It was finally time for the diplomatic crux of our journey, the two day transit through Russia. We teamed up with the Flat Tyre Expedition Team from Italy and made our way trough the spectacular Caucasus Mountains to the Georgian checkpoint around 9:00. The process of getting in went rather smoothly and took us about 4.5 hours end to end. We then started on the 9 hour drive to Astrakhan where we would spend the night.
Soon enough the dot on our Google maps navigation was jumping around all over the place. It turns out the GPS signals are jammed in towns close to the border. After an hour manual navigation with cyrillic interpretation and guesswork, we mede it through Vladikavlaz and we're headed in the right direction.
The next unexpected situation arose when we stopped for fuel in Dagestan. The young boys at the service station were super happy to meet us, but some older men in traditional Muslim attire were quite angry with us because we wore shorts with exposed knees. When we saw that one had a pistol in his pocket we decided it was best to sit in the car and pay cash out the window. We drove a short while and stoppet by some bushes to change into more appropriate clothes.
An hour so so later down the road we met a military police checkpoint in a junction full of traffic where we were turning left. We tried to wiggle our way into the traffic but we're abruptly pointed out by an angry officer to stop at the side of the road. While one officer searched our belongings and laughed at all the strange equipment we had with us, the other informed Even through Chat GPT that he had lost his licence to drive the car. Luckily there was a fine to be paid on the spot to redeem the licence, and we were even asked to suggest the price of the fine.
We only got stoppet two more times on our way to Astrakhan and let us through after they looked at our passports. At 22:30 we finally arrived at the hotel after another challenging navigation session through the city. An hour later after we had showered and unpacked, our Italian friends arrived and we went out for some food at a Russian restaurant which reminded us very much of McDonald's.
The next morning we had another border crossing to deal with. We arrived there around noon and queued for a few hours. They checked us more thoroughly then when coming in to the country. The checked all the cameras and reviewed the footage on the drone. Finally we had to fill out a questionnaire about our position on Russia's conflicts, and some world leaders. We took a Swiss approach to diplomacy and soon enough we were on our merry way in to Kasakhstan. We took in at a hotel in Atyrau and celebrated the half way point of our journey (by distance) and meeting all our deadlines by going to a Ukrainian restaurant.
After a good nights sleep we started from the coastal town Batumi and set course for the Georgian capital city Tbilisi. The two alternatives were 5 hours on the motorway, or 7 hours of mountain driving. We chose the latter.
This ended up beeing the right decision. Except for some very heavy road maintenance, where we still cant fathom how they were able to drive normal cars on, as our lifted Corolla with «big» tires still bottomed out in some places.
About half way we stopped to enjoy a nice cup of Georgian coffee. Ordering turned out to be quite challenging, but after some pointing and some homemade Georgian/Russian/English/Norwegian grammar it all worked out.
After passing through some more mountain passes and a few ski resorts we were at the Hostel in Tbilisi.
The rest of the day was spent eating, drinking and exploring the nightlife with the team “Lost since London” and their friends.
The next morning we did some laundry and some sightseeing around town before we hit the road again. Now the goal was the Georgian border town named Stepantsminda deep in the Caucasus mountains.
About halfway through the drive we took a stop at a local Georgian winery for a short tour and wine tasting. Coincidentally there was a busload of Chinese tourists there and they were in reality fully booked. The potential disaster turned joy, as the winemakers solution was to give us the tasting in the wine cellar instead, and since the bottles were already opened for the other group, we got the tasting for free.
The guide could not see why we wanted a spit bucket, as it was «no problem driving after drinking wine». After spitting out some wery good wines, we ended up buying our favorite bottles to take away.
The rest of the drive was through some of the most spectacular mountains we have seen, driving at altitudes of 2400meters with peaks around us raging to hights of 5000 meters.
Arriving just before sunset we enjoyed a cold beer on the hotel balcony just soaking in the views, before we met up with the Italian team we met at the Georgian border.
Together we laid some plans for the next morning and the border crossing into Russia
Starting the second week of the rally we had another highlight planned for the day, the most dangerous road in Turkey. We met up with our British friends from No Half Sends in the morning and approached the mountains from the south.
The way up from the south was a nice and paved mountain road. With a bit of off roading at the end we made it up to 2350 masl.
