Grand Prix Rejects

Start: Motel Dragana, Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Finish: Nartel Hotel, Pristina, Kosovo
Countries: 16 - (UK, France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina), Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo
Total distance covered so far: 3 336 kilometres


In a great display of efficiency, we manage to reach a hotel in the capital of Kosovo just as the GPS alarms us that our daily driving limit is full. Going through Serbia actually saved us some time while also allowing us to add another country to our list.

Here are the details for my Leg 3.

After leaving Bludenz for Leg 3, we would spend most of the day travelling through the heart of the alps. First up was our first significant stretch of non motorway since Newcastle as we travelled through a seemingly endless series of tunnels towards Innsbruck where we turned south for Italy back on the motorways for a bit until just north of Bressanone. Back onto single road again we headed east back into Austria again surrounded by the mountains before joining the motorway network again to go past the cities of Villach and Klagenfurt before heading south for Slovenia at Graz. Just before Maribor we turned east again towards Hungary where we would spend all of about twenty minutes before turning back south into Croatia heading towards Zagreb and our first proper border crossing since the channel. Just outside the Croatian capital we would head east again for our final stretch of the day. Not quite having enough time to make our target town of Slavonski Brod we decided to settle for the Bosnian border town of Gradiska though we still went over the time limit by four minutes anyway meaning we would loose that time for tomorrow's leg.

Bludenz, Austria
(A)S16-(A)A12
Innsbruck
(A)A13-(I)A22-(I)SS49-(A)B100-(A)A10-(A)A2
Graz
(A)A9-(SLV)A1
Maribor
(SLV)A5-(H)M70-(H)M7-(HR)A4
Zagreb
(HR)A3-(HR)D5-(BH)M16
Gradiska, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Time 10 hr 4 min
Total Countries - 14 (UK, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Italy, Slovenia, Hungary, Croatia, Bosnia Herzegovina)

Leg 4 will be posted later today.

https://www.google.com.au/maps/dir/Jago ... 862331!3e0

Jagodina (Serbia) to Kesan (Turkey) in 10h 3min

Countries visited: UK, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Austria, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Macedonia, Kosovo, Greece, Turkey

Klon's Route, Day 4

Location: Karabash, Ukraine
Countries Visited: 2 (Moldova, Ukraine)

Leg 4
A rather slow day distance wise with only a few km of motorway on our route. Today we pressed on through the heart of Bosnia, the almost complete lack of motorways in Bosnia meant that we were forced to travel through the capital, Sarajevo. From there we headed further east to take in a small part of Serbia before heading south into Montenegro where we had to drive through another capital, Podgorica. The time lost meant that we failed to make our target city of Shkodra so again we settled for the Albanian town of Koplik.

Route
Gradiska, Bosnia and Herzegovina
(BH)M16-(BH)R414-(BH)R413-(BH)M5-(BH)A1
Sarajevo
(BH)M5-(BH)R449-(RS)115-(RS)23-(ME)M21-(ME)M2
Podgorica
(ME)M18-(AL)SH1
Koplik, Albania

Total Time 9hr 49min
Countries Visited - 17 - (UK, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Italy, Slovenia, Hungary, Croatia, Bosnia Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Albania)

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/dir/Gradi ... !3e0?hl=en

I'm not 100% sure Koplik is suitable for a stopover, if not then take my stop at Podgorica.

Samster wrote:I'm not 100% sure Koplik is suitable for a stopover, if not then take my stop at Podgorica.

Koplik is fine, there is at least one hotel right in the centre of the town, so you are good.

Day 4 - and I'm going north!



Starting in Germany, via Netherlands, and back through Germany, onto Denmark.

Total countries: UK, Eire, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Netherlands, (Germany again!), Denmark. (8)
Total distance: 3302 km/2051 miles

I predict that Baker is going to mysteriously dissapear somewhere around the Bermuda triangle.

