MONGOLRALLY WEEK THREE:In our latest reports on the Boghopper Express in the Mongol Rally, the team hits a few bumps, writes Guy Craigie.
AFTER THE big party at Klenova Castle in the Czech Republic, we made a pit stop in the nearby village to stock up on some supplies and work out our future routes.
However, on meeting two girls who had done the Mongol Rally last year and who were now doing the rally down through Africa, they strongly recommended that we did not go to Moldova for both difficulty in getting into the country and for safety reasons. With that in mind, we drove to the beautiful town of Cesky Krumlov, south of Prague.
The next day, we drove to Bratislava in Slovakia. Judging by our surroundings, it was clear that this was not a place to park the car with the roof rack and all our gear on display, so we treated ourselves to the only five-star hotel in town. Later on, we asked a taxi driver to recommend us a good bar, to which he replied: "Get in, I take you to nice bar." The nice bar ended up being a brothel and after a Coke each and €40 out of pocket, we fled Bratislava at 12.00am, pledging never to return.
We drove through the night, taking regular sleeping breaks at trucker stops. Horrifically, as we were heading towards Budapest in Hungary, we saw a lorry that had just run over a man crossing the road. He lay there dead in front of us, a bag covering his lifeless body. This was a serious wake up call for us to take regular rest stops.
Soon after, a vibrating noise started coming from the front, left wheel of the Boggy.
When we arrived in Szeged, in southern Hungary, we stopped for help. We found a little garage and the owner diagnosed our problem as the left strut, which he replaced for a tidy sum.
On we continued, crossing into Romania, when the driveshaft went again. We crawled along the road, the whole way to the city of Arad, where we parked under a tree and slept for a night in the lashing rain. The following morning, we made our way to the main dealer for advice.
We were told that both the driveshaft and gearbox would have to be replaced if there was even a hope of us making it all the way to Mongolia. So with their help and that of the incredibly friendly locals, we hunted down second-hand spare parts with the help of friendly locals and within the day, all the work had been done for not very much money.
With reverse and fifth gear available to us again, we set off for Bucharest. From there, we drove across the border into Bulgaria, the 12th country so far. Next, we will make our way to the coast of Bulgaria and then on into Turkey.
• For more information or to donate to The Christina Noble Children's Foundation, log on to www.theboghopperexpress.com.