6 become 4

So i havent updated this for a while things have been hectic.

Ok so i think i left you all in Hamburg, since then we have travelled on to denmark, the drive was long and tedious, when we arrived we got fuel then turned straight around to drive back through germany, sadly as we left late it was decided that we wouldnt be able to manage the scandinavian countries so we headed to berlin.

We arrived in berlin at around 12am, at this point i think all were pretty ratty, and very tired so we tried to find somewhere to stay... emphasis on tried.

3 of our party decided they would stay in a hostel while 3 of us slept in the bus, the following morning we woke up again pretty early and headed across berlin to go get the others.

We arrived at the hostel and got the guys, when we arrived we all decided it was time for a chat, 2 of the party had had thoughts through the night and sadly had decided they would prefer to leave the trip and get a train through to prague so we dropped them off at the main station in berlin and waved them off.

We then had to reconsider our trip, sadly with the loss of 2 people we realised that we could no longer afford to do the full trip in the allocated time.

Each member of the party were paying £200 for fuel, we had calculated that with 6 people we could manage all 30 countries, sadly being £400 down we can longer achieve this, so we pondered the idea do we turn around and head home?

We had already driven so far and achieved a good few countries, or do we carry on?

From the outset this trip had been planned to allow us to see 30 countries in 30 days, if we were to have been setting off early and not having any problems on the way we would have been able to spend some time in each country and be able to see the sights and sounds, again sadly this hadnt been the case. Instead we had been setting off usually at 1pm, then having to sort out "problems" then carrying on to the next country, trying to find some sort of accomodation for a couple of the guys then starting the same the following day.

So the 4 of us have made the decission, we decided to stay in berlin a 2nd night and see the sights, it was as though a massive weight had been lifted from our shoulders, i think all have now relaxed and are starting to enjoy the trip.

In berlin we went to see the berlin wall, the brandenberg gate, the holocaust memorial and then we decided it was time to get some fantastic cold german beers :)

We took these back to the camp site we had found during the day and sat, relaxed and planned our next day.

The following day we woke up fresh as a daisy, and headed east toward krakow poland.

Tom had previously visted Krakow with a school trip and had recommended it so we made the journey. The second we crossed the polish border the roads turned horrendous, this carried on for what seemed like hours, i think the road finally turned good after about 50 miles.

We then hit the motorway, now in poland although the roads arent really the best the speed limit seems to be crazy, everyone seemed to drive so damn fast, or maybe this was because our bus was so slow, who knows.

So after hitting the motorway tez turned to me and said the battery light was on ?!?!

So we turned off at the next turn into far smaller road, parked up and i got to work, upon opening the bonnet i immediately noticed the inverter was no longer attached and neither was the fan belt..... ARGH!!!! this had been fixed in belgium, we had paid 100€ for this?!?!? The altenator had been re attached using new pins, and a new belt had been installed.

The engine was popping and cracking the water level was at 0 everything was burning hot. 

So i grabbed my boiler suit, trust me those that know me  would think James? mechanic? what the??? 

I took out the trusty tool box and set to work, i had been talked through the alternator before we had set off, i had replaced the pin before we set off, so i kinda knew what i had to do.

Although i didnt have any spare parts. We were in the middle of nowhere and none of us could speak a word of polish.

So i managed to make a pin to hold the alternator in place, i manage to bolt it on at all the required positions i then replaced the fan belt with the old one that i had been given back in belgium.

After about 45 minutes we were back on the road, I had saved the day lol for now!!!

40 minutes later the inverter in the bus started beeping??? but the alternator was charging? what now?

Again we pulled over, this time on the hard shoulder of the polish motorway... the second i stepped out it was a scarey experience, the cars travelling so fast so we put out the warning triangle and donned our reflective vests :)

We really did look the part, again i popped the bonnet to find the bloody pin i had just fit had snapped, it was still in place and it was still secure but the fan belt needed tightened, so i tightened that then slid under the bus to check what was now needing replaced, while under the bus i checked the only visible part of the drive belt, there was a 1 inch tear in it ARGHHH!!!!

This is major, if the drive belt was to snap or fail we could loose the engine, instantly i thought we shouldnt drive, we should call the AA and get towed to the closest town. But it was sunday no where would have been open and we only have european breakdown / tow service, if we needed work done whic we clearly did we would have to pay a small fortune.

So we drove on, we had booked a small bungalow in Krakow before leaving berlin so we had somewhere to stay. Tez drove for hours and we arrived in Krakow at about 2am.

The following morning we all woke up again feeling pretty relaxed and headed to the closest garage, which handy enough was about 100m away from the campsite, would you believe there wasnt just 1 garage but 2 side by side.

The first guy i spoke to spoke really good english, i explained the problem and he said quite abruptly he cant fix until wednesday so we went to see the other garage next door.

