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3. A brand-new event on the Rally the Globe calendar will take us from
Belgium’s rally capital of Ypres to Istanbul.

4. Belgium, Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, Hungary,
Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey

5. ON THE ROAD TO THE EDGES OF
THE ORIENT

6. Recce Day 1
We had already driven a route from Prague to Český Krumlov back
in August 2020 so today was all about re ning it. The weather was
grey and wet as we left Prague and we soon decided the
rstregularity was far too easy and deleted it. The other sections were
top class however and they, combined with some great tests, will
present a good challenge after the rest day. Our rally hotel was
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Budweis where the beer, of course, was great.

7. Recce Day 2
We visited UNESCO World Heritage Site, Český Krumlov, rst thing next
morning and started the road book from the main square where our
rally hotel is situated. An excellent, new, gravel section
was rst o followed by a fairly long test round a few farm buildings. Then
a regularity to a remote border crossing into Austria. This was
unmanned, although it won’t be on the event, and our PCR tests went
unchecked. Austria looked as immaculate as ever even on a gloomy
afternoon and another decent regularity on super smooth roads before
descending to the River Danube, which will be our frequent companion
for the next two weeks.

8. Recce Day 3
Very early on our third day the snow started to fall and didn’t really
stop. Minor roads were impossible so having found a charming co ee
stop in a mountain Gasthof we descended to the plain and entered
Hungary. Immediately over the border the appearance of the towns,
villages, farms, roads and people, was totally di erent from what we had
seen before. The town of Koszeg has a pretty square and we arranged
for the cars to be parked there while competitors have lunch in one of
the adjacent restaurants. Forest regularities and an intriguing gravel test
took us to Sumeg and our hotel.

9. Recce Day 4
We awoke to a cloudless blue sky and bitterly cold temperatures. The
previous afternoon we had visited a tremendous permanent race circuit
and tried to rent it for a test at the end of Day 9. This was impossible but
an agreement was reached to open Day 10 with it so we retraced our steps
a little to integrate it into the route. It promises to be a busy morning with
the circuit, a Rallycross track and a testing gravel regularity before a café
lunch overlooking Lake Balaton. After lunch we are in the Great Hungarian
Plain where, as expected, the countryside is at, and the roads are straight.
Just outside the city of Pecs, thanks to our friends in the local motor club,
we hope to have a short hill climb followed by a twisty, and wonderfully
hilly, regularity..

10. Recce Day 5
A short way out of town we found a long, twisty regularity before
going back down to the plain, where everything was shrouded in fog.
We stopped in Baja, again on the Danube. This city is known to Mark
Appleton and me as it was a stop on John Brown’s 1998 London to
Cape Town Rally. We stopped at our
original choice for the rally, the Novotel in Szeged, and by this time
snow was falling heavily, everything was shrouded in fog and the
maps were out to help stitch the new plan together.

11. Recce Day 6
From Szeged it was a short run to the border with Romania where
once we had our COVID vaccination certi cates scanned we were
quickly on our way. Our original plan was for the rally to do a test or
two near the city of Arad and then sleep in Timisoara. The latter city
turned out to be surrounded by miles of industrial warehouses and
having seen a decent looking hotel in Arad plans were changed yet
again.

12. Recce Day 7
Jim and I had two nights in Arad to let me catch up on route notes,
maps and future plans. We had got into Romania, which already felt
like a victory, and in the evening found a very pleasant pub attached
to a micro-brewery with decent food and no goulash to be seen.
Bliss!

13. Recce Day 8
Back in Arad, where the streets were treacherous with ice, we
searched for a city o cial to help arrange things in the area. I was sent
from o ce to o ce and saw levels of bureaucracy that I thought had
disappeared with the fall of communism. Finally, after 90 minutes of
queues and disinterested shrugs I found a charming multilingual
woman who worked directly for the mayor. After a tour of the rather
grand City Hall, we were o on our way through snow covered roads
happy in the knowledge
that Arad would work for us. The afternoon got better and better; a
tremendous, long section through a forest was followed by an amazing
hunting lodge in the middle of nowhere.

14. Recce Day 9
With everything under a thick covering of snow we headed o to cover the
end of Rally Day 12 in reverse before returning to make the road book
notes. The snow got increasingly deeper and just as we were considering
a U-turn we got stuck, and properly so. It was minus nine degrees and it
took a full hour before we nally got some traction from a wooden pole
wedged under the front right wheel. Finally free, we turned around,
contemplated a warming brandy, but decided the mountainous section of
Rally Day 13 could be explored. And what a section it was. The
Transalpina is Romania’s highest road, built by the military in 1938 and
opened to tra c in 2012, although for safety reasons it is still closed from
18h00 to 08h00 each night

15. Recce Day 10
Today we descended from the mountains and onto the plain heading for
the capital, Bucharest, but not before discovering some interesting back
roads and a couple of test venues. Our arrival in Bucharest was
surprisingly simple and the luxury of the JW Marriott hotel was much
appreciated
after some hard days on the road.

16. THANK YOU