Anyway, i've looked forward a few days. And i must say that on average not a single entrant has a significant advantage over me. That sound arrogant, but i am the team to beat!

This wrote:I predict that Baker is going to mysteriously disappear somewhere around the Bermuda triangle.

Ah yes, the Bermuda Triangle. It makes people disappear! If I stop entering this, you'll know what happened!

http://www.formularejects.com/imageupload/images/edinbeijing3.jpg

So, after another well-earned rest after a leg spent duelling the madmen populating the Italian road network, I set off again towards Sarajevo. And would you believe it: I encounter yet more random crap! This time, it appeared the ghost of... I guess Gavrilo Princip??? ... anyway, it was shooting at me, so I got the hell out of there and sped towards Turkey. Obviously the high concentration of Turks would repel any Serbian. Unfortunately, this meant I had to cross through Serbia, so I made a quick pitstop when the coast seemed clear to get a disguise, just in case this sort of thing happened again. It appeared to do the job, as I crossed Serbia without major incident, but I only just got inside the Bulgarian border when I was running quite short on time - the road signs said I was approaching the town of Dragoman. Obviously, with a name that awesome, I had to stay there. Not too far from the city of Sofia, either...

Leg 4

Start: Zenica, Bosnia
Finish: Dragoman, Bulgaria
Countries: 8 (UK, France, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Bulgaria)

Team Internazionale got lost navigating their way through Serbia. In the end, by some miracle, they found their way to Zagreb, and from there, caught a flight back to Western Europe.

Team Internazionale has withdrawn from the competition.

Biscione wrote:Team Internazionale got lost navigating their way through Serbia. In the end, by some miracle, they found their way to Zagreb, and from there, caught a flight back to Western Europe.

Team Internazionale has withdrawn from the competition.

Sorry to hear that.

World Map

Leg 4 has ended and there have been no major surprises this time, aside from Dr Baker giving Denmark a visit. In the Balkans, teams seem split between snaking through the former Yugoslavia or making a beeline for Istanbul and crossing into Asia. The Klon/Tommy duel has raged through Odessa, whilst Super Aguri has already blazed past Moscow!



Now begins leg 5. I have finally made it to Turkey and Istanbul, making sure to nip through Greece in the meantime. Our first taste of Asia has been a fairly good one and we soon find ourselves going around the capital, Ankara, I am beginning to feel confident about my route. However the first signs that the going will not be so easy have shown as inside the depths of Turkey hotels are fairly sparse, indeed I had to go slightly over 10 hours before finding one in Sereflikochisar, a small town located between Ankara and Aksaray.

Countries Visited: UK, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany, Austriam Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia Herzegovina, Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey.

Note, Google Map Engine only allows for 3 layers at a time, so the old map is archived and the live map is located at: https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit? ... Tj1JicTWyQ

Leg 5
Start: Kyustendil, Bulgaria
Finish: Hotel Duzce, Duzce, Turkey
Countries visited: UK, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Austria, Italy, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey
Distance travelled: 876km (total 4196km)
Time taken: 9h 51min (total 49h 39min)

Leg 5:

https://goo.gl/maps/IAEa0

Start Point: Hotel Perjanik -near Danilovgrad- (Montenegro); Finish; Nea Iraklitsa (Greece)
Time deployed: 9h 51m
Countries visited so far: 20 (UK, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Italy, San Marino, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary, Bosnia, Montenegro, Albania, Kosovo, Serbia, Macedonia, Greece)

Leg 5:

Everytime i calculate my route, trafic seems to be increasing. It's almost 3 AM, for heaven's sake! That kind of proves Romanians truly are vampires or werewolves. Thankfully it was no full moon, and when i saw a hitchhiker looking like Leslie Nielsen in the movie 'Dead And Loving It', i took no risk and drove as fast as i could towards Moldova. Oh wait, weren't Moldova the country O-zone were from? Now, looking for a hotel in Moldova isn't as easy... so finally i found a Pizzeria that thankfully has some rooms in Causeni. This gets me over time again, but tomorrows trip is going to be shorter. The good thing is that TommyKL and Klon are now forced to show their true intentions. They know that i can copy every single move they make, and beat them on count-back because of my bigger country list.



