We’ve Arrived – A Letter to Emily.

Dear Emily

How much we wish you were here with us now.

We have, after 41 days on the road, over 6,500km driven, 21 countries visited, and 10 million wrong turns, finally arrived in Istanbul! Can you believe it – it hasn’t quite sunk in for us yet. Of course, Dad has welcomed himself into the city in style and is already cracking into a bottle of red wine and having his “last cigarette” of the trip! Dada and Dadima, Auntie Nina, Uncle Jay, and Sushila surprised us all in Istanbul and have flown all the way from Nairobi to mark the end of this challenge and raise a toast to you. So have James’ family, Heather, Vayla and Dom, Hugh and Margaret, and Helen! You officially have a fan club!!

The drive into Istanbul was madness. Another 4 lane not-motorway-motorway which had thousands of heavy lorries transporting everything and anything. When we arrived in the city we had to remind ourselves multiple times that we are on a trip for charity and so giving people two fingers as they honked and swerved in front of us probably wasn’t a wise idea! Instead, we went for a more passive approach and James was excellent on the tuk tuk horn, something we feel you’d have appreciated. Although, if you’d have been at the wheel, you would have marched up to the offenders and knocked on their windows to tell them off for their terrible driving! You were the only one in the family with a crash under their belt, but Amy got into another scrape today, which brings her ahead of you and back into Dad’s bad books. We were at Galata Tower trying to take our arrival photograph when a car tried to pass us. We stayed still, the lady driving took a terrible line, and crashed straight into the side of us raising us off the ground temporarily! Luckily the tuk tuk is fine, but her car took a minor battering. We had to move the tuk tuk out the way after that and the woman ran after us, not realising that Mum was waiting to speak to her at the top of the road where the whole incident had happened. Given she ran straight into us and ignored Mum, we felt we were justified to carry on with our evening, but let’s see what happens to Mum and Dad at the border!
 

The previous drive from Plovdiv to Edirne was uneventful except for the 5 mile long queue of lorries trying to cross the border into Turkey. When we thought we were going to have to wait in the queue, Dad went as white as his hair (well, what’s left of it!), but luckily we could squeeze past them. If we’d had to wait in that queue James and Amy were considering frequenting one of the hundreds of Bulgarian casinos just before the border – probably for the best that we didn’t have to.

The border guards were not very impressed by the tuk tuk and were very suspicious of us and all the wires we had for charging our multiple devices. The main guy called for support and there was a point where we were surrounded by guards, only speaking Turkish, armed with all sorts of weaponry, rifling through every pocket and box in your car. The drone only fuelled their suspicions that we were spies and we had it confiscated, stashed in an empty warehouse to be collected (supposedly!) when Mum and Dad go back to Bulgaria! If only we’d shown them the video of Dad in his tropical leggings – then they might have thought twice about him being a foreign agent! Sadly that means we can’t get an aerial shot of the Blue Mosque for you, a challenge for another time perhaps.

We’ve talked a lot about pathetic fallacy on this trip, which took us all back to GSCE/O-Level English. We didn’t know what we were expecting when we wrote “Are You Watching Us Emily?” on the top of the tuk tuk, but we have the overwhelming sense that you have been with us every step of the way – how else could we have been blessed with the most amazing weather for the whole six weeks and how else could we have missed the snow in Switzerland that arrived 3 days after we were there! Having said that, today was not good weather and, as we drove to Istanbul, it rained the whole way to the capital. We couldn’t help but turn our minds to whether that is because you, and all of us, are sad that this adventure is ending. It could have been the horizontal wind and rain in the back of the tuk tuk that caused Amy to cry all the way from Edirne to Istanbul, but we all know it’s because she has struggled without you. Sisterhood for her is not the same without a sister. She doesn’t have anyone to share Dad’s theatrics with, or to tell her secrets to. Nobody to open her stocking with at Christmas, nobody to share a room with on family holidays to save her from Mum and Dad’s snoring, nobody to joke with about Dada calling James’ face a moon – and it’s hard for her to think that James, who has been long-suffering on this trip and who has put in the most extraordinary amount of effort for you, will never have met you in person. She even cried during her Turkish Television interview, so you can expect to see her ugly crying face broadcast to millions of people on Saturday – make sure you crack open a bottle and have a good cackle.

