12 July – we arrive in Travemunde at around 9pm after about 30 hours on a very calm ferry crossing from Helsinki (about 1150 km).

View from our hotel in Travemunde

Travemunde harbour

Yesterday was the 300 mile drive to Helsinki, which started on glorious roads – wit no speed cameras! We had some confusion as Allison was adamant that we should be on road number 89 when in fact we were on the 68. Changing the direction of the map made life a little clearer! Sue and Will did a grand tour of Helsinki Old Town before arriving at the port 15 minutes after check in closed.
My first task at the hotel was to change the points – they had been ok but this was a precaution against a breakdown (and losing time) at the side of a German autobahn. Probably a good thing as the set that came out looked pitted with limited life expectancy.
Now 7.00 am local time on 13 July and our incoming ferry has just turned around in the narrow river to start its return to Helsinki. We hope to be on this evening’s boat to Harwich – and more car repairs to look forward to!

10 July – a drive to Kokkola but a late start as our sleep was disturbed by some noisy night clubbers. Yesterday was characterised by a sequence of lakes and evergreens, with the odd speed camera; today in principle we were on the coastal road alongside the Gulf of Bothnia – but I didn’t see any sea – I saw plenty of speed cameras. They were everywhere – grey boxes with two lenses and you had no idea what they were thinking! The car ran happily enough. Kokkola

Kokkola Orthodox Church

used to be a port, exporting tar. Over the years the land has risen so the sea is now further away and the harbour has had to move several times! One claim to fame is a captured English barque – a rowed boat carried on warships. This was captured

Boathouse with captured barque

in the Crimean war in 1854 when the English attacked Finland (yes Finland is a long way from the Crimea but Finland was then part of Russia).

9 July – so that should have been a straight forward drive of about 5 hours from Karasjok through the border to Rovaniemi in Finland. It was raining when we set off – I am sure we have had more rain than we should have. The roads were empty so it didn’t matter too much that the car was bouncing over the road when it encountered rain in the lorry tracks. The border was deserted and I guess we saw fewer than a dozen cars going our way for the first hour. First stop was Sodankyla to see a

Sodankyla Church

17th Century wooden Church – somehow it escaped the scorched earth policy at the end of WW2. We stopped to refuel and there in the café was the friendly man from Ostend with whom I had put the world to rights whilst waiting for the lorry to be pulled out of the ditch yesterday.
We carried on to Rovaniemi but I could not resist a stop at the Arctic Circle line and the

Don’t get lost at Santa’s village!

Santa village which has been constructed around it – yes you can have 365 days a year Santa – whoopee! This had to be followed by culture at the Arktikum – a museum of the Arctic and the Sami people. Then to the hotel – Allison found she had lost her handbag (cards, passports, phones, money, house keys – nothing of importance!) By the time we had got back to the Arktikum no sign, gone! The hotel receptionist was very helpful and phoned around – yes a bag had been handed in but no details would be given. She drew us a map and we ran off; the building was closed, no-one there. I ran back to the hotel – oops, wrong building, try this instead! A policeman let us in, thankfully everything was there – a big thank you to the honest citizen of Rovaniemi! She had put it on the roof when getting into the car – and left it there when I drove off.

8 July – a fairly short day (150 miles) to Karasjok, close to the Finnish border. We left early and made good progress on empty roads – where have all the RVs and bikes gone? This stopped suddenly when we found a Highways van parked across the road.

Road closed

A lorry ha gone off the road and into a ditch, two tow trucks were on hand to pull him out. After about an hour and a half it was winched up and onto the road. We were in a hurry as our guide book said there were guided tours of the Sami parliament at 1pm and Allison particularly wanted to go.

Samediggi

We got there with 20 minutes to spare – and found out that tours were every hour on the half hour! More culture followed at the local museum followed by a tourist trap at the Sapmi Culture park. The Sami are the indigenous people – historically semi nomadic reindeer herdsmen and now spread across Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia.

7 July – a rest day after a midnight stint at North Cape, where the weather was good, mist on the water below

North Cape Midnight Sun

us and a clear sky above. What you see in the photo is mist, not sea. The drive back to the hotel included patches of fog and dazzling bright sunlight straight ahead – what a contrast! The rest day was spent on the island, visiting remote villages, constantly surprising ourselves at the number and variety of people we meet both tourists and “staff” -Canadians on a tour boat, a girl from the Philippines, one from the Isle of Wight, from Glasgow, a Norwegian married to one from Edinburgh, motorbikers we bump into from hotel to hotel

Reindeer

6 July – it was almost dry as we left Alta but then turned to wet with low cloud so some very slow driving on nearly empty roads. As we went further north over the hills, the sun emerged and burnt away the cloud – great! We stopped at a silversmith in the middle of nowhere – and were given some reindeer horns for the dogs to chew.