Start: Calafat, Romania
Finish: Causeni, Moldova
Countries passed (17): UK, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova.
Total distance covered: 4.552

It smells like fries. Seems I am being hunted by Belgians. Thankfully, I am already 23, around 10-15 years above the Belgian's average preference, so I don't have to fear being sexually assaulted.

Klon's Route, Day 5

Location: Gelendzhik, Russian Federation
Countries Visited: 1 (Russian Federation)

Leg 5
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/dir/Kopli ... !3e0?hl=en

Much better progress this time with more motorway on our route today. We continued south almost to Tirana to pick up the motorway into Kosovo, from there it was good progress through Macedonia before a slight detour to get in the southwestern corner of Bulgaria in before hitting Greece and pressing on towards Istanbul where we would find the city of Komotini for what should be our final night in Europe just as our maximum time was reached.

Route
Koplik, Albania
(AB)SH1-(AB)A1-(AB)SH5-(KS)R7
Prizren
(KS)R7-(KS)M25-(KS)M2-(MK)A4
Skopje
(MK)A2-(MK)A1-(MK)R1102-(MK)R1401
Strumitsa
(MK)A4-(BG)198-(BG)1-(GR)A25
Serres
(GR)EO12-(GR)EO59-(GR)A2
Komotini, Greece

Time - 10 hours exactly.
Countries - 21 (UK, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Italy, Slovenia, Hungary, Croatia, Bosnia Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Greece)

Day 5
http://goo.gl/maps/qop8w

Hotel Club Veles, Leont'yevo, Russia > Vyatka, Mamadysh, Russia
Countries Travelled - (UK, France, Belgium, Germany, Poland, Belarus) Russia
Time Taken 9h 50 Minutes (49h 14 minutes to date)
Distance - 761km (4,539 km to date)

Leave hotel and drive for 7 hours 17 down the E22 (M7) to cross the Volga river and dart around Kazan, then it just another soul less drive down the same E22 (M7) fir another 2 hours 21 minutes until I get to an unmarked mainly dirt road to my hotel which I arrive at 12 minutes later.

Thomas De Bock wrote:Edinburgh-Beijing Challenge - day 5: Odessa to Taganrog

Disappointment. That's what we were faced with this morning. We still expected to be behind the Germans, but we didn't expect them to find a city further outside Odessa. We now had to hope that our gamble would work and get us ahead of them, otherwise we would lose all our chances. We had to plan our next legs carefully and efficiently, though this would be extremely difficult due to the lack of hotels in the Caucasus. Once again, we set off at 9 am.

We immediately took what was left of the E58 and turned East, quickly passing Karabash, where the Germans were staying. We passed Mykolaiv, then Kherson a few minutes later, turning onto the E97 to go around the city, and turning back onto the E58 afterwards. It was about noon. At this point, we expected the Germans to be heading South towards Crimea and its ferry to Russia. But we would head East and take a gamble at a land route.

It was a straight-forward drive East, past Meritopol', Berdyans'k and Mariupol' before crossing the Russian border with about half an hour remaining. We wouldn't be able to reach Rostov-on-Don, so we had to settle for the first major Russian city on the way, Taganrog, and its Park-Hotel Milkon, a bit outside of the city centre. We reached the hotel with one minute remaining and clocked out. Things were getting serious.