Whilst it was actually Dad’s terrible directions and Mum’s appalling city driving that made them both cry today, rest assured that every time they think about you their hearts skip a beat and their eyes prick. Both have cried in the back of the tuk tuk over the past 6 weeks thinking about you and how we all wish you were with us. It has felt strange at times, being on a trip that you would have loved, but that we probably would never have done if you hadn’t died. It’s a stark reminder to us to live while we can and not to save the special stuff for another day.

We are all looking forward to going home and wearing our silkies up to our armpits and not having to travel every day. We’ve all put on a lot of tuk tuk weight this trip, so much so that Mum is going to make Dad cook when they get home. Given he can’t even boil an egg that should mean those extra pounds drop off pretty quickly! Do you remember when you and Amy were 3 and 5 and Dad looked after you both while Mum was away in India and you only ate baked beans on burnt toast for 2 weeks? And the time he told you and Amy that whoever got out the bath the quickest would get the big towel, and, after Amy lost, he gave her a teeny flannel as a joke…

When we started this whole campaign we never imagined what it would become. Our initial target for SUDEP Action was £21,000, to mark the 21 people who die from epilepsy-related deaths each week in the UK. We never realised how hard we would work to try and make this a success, we’ve been entirely driven by our love and memory of you. Mum has worked on this full time since February, Amy has spent every waking moment she has on this, James has gone far above the call of duty and Dad has even made social media accounts for you! But as we pull into Istanbul, we have now reached over £117,000 in donations with the auction proceeds yet to come! Over 800 people have contributed to the cause – your friends, our friends, family, colleagues, and even complete strangers have been more generous than we ever thought was possible. Your untimely death has struck a chord with so many and, even in death, you have something that makes people want to rally behind you. That is a sign of how truly special you are.

We were never given then chance to tell you everything we wish we could have before you left us – how much we love you, how funny and beautiful you are, how our lives will never ever be the same without you. Home is a lot quieter without you there and there is never a day we go without thinking about you. We cannot change what happened, a sense of helplessness that has been so frustrating, but we can change what happens to other families like ours. This trip was our opportunity to SHOW you how much we all – your friends and family too – love you still, and how your death will not be for nothing. You will never have the luxury of growing old, falling in love, travelling the world, having a family of your own, but your legacy will make sure that someone else has that opportunity. We hope that, wherever you are now, however hard it must be to watch everyone doing what you cannot, that you, and we, can take some comfort in that.

We are very proud of everything that has been achieved, but there is an anxiety we all hold now this trip is done: that people will forget – a sense that this is the last hurrah before we close the door on our grief and “move on”. Please be assured that that will never happen – we will always have an irreplaceable part of us that is missing. We haven’t been able to listen to your favourite James Arthur song since we played it at your funeral. But the words go, as you well know: “Tell them all I know now, shout it from the roof tops, write it on the sky line…tell them I was happy, and [now] my heart is broken, all my scars are open…” These words resonate so much with us. We’re often told that the price of love is pain, and we are all in so much pain without you. But we will carry on, we know you wouldn’t have wanted anything else, but, remember, you are and will forever be in our hearts and minds and the memories we have of you we will treasure forever.

Dada wants to do a Sanskrit prayer for you today – when he does we will all look to the sky and we hope that you will be watching back.

Wishing you were here with us and devastated that you are not.

Amy, Mummy, Daddy, and James.

X

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If you’d like to help us reach our target then you can donate by clicking here: http://justgiving.com/fundraising/tuktuktoturkey

If you would like to read our earlier blogs then they are available on our website here: https://tuktuktoturkey.com/posts/

Sponsor of Turkey: Webnetism

We are very grateful to Webnetism who are our sponsor for Turkey. Webnetism are a digital web design company who combine design, technology and strategy to give you a meaningful digital experience. They have skilled graphic designers and developers in their Cheltenham office able to cater for your business requirements – no matter how unique they may be. They create great looking web based solutions to fulfil your needs and can host all of it in their own on-site data centre. If you’re looking for an exciting digital design agency backed by a team of fantastic front end and back end website developers then give them a call on 01452 855558 or look at their own website: https://www.webnetism.com

Early morning sponsor photo at Selimiye Mosque, Edirne,Turkey for Webnetism

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Our beautiful Emily – who inspired this trip and kept us going when it got tough.

