretty much on the right track...

Numbers

Team "A qube"

Antonio Scotti di Uccio

His PowerPoint skills are only matched by his mechanical knowledge and that's probably why many call him "The Engineer". He strongly believes that in case of mechanical problems the best and only solution is to stand on the side of the road, arms folded, staring intensively at the car waiting for someone to come and help.

Adrian Twyford

Also known as "The Chameleon", Adrian has friends in every town and village from here to Mongolia, he speaks a dozen languages, knows every local custom, he'll blend in, disappear and he if he decides to, you'll never see him again. With any luck, he is already in Ulaanbaatar.

By the way, he is the one on the left...or is he?

Adam Olden

"The Gypsy" is unable to stay still in the same town for more than two weeks in a row. Driven by the desire to travel to the most luxurious locations, Adam was in Abbottabad staring at Bin Laden's compound when the top guys at CIA where still trying to figure out the difference between Afghanistan and Pakistan.