Repvag – a hidden cove

Repvag – street lights on this track?

Elan at Nordkapp visitor centre

The road to Nordkapp

.

Kameyvaer

After checking in we went to North Cape and booked for an evening meal and hopefully a view of a “full” midnight sun – where the sun is visible and not just its rays. So six years after the Elan went as far south as possible – to Ushuaia in Argentina we ended up as far north as possible. We stopped for afternoon tea at a German run hotel in the tiny village of Kameyvaer – picturesque with deep blue waters

5 July – a long day with rain, wet and chilly! Speed cameras, cloud, road-works and very little sight-seeing. We left Narvic after looking at the steering, deciding it was not good but equally there was nothing to be done about it here. Arrived in Alta and decided it was much the same. Tomorrow we should get to the destination – North Cape.

4 July a day of mixed fortunes! We awoke early and went to visit the “museum village” of A (it has a circle over the A but not on my keyboard). The bakery was open so we had a freshly warm bun before taking photos and getting back to breakfast. I had found oil on my trousers and feet last night – now traced to the speedo cable (speedo died two days ago) – it now turns out that the outer cable had slipped over time where I had installed one of our trip meters. Pushing that back together means that the speedo now works – whoopee – haven’t checked my feet for oil yet! Then on to Narvic. Stopping for a photo-op,

a smell of fish

there was a smell in the air – no not the car but fish being dried – photo. Our planned stop was the Viking museum, where we spent a couple of hours and were fortunate to arrive at the time for a sail on

Viking Ship

a Viking ship. This is a 2/3 replica of one they found – and it goes! The sail

Viking Ship – sail

is all in front of the mast so if they want to change tack, instead of the sail and boom flying across the cabin, they release one bottom corner of the sail, pull in the other side – job done!
We left at around 2.30 with a little over 4 hours driving ahead of us – times dependent on how quickly you could overtake the queues of RV’s – get a close convoy and you’re lost! Almost immediately the engine coughed and spluttered – you hope its something simple but experience and your inner self tells you its – points. Glide to a stop in a convenient bus stop, triangle out, boiler suit on; there is a quick way to do this if you have all the right tools and lighting and you’re in the workshop. But when you’re at the side of the road, the only way is distributor out and hope you can get it back in the same place and keep the ignition timing – and it worked! Engine purred at the first ask and we flew! Now the problem at these speeds was the car’s desire to bounce around the road on the bumpy surface. At the hotel car park – problem diagnosed – there is play in the steering rack, can’t fix it here; have to drive more cautiously – oh shame!

. 3 July – we started as has become customary in the rain. We have 150 miles to the ferry – but there’s only one a day so we can’t be late. We’re told it will take 5 hours which seems a very long time but not sure we can risk too much sightseeing just in case it does take that long. First visit, the Arctic raceway, a motor racing circuit just below the Arctic Circle; we arrived about 9am but its a bike day and no-one is awake, plenty of RV’s in the car park. Then off to the Arctic Circle Visitor Centre,

Arctic Circle Centre

a building which the guide book describes as plonked by the roadside. The landscape here is much bleaker than before with barren rocks and less vegetation – its a deserted plateau. There is less traffic and we make good progress. The ferry for the Lofoton Islands leaves from Boda

Road to Boda

and we find ourselves behind Sue and Will’s XK, having last seen them at breakfast. Its a 4 hour crossing and a short drive to our cabin at Reine, with a view

View from the cabin

over the little harbour and the barren hills looming behind, some in cloud and others not. This last picture

The land of midnight sun

was taken at five minutes to midnight, there’s a chill in the breeze and the sun’s rays can be seen between the hills above the boats centre right of the picture

2 July – today was going to be a long day with 300 miles to do and speed limits of c 80kph (50 mph) – and Norwegian speeding penalties are severe (so we have been told). Leaving the hotel car park, the speedo needle fluctuated wildly between 20 and 60 and settled on 0 for the rest of the day. No speedo, no odometer and the fuel gauge reads either full or empty. Fortunately the trip meter does work and tells us distance and speed. The day started warm and dry – the inevitable rain came later! We headed north on the E6 with a change of landscape to a more wooded feel.

