Team Arrive in Hungary

We got to Calais in a few hours and arrived before our ferry, so before getting on, we afforded ourselves afew hours sleep in a nearby car park. We emerged from the crossing to realise the satnav wouldnt work for most countries in Europe, so the old fashioned map method would have to suffice. We also foudn ourselves ina desperate serch for fuel in France, after missing all the major fuel stations in Calais. It wasnt until Belgium we managed to fill up. Belgium was unevenetful, but a quick leg of the route before reaching the border of Germany as the sun started to rise. After a nights driving, we all decided to have a break and napped in the van for a couple of hours.


After a few hours driving into Germany we had our first issue. When trying to pull uphill, the engine of the trusty Movano cut out company without warning, forcing us into a nearby layby to stick our heads under the bonnet. After setting off again, the problem occured again and we dived into the nearest services. After another check over, we decided to call the breakdown service. We were told an hour and the man would be there, so we made th emost of the sun and started some tannage and washing drying.

4 hours later, a small car with a towbar turned up to solve all our problems. First problem was he didnt speak a word of English, second of all, he could fix the van, so ushered us back ontot he motorway to follow him to a garage. After turning us off into the small Ford dealer, he uttered some words in german about a 'checks', and proceeded to drive off. Mark was quickly on the phone to complain, but nothing really came from it other than spectacular display on incompetencey. As we were on our own, we decided to get the van connected to dealers machines to see if any errors came up. After a quick trip to a supermarket, the results for the van were in.


The garage couldnt get the machine to connect and checked the van over and came to the conclusion that they didnt know what was wrong with the van. So instead of charging us for the agreed service, he let us go for free mentioning, 'What can i charge you for? The trip to Germany or the great weather?'. We set off again, keen to make up the time we'd lost. We ate our dinner on the trailer and headed off. 

Spot the Skiff in the German Ford Main Dealer

The rest of Germany was a very long and careful journey up hills until we stopped at 10 in the evening for a long sleep. We got up for the last slog at 3 in the morning. This leg saw us entering Austria and through their mountains. The views were pretty impressive and a welcome change from the monotony of the German highways.

Through the mid morning, we entered Hungary and the amount of men on bikes increased dramatically and the temperature was well into the 20s. We were the first team to arrive at the sailing club and it was nothing as we expected. The water was huge and the shoreside was picture perfect. We headed into town to get some food and after buying some sun tan lotion to work out the exchange rate, got ourselves a beer and pizza for under a fiver. We were happy.

We unloaded the skiff as the sun dropped and enjoyed the close vicinty of the bar (less than 10metres from the skiff), The bar that is running a tab for each team. Needless to say we were looking forward to the rest of the week.