Grand Prix Rejects

Leg 6
Start: Hotel Duzce, Duzce, Turkey
Finish: Sahin Hotel, Osmaniye, Turkey
Countries visited: UK, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Austria, Italy, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey
Distance travelled: 809km (total 5005km)
Time taken: 9h 48min (total 59h 27min)

Leg 6
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/dir/Komot ... !3e0?hl=en

Fairly strait forward today as we have little to do but push on east through Turkey, though today we would have to make the decision to take the north route and collect all the Caucasians or head south and collect Syria and Iraq before heading through Iran. We eventually settled on the north route as it was shorter and more direct on paper though the roads seem to be a little slower at least through Turkey. So we turned off the motorway before Ankara and headed towards Samsun and the Black Sea coast, our last significant stretch of motorway until we hit China. The tough part begins here. We eventually got as far as the town of Tosya, ending our stint 40 minutes early due to the lack of major towns in this part of Turkey.

Route
Komotini, Greece
(GR)A2-(TK)D110-(TK)O3
Istanbul
(TK)O4-(TK)D100
Tosya, Turkey

Time - 9 hr 20 min
Countries - 22 (UK, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Italy, Slovenia, Hungary, Croatia, Bosnia Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey)

Leg 6:
We started in Moldova, totally stuffed with the Pizza, crossed the glorious nation of Transnistria (but that doesn't count), to drive trough Ukraine. And what better place to spend the night than on the Crimea peninsula? With all other troubled zones like Abkhazia, South-Ossetia, Nagorno-Karabach (is that spelled right?) and Chechnya around, this is defenitely the place to go! Meanwhile i crossed the 5000 KM mark. And because so far i avoided any serious mountain ranges like the Alps, Balkan, Carpathians,Taurus and the Kilimanjaro, my ride is one of the most fuel-efficient in the game.
It looks like Klon had a similar route in mind, but i promise you that i had this route in mind before i decided to follow him. I'm sure eventually he's going to do something slightly different than i planned, right?



Start: Causeni, Moldova
Finish: Feodosiya, Ukraine
Countries passed (18): UK, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova, Ukraine.
Total distance covered: 5.208.

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

Actually there is a good border crossing somewhere.
Also, from the patterns that seem to occur, i see that there is one specific member who's onto a really good route, i'll keep my eyes on him.

Day 6
http://goo.gl/maps/GNq6h
http://goo.gl/maps/PWUHz

Due to an issue with driving down the M7 crossing from the Russian republic of Tatarstan to the Russian republic of Bashkortostan, my route is slit into two.

Vyatka, Mamadysh, Russia > Bystray, Sargazy, Russia

Countries Travelled - (UK, France, Belgium, Germany, Poland, Belarus) Russia
Time Taken 9h 59 Minutes (59h 13 minutes to date)
Distance - 789km (5,328 km to date)

Leave hotel, drive down dirt road and rejoin the E22 (M7) cross the Vykata rive and pass through Naberezhnye Chelny crossing the Kama river. More driving down the E22 (M7), 4 hours and 37 minutes I take a bypass that will skip me pass Ufa, 20 minutes later I join the E30 (M5) and continue on my journey. for the 5 hours until I pass the village of Sargazy and visit Bystray sports club before walking to my hotel.

Leg 6

Start: Prizren, Kosovo
Finish: Silivri, Turkey
Countries visited: GBR, IRL, FRA, BEL, NED, GER, LUX, SUI, LIE, AUT, ITA, SLO, CRO, BIH, MNE, ALB, KOS, MKD, GRE, TUR

My original route also went through Serbia and Bulgaria, but I figured I can save a day further down the track by giving them up.

LEG 6

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

Total Distance Travelled: 3373 Miles
Total Time Travelled: 59 Hours 32 Minutes

I still remain in turkey but this time i end up close to the Syrian Border, ready to push into the middle east

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

https://www.google.com.au/maps/dir/Has+ ... 226614!3e0

My route today, deciding that Syria isn't the best of places to go hotel hunting, I decided to stay in Southern Turkey. The small town of Viransehir will be my hosts for the night.

Leggy blonde 6:
Start: Istanbul, Turkey
End: Kilic Hotel, Carsamba Merkez/Samsun, Turkey
Countries: 20 - (UK, France, Belgium, Luxemburg, Germany, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania, Kosovo, Serbia, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey)

Start: Legend Hotel Tem, Silivri, Turkey
Finish: Samsun, 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: 4 948 kilometres


Due to the vast size of Turkey, Day 6 becomes the first day when we don't cross the border of any country. Instead, we use all the time at our disposal to reach the city of Samsun on the northern coast of Turkey, in anticipation of a Caucasus tour.