These guys didnt speak a word of english. I tried all the "recognisable" signs i could think of, i then took out my trusty Haynes manual to show the parts i thought were broken.

The guy went into the house and took out his grand daughter she spoke a little english so she explained the cost to repair would be 200€ ARGHHH 200€ when you are on a VERY tight budget is bloody expensive.

i somehow manged to get the price down to 125€ again expensive but needs must, he said to take the bus back tomorrow at 8am we shook hands and that was that.

Time to explore Krakow :) let me just say now, krakow is a beautiful city, full of history and some great buildings its the sort of place i could quite happily visit again. The right mix of culture and nightlife.

We took in the sights, had some food then headed back to the bungalow. 

Day 4

So we woke up at a reasonably respectable hour. We got all our bits sorted, we packed up the bus and we left the campsite which was our home for 2 nights. As we were leaving with the bus not being used for a full day and night the main battery was dead, i decided to use the 2nd battery to jump start the bus, seemed like the logical thing to do but this turned out not to be the case. The bus started we were on the road on route to pick up 2 spare keys from the ford garage in amsterdam. When we arrived they made the keys no problem. On route to the garage the inverter had been beeping warning of a low battery, sooo at the garage i thought now would be a good time to check it, sure enough the 2nd battery hadnt been charging. While getting more and more burned by the sun trying to thin why on earth it wasnt working i decided enough was enough and asked the guys at ford what was wrong, as the mechanics came out each one walked away scratching there heads. Not one could understand why the battery wasnt charging. Anyway long story short we ended up getting it working after 2.5 hours.

So we set off to hamburg, on route jonny says he has a friend there who we could probably stay with, after him figuring out who the friend actually was on his phone he makes the call.

And so we are now in hamburg, we stayed with his friend phillip we have just had a great german breakfast and we are about to continue on our travels across to denmark.

chilled out

So change of plans for today, time to relax, all showered, laundry done. now basking in the sun. Time to fill up the water bottles put them in the fridge for a relaxing day in the sun.

day 3 at the big brother camp

Oh sorry i forgot what i was doing there, day 3 woken up to a burley dutch man knocking on our window saying you cant sleep here. So we have decided to check into his camp site for showers. While the rest of the guys are sleeping i just made 3 rounds of scramble eggs on toast. Toaster and kettles first use, thankfully they work a treat. Am now sitting with my top off catching a few rays of the good old dutch sunshine with a coffee and an oj. Things seemed to go well after yesterdays little incident. After some munch in amsterdam and a wander about we all jumped in the bus to try and find somewhere to bunk down, lol choosing outside a camp site seemed like the perfect choice. I was soundo at the time woke up at 9am with the burly dutch man. Right i think the plan for today is to head to denmark then on to germany. Will keep you all posted ysc.

on the road again

100€ was all it took to bring a smile to all our faces. One new belt. One reinstalled altenator and we are now on route to our final destination of today amsterdam. The mechanics offered heaps of advice and gave us a few spares. Will upload a few pics later when near wifi. Toodles

AA

So, we were on route to amsterdam to meet our 3rd and final country of the day i am dozing off in the front as tez is driving and then i get a tap on the shoulder. James the inverters beeping tom says. We decide to pull over so i can see whats up and find out our altenator isnt charging. The thing has worked perfectly all around aberdeen. All the way up from telford and all the way down to dover. We are now waiting for the AA to come and save the day. Grri tez and finnie are laying on a bench in the gorgeous sunshine, jonny is laying inside the bus spread eagle across the drivers seat and 2 front passenger seats tom is across the 3 back seats and louise is across the 2. All i would like to point out are snoaring there heads off a fantastic quintet?! My tan has already appeared and i can assure a certain somebody reading this my tan will be better then theres! With no power and no way of charging my phone i had best go get more tan. Will update you all later :)

bonjour

So we have arrived in france the weather is lovely and warm. Sadly i wont be able to upload as many photos on the road here due to data costs and i have had to revert back to my old faithful mobile network rather then my new one. Everyones asleep apart from tez and yours truely. Had to stop as soon as we got off ferry as fan belts making one heck of a noise... Hmm should we have taken a spare? Answers on a postcard. As we are heading to belgium and onto the netherlands i shall say toodles for now

au re voir

At 6am on monday the 23rd of june we set sail on our voyage of discovery

All aboard!

