CHALLENGING TERRAIN IN TURKEY!

Hello Flora Followers, Emma here again. We just received an update from Car 41 about a challenging day in the Turkish mountains. It sounds like Flora is just hanging on, by the skin of her teeth, but determined to make it into Paris. Read below for an account of the day.

We had a dreadful day the day of the mountain section. The weather was awful with wind and heavy rain. We had decided not to do the time trial sections as Flora does not handle bends and the brakes are not great on wet roads. We set off on steep terrain anyway and half way through the day the amp meter was registering constant discharge. Car 39 Phantom II stopped to help and fiddled with the brushes and the generator sprung into life! Great we thought but later that day she stopped again and we spent a long time trying to fix her. We decided to take the main road to the hotel in case we didn't make the rally hotel, it was now dark, we had no lights and we re trying to find the white lines on the road with a flashlight! It was dangerous and I was quite scared. Suddenly a van pulled in front with warning lights flashing and lead us down the road to the hotel! He was a volunteer from the Turkish motor club who had spotted us on the road. We had previously called the rally for assistance but no reply! Flora eventually died 1 km. from the hotel. We were towed in and were escorted by the police with flashing lights! All very exciting. When we arrived at the hotel at 11:30pm we heard that a rally car on the time trial had left the road and plunged 40ft. Amazingly they walked away from the scene and apart from some bruising and shock are fine. Their car however is in very poor shape. Another car spun out on the wet roads, the Itala in fact and Karen was thrown from the vehicle, again she escaped with a sore hand and they are carrying on! So our problem is minor to some. We are now in Greece heading for the ferry to Italy tomorrow. We are managing with 2 batteries and charging them each day. One battery seems to last about 4-5 hours and so we hope to continue that way until Paris. We are now taking the fastest route each day which is allowed under the rules, several of us are doing the same thing. We are both well, tired but determined to finish.

Just a few photos!

IRAN DAY 3

We have just spent 3 days here. Very interesting, some very nice countryside but also a lot of garbage and very poor areas. The driving here is appalling and they cancelled all the time trials as they thought it was to dangerous. We have been very warmly received by most Iranians and I have had so many phtos taken trying to hide my hair under a scarf at the same time. Flora still going well but we have a lot of high roads to take to Turkey tomorrow.

IRAN UPDATE

Hi Flora Followers! Emma here again!

Just heard from Team Flora that they have arrived in Iran. Sounds like it was a rough day of travelling.

They were held up at customs for 5 hours then had to drive another 600km to get to the hotel. They arrived at 11 pm to find there were no hotel rooms left and had to sleep on the floor of the lobby! As Treacy commented, "A first for them!"

Apparently, they are living off of toast and jam as many people have become quite sick with food poisoning. I'm sure they will be happy in the coming days to be heading into Turkey and Italy. Good food awaits!

SAMARKAND ETC

The internet hook up in these parts is horrendous so sorry for the long silence. Samarkand was lovely as we had a day off to sight see and shop. Yes Emma I bought the Suzanai’s 3 in fact so you can all choose. We had a great day and then left at 4:30am for the border to enter Turkmenistan! Breakfast at that hour is not pleasant. The temperature rose as we arrived at the border, 37 degrees and many people were suffering from Travellers tummy, it was pretty awful. We were lucky and were allotted one of the better hotels last night but our room was like a furnace and we were so tired. Today WE DROVE ANOTHER 630KMS to Ashgabad and tomorrow we dress appropriately and cross into Iran. Turkmenistan is mainly desert, hot and dry with very little vegetation, Uzbekistan on the other hand was quite cultivated the main yield seemed to be cotton. Cars are still going from place to place by truck, even if the roads have improved. Lloyd described these last few days as driving vast distances on poor roads in extreme heat nursing along an old car! I hope to be able to connect in Iran.