Thomas De Bock wrote:Edinburgh-Beijing Challenge - day 6: Taganrog to Nalchik

Today was the first day to really matter. We were heading towards the Caucasus, the only team to do so from the mainland and not Crimea. By land, we were further away, but we were relying on better roads in the centre to take us through the mountains. There was also the fact that we couldn't find a suitable hotel roughly ten hours away, and we would have to stop after just nine hours.

We left Taganrog at the usual 9 am. We took the M23 East towards Rostov-on-Don, went around the city, and then turned South towards the Caucasus on the E50. The trip was uneventful at best. The landscape was barren, the cities soulless. One of them was even called Mineral Water. The E50 stopped around halfway, but continued on as the M29. At around 6 pm, we arrived in our planned stop at Nalchik. We knew beforehand that Vladikavkaz was out of reach and that there were no hotels between the two cities.

We stopped at the Russia hotel (or Gostinitsa Rossiya) knowing that the Germans would have taken an even larger lead, but again, we were confident of our route through the Caucasus itself, which we would reach the next day.

Staying in the Gostinitsa Rossiya, Nalchik, Russia.
Route details: Energeticheskaya St., Taganrog, Russia - Prospekt Lenina, Nalchik, Russia.
Countries visited: 13 (United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Moldova, Ukraine, Russia)
Total distance covered: 5 019 km

Shadaza, there's two This on your leg5 map. While i know that many of you like the idea of twice the pleasure, i prefer being on leg 6, actually.

First Pasta The Winning Post - Leg 6

Start: Kalininsk, Russia
Finish: Uralsk, Kazakhstan
Countries: 10 - (UK, France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Russia) Kazakhstan

Very nice!

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



So it's Turkey, day 2. The most boring leg so far for us as we spent the entire day on the E88. But, progress was made and hopefully we can finally leave Turkey behind tomorrow.

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

Spent the entire day in Turkey, initially heading east before turning south towards Ankara and beyond, reaching a tiny hamlet where we decided to stop for the day. With no hotels anywhere nearby, we settled down for a kip in the car. However, slap bang in the middle of the night, we awoke in a cold sweat. The realisation that almost certain death would await us tomorrow is unpleasant, to say the least...

OK, so I have just worked out my route for the next few days and I am three to four days behind Pasta. So here's my day 6 route:



Hmm, I wonder which way I'll be going tomorrow? But it will be 9 hours 40, to make up for being over the limit today.

EDIT: Now up to 10 countries:

UK (Scotland, NI),
Eire,
France,
Belgium,
Luxembourg,
Germany,
Denmark,
Sweden,
Poland,
Lithuania

Unlikely to match the 15+ countries that some are up to, and I am days behind some others. Still, nothing to lose!

http://formularejects.com/imageupload/images/edinbeijing5.jpg

Unforuntately, the traffic in Turkey is crap - not Italy crap, no, that would be interesting. Instead, it was just sort of annoyingly in the way, causing me to lose about an hour and a half and stop in the town of Hatay, Izmir (not the district in the city of Izmir, this is an actual town that goes by that name because... reasons). In the mean time, I bet you guys can't guess where I'm going next!

Leg 6

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

https://www.google.com.au/maps/dir/0570 ... 39.9219469

Another day in Turkey, Gümüshaciköy to Askale in 9h 29min.

Day 5
http://goo.gl/maps/LQMvH
Loznica, Serbia > Haskovo, Bulgaria
Time Taken - 9 hours and 57 minutes
Distance - 765 kilometres
Countries visted (14) - UK (Scotland, England), France, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany, Italy, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria
Notes - Only one country border today [/quote]

And on to Leg 7:

https://goo.gl/maps/brRUa

Start Point: Slobozia (Romania)
End Point: Nova Kakhovka (Ukraine)
Time deployed: 9h 55m
Countries visited so far: 25 (UK, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Italy, San Marino, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary, Bosnia, Montenegro, Albania, Kosovo, Serbia, Macedonia, Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova, Ukraine)

Klon's Route, Day 7

Location: Naxcivan, Azerbaijan
Countries Visited: 4 (Armenia, Turkey, Iran, Azerbaijan)

Right then, let's crack on!

https://goo.gl/maps/VZkmN

Stage 7 for me adds three new countries to the tally - I quickly cross the Turkish border into northern Syria, and take the main road into Iraq towards Mosul. From there, it's a more convoluted route across northern Iraq, and across the border into Iran. Passing through a series of smaller towns, I can't quite reach the motorway to Tehran in the 10 hour limit so set up shop in the Hotel Darya in Maragheh.

