We drove twelve hundred miles just to go to Tesco

What a great day we’ve had. The weather has been perfect again and we spent the morning wandering around the old part of Salzburg. Great architecture and atmosphere – highly recommended for a visit.

Before leaving the campsite we checked, and then topped up, Bluebell 2’s oil and water. Not something either of us ever bothers to do back home, just wait for a warning light to come on or the annual service date. Even opening the bonnet reminds you of being young when ALL cars were crap and you never knew if they were going to start or not without tinkering with the points or the plugs. Had to put in half a litre of oil as it had gone down to the minimum so we’ve resolved to check it each day from now on. Before we left we were invited over for a coffee by a French couple with two young children, one of whom had ‘shot’ me with a bow and arrow the previous evening with no serious injuries being sustained! Their English was of course superb and in my attempts to thank them I demonstrated perfectly the futility of five years French language instruction at Watford Boys Grammar School. My French teachers would weep, as of course they did back then too.

The driving was easier today, lovely motorways with a bit less traffic and some great scenery. I don’t want to get too political but we both agreed that we have no idea why we have voted to leave the EU. It’s such a cool club to be in with beautiful countries, incredible levels of civic pride (hardly a piece of litter to be seen anywhere – think of our litter strewn highways) and kind and friendly people. I’m not ‘knocking’ Britain in any way because I think it has lots of positives (even the weather) and is a great place to live, but we can also learn a lot from our European neighbours about collective interest and working in partnership. What’s done is done and we have to make the best of it but I feel a little sheepish here when everyone is so kind in spite of having more or less been told that we in Britain don’t like what you stand for and don’t want to be a part of it for the sake of a few measly quid.

We bumped into two real heroes today at a petrol station just before we crossed the Austrian border into Turkey. ‘Will’ from England is driving a three wheeler open cockpit Berkeley, which he found growing in a cabbage patch about two months ago, and ‘Steve’ from the USA is riding a 50cc motorbike that I think is Chinese made.  They hadn’t met before the Mongol Rally but on discovering they both have a top speed of just over 50 mph have teamed up to travel in convoy. They are currently doing 13 hours a day behind the wheel or the handlebars just to keep up. Hats off to these guys, they are doing something really special.

It was whilst approaching the Hungarian border that we suddenly realised that we didn’t know if Hungary or Romania used the Euro or not. With no internet access at that point, we’re too tight to switch our data roaming on, we texted Andy’s wife to find out for us. So, in order to make this as educational as possible you now know that Hungary uses the Forint (though Euros are widely accepted) and Romania the Leu. Nothing like a bit of forward planning and ‘getting your ducks in a row’ — aaahh I hate that management speak — that’s why I’m on the Mongol for goodness sake.

We decided to give the Budapest party a miss, driving into big towns and trying to find a place to stay adds a lot of time at both ends of the day so we took a circular route to the south and drove on for another hour coming off the motorway on the outskirts of Kecskemet. And that was when we saw it, like an emerging mirage, the most wonderful and glorious sight to welcome two tired travellers at the end of a long day. The biggest bloody Tesco you’ve ever laid eyes on.

Off into Romania this morning and hoping to drive the Transfargaran Highway where Andy is hoping to replicate the naked picture of his son at the exact same spot taken six years ago during his Mongol Rally experience. I’ve put the wide angle lens on my camera in preparation and we can always Photoshop it later!

Cheers, Andy Coe