lunch stop

We stopped again for afternoon tea in Mosjoen where there was a festival

Fuel at 1933 prices not included

and found that one of their art exhibits was a refurbished 1933 Shell petrol station. We’ve not yet met the other half of the tour but we did see a couple who we had also seen in Trondheim so maybe its them – but where’s the car? Time will tell; we have a long ferry journey tomorrow to the Lofoton Islands so all should become clear……

1 July – a rest day in Trondheim.

Trondheim Cathedral

We started with Trondheim Cathedral – and a leaflet caught my eye – advertising a production of How Like an Angel – a show premiered by the Norfolk & Norwich Festival in 2013. Next to the “Festung” overlooking

Trondheim from the Festung

the town, by way of the bicycle lift – its not photogenic! It consists of a metal path up the hill with a footrest poking out of a groove – put one foot on the rest, lean on your bike – and up you go! Then to the old town and later to the WW2 U Boat pens, now storage facilities, a bowling alley and other businesses – but such a solid construction that demolition was almost impossible. The car is snug in its underground car park, clocking up £25 per day parking charges. I decided the squeak was caused by movement in the rear suspension bushes (brand new!) – and that nothing will fall off just yet……

30 June – we left at 8am and headed for the Atlantic Road a series of bridges hopping over islands for 8 kms between Molde and Kristiansund,

Atlantic Road aerial view – in the sun

winner of numerous awards for its design. sadly it was raining!

Atlantic Road bridge

This bridge is perhaps the most photographed feature.
Then on to Kvernes to see another Stave Church – we got to the outside but they had a series of tour busses from the cruise liners booked in for guided tours so our visit was very brief – we continued to Kristiansund. The Codfish museum was much quieter and surprisingly interesting! Then on to our overnight stop in Trondheim where we have a rest day, waiting for the tour’s second car to arrive from Oslo.
29 June – a short day but with two steep hills to contend with. First the Ornevegen

Ornegegen

“Eagle Road” out of Geiranger. This was straightforward, a popular road with packed view points. We met up with two English motorbikes who planned to do in one day what our route has given us 2 to do – but maybe they were travelling faster! We detoured to Tafjord

Tafjord Quayside

– a small village at the end of the fjord, whose claims to fame are a power station and a “tsunami” 100 years ago caused by a slab of rock falling into the fjord and creating a 60 metre high tidal wave which washed away most of the old village. Then over the plateau to the Trollstigen

The Trollstigen

“Trolls ladder” which has steep hairpins as the road drops alongside a waterfall. Lunch was on the banks of the Romdalsfjord

Romdalsfjord

– a much flatter and open Fjord contrasting with the sheer sides of Geiranger en route to another Stave Church at Rodven

Interior Rodven Church

. Now in Molde, an industrial town and the end of the Fjord section of the journey – and the German tour group have rolled into town; they now head south whilst we head for island-hopping Atlantic Road and the north, via Trondheim where we expect to be joined by the second car in our tour.

28 June – a rest day but that is not what Allison thinks about her knees. The German tour group was leaving as we checked fluid levels, tightened the handbrake and set the electric fans to permanent “on” in preparation for the two climbs tomorrow.

Reserved Car Park

Geiranger is a tourist area and has been for 150 years, it has loads of walking routes – just Allison reckons we walked too much! From high above the Fjord we watched a cruise liner arrive to join the Musica which was already moored up ( the Musica weighs 92,000 tonnes and carries 3220 passengers!)

Allison watching MCS Musica

27 June – the Flam railway.  This 20 km section of railway rises nearly 900 metres and lasts about an hour.  It twists and turns through some 20 tunnels to link Flam on the Aurlandsfjord with the main Bergen to Oslo line.

Flam railway landscape

The rest of the day was concerned with tunnels, Stave Churches and overheating (nearly). Major tunnels are a feature of the area, one has a roundabout and another, 24 km long, has three rest areas,

Laerdal Tunnel

slightly surreal with a ghostly blue lighting above and yellow lighting at ground level.
Stave Churches are wooden Churches from c. 1150, there were thousands but now only 29 remain.

Kaupanger Stave Church

After the Churches it was the 1434metre high Sognefjellet mountain pass (said to be the highest in Northern Europe). At the top they were cross country skiing but getting up there proved to be hot work for the Lotus and we had to stop when the temperature gauge got to 100C. Not sure those electric fans are cutting in properly! This was followed by the fastest section of road driving we have yet encountered in Norway – parts of the route have a speed limit of 90 kph but I could not possibly recall what speed the speedo showed! Arriving at our hotel in Geiranger the car park was reserved – for a German Classic car tour! We joined them, adding a touch of Lotus class – how is it that a German tour group can muster 40+ cars but our UK group was only 2 and the second has yet to arrive?