Kiziltepe (Turkey) to Maragheh (Iran) in 9 hours 29 minutes, a distance of 425 miles (Total: 3614 miles)
Countries visited so far: 18 - UK, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Lichtenstein, Austria, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Iran

Leg 7
Start: Sahin Hotel, Osmaniye, Turkey
Finish: Ninavah International Hotel, Mosul, Iraq
Countries visited: UK, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Austria, Italy, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey, Syria, Iraq
Distance travelled: 712km (total 5717km)
Time taken: 9h 26min (total 68h 53min)

Leg 7:
Really nothing surprising. Starting the day in Crimea, taking a boat for the first time, to officially enter Russia. After exactly 10 hours of driving along the coast of the Black sea, we finished the day in Adlerskiy, just in front of the Abkhazian/Georgian border. Not adding much to the country count or the km count either, and having one rather mountainous day ahead, things are looking more difficult, so no silly things anymore. Like mistakingly trying to go to Zadar instead of Zagreb
Feeling Aerond breathing down my neck is not comforting either, but i got to admit he's got that one played very well. I'm also curious to see what the people in the North of Turkey are going to do. But then, anything can happen, and even Dr. Baker can mathematically still win this.



Start: Feodosiya, Ukraine
Finish: Adlerskiy, Russia
Countries passed (19): UK, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova, Ukraine, Russia.
Total distance covered: 5.772

@Shadaza: already counting forward, on my route in China somewhere, i will encounter a whole 25 hours without finding an hotel on google earth (and i'm not going to search every small village). Is it allowed to take two rest days in that case?

Day 6
http://goo.gl/maps/0NGQO
Haskovo, Bulgaria > Akpinar, Turkey
Time Taken - 9 hours and 53 minutes
Distance - 928 kilometres
Countries visted (16) - UK (Scotland, England), France, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany, Italy, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey
Notes - I enter Greece for a little bit before heading into Turkey. I had now reached Asia.

Leg 7

Start: Silivri, Turkey
Finish: Samsun, Turkey
Countries visited: GBR, IRL, FRA, BEL, NED, GER, LUX, SUI, LIE, AUT, ITA, SLO, CRO, BIH, MNE, ALB, KOS, MKD, GRE, TUR
Running slightly late, but it shouldn't be a problem for tomorrow.

Day 7
http://goo.gl/maps/PfzQj
http://goo.gl/maps/dDMsZ

Due to an issue with driving through Kazazhstan to enter Russia again, my route is split again.

Bystray, Sargazy, Russia > Megapolis, Omsk, Russia

Countries Travelled - (UK, France, Belgium, Germany, Poland, Belarus) Russia, Kazazhstan
Time Taken 10h (69h 13 minutes to date)
Distance - 822km (6,150 km to date)

Leave hotel, drive through Chelyabinsk and turn off, although still on the E30 I am on the M51, 3 hr 30 minutes after leaving I past the town Kurgan which in the funny named Kurgan Oblast district, I will say Oblast at least 4 times on my journey. At 5 hours 22 munutes I come to a minor road that would take me around Kazazhstan and keep in Russia, however this would add nearly 3 hours to my journey so I take the decision to drive through it. 6 Hours and 13 minutes I am at the Kazazhstan border and still on the E30 (M51 and AH6) 34 minutes later I am approaching the town of Petropavlovsk and I have to keep my wits and the E30 turns into various sharp turns and a local road helps me skip going around another complex route. 11 minutes and 8kms later I am out of the town and back to a easy straight road. 8 Hours and 6 minutes after I started I am back at the Russian border. An hour and a half later I am at a junction where the M51 splits into two, one takes me to Omsk and 21 minutes later I am in Omsk. The road turns into Dekabyra and exactly 10 hours after I leave I am at my hotel.

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

LEG 7

Start: Hilton Garden inn, Turkey
Finish: Izadi Hotel Bukan, Iran
Countries Visited:18 (UK, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria Slovenia, Croatia Bosnia & Herzergovina, Serbia) Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey) Syria, Iraq, iran

Total Distance Travelled: 3807 Miles
Total Time Travelled: 69 Hours 16 Minutes

A Week after starting in Edinburgh we push into Syria, before heading into northern iraq not wanting to stop in such a volatile area we push into the safety of iran, stopping 15 minutes short of the 10 hour limit in the city of Bukan.

Thomas De Bock wrote:Edinurgh-Beijing Challenge - day 7: Nalchik to Yerevan

Frustration. That was the main word. We could only drive for eight hours today. Naxcivan was too far, and we had to stop in Yerevan, sure that the Germans would be too far ahead. We had to hope that they wouldn't find enough hotels to stay ahead until China. In the meantime, all we could do was keep on driving to our stops. We left the Russian town of Nalchik at the usual 9 am.

