Miles Driven: 317
Time in Car: 6 hours
Borders Crossed: 1
At six hours, today was our longest drive yet, but our daily average once the rally officially starts will be closer to eight. While today was easy and seemed to fly by, it’s a good reminder that we have some truly grueling days ahead of us. Luckily we have three able drivers, and hopefully a fourth on the way (practice Dan!), to share the burden. As we drove from Baden Baden and the Black Forest into the Alps, we really tested Stevie’s abilities, and well, let’s just say we won’t be doing much passing while headed up hill. Our trusty steed made it though, leaving us feeling more confident in her abilities.
Today also marked our first pivot from our planned itinerary. Yesterday we blogged that we were onto Freiburg; that was a fake announcement. While Freiburg im Breisgau would have been awesome, we decided to skip it and we chose to power through directly to Schönau im Königssee as we think that we would enjoy the extra day in the Alps. In addition to the infamous Eagles Nest, we are looking forward to the various hikes and views the area has to offer. Not sure how great of phone service we will have as we explore the first of the four major mountain ranges on our journey.
Last but not least, we were pulled over for the first time by police this afternoon in an unmarked BMW. It was just a random check but I bet the 100 stickers plastering our car may have tipped them off. All they wanted was to check our documents and ask if we were carrying any drugs, the latter of which we responded to with a “no”. After a few minutes, they asked where we were heading and upon hearing Mongolia, they let out a chuckle. More laughs came when they learned our Skoda was only 2wd. This type of reaction is par for the course although usually we get a few more WTF’s to go along with head shaking in disbelief. As we drove off, we laughed about the pullover knowing that it was likely the most painless cop run-in we will have all trip. From Turkey eastward there won’t be laughing, friendly cops; only incomprehensible demands for money which hopefully we can avoid by feigning dumb or handing them a box of Marlboro Reds. Until next time. - FWY
View from our campground for the next few days.