Escapades in the East - Part 1

This is the distilled story our trip driving from the UK to Iran, written in more traditional (chronological) form, and with the emphasis on our driving and 4WDing experiences for our Land Rover mates in England.  If you're viewing this on email and would like to see the videos as well as photos, view the post in your browser by following this link: http://elveysbigadventure.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/escapades-in-east-part-1.html
And apologies about the formatting - I accidentally clicked the "HTML" button in the editor, which has left this post permanently disfigured :-(

Escapades in the East - Part 1 of 3

It started when I was 19 (ten years ago!).  Internet blogs were a pretty novel thing back then, and I felt like I’d discovered the lost ark when I stumbled across the blog of an American hippie-bachelor who’d sold everything to embark on a journey from the very East coast of Russia (did you know this is right next to Japan?!) to the West.  His goal was to complete the entire journey by bike (BMW Adventure bike), not “cheating” using trains through any stretches, as other travellers did.  Engrossed in his weekly posts of euphoric highlights, soul-crippling low-lights, tales of stranger’s goodness, and tales of the odd rascal, the seed was sown - I couldn’t die happy until I’d completed something similar.

Fast forward ten years, and the seed was still there, but covered by usual busyness of life, being married, working etc.  We had been living in England for a year or so, and planning on returning to NZ to live.  Still without kids, but maybe not for much longer, the wife, Mrs E, and I realised that if we were going to do an adventure like this, it had to be soon.  While we were still debating whether this trip was possible, wise and financially viable, I discovered an eBay auction for complete set of off-road equipment for a Land Rover Discovery, finishing in under 30 minutes!  “Honey..”, I called down the stairs meekly, giving away what type of request was coming.  A few minutes, and £800 odd pounds later, we owned a complete set of off-road protection and recovery equipment for our Discovery.  The decision of this purchase locked it in for us - we were going to head off on an adventure!

Now that we decided we were going to go, we had to decide where!  Africa is a common adventure destination, but didn’t particularly interest me or Mrs E.  One country that I had long been interested in though, was Iran.  I felt that there was a huge chunk of Iran missing in the news reports of Western sanctions, nuclear deals, and anti-Jewish rants, that I wanted to discover.  So to Iran it was!  The next few months were spent planning logistics, buying the camping and living equipment we needed, and fitting out the Disco as a “semi-camper”.  I wanted to take a Land Rover, not because we thought we needed a 4WD to make the trip, but because I wanted to go off the main routes, and made a pact to do some 4WDing in each country we travelled through.  It was certainly a compromise though (compared to a traditional camper) - what we gained in 4WD ability we lost in living space and convenience (especially not having an internal toilet, if you ask Mrs E).

The route was determined: France, Italy, ferry to Albania, Greece, Turkey, Iran, then ferry across the Persian gulf to finish in Dubai.  From Dubai we had planned to fly home to NZ.  What we were going to do with the Disco was the most stressful point of my planning.  There were no good options - to sell it meant importing it - not easy to do in Dubai where RHD cars can’t be registered for the road.  To use an agent to help import it would mean money, and then we didn’t expect to get much for what would then be a beat up old wagon that couldn’t be driven on road.  To send it back to England in a container was an option, but it would cost more than what the Disco was worth!  In the end, it was decided for us, as you’ll find out later…

We decided to have a “soft-launch” for the trip and start in Scotland, so having finished up our jobs and cleared up our house, we set off for a month exploring the Caledonian part of Britannia. It was well worth having the test-launch, as our eBay purchased tarpaulin for the roof rack (which we were assured was “extra high quality”) literally fell apart on the first day!  In Falkirk we found a superb canvas-maker who custom made a properly heavy-duty PVC tarpaulin that took the rest of the trip in it’s stride!  The rest of the brilliant trip around Scotland went without a hitch (apart from the cold, despite being August!), and in early September we crossed the channel for France.

Cooking up a storm in Scotland

Our first shock of France was discovering that, even in the “border” town of Calais, no one can speak English, not even doctors!  Our Lonely Planet language book got us through - just!  We travelled to Paris, then down to Lyon, then further south to spend a few days exploring Provence.

We discovered quickly that foreign cities, driving on the right, and big 4WDs don’t mix too easily.  After a long day driving, we arrived in central Lyon and were trying to find our accommodation for the night, while navigating the network of busy, often one-way streets.  We made a turn, only to discover that we were on a one-way street, going the wrong way, and with a bus coming towards us!  A quick aversion down another side street avoided a collision, but we decided that we might cut out a few of the other cities that we had on our itinerary - it just didn’t fit for this type of trip.  