On the decent on the northern side into Trabzon the asphalt ended and the road got steeper and narrower. What a drive!
There were so many roads to explore up every mountain. We found a nice restaurant on one of the summits and had a beautiful view of the inside of a cloud.
Further down the mountain we made so Iraqi friends. They had ripped a large gash in their tyre. Unfortunately it was too big for our repair kit.
At the end of the D915 we said farewell to our friends from the NHS and turned right towards the Georgian border. At the border only the car owner could cross in the car, so Even got out and walked across while Erlend drove into the limbo.
The car was held for about three hours. Some teams had already been there nine hours and we did not know how long we had to wait. Luckily we met some other teams in the same situation to keep us company.
It was a huge relief when we were let in to Georgia, country no. 11. We stopped at the first hotel and crashed for the night.
Day five of the rally and day nine on our journey, we woke up in Istanbul in the tenth county we have visited. After a Turkish coffee we had to say farewell to our companion Harald, who had to go home for a fishing trip on northern Spistbergen.
We then set our heading towards Cappadocia with a stop in Ankara to attempt to get our GBAO permits at the Tajikistan embassy. The welcomed us in, but could not give us the permit and advice us to try in Dusjanbe or through a tour company.
A few hours later on one of the best motorway we have ever driven, we arrived in Göreme. We med up with three other teams who were also in town and had dinner and some beers together.
The next morning we got up at 04:30 to see the hot air balloons flying in the sunrise. It was a breathtaking view.
Taking advantage of our early start we set off towards the D915 mountain road. On the way we saw some salt flats we wanted to explore and soon enough we had initiated a three hour self rescue training session where we had to employ all our rescue gear incliding shovel, recovery tracks, our winch and airing down to minimum pressures. We also got a bit of pushing help from a Belarusian family passing by.
The day ended in a sparsely populated farm land at 1700 masl. The only visitors were some dogs wearing wolf protection spiked collars. Should we be worried?
In Bucharest we started the day with som quick sightseeing and then met up with a British team named "No Half Sends". After breakfast in front of the palace, we joined in a convoy and set course for the Bulgarian border.
After a few hours we took a small ferry across the river into Bulgaria. We met a lot of other shitty cars that were driving around the Balkans in the 2025 Pothole rally.
I Bulgaria we drive through endless sunflower fields and made our way to Burgas by the Black Sea.
The next we made our way to small border crossing post in the mountains between Bulgaria and Turkey. The process went quite smoothly and after an hour on the border we had acquired all the necessary stamps, insurance, vignette etc. and were allowed into Turkey.
We drove across the Bosporus Straight into Asia and spent the evening in tha Asian part of Istanbul trying out different foods and drinks.
The second day of the rally we woke up in a beautiful industrial site in Nowhere, Romania. After a bit of fishing, where Harald caught a nice bioluminescent trout, we started driving towards the first highlight of the rally; The Transfagarasan highway.
Along the way way we swung by a cozy town with one of the castles of Vlad The Impaler and ate lunch.
Gong up the mountain through dense forest on winding road, we saw several warnings about bears and not to feed them any pizza. The temperature also dropped to pleasant t-shirt temperatures.
The drive up the mountain:
Even with our overloaded and underpowered Corolla, we had great fun and drove up and down the road a few times. We also got some nice shots with the drone.
Next morning we got woken by a marching band crashing into Even’s tent. Relatively unscathed we got set up for the official start line of the rally.
Some pyro, and we were off!
For about 3 kilometers…
Some rubbing from the tire on the new shock. A few blows with the hammer and we were sorted. On the motorway we took it upon ourselves to give out as many cold beers as we could.
The next leg was out of Poland, a quick lunsj in Bratislava and then into Romania where we pitched our camp for the night.
Rain baby rain! The drive from Poznan to Prauge was a wet one.
Arriving at the start location we hurried to set ut some shelter and started to change the rear shock and spring, trying to get it done before the party started.
Attemting to swap a complete rear assembly in 30 minutes, on wet mud, was a bit ambitious. So we dropped everything and joined the party instead.
After a few beers we summoned our inner mechanic and completed the rest of the swap in about 5 beers time.
A member of the neighbour team claimed to be a hairdresser, so Erlend volunteered for a midnight haircut.
It later turned out he actually was a miner from New Zealand…
The rest is a bit fuzzy.
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