There seems to be an undefined and rather hazy divide between a great adventure, too much danger and just a plain annoyance. So far, our adventure has the features of the last, but for some reason I prefer it to a sight of a loaded gun. That might be the reason why I choose Mongolia and not Syria as our destination.
The car was finished on Sunday and we tested it by driving it for about 80 km. Later on Hynek adjusted the timing and we were ready to start loading. Or, to use a bit more fitting term, we were ready to start overloading the car. If the experience of the endurance races taught me one thing, then it is that whatever you carry with you is never useful for anything and whatever you decide to leave behind (or forget at home) is the one critical part you will need the most. And so we loaded a lot of spare parts including a spare engine, half shafts, front main spring leaf etc. and yes, so far it worked. We are in Poland and did not need anything other than a starter. Which, of course, we do not have.
For a while I have been wondering how to describe our car. Yes, I could give you a technical specification, listing the horse power, the torque etc. But that might only interest my friends - the petrolheads. For the rest of you, here is a better way to do so - just think of a disheveled old man. The car whines a lot, does not want to climb the hills and if so then only slowly, the parts are deteriorating, and, of course, it does not smell too great. And it is grumpy at times. I also suspect that during the night it criticizes and badmouths us to the nearby cars.
So, as with any old man you need a lot of patience to deal with it. When it started to cough and it spit out a spark plug about two days ago, we gave it a new one. Then yesterday at a gas station it did not want to start. Was it a battery or a starter? Considering that the car had a new battery and a freshly rebuilt starter, we had to figure out which new part was rejected. Since it looked like the starter was the bad guy, we decided to drive on to Lithuania and fix it there. Oh, the memories of my youth! "Hi neighbor, could you give me a push? Yes, I did forget to park it up the hill. You know the handbrake isn't too useful either..."
And so it is as we grind our way through Poland with a splendid vision of a Mongolian ger 6,000 km away. But Poland? What can I say about Poland? There is the modern, western like bypass of Warszawa where the Audis and Mercedeses abound, but there are also the people with no Audis or Mercedeses in the places of closed down coal mines who sell the blackberries by the roadside. As it is, I guess, everywhere in the world, if you look away from the monuments and cheerful speeches of upcoming politicians (note that the daily allotment of one cliche was just exhausted).
For those of you who promised to donate to Mi Casa Esperanza based on km reached I want to let you know, that as I write this, we crossed the 1,100 km. Some people, as they pass our Trabi, honk and give us a thumb up. I think that it is for all of you who pledged some money for the Casa.