Emily and the cat in the hat (Milly)

James poses in one of the best preserved Roman amphitheatres in the world, Plovdiv, Bulgaria

Svilengrad, Bulgaria

Ulu Cami (Grand Mosque) Edirne, Turkey

Old Plovdiv city walls, Bulgaria

The bleak landscape of the early part of our drive from Erdirne to Istanbul

A scene from our dismal drive from Edirne to Istanbul

Galata Tower, Istanbul

These are traffic lights in Turkey. We think even Rachel couldn’t miss these! Shame they weren’t in every city she drove in.

Selimiye Mosque in Edirne, Turkey

Selimiye Mosque, Edirne at night

Rachel being interviewed by TRT (Turkish television) on arrival in Istanbul

Amy’s phone was tracked every 15 minutes to produce this picture of the route we actually took. Thanks to Joe Robinson

Tracked every 15 minutes means that when zoomed in to our map you can see we got very lost as we arrived in Istanbul!! 

Shkodër –> Jance –> Skopje

11th -12th October

The morning began with Bharat instructing everyone to carb-load – nobody was sure what to expect from rural Albania and when our next meal would be. Before heading into the Albanian Alps we decided to take a trip to see the 4km of “pristine” Albanian coastline. We’d seen some pictures of beautiful looking coves in Albania with crystal clear blue waters – this was not one of those. With dark brown sand and covered in rubbish we couldn’t bring ourselves to stay longer than 2 minutes. We will not be taking our next beach holiday there.

This picture is actually considerably more attractive than the reality

We had one of our funniest moments of the trip quite early in the day. We were winding through a valley with a bright blue stream at the bottom and, naturally, wanted to take some photographs. James and Amy were in the Fiat behind the tuk tuk and saw Bharat pull into a layby to let Rachel out to take a quick snap. Or so they thought. As Rachel exited the backseat of the tuk tuk Bharat promptly sped off through a tunnel and off into the Albanian hills. Amy and James were convinced it was a bad joke, but minutes later, when Bharat still hadn’t come back for Rachel, everyone started to realise that he must have thought she was still on the backseat! After 5-10 minutes of waiting Amy and James set off to find him and some time later came across a rattled, wide-eyed, nostril-flared Bharat who kept asking where Rachel was. As he frantically asked he kept turning round to check the backseat, as if Rachel might have magically reappeared. On the route we had seen a memorial plaque every 200-300m where people had died by going over the edge of the precipice which meant Bharat’s imagination had spiralled out of control. This was fuelled further by Amy and James who cruelly pretended they had no idea what Bharat was talking about and so off he sped to find his beloved Rachel. He genuinely thought that she had “slipped out” of the tuktuk and down into the ravine below. Once everyone had been reunited it transpired that the reason Bharat had taken so long to start driving back for Rachel was because, in his panic, he had jumped out of the tuk tuk and had started to run along the ravine screaming her name. He then realised he’d left his phone and keys in the tuk tuk, so had run back to get them (Bharat’s priorities are becoming clear!)…before setting off down the ravine for a second time. What Albanian motorists thought of a huffing and puffing Bharat screaming for Rachel whilst wearing her pathetically small designer rucksack is anyone’s guess, but nobody stopped to help… Eventually Bharat came to his senses and realised he was quicker by tuk tuk than by foot, which is when Amy and James caught him on camera:

 

Bharat, who has had his last cigarette a dozen times this trip, was later seen buying a fresh packet of slims from a roadside kiosk in rural Albania to calm him down. Who else thinks he should just admit he’s taken up smoking again?

And Rachel was not out of the woods yet. After Bharat saying he was going “strap her in” and that she wasn’t allowed to move from the tuk tuk without his permission, Rachel ran to take another photograph and, as she did, got tangled up in brambles. Blood started appearing from the scratches and Bharat took a deep breath and lit another cigarette.

