Friday 22nd July
Arising after a glorious sleep from what felt like a bed of clouds,
we set off for the famous Romanian Transfagasaran Highway. Upon ascending the
winding roads of the highway we were met with utterly breath taking views of
central Romania. Babbling brooks, crashing waterfalls and goats with huge balls
of steel also added to the stunning experience of the drive. After a few
romantic “staring out into the abyss looking pensive” shots we started to
descend not only in altitude but into a mild panic about the car.
A sickening
stench smelling suspiciously of a burning clutch began to fill the car. At
first we brushed it off, “it must be the car in front” we said, “marigold is
made of sterner stuff than this”. But it quickly dawned on us that our fairy
tale golden car was in fact crying out for attention. Experienced mechanics
Alford and Murray diagnosed the problem as being overheating on the brakes and
were quick to point the finger at Horton for coasting downhill for too long in
neutral. Because that can burn the clutch apparently?! Needless to say, strike
issued.
It proved to be a calamitous day for Rich whose strikes didn’t stop
there. Inexcusable bread bag littering, discovering he’d left the MacBook
charger at home and losing the convoy because he left sun cream on the roof of
the car put him on level terms with Alf in the space of a few hours. Caleb
wasn’t exempt either, another misconduct ruling on the horn left him red faced.
After failing miserably to complete a full cycle of the tune, the subsequent
stone silence was only broken by the squeak of a sharpie drawing a big fat line
on his strike tally.
Whilst on the highway we met up with two other teams from Bath, Two
and a Half Men (Guy, Will and Callum) and Team Thunderbirds (Isaac, Alex and
their token stowaway Yas). We then convoyed on with them to the coastal city of
Constanta for the organised beach party. To pass the time many a game of
“animal, vegetable, mineral” was played in which you basically think up
anything in the universe, decide which category it fits most and give the other
two 20 questions to guess it. Whilst veteran player Alf tried and failed to
fluster us with Tutankhamen, rookie player Caleb decided a power station was a
mineral with a bit of vegetable. Yeah…. vegetable. Another one for the dubious
strikes panel, this time Terry ruled in his favour. Obviously ruffled by the
affair, Caleb decided to relieve himself in the middle of the road in one of
the many long traffic jams we were stuck in that day. Never have I seen such abrupt
kegel muscle control as when two female ralliers from another team approached
the side of our car.
By nightfall we made it to the beach party and for the first time on
the trip felt like we had caught up with our fellow ralliers. The party turned
out to be everything we had hoped for, cheap beer, great music and a refreshing
dip in the sea. Watching the sunrise from the beach was a definite highlight up
until that point.
Posted by: Rich
