Our arch-nemesis the British weather, had finally caught us up after trying to escape it with some long driving days and as soon as we left the ambulances it started to pour down. It appears to be an unusual thing in Turkey as the shop keepers all came out to look. Our deepest apologies to Istanbul for bringing the English rain. However, the shopping centre we took refuge in turned out to fantastic, with everyone being very friendly with us. We managed to have brunch with water, bread and a vast selection of Turkish food for just 10 lera (£3) each. Thoroughly stuffed we went for a stroll about town and found a fitness park and up a hill another great view of Istanbul. The heat got the better of us and we retreated back to the shopping mall for air conditioning and internet.

We have now found some good camping spots for our trip across Turkey and if the people in the capital are this nice, we can’t wait to meet the local people further out. We don’t know the next time we will have good internet, so cannot say for sure when blog posts will be posted as we are now officially in ASIA!

Starting from our wild camp, we drove towards Fagaras in the hope to find the Transfagarasan mountain road. We had heard it had only recently re-opened and many of us were looking forward to the spectacular views that we had heard so much about. On the climbing of the hill, it was found quickly that Adventure was developing an overheating problem. A quick pitstop in a layby and the engine fan was rewired to a switch, allowing the fan to be switched on at will.

Further up, the road that was already stunning only improved. With the trees surrounding the road on the way up, the views were tantalising as we could only see glimpses. Then, the road opened up for the final ascent with amazing driving and spectacular views. The ambulances themselves tried to prove their handling capability on these winding roads, with Endeavour struggling with the vibrations but this could not detract from the epic setting. We then continued up to the top of a rather sketchy peice of road. On reaching the top we were surprised to find most of Romania is seemed sitting with tables and chairs having the lunch and realised just how much of a perfect setting this would be to wild camp – if only we had found it the night before!

We decided to move through the tunnel and away from the tourists to stop for even more amazing views before the 1800km decent. The destination was the town of Constanta on the Black sea. To get to Constanta we intentionally avoided Bucharest to make sure we did not get stuck in traffic. The ring road looked the best option although it turned the surface had yet to be laid. On reaching the motorway that took us away everyone was feeling a lot more comfortable. With a false sense of security we drove down the very smooth motorway until Alex spotted a boulder about the size of a beachball lying in the middle of the lane. Both A&E managed to swerve to avoid and continued to Constanta more gingerly. We drove east until we hit the Black sea, before continuing north to find a beach. With it being the perfect camping site, we had a dip in the sea before a chilled out evening in the sun. Pretty crazy roadtrip just for the beach!

Greg and Berry enjoy the cool Black Sea waters

Today turned out to contain some of the most fantastic scenery of the trip so far, with views across the flat farmland interspersed with forested peaks. We settled down to camp in a small pebbled country lane in the shadow of the mountains with nothing but millions of flies to keep us company.

A quick drive into Budapest and we found possibly the best Opel garage in the world. The gentleman that ran it spoke great English and had no problem giving us 4 tyres from the pile of used ones they had at the back of the garage. After trying to fix our spare wheel he then sourced a spare for us and we had the tyres swapped to this. Unfortunately no amount of his mechanics head scratching and arm folding managed to fix Endevour’s shaking problem. They concluded the gearbox was on its way out. Bravely we have decided to plow on and just drive carefully….!

We quickly found a campsite in the centre of Budapest and everyone had a well earned shower and another pasta and sauce dinner. There turned out to be a number of fellow travellers in the campsite, and we met a couple who have been on the road for nine months already! After dinner we headed into town to find out what Budapest had to offer. Soon after venturing towards the centre of town we found what is reported to be “The Best Bar in the World” (according to the Lonely Planet guide) and with cheap beer, live music and friendly punters we were inclined to agree. What followed was an awesome night and a painful hangover….

The Best Bar in the World is in Budapest!

We would like to thank GRS for their fantastic help and work towards these signs! We would also like to thank everyone who has sponsored us recently, we couldn’t possibly get these vehicles to where they are needed without you!

Finally we would like to present A&E – Adventure & Endeavour, our two ambulances, along with most of the team!

For the past 5 days the team has been busy stripping the old signs off the ambulances. This turned out to be a mammoth task and took well over 40 hours to do! It turns out removing 8 year old stickers without removing vehicle paint is a painstaking process. This was not helped by only owning one tool to do the job, a butter knife ( which Berry swears is a family heirloom ……ooops).

The reason for removing the old signs is to make way for the brand new ones which will give the vehicles a more ambulance-y look as well as adorning our sponsors!

Having so many Engineers in the team, we have managed to get the location reports to appear on the website at Real-Time Location. This will allow you to watch our journey progress in real-time as it unfolds and see exactly where we are! As well as Tracking, the device also provides S.O.S Beaconing for emergencies and other features used to keep people updated.

On Sunday, Berry, Matt and Alex will be cycling the 54 Miles from London to Brighton for the British Heart Foundation. They will be testing the Tracking system for the day so if you fancy watching their progress be sure to look any time after 8:00 am 17th June  at Real-Time Location !!!

To see more photos of the team receiving this awesome donation (monetary and dimensions of cheque) head over to the gallery!

P.S I also hear the cycle over to the Isle of Wight was a pretty intense battle with the wind. Pedalling to be able go down hill sounds like an interesting experience!

Today, after a nail biting five week wait, we received our passports back from Real Russia. They now contain 5 Visas, without the Turkmenistan visa that we will get after the ferry crossing, that we will need for our journey!

We would like to thank ‘Real Russia’ for being so helpful and professional with sorting out all of our Visas for us. If anyone is looking for a company to help get Visas for Russia or any other Asian country, we highly recommend them!