Putting the wee bus to bed. Leaving her at peace in a cosy warm garage while we go above board for a well needed sleep

Now another wait

Thats us finally at dover. And now we wait until 6 to board france here we come.

late night kick about

Time to chill. Stretch those legs

day 2

Well thats us finally on the road again. Yes we are all still alive, now on route to wrexham then on to dover we hope to arrive for our ferry crossing booked for 6am. Today we have mainly been re ordering items in the bus and sorting out the bits we found needed sorted on the drive down. For some reason we had a continual buzz coming from the amp. This is now sorted. Will update soon. Ciao for now

The first sleeper of 3030

So the time had to come. After driving the motley crew from aberdeen to a good few miles past glasgow taking almost 5 hours tez is the first sleeper. The hot seat now manned by tom will hopefully get us to wrexham before we all bunk down for some well deserved kip

The team

As we are departing from Glasgow I think now is a good time to introduce you to the crew who are onboard, Tez Hussain 39, AKA DJ Tez of Jungle Nation premium Drum and Bass DJ, Tom Ambrose 21, AKA Dubkat DJ of all things Dubstep currently studying Philosphy at Aberdeen University, Jonny Aitken 20 a budding Dubstep producer, one to keep an eye out for! currently studying Business Studies at Aberdeen University, Mark Finnie 39, yet another DJ he is masterful in many genres, Luisa Prochazkova 21, who is the only women on the trip (trust me we all feel sorry for her) currently studying Psychology at Aberdeen University who has also just said she has an interest in Budhism.

Finally that brings me to err me, James Myland 28, im not a DJ and im not a student. I currently run a web design and multimedia company in Aberdeen, with plenty of time on my hands i decided now is the time to embark on a journey of a lifetime, while raising funds along the way for our two charities.

So thats all for now, we are currently hunting down a petrol station to register our stop in Glasgow, so far we have achieved one country in one day :) i guess we are doing well.

Ciao for now

First Stop Glasgow

We have now reached our first mini stop Glasgow Scotland, We have also been invited to stay with friends in Austria so hopefully we will make it over to stay with them while they are there.

 

All seems to be going well so far, apart from one slight mishap with part of the rear shelfs contents flying forward onto 4 of the guys... oops, yes that was my fault.

 

So currently re arranging a few bits and bobs before we nip inside for a cuppa and then onwards.

 

 

Let the fun begin

At 7.50 on sunday the 21st of june 2009 we set off. All systems are go we are on route to dover through the night. By the way you can now see your first glimpse of the 3030 bus more pictures to follow

The time has finally come

Over the past couple of days we have found various "problems" with our main mode of transport the mini bus, through thick and thin she has done us proud, however for 2 days we have been trying to iron out a few issues with the altenator. Job done, we are now charging 2 batteries to a sufficient level to be able to embark on our journey.

240 v inverter all connected up to 2nd battery mains power througout full journey as long as we have diesel then we are good to go.

Fridge running, lights working, xbox and tv working, amp working, stereo working, sockets working.

Apart from this who knows what else we may have forgotten ?!?

We are about to get together to get in our food supplies for the first leg of the journey, planning to stop off in either manchester, birmingham or london tonight before embarking on our original planned journey.

So for now, ciao

3030 Makes the news

Press Release 13th June 2009

Date: 13th June 2009

30 DAYS, 30 COUNTRIES FOR CHARITY

Leaving on Wednesday 17th June five friends embark on a European adventure for charity, the race is on to secure even more sponsorship.

Aberdeen-based James Myland, 28, Tom Ambrose, 21, Mark Finnie, 28, Tehseen Hussain, 39, and Angus Tobey, 23, are gearing up for the trip which will see them cover 30 countries in 30 days.

The 10,000-mile journey is due to begin on June 17 and will see the guys travelling through Scandanavian countries Norway, Denmark and Sweden, before heading through Eastern Europe, on to Italy and Switzerland, before finishing in France.

Travelling in their newly purchased mini bus the team is raising money for Aberdeen-based cancer support charity CLAN (Cancer Link Aberdeen & North) and the International Rotary’s charity Polio Plus, which aims to eradicate the disease.

And just to make things even more interesting, intrepid explorer James Myland is due to sit his driving test the day the guys leave Scotland.

“There’s no pressure,” said James “It will certainly make things interesting for me as we prepare to embark on the trip.

“We are hoping to raise as much money as possible for the two charities, which are both extremely worthy causes. I am also pleased to report that there are still some spaces available on the mini bus for sponsorship, should any organisation or business wish to get involved.”

James added: "We plan to visit a Rotary club in each country to explain a little about our trip; most clubs give visitors a banner so hopefully we will be able to pick one up from every club we visit to show we have been in the country.

“As the youngest member of Ellon Rotary Club I think it is important to emphasis that rotary is for young people as well and as a worldwide organisation, it helps so many people.”

For further information on sponsorship or to support the five adventurers on their trip please contact James on 07527 525 639 or visit www.justgiving.com/3030 for more information.

The Plan

We are undertaking a massive challenge in June 09, we will be visiting 30 countries in 30 days, if you would like to find out a little more about what we will be taking on please visit http://www.justgiving.com/3030 we aim to raise £12,000 in total for 2 charities 1 being clan a cancer support charity based in Aberdeen Scotland the second being polio plus a rotary international charity. All contributions will be going directly to the charities.

Current Location on the road