+++Breaking News: Unicamels spotted in Crazy Café. Fehlzündung burned two tires. First medical supply donation! +++

We started our (once again rainy) day in the Asian part of Istanbul and met a local at the petrol station who advised us to take a more scenic road than the one we originally planned. At this petrol station Team Schwabenstahl decided to spend the day with us. So 9 cars and 18 people headed to Haymana.

On the way we had planned a stop in a hotel to ask if we could take a much needed and wanted shower. We stopped in front of Crazy Cafe in Kaynasli, in second row so Oli could run into the hotel to ask. Immediately the owner came out and offered the famous Chai. A lot of young locals talked to us without being able to share the same language and we were stunned by the open and friendly atmosphere in that place. We felt very welcome and enjoyed delicious Turkish food, while the teams took turns in taking shower at the local hotel.

Feeling fresh we drove the scenic road through winding roads, beautiful green pastures with little rivers, herds of sheep with shepherds and a lot of gravel roads. There we had the first little breakdown: flat tire from Team Fehlzündung.

But as it seems, for every bad thing that happens, we get something positive in return. While changing tires a sheperd dog decided to have a good luck at us… And then the police drove passed and asked if we needed help. We took the chance and let them model with us and the dog! This helped us to get pictures to fulfil the Hündles Challenge: person in uniform + dog + team.

We had another little photo stop in quarry where took beautiful pictures and got a nice rallye sound in return, because one car of Team Fehlzündung ripped a hole in the exhaust.


We continued driving until Dr. Sox made a horrible sound in the middle of a small town calle Kibriscik,
We were the attraction of the day and talked to the locals. As it turns out, one of the bystanders is the doctor of the small town.
He was also the only one who spoke English and told us about his work. The Unicamels decided spontaneously to ask him, if he could need anything for his little clinic and so we handed over one of the X-Ray-Viewer and clinical materials.

This was very much appreciated and we got invited for Chai again. Drinking Chai we got shown the daily newspaper with an article about the rallye.
As it was already late, we had to leave to find our spot for the night.

This turned out to be a bit of a mission…a few miles the wrong way… but in the end we found the drivers camp. Right in front of a 24 hour hammam! Yeah! A nice way to end or to start the day…

+++ Breaking News: Unicamels are crossing the Bosphorus! Audition with the Turkish Secretary of Foreign Affairs +++

After a long sleep all the cars (over 200) drove through Istanbul to the blue mosque where we had the event with the Turkish Secretary of Foreign Affairs. We had to wait for a while so we had coffee, breakfast and a few selfies with the 2 unicorns of our team.

Unicamels wrote history by being on the front page of several leading newspapers by posing for pictures with the Secretary of Foreign Affairs. #PinkForPeace

After the event all the cars were supposed to drive in a police escorted convoy to cross the famous Bosphorus Bridge. This ended in a massive chaotic tumble in the Istanbul traffic jam. The police had to pick up lost and detouring cars all the time. We took a few detours ourselves 🙂

Everywhere we drove past people smiled and waved, but who wouldn’t when you are looking at a pink Unicamel hanging out of the window!

After getting lost in Istanbul traffic we erred around in a few circles and eventually found the driver camp on the Asian side of Istanbul.
There we were greeted by locals with yummy Köfte and an attended the official event with the mayor. Today was also the day of the Kite-Fight-Challenge. Every team had to build a Kite on their way to Istanbul. The winner of the challenge is the kite, which stays in the sky the longest and takes down other kites. Our kite did quite well but was taken down in the end. But we received an extra point for our design.

We’ve got a mail! Do you remember Gerd from Team Lebenshilfe? We would like to thank our new found friend Gerd for this wonderful picture and the letter!

+++ Breaking News: Unicamels and Fehlzündung arrive in Istanbul +++

The Turkish Custom was no problem and we were quickly continuing our trip to Istanbul. In the suburbs of the massive city we had our first look at the other teams on the big special carpark close to the sea. There was a lot of space to show the other teams our driving and musical skills from our fanfares.

After that we put up our camp and hang around for a while. We met a lot of different teams and made new friends. Team 36, 89 (Team Unicamel and Team Fehlzündung are now blood brothers) went downtown for dinner. We were all very tired due to the lack of sleep and went to bed very early.

