June 23rd: Dijon to Paris

It was a quiet day filled with anticipation. We woke up tired from our night of celebration, the last one with only the competitors - our now very close friends. The drive was short in distance, with only one passage control on the outskirts of the city, but it felt

June 22nd: Aix-les-Bains to Dijon

Giles and Guilhem wished us safe travels in the morning as we left the car park. We drove along the lake and out into the countryside. The views of the rolling green hills and old villages were spectacular. Our last regularity was the hardest one we’ve ever done with

June 21st: Genova to Aix-les-Bains

The morning was humid and hot as we made our way west to the base of the Italian alps. On our way we stopped at a go-kart track for a test. Just after the first turn my dad lost traction and we spun a full 360 degrees to return straight

June 20th: San Marino to Genova

We had had a race planned today on a course in San Marino but due to the rain it was cancelled. So instead of the circuit we made our way across winding, lush mountain roads to the checkpoints. We stopped at this remote restaurant with Tim, Floriane, Michael and Jonas

June 19th: Adriatic Sea to San Marino

It was a very lovely sleep on the ferry. We had an interior room so it was pitch black with the low rumbling of the diesel engine vibrating the room gently. We got coffees and sparkling water and enjoyed the foggy view from the deck. It was a very relaxed

June 18th: Thessaloniki to Igoumenitas

It was another sweltering day. We were happy to leave that foul smelling city and make our way into the hills surrounding Mt Olympus for our first regularity. It’s weird to think we’ve seen both Fuji and Olympus on this trip. The tight turns up the hills had

June 17th: Istanbul to Thessaloniki

We left the hotel at 5:30 am and enjoyed a beautiful sunrise over the empty highways leaving Istanbul. We got to the border at 8:30 and made friends with some Turkish people that were curious about our car. Ali and Elif helped us push it over 3km to

June 16th: Rest day in Istanbul

We spent our rest day actually resting. We met Bill from Retro Motorhead, a fellow canadian, and he interviewed us about the rally for his podcast. After that we walked around the Hagia Sophia and the waterfront nearby. We saw dolphins in the water and a group of kids jumping

June 15th: Ankara to Istanbul

Not too much to say about today. The Ankara hotel coffee was the best we’ve had the whole rally. We had a beautiful regularity along a sheer cliff face that we did amazing on. By the way I guess I forgot to mention, a regularity is a time controlled

June 14th: Sivas to Ankara

An aside We are finally caught up on our posts. It’s hard to find the time after a day of driving, fixing the car, showering and eating to get the events of the day down into words. I’ll try to be more diligent about updating everyday now that

June 13th: Erzerum to Sivas

The day started with a few friends rejoining us on the rally. Our friends Ali and Alican had arrived late the night before, catching up from Baku where they had some valve issues. Carl and his father Jan also made it to the hotel after they’re Ford De Luxe

June 12th: Tbilisi to Erzerum

We didn’t get much sleep last night. I had a late dinner at Shaurma Club that upset my stomach so I opted to skip breakfast. We were sad to leave Georgia also but the countryside we drove through was quite beautiful. I found this balcony railing decorated like lace

June 11th: Qakh to Tbilisi

We woke up very excited to see Georgia. After an hour of driving through more beautiful eastern Azerbaijanian countryside, we arrived at the border to find almost no one had gotten through yet. We made the most of the wait though, sitting in the shade and chatting. A few locals

June 10th: Baku to Qakh

We started the day off with a ceremony at the city center before departing westward. The weather was hot and the city drivers are aggressive. Once we made it to the countryside we saw a plume of black smoke on the road ahead. As we got closer we realized that

June 7-9

We had a few rest days while our car went across the Caspian so I figured I’d amalgamate these into one post. June 7th The next morning at the hotel Don, Jerome and I went swimming in the Caspian. We saw a snake swimming along but it didn’t

June 6th: Beyneu to Aktau

We woke up with a thick layer of dust on our faces. The camp had run out of clean water for drinking and washing but we had the vision of a clean hotel shower on the horizon. The route out of camp was so ridiculously dusty, we were fitted with

June 5th: Akespe to Beyneu

Once again we’ve had our hardest day yet. We started the day on gravel, getting passed by everyone who started later than us with more capable off-roading vehicles. The road was filled with washboard and potholes and the air was hot and dry. We limped through the whole day

June 4th: Kyzl-Orda to Akespe

The day started with a morning DJ set in the breakfast hall. Marc got up and danced with the wait staff while we enjoyed our meals. We were one of the last teams to leave for the MTC near the outskirts of town. While parked at a gas station there,

June 3rd: Shymkent to Kyzl-Orda

It was a damp morning leaving Shymkent for the sporting section. We took a long winding desert road with lots of camels and potholes to the track. The marshalls warned us about the camel spiders that were roaming around, some of them as big as your palm. We took off

June 2nd: Almaty to Shymkent

Today we drove over 700km, approximately 5% of the total distance of the rally. On a map we covered almost the entire length of Kyrgyzstan. We had one regularity that went great and a sporting section that went okay. Once we were back on pavement we drove west along the

June 1st: Almaty Rest Day

We split up for the beginning of the rest day. A friendly Russian guy named Timur delivered me some 10w-40 engine oil in plastic water bottle and I got to work changing it out. Our old oil was dark and dirty but it flowed out quick in the heat of

May 31: Horgos to Almaty

Our first border day was a drag. We woke up on Kazakh time 3 hours later than usual and spent the first 6 hours of the day crossing over. On the other side, the western world returned to us in a large wave of relief as we found a great

May 30th: Forest Park to Horgos

I woke up at 4:30 unable to return to sleep. The camp generator turned on that morning at 4:46. After laying in bed for a bit I got up to have a cup of coffee while my dad slept. In the dining tent I found Peter, our german

May 29th: Urumqi to Forest Park

We left our lovely executive suite in the Hilton to head out to the countryside once again. The rolling hills outside of Urumqi are the first time we’ve seen grass since leaving Canada. Our regularity went amazingly well as we managed to get through the herds of sheep and

May 28th: The Great Sea Road to Urumqi

We started to the day leaving the surprise hotel to head back out into the park. Neither of us ate much, just a few fruits, so we were hungry for a day of good driving. The undulating gravel road we set out upon did not satisfy that hunger and we