GAC Boys - now heading for Igomenitsa

We passed by venice for a quick walkabout, stopped overnight in Ravenna with my friends. Drove to Bari to get the ferry to Igomenitsa. We are one hour away from Igomenitsa and Marten and I are still talking which is surprising! The ferry is fantastic, we are in a non smoking ferry but in normal Mediterranian and East European style everyone is happily puffing away with no regards to kids and non-smokers. Today our intentions are to try to get through the Albanian border with our Qatari plates, failing that we'll find a Greek poor mountain village and hand over the gifts there.

BAD NEWS - PART OF B2B CANCELLED

Unfortunately the most exciting part of the Budapest 2 Bamako race - the Mali and Mauritania route has been cancelled because of terrorists and killings, therefore our GAC Boys have decided to wait a year rather than do 10 days of circling in Morocco.

Our GAC Boys are now on their way to Albania via Italy to hand over the giveaways to schools and orphanages in Albania.

We do however have a team of three Swedes - Cape2Cape.se who are carrying the GAC logo and Fristads logo on their clothing for us and they are on their way to Capetown from Nordcap, Norway.

Watch this space .....

Piccies

Our route!

GAC Boys getting ready for the Budapest2Bamako race party (safety first)

Passed the test, stickers on!

Africa here we come!

Another big technical day

The GAC No 1 Team was easily approved by the scrutinizersw (stickers on car and personal tags in place) although the GAC No 2 (Peter "the hammer") had some pending issues with his phenomenal rear end.....

We are currently celebrating that we are officially ready for Africa!

First Technical Day

(Peters last minute contemplation!)

Today was a big technical and mechanical experience, installation of fog lights, GPS maps, fuel system and CB radio (we were positively surprised by the traditional imperial craft man who paid so much attention to detail and had complete disregard to time!) Fortunately, after a full day in the workshop the car still only had 4 wheels!

For the record, the Hungarian police thought the Bengtsson (now renamed "the hammer") exhaust pipe was too big but after thorough examination, was found to be suitable for his personality.

The boys were back in bed before 21.00 (make the most of it boys!!!)

Finally GAC 1 and GAC 2 Team met up in Budapest

Dinner was booked at the Spoon restaurant on the River Danube where the basic strategy was discussed. At this point we were still highly anxious about even passing the scrutineering let alone anything else.

After dinner we concluded that Peter was very impatient (in general) and very keen to drive through the European blizzard! Michael was all smiley cause his snuff had finally arrived and Marten was very happy to see his wife arrive for much needed moral support (which is difficult to get from the rest of the team members)

less than 2 days to go...

admin check - DONE
technical check - DONE
exam on rules of the race - DONE!

Let's get ready to rock 'n roll!!!