+++Breaking News: Unicamels and Team Fehlzündung off-road!  Greece steals an hour+++

Greece greeted us this morning with nearly blue skies and sunshine and we started the day with a lazy breakfast and coffee which woke dead Unicamels – thanks to Ziener for sponsoring us with delicious coffee. We realized, that Greece is in the EU, but has a different time zone! Good Morning! We hurried up and are on the road again!

After all the fun we had, there was also a lot of dust on the cars, so after driving through Greek nowhere land, we  decided to have a short break at the car wash: Wellness with mud masks for our faithful friends and a lot of fun as you can see below.

Now everybody was infected with the rallye fever: overtaking, spinning wheels, winding roads up- and downhill, the Uicamels had a lot of fun on their way through Northern Greece to the Turkish border.

But we didn’t only have fun that day. We passed a refugee camp in Thessaloniki and decided to ask what they could need and handed out some of our donations. We were shocked about the sadness and the turmoil we caused when we tried to give the donations to the office.

We hit the road again after a dinner with our friends Team Fehlzündung. Mission: to find a way to a Turkish custom check without driving over a highway. Nice policemen helped us out and showed us the way, but not without mentioning the conditions of the road: Difficult road, Difficult Road! The road wasn’t too bad until a part of it was missing…it looked like a shark bite!

Andi t didn’t get any better. Big holes and stones hurt Dr. Sox quite a bit. He now has a second exhaust hole.

After a while we met walking obstacles…a lot of cows just wandering around on a road in the middle of >the night! After being distressed the Unicamels became quite enthusiastic to find a new model for the Hoch’Alp Cheese House. It wasn’t easy, one was too big, the other to small…but then we found the perfect cow called Aphrodite.

At 4 am we cut it off and tried to find a spot to park six cars. Not so easy…

+++ Breaking News: Unicamels spotted inside the Monsoon! Italy – Slovenia – Croatia +++

Happy Birthday to Josh! On midnight we celebrated the birthday of our friend Josh from team Fehlzündung with Limoncello on the shoulder.

Day 2 started with a yet dry morning in the picturesque Italian harbour close to Trieste. So we took the chance to have breakfast and to fulfil a task of our roadbook: since today the Italian coastguard advertise the HOCH‘ ALP Cheesestore from the Allgäu.

Right before our departure it started to rain and turned into cats, dogs, bears and dinosaurs during the rest of the day.

The only exception was luckily our lunch break in the Croatian harbour town of Sibenik, where we were able to walk through the narrow alleys and visit the old castle without our raincoats. The daily challenge: eating Bavarian sausages with locals on our hood was completed with Trude and Gabor at the parking ground in Sibenik.

Afterwards we hit the road again. For the night we found a remote camping ground for the night shortly before the Bosnian border.

We would like to thank Rosi for the meatballs and veggie balls. The veggie balls were so good, that even the meat-eaters loved them! Also we would like to thank Elisabeth and Willi for the yummy cake. You saved and made our day!

Team Obelix appreciated their sleeping and stowing construction in the last couple of days a lot! Thanks to Pascal who helped Judith sawing and measuring, instead of learning osteopathy. He also explained everything in the hardware store, that most of the material were sponsored by Bauhaus in Stuttgart-Möhringen.

Thanks to Robin who cut it into a sports car like design- and we were finally able to close the door of the trunk.

Today is the big day, where we present our team in Schwäbisch Gmünd and receive our rosebushes for the peace gardens in Oberstaufen, Istanbul and Tiflis from the Major.

We will present our cars, are hoping for donations of games and school supply for the children we’ll meet on our way and hand out the special Unicamel cookies!
Come and join us for the party at M7 around 8pm.

Dear Unicamel Friends,

Less than three weeks to go until the Allgaeu-Orient-Rallye starts. We’re currently in the preparation phase, but we are confident that we have the cars ready and the equipment together for our farewell party on 23 April 2016 in Schwäbisch Gmünd 🙂

Also you can support us! At Crowd-BW you have the opportunity to donate.

As a special thank amazing personalized prizes are waiting for you!

 

On April 23rd our Unicamels Allgäu Orient Rallye Shakedown Party will take place at M7 Bar & Café in Schwäbisch Gmünd. The DJ Team around DJ Say Yeah! and DJ This Is Nuts will present the music they have picked for our journey. Everyone is invited to come and we are looking forward to your replies to our Facebook Event.