Staying in the Park-Hotel Malikon, outskirts of Taganrog, Russia.
Route details: Chapaeva St., Odessa, Ukraine - Energeticheskaya St., Taganrog, Russia.
Countries visited: 13 (United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Moldova, Ukraine, Russia)
Total distance covered: 4 354 km

The small trip through Greece:


Start: Skopje
Finish: Istanbul

Countries Visited: (United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Macedonia), Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey

LEG 5

Start: HAVSA MESLEK YÜKSEK, Turkey
Finish: Abaylar Hotel, Aksaray, Turkey
Countries Visited: 15 (UK, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria Slovenia, Croatia Bosnia & Herzergovina, Serbia) Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey)

Total Distance Travelled: 2874 Miles
Total Time Travelled: 49 Hours 45 Minutes

Still in Turkey for this however, it is the last leg before we head to the more volatile regions of the Middle East

Leg three: Monaco to Banja Luka
Leg four:Banja luka to Athens
Leg five: Athens to batman
Leg six: batman to Baghdad

Leg 5

Start: Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Finish: Prizren, Kosovo
Countries visted: GBR, IRL, FRA, BEL, NED, GER, LUX, SUI, LIE, AUT, ITA, SLO, CRO, BIH, MNE, ALB, KOS

Progress is being made, slowly but surely

Day 5

Start: Luleburgaz, Turkey
Finish: Sorgun, Turkey
Countries: 12 (UK, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Austria, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Turkey)

Leg 5:
Start: Hotel Jehona, Luiq Gurakuqi, Kosovo
End: Istanbul, Turkey
Countries: 20 - (UK, France, Belgium, Luxemburg, Germany, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania, Kosovo) Serbia, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey

Had to do this in two parts as for some reason Google doesn't let you navigate from Kosovo direct into Serbia - hope that's ok?

First Pasta The Winning Post - Leg 5

Start: Hotel Ryleev, Kharkiv, Ukraine
Finish: Kalininsk, Russia
Countries: 9 - (UK, France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Belarus, Ukraine) Russia

Finally, we make it out of Ukraine. And into the barren wasteland that is intercity Russia.

Start: Nartel Hotel, Pristina, Kosovo
Finish: Legend Hotel Tem, Silivri, Turkey
Countries: 20 - (UK, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo), FYR of Macedonia, Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey
Total distance covered so far: 4 150 kilometres



Like many others going through this route, we take advantage of the good roads in the very northeastern Greece to add another country on our list. By going slightly overtime we can lodge in a hotel that's right next to the O-3 expressway, thus saving us time on the next leg.

AustralianStig wrote:
Had to do this in two parts as for some reason Google doesn't let you navigate from Kosovo direct into Serbia - hope that's ok?

The border crossing there is a bit tricky as Serbia does not recognise Kosovo, but for disputed countries/borders you have followed the rules perfectly, so the route is valid.

Leg 5

Start: Babaeski, Turkey
Finish: Sorgun, Turkey
Countries: 14 (UK, France, Belgium, Luxemburg, Germany, Austria, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey)



We start the day by heading straight for Istanbul and waving goodbye to europe (and it's nice good roads) and head into Asia. Not much more happens as we skirt Ankara and just make it to Sorgun before time is up.

I'm staying in Turkey for the full day, but leaving Europe and arriving in Asia.

Kesan to Gümüshaciköy in 9h 59min

https://www.google.com.au/maps/dir/2288 ... 31!1m0!3e0

Leg 5 from me!

https://goo.gl/maps/aKBP1

Fairly straightforward like most others, mashing through the first half of Turkey, past Istanbul and round Ankarra, making as much use of the motorways as possible. The journey slows on the south side of Ankarra, and my stop overnight is at the Grand Saatcioglu Hotel in Aksaray.

Edirne - Aksaray in 9 hours 49 mins, a distance of 565 miles (Total: 2700 miles exactly!)
Countries visited so far: 15 - UK, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Lichtenstein, Austria, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey

Day 5 - From Denmark, briefly into Sweden, before realising that going through a peninsular might not be the best option, so headed back towards a more logical route.



No more odd detours or random countries. Just as straight and as direct to Beijing as I believe possible!