View from Geiranger hotel room

26 June it was still raining when we disembarked at Stavanger.  About 30 km later and we queued for another ferry on the island-hopping coast road to Bergen.  This was Fjordland, where the roads hug the shore line and waterfalls cascade down the steep slopes on both sides.

Fjordland

We stopped at Langfoss waterfall (conveniently located opposite a lay-by on the main road) and we handed some Norwegian flags by a very excited kiosk owner – the Royal Yacht with King and Queen aboard was due to pass by at any moment.

Royal Yacht

We could be honorary Norwegians and wave enthusiastically!  Our next stop was not so simple.  There was a noise and feel of a puncture but no flat tyres; one wheel had come loose and was wobbling on the hub.  This was annoying as it damages the locating holes on the rim and may be another write-off – and they aren’t made any more.  Another waterfall at Tvindefoss was said to be one of Norway’s most popular sites (it is believed to enhance sexual potency).  The continuous rain put a damper on that and it was nearly deserted!  We carried on to our overnight stop at Flam – home of the  Flam Railway.

25 June and a leisurely drive to Hirtsals in Northern Denmark with a visit to Aalborg thrown in – hmm it didn’t quite work out like that!   Getting out of Hamburg went ok but it was raining and it rained all morning until we got to Denmark.  The two lane motorway north was full of cars and water and roadworks – and we crawled.  We had to stop at one stage in an emergency pull-in when the wiper rubber tried to fly off the blade – that was fixed by that invaluable invention – a cable tie.  We crawled into Denmark as the Security Services glanced at but didn’t check every vehicle.  Aalborg was a might have been and we reached the ferry terminal about half an hour before check in.

24 June – now in Hamburg after some unwanted excitement en route. The car went to the rolling road on Tuesday morning to sort out a lack of performance and low speed power. I went to collect it on Wednesday afternoon – and drove for about a mile before it died – completely, dead. A tow truck took me back to the engine tuner. Points. No surprise, the car has always eaten points and this was solved by the Boyer Bransden ignition pack – but that was for positive earth. After the Amazon, I installed an alternator, which is negative earth and after checking all the wiring I hoped not to need this protection – wrong, obviously! How long will these points last now?
Thursday and last minute checks – radiator level low – where has the water gone? I started the engine, stopped it and saw a dribble round the thermostat housing. A new gasket was not the answer but a new gasket plus some sealer did the trick. Then off to Harwich – and the temperature gauge just carried on getting higher – the fans were ok but not switching on; I tweaked the temperature control and they woke up.

Friday and the “scenic route” to Hamburg via Hoorn with its historic port and old buildings then to the dam separating the Isselmeer from the North Sea, sadly it was overcast and apart from hordes of motorbikes there was little to see. We continued to Germany and motorway jams – but at least the radiator temperature held steady – useful having two fans! Reaching the hotel in Hamburg we found the reason for the motorbikes – a Harley event in Hamburg,

Bulgarian Rally

The 2nd Interbalkanic Classic Rally sounded too good to miss – so we signed up for it. It was to be based at Varna on the Bulgarian Black Sea and jointly organised by the Greeks and Bulgarians. Our route out was influenced by insurance, the Green Card only covered EU countries which ruled out Belgrade (Serbia) so we fixed on Calais, Aachen, Cologne, Frankfurt, Regensberg, Linz, Graz, Pechs (Hungary), Arad (Romania) and Rousse (Bulgaria). With detours this came to about 1900 miles – and 32 hours according to the internet routefinders. No-one had told the internet about Romania – as we were to find out.

During the last rally we had problems with points, differential and starter motor so we now had a new starter and diff and had fitted a Boyer Bransden ignition system, still points based but with electronic wizardry to reduce the current passing through the points and hopefully extending their life. Whilst it had not been a problem we had for some while also suffered from a petrol leak in the Webbers so they had been refurbed and restored to their original, larger jets.

Twelve miles fromhome the engine was missing so a plug change and a tweak of the carb balance and mixture seemed to improve the situation. Our run was smooth to Dover and on to the overnight stop in Liege where the hotel corridor had more bikes than residents. The next day was a long run to Graz but with no lorries on the road on a Sunday it was an easy one. On Monday we crossed into Hungary and headed for Pechs. It was a public holiday so no lorries and the roads, which curved and flowed gently though the countryside, were Lotus terrain and pleasurable driving. A problem emerged at a fuel stop when the boot handle gave up. It had long been stiff and the prospects of a shut boot which would not open or an open boot which would not shut were equally unappealing. We found a compromise and moved on.