Heading further South and out into the countryside, we started on our first French “greenlane”.  At the start of the trail we found a great place to wild camp for the night, getting ready for some more adventurous driving the next day.  If I could have planned it I would have chosen an easy trail for our first, helping to ease Mrs E and I into it, but you can’t accurately tell the difficulty from the trail-sharing website I was using for the trails.  Tight, technical, muddy in parts, and having to follow the map very carefully, the first trail turned out to be a real corker!  After a couple of hours we were ready for a cup of tea - thank goodness for having a cooker and kettle ready in the back!  I have heard people say there are no greenlanes or good 4WDing in France, but it certainly isn’t true.  The following 4WD trail we did in Provence was easier, and on more formed tracks that went through areas of bush, often quite rocky underneath.  Provence was certainly really nice, and we had a great time exploring the French villages and local roads.

Start of the first trail - this was the easy part!

(Video of the second, easier trail)

We headed right down to the French Riviera, and drove along the coast to Nice, and then on through Monaco and Monte Carlo, which are both home to utter lunatic bikers.  You have to picture that the roads are winding and busy, with cliffs rising on one side and dropping off on the other.  Despite this, bikes of all shapes and sizes are constantly flying past, even on both sides, and often into the face of oncoming traffic!  The locals probably thought we were the looneys though, driving amongst the Porches, Lambos and Ferraris with our brute and beat-up old Land Rover!  To reinforce their view, we stopped at Monte Carlo’s one public beach, ran down in bare feet and amongst the footballer’s wives sun bathing on the sand, got changed underneath our towels and launched into the “cold” water (about 19 degrees probably - which is as warm as the sea in NZ summer)!  

After our antics in the Riviera, we started to head due North towards Italy.  Instead of taking the tunnel through the Alps, we decided to drive over the top!  I had read from a fellow traveller there were good spots to wild camp up there, so up we drove on very steep, tight and twisting gravel tracks looking for a camping spot through the fog.  Having camped at a great, sheltered spot, we woke the next day to most incredible views you could imagine.  We have photos, but it doesn’t do justice to the feeling of standing up there and looking out over the mass of mountain tops.  As we carried on over the mountains, we found old abandoned bunkers used in the war, and the abandoned remains of a commune that used to live up there.  It was a very cool day.

Driving up towards the Alps summit

This is what greeted us the next morning!

Exploring an abandoned building

The road down to Italy

(Video is descending the alps)

After descending into Italy, we travelled across the Northern industrial belt to visit Venice.  This part of Italy is pretty boring, scenery-wise.  We did do one 4WD trail on the way - nice and easy, but cut short after we discovered a bridge had been washed out and obviously never replaced.  It wasn’t until we got further south that we got into some of the really good stuff.  And how good it was!  In most countries, driving on unformed tracks is allowed by exception.  In other words, it’s illegal unless specifically stated (or known, ie greenlanes) as a right of way.  In Italy, it seemed to us it’s the other way around - a track is a right of way unless specifically stated as private.  There is a whole host of tracks criss-crossing the country, making for a 4WDers playground!  In Tuscany, we spent a whole day on 4WD tracks, driving through fields, bush, vineyards and remote villages - it was fabulous.  In the mountainous parts we encountered yet more stunning views.  On one of our final nights in Italy, we stayed with a couchsurfing host who lived in the hills and ran an organic beef and pork farm.  She rode with us up into the hills to look for some mushrooms for the day’s dinner.  This was a special day, as with her we had the permission to leave the track, and literally go cross-country over the hills.  We criss-crossed our way up a steep hill, and then after collecting some mushrooms, drove STRAIGHT down (slowly of course) - such fun!

(Video of climbing the track above - it's much steeper than it looks!)

(Video of another trail in Tuscany)

We drove to the port town of Bari, where we caught an overnight ferry to Albania.  After working out the firm instructions to Mrs E to “take up her dress” (take our overnight clothing and board the ferry), I loaded the Disco on the boat, and we got settled in for the journey across the Adriatic sea. 

Albania was an interesting country on our itinerary, because we really knew nothing about it before coming - everything was going to be a new and learning experience.  We arrived in the port city of Durres to find a strange concoction of crumbling infrastructure mixed with brand-new shops and petrol stations.  Albania is clearly a very poor country though, even more evident as drove out of the city and into the rural areas.  One upside as a tourist though is that everything is super-cheap!  How about a 3-star hotel for €25 per night, or 4 stars for €40?  Or a restaurant meal of generous Italian pasta for two, plus beer and hot chocolate, for a total of €7?

First glimpse of colourful Durres

Albanian Hot Chocoloate!

On day two of Albania, I had an itinerary of some 4WD trails planned for the day.  It also happened to be Mrs E’s birthday - what better birthday present to give your wife than a day 4WDing?? ;-)  On this day though, we both got a bit more than we bargained for…

Stay tuned for part 2 next week...