RtG Ypres-Istanbul Daily Dispatch - complete - web - Flipbook - Page 31
13 June to 3 July 2022
Day 15
Bucharest to Veliko Tarnovo (295.1 km)
28 June 2022
The sweeps were busy with various odd jobs and fettling,
including re-attaching Daniel and Barbara Wiedemann’s
exhaust that had broken free from its mountings. Russ
Smith soon had it secured with a length of chain. On the
other side of the car park, Andy Inskip and Charlie Neale
ingeniously fashioned a new lens for Jean Vincent and
Marcel Peumans’ Bentley… from ice cream packaging.
Bucolic Bulgarian back roads led us to a Passage Control
in the village of Tsar Asen. Damien Kirov and Victor
Plachkov, our Bulgarian fixers, were on clipboard duty with
a small crowd of enthusiastic rally fans. The route to the
night halt continued through beautiful, fertile, countryside
with fields of vivid sunflowers and vineyards stretching as
far as the eye could see.
Tonight we stay at Veliko Tarnovo, a fascinating town
encircled by the meandering River Yantra. Known as the “City
of the Tsars” it was the capital of the Second Bulgarian Empire,
until history took a turn and the Ottoman Empire moved in.
www.rallytheglobe.com
Text & photos: gerardbrown.co.uk
The route out of town took us past the huge, hubristic,
People’s Palace. Built by dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu in
the totalitarian, neoclassical style, it’s reputed to be the
heaviest building in the world. This edifice is home to the
now democratically elected parliament, although about
70% of it remains empty. The cost of heating and lighting is
said to exceed $6 million per year.
64km into the day, the crews checked into a Passage
Control for a quick coffee and comfort break before
climbing onto the huge Giurgiu-Ruse Friendship Bridge
over the Danube, marking the frontier with Bulgaria.
Checks and formalities were over swiftly and the crews
released to make their way to the Time Control in the
Seven Generations Winery. Here a fine lunch of Greek salad
followed by Moussaka had been laid on by the organisers.
With impressive views over the vineyards, down to the
river, and onwards to the horizon, this certainly was a TC
to remember.
Design: K-Design
Fully refreshed the rally swung into bustling Bucharest this morning to begin the last chapter of the
Ypres to Istanbul Challenge. Like a modern-day dawn chorus traffic police kept some sort of order with
shrill blasts on their whistles, over the noise of the engines, horns and clanking trams.