Pechs was a European City of Culture in 2008 and has a main square with pedestrian streets off – but the tourist information was closed, on a bank holiday! We were pointed towards a locked gate and managed to extract some tourist leaflets carefully positioned within reach of long arms. We found a hotel just off the square – very friendly staff but with that mid European speciality – an aura of faded glory. The underground car park looked welcoming as the heavens opened behind us and the meandering tourists scurried for shelter. The car park wasn’t such a good idea next morning as the car does not like steep inclines especially first thing in the morning. Furious revving and slipping of clutch helped us escape the fumes we left behind – sorry guys!

Crossing southern Hungary on largely empty roads to the Romanian border near Arad we made good time but the rest of the day was pretty dire. It started with a 6 mile queue of lorries to enter Hungary all parked up on the verge of the single carriageway main road. Arad was busy and was being dug up – probably to improve the roads. It was hot and the first main holdup was a crash between a van and a lorry at a junction a few metres before a level crossing – which itself was taken slowly because the rails lifted as the lorries passed over. We stopped and crawled and stopped and the temperature rose to a good 99 degrees (why did the electric fan choose today to have a earthing fault?). We saw four accident sites that day and were only surprised there were not more. That poor country is blighted by the continuous thunder of heavy lorries, vans and cars all chasing time through country and village alike. The traffic moves in bursts as you overtake one group of lorries before catching up with the next batch a short way ahead. The underlying poverty both here and in Bulgaria is demonstrated by the “ladies of the road”, waiting in lay-bys for their next client.

We reached Sibiu before dusk and enjoyed a brief but damp stroll round the 12th century town and a rest from the concentration of the road. Next morning we sorted out the fan and changed the points as the engine was clearly unhappy. The points were more burnt than I expected from the new ignition system – I later discovered that it was also not earthing properly and the engine was much happier when that was improved.

The plan was to drive the trans Fagarasan mountain road south to Pitesti – but when we got there we found it was closed as the winter snow had not cleared. We tried to visit the Monastery of Cartisoara – but that had a sign saying it didn’t welcome tourists – despite the brown tourist sign. This was clearly going to be a good day! We returned to the main (lorry) highway and the motorway to Bucharest. An electrical check at a service station found the ignition earthing fault and the engine hummed as we approached the capital. Sadly the navigator didn’t recognise the importance of the signs meaning “ring road” so we ploughed on to the very centre at 5pm on a hot Tuesday. Fortunately fan and ignition worked perfectly as we asked our way out to the road south to Bulgaria – we asked at petrol stations, we asked pedestrians, we asked the drivers of the cars ahead of us, beside us and behind us – and it worked! The only one that didn’t was the taxi driver who demanded an extortionate 50 euros (reduced eventually to 20) to guide us out. Once we found the road we sailed down to the border, no formalities there of any sort, not even a passport check. Then on to the picturesque town of Velika Tarnova, arriving just before dusk.

For a morning we were tourists before completing the final 140 miles to the rally hotel, driving through a flooded Varna as the heavens again opened and the streets turned to rivers. We were amongst the first to arrive and soon met the only other non-Balkan participants, a Belgian couple who live in Greece. The others were from Greece and Bulgaria with a few from Romania; this meant it was an international rally so all documentation was in English (with a Greek accent).

The rally was unlike any other regularity rally we have ever attended. The start was at 9.30, much later that the 8.00 we are used to.
We fluffed the first regularity as I had not read the instructions properly and was too busy directing the driver to realise in time that we’d gone wrong. We headed north to Kavarna, whose Mayor awarded us a prize for looking good and Allison was interviewed by the national TV for broadcast on the news reports that evening. The highlight of the day was lunch at the Thracian Hills Golf Club. We were joined by a Bulgarian crew and despite our complete lack of Bulgarian and their limited English we soon established that the local car club was very friendly with members from a wide background and a huge variety of cars. I don’t know how they’ve managed it but they have all sorts of classic and vintage cars, maybe because we were English we heard more about our cars. These guys regularly come to UK buying up cars – Bentley, Jaguar, a model T Ford. One ran a garage and had a second hand tow truck bought in England – for work not the rally. One Greek couple must have the last surviving Morris Marinas – not one or two but seven!