Start: Petrovets, Macedonia
Finish: Sultanbeyli, Turkey
Countries visited: (UK, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Germany, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Macedonia), Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey
Route

We started the day heading south through Macedonia towards Greece, making a slight detour into Bulgaria for no other reason apart from ticking off another country. Once in Greece, it was a fairly easy drive east into Turkey, just clearing Istanbul as the time limit for the day was reached.

dr-baker wrote:Day 5 - From Denmark, briefly into Sweden, before realising that going through a peninsular might not be the best option, so headed back towards a more logical route.



No more odd detours or random countries. Just as straight and as direct to Beijing as I believe possible!

You know, if you headed trough scandinavia right from the start, you would be able to give SuperAguri a challenge... *adding salt on your wounds*

http://www.formularejects.com/imageupload/images/edinbeijing4.jpg

No major dramas this time, just focusing on hauling ass towards Turkey. I thought about taking a detour to see how the Byzantine Emp-- gah, I mean, how Greece is doing, but my allergy to Romanophiles meant I figured I was better off not bothering. That in mind, it sure is a good thing for me that Istanbul is Istanbul and not Constantinople anymore. I kept driving through Turkey until I reached the large-ish town of Gerede, which seemed as good a place as any for me to stop.

Leg 5

Start: Dragoman, Bulgaria
Finish: Gerede, Turkey
Countries: 9 (UK, France, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Turkey)

Day 4
http://goo.gl/maps/aU19Z
Koprivnica, Croatia > Loznica, Serbia
Time Taken - 9 hours and 32 minutes
Distance - 580 kilometres
Countries visted (13) - UK (Scotland, England), France, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany, Italy, Austria, Slovenia, CroatiaHungary, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Notes -

Leg 6:

https://goo.gl/maps/z1GxP

Start: Nea Iraklitsa (Greece)
End: Slobozia (Romania)
Time deployed: 9h 52m

COUNTRIES VISITED SO FAR: 23 (UK, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Italy, San Marino, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary, Bosnia, Montenegro, Albania, Kosovo, Serbia, Macedonia, Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania)

End of leg 5.

Teams are spreading over Turkey, with 2 in Sorgun, 3 around Aksaray, 1 north near Merzifon and a whole flock of teams either just past or in Istanbul.
The tommykl, klon battle has split, with Tommy going north and Klon heading south.

Meanwhile in Russia, Andrew and Super Aguri have both reached the Volga river, but both of whom are many hundreds of KM's apart!

Towards the back of the pack, we have the teams that are more concerned with collecting passport stamps, hoping to score high on that leaderboard for a good overall position. This has darted from Polandto balkans and is now heading north again, Lappy is still roving around Kosovo and Dr Baker dipped into Sweden before abandoning Scandanavia altogther and making haste to Poland.

https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit? ... Tj1JicTWyQ

Interesting! I expected a few more people to turn south in Turkey, as the Caucasus is a nightmare with the border crossings.

Onto my leg 6 then, and time to make some progress on those southern Turkish motorways!

https://goo.gl/maps/WeV2b

So from my hotel in Aksaray it's south down towards Tarsus, where I pick up the motorway and run past Adana and Gaziantep, to its end north of Urfa. From there it's back to the bog standard D400 to Kiziltepe and the Hotel Oztopraklar. I wind up 30 minutes short of the 10 hours, but the border town of Nusaybin is another half an hour past the 10 hour limit so just a bit too far out of reach. No matter! Syria can wait until tomorrow!

Aksaray - Kiziltepe in 9 hours 29 minutes, a distance of 489 miles - those distances are getting shorter! (Total: 3189 miles)
Countries visited so far: 15 - UK, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Lichtenstein, Austria, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey

Two whole days in Turkey then, but tomorrow I'll get to rack up a few more across the Middle East!

Klon's Route, Day 6

Location: Samtredia, Georgia
Countries Visited: 1 (Georgia)