We casually strolled through Vladikavkaz and headed South towards the Georgian border, setting our clocks ahead an hour. The Georgian mountain roads were calm and scenic, but our disappointment prevented us from enjoying the landscape of the Caucasus. Tbilisi was a complete blur as we sped further South towards Armenia. The roads here snaked around the country, but we eventually reached the outskirts of Yerevan at just past 6 pm local time, after about eight hours of driving, unable to find a hotel any further without passing the limit. Sorely disappointed.

Staying in the Hotel KA-EL, outskirts of Yerevan, Armenia.
Route details: Prospekt Lenina, Nalchik, Russia - Mayraqaghaqayin Avenue, Yerevan, Armenia.
Countries visited: 15 (United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Moldova, Ukraine, Russia, Georgia, Armenia)
Total distance covered: 5 609 km

Leg 6 report: The race seems to be evolving into local duels. Pasta Maldonado and Andrew had been squabbling over position as far back as leg 2, went their separate ways and now find themselves both in Uraslk, Kazakhstan. There are 3 teams clumped together in north Turkey, 2 in the middle and 3 in the south, as teams have split across Turkey's cross country highway network. With half a dozen teams behind now committing their choices as to which way to go. This and Aerond are running a counter strategy and seem more content with zig-zagging across multiple countries. Whilst in bakerworld, the good dr has added Lithuania to his list of countries only he has visited.

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



Leg 7. By far the most dangerous in terms of peril as today I plan on crossing into both northern Syria and IS held Iraq. Keeping my head down I barrelled straight through reaching the relative safe haven of Iran and the City of Urmia, with a great view of the lake.

Countries Passed Through: UK, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia Herzegovina, Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey Syria, Iraq, Iran . 20

Askale to Tabriz (Iran) in 9h 40min

https://www.google.de/maps/dir/A%C5%9Fk ... !3e0?hl=de

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

Leg 7:
Start: Kilic Hotel, Carsamba Merkez/Samsun, Turkey
End: Hotel Enjoy, Artvin, Turkey
Countries: 20 - (UK, France, Belgium, Luxemburg, Germany, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania, Kosovo, Serbia, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey)

Another full day in Turkey, but it sets me up nicely for a fairly direct run through Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan etc.

Leg 7

Start: Erzurum, Turkey
Finish: Bostan Abad, Iran
Countries: 16 (UK, France, Belgium, Luxemburg, Germany, Austria, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-H, Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey) Iran, Azerbaijan



Well, we are finally out of Turkey, crossing the border into Iran and then heading for Nakhchivan (which, according to Wikipedia is part of Azerbaijan). After finding no decent roads into Armenia we decide two new countries is enough for today and head south, back into Iran and make it to Hotel PARK in Bostan Abad.

First Pasta The Winning Post - Leg 7

Start: Uralsk, Kazakhstan
Finish: Karabutak, Kazakhstan
Countries: 10 - (UK, France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan)

Who knew Kazakhstan would be so.... boring?

Well once again I find myself without access to anything that can handle google maps so I might have to wait and post my next two legs together.

This wrote: But then, anything can happen, and even Dr. Baker can mathematically still win this.

Yeah, technically. But we all secretly know that that just ain't gonna happen, don't we? Going via Ireland and taking a day to end up in north-west France at the end of day two, while others got to France and beyond at the end of day 1 counted against me early on, I reckon...

Shadaza wrote: Whilst in bakerworld, the good dr has added Lithuania to his list of countries only he has visited.

And today, that list will only get longer. And I am also the only person who never went via England at all!



List of countries now visited:

UK (Scotland, NI),
Eire,
France,
Belgium,
Luxembourg,
Germany,
Denmark,
Sweden,
Poland,
Lithuania
Latvia
just skimmed through Estonia
Russia

Total distance = 5735 km/3564 miles

...And Russia is where I shall stay for several days now.

dr-baker wrote:

This wrote: But then, anything can happen, and even Dr. Baker can mathematically still win this.

Yeah, technically. But we all secretly know that that just ain't gonna happen, don't we? Going via Ireland and taking a day to end up in north-west France at the end of day two, while others got to France and beyond at the end of day 1 counted against me early on, I reckon...

The irony is... your country count is - depite the uniqueness - quite low, too...
But you never know, maybe SuperAguri plans to do a tour in Korea, and you can catch up somehow...
And good news: Google maps actually allows you to spend the night in the Ryugyong hotel in Pyongyang! (altough it's far from finished and totally unsafe, i know some of you won't be able to resist!)