Day two and the rally headed west and after visiting the Standing Stones at Pobiti Kamani
(stones or petrified forest – opinions are divided) we provided entertainment for the residents of Denvya by chasing round cones. We should have excelled at this but the Elan has a deep rooted dislike of chicanes round bollards and stop-starts into “boxes” and stalled and would not start! It did this on the last rally in Spain so there’s something to sort out here – suggestions please!

Lunch was at an old mill whose wheels were powered by water bubbling up from springs – a very tranquil and peaceful setting and our Bulgarian friends from yesterday were insistent we should join them again. The restart was particularly random, one moment we were wandering round the springs and the next there was a concerted rush to leave – and with the time control at the end of a country track this resulted in a long queue of cars going nowhere slowly!

Day three and we headed south to a Russian owned beach resort and lunch. We returned to the hotel at about 4pm and as the cars had done little more than 200 miles in the three days there was little need to do much apart from clean off the dust.

Prize Giving that evening was clearly the purpose of the rally. We were seated at long tables in our car clubs and this time we were with the Greeks. The meal started at 8.30 and after the appertisers was prize giving. Everyone received a prize – we didn’t intend to be greedy but we received five! One for winning our class, one for finishing the rally, one for the longest distance travelled to the rally, one for Lady Driver and the last for representing our participating club – Club England. Allison was also awarded honorary membership of the Automobile Retro Club Varna. Then there was dancing and singing and at about midnight the main course arrived – we didn’t last long enough for desert and left the Varna and Burgas clubs celebrating a successful and enjoyable event.

Our return journey mirrored the outward, with sightseeing in Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary and a haul Austria to Calais. Romania in particular was a changed country once we got away from the main lorry route. This time we found the Bucharest ring road, which was slow and tedious (not really any better than ploughing through the centre though we had the advantage of knowing where we were going!).
We visited fortified Saxon churches on deserted roads and tracks near Sighisoara and entered Hungary through the much more pleasant crossing at Oradea. Hungary’s motorways are top quality and we sped through to Tata where we spent the afternoon wandering round the lake, drinking coffee, eating cake and watching “dragon” boats rowing to the beat of the cox’s drum.

We had one overnight stop before Calais, at Wuerzburg where the locals were drinking Franken wine in the sunshine on a bridge linking the main town with the Fortress Marienburg on the hill opposite.

Then on to Calais and home. This was one of our easiest trips with the car taking the long hard slogs and the gentle meanders in its stride. There’s still something to sort out with the fuel consumption as we only managed 23 mpg and a very sooty rear end! Somehow that’s no surprise as there’s always something that needs doing…….

2nd Interbalkanic Classic Rally – brief report

Now in Sighisoara in Romania on the way home and its raining! A contrast to the rally which was run in the heat and sunshine of the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast from a base in Varna. A rally unlike any other we have done – we ended up with 6 Trophies and Allison was given honorary membership of the Automobile Retro Club of Varna. Despite making a hash of two of the nine Regularity sections we won our class so got a trophy for that, a trophy for finishing, one as representatives of the “England car club”, one for travelling furthest to attend (1,900 miles each way), for Allison, Coupe des Dames and one from the Mayor of Kavarna. When the Press found out how far we’d come, Allison was interviewed for Bulgarian TV – and they broadcast the footage!

The rally was more a party than a rally with the purist concepts of early starts and snatched lunches replaced by a more self service approach and two hour lunches. Our Bulgarian hosts were particularly welcoming and despite our complete lack of Bulgarian insisted that we join them for lunch, where we found their knowledge of English was better than many were prepared to admit.

The participants included a pair from Romania, a Belgian couple and the remainder roughly equally split between Greeks and Bulgarians. The cars displayed the totally unexpected wealth of classic cars now restored in the Balkans – a mid 1950’s Bentley, and 1930’s Moskvitch, “modern cars” such as Golfs and Mercedes 190 – and extraordinarily to the English, a Morris Marina, one of 6 owned by the same couple. There were Porsche, Jaguar, Alpha Romeo, Beetles and BMW.

How’s the Lotus after this travelling, with some pretty long days? Liege to Graz was the furthest in one day and Pechs (Hungary) to Sibiu (Romania) probably the hardest with hour after hour of following trucks on totally inadequate roads through villages and valleys, overtaking one goup just to come up to the next. We saw four accident scenes that day. Pretty well all things considered – we’ve had some earthing problems, the boot lock is broken and the air intake box is held on with bailer twine!