War wounds – all in the line of duty

The Albanian Alps defied all our expectations – miles and miles of gorgeous hills, just starting to turn amber for the late autumn, and bright blue limestone rivers in the valleys below. There were even less barriers to stop us falling off the mountain passes than on the Kotor Serpentine and this combined with the many ‘Albaniacs’ overtaking on corners while texting meant Rachel felt sick for most of the journey.

Autumn colours on the drive through Mavrovo National Park, Macedonia taken from the air

Mavrovo National Park, Macedonia

Our route through Albania

Amy and James had read a BBC article about how Albania is now the largest producer of outdoor-grown cannabis in Europe. The case study in the article referenced a village north of Tirana (where our route was travelling through) and so the two of them spent the ENTIRE journey looking for gangsters, guns and ganja. James claimed to see a stray plant on the side of the road, and there were an awful lot of blacked out Mercedes driving through rural Albania, and even more men just standing around at weird points along the route, but all in all they were fruitless in finding the Albanian cartels they’d been hoping for.

You can tell Albania is the poorest country in Europe – driving through the towns in the rural North were genuinely like being back in Kenya. You can tell unemployment is high – everyone seems to be sitting in a café or on the side of the road watching people go by. But we love Albania for all of this – it’s so different to everywhere we’ve been and it’s made all the better by everyone whooping and cheering at Sumo!

We had our pants pulled down at the Macedonian border. Figuratively, not literally. We needed to buy insurance for our 2 days in Macedonia and it ended up being 3 times more expensive than in Bosnia & Herzegovina, plus we had to pay for the taxi fare of the man who had come to arrange it. However, the border guards took a real shine to Sumo which meant the 50 minute wait flew by.

A very happy Macedonian border guard

We don’t often say this, but Bharat was right. We arrived at our accommodation in Macedonia (Hotel Tutto – thank you Nina and Jayesh!) at 5.30pm and hadn’t eaten since 7am that morning. Ravenous we wolfed down some delicious food prepared by the hotel, and it wasn’t just delicious because we were hungry. It turns out we’d accidentally stumbled across a gem and the ecologically-minded owner of the hotel, Tefik Tutto, is well regarded as a pioneer of Macedonian “slow food”. If possible everything is grown or foraged from near the hotel and then it is cooked using traditional Macedonian techniques to make some exquisite dishes – and all for less than 6 EUR each!

It was early to bed, early to rise. After a yummy, seasonal breakfast and a photograph of Sumo with the owner we set off to Skopje. The first two hours were lovely (although extremely cold!) – working our way through the hills with the trees a thousand different shades of autumn. The next 6 hours were not. Everything changed when we stopped to take a drone picture of the tuk tuk crossing a dam. Rachel and Bharat were driving across it for the 3^rdtime when Amy and James (from 400m away) could hear shouting. Amy rolled her eyes and muttered something about the parents being at it again, before quickly realising it was the two men marching very quickly towards to the tuktuk and jabbing in the direction of the drone. The protestors marched over to James and Amy holding the drone remote, desperately trying to land it, and started yelling at them in Macedonian. We’re not sure what they said but “police” and “big problem” were routine phrases and the angriest one of the two took our car number plate and stormed off – to do what we don’t know! Eventually we decided to simply get out of there, with the remaining man telling us that our fate rested with the decision of Mr Potbelly who had strutted back across the bridge. Amy and Bharat spent the next hour convinced we were being tailed by the Macedonian secret police (i.e. a rugged man in a battered 2 door Peugeot). We are waiting to get to the Macedonia-Bulgaria border to see if we are on Macedonia’s “most wanted” list. We have a video of the debacle unfolding – can anyone translate our opponents’ whispers we can send it to you! We desperately want to know what they were saying!

The drone picture that got us into trouble

Mr PotBelly and his sidekick are not pleased!

The remaining drive was along the Mother Teresa motorway (grey hairs for Amy, nil points for Bharat!), which was a misleading name given how incredibly uncharitable it is to have 5 toll stations along one 50km stretch of road! However, in no time we arrived at our accommodation in Skopje (with thanks to PwC Macedonia) and for our interview with Macedonian TV Kanal 5!

Mother Theresa Motorway (the tuk tuk is not allowed on motorways but there didn’t appear to be another road)

Main square of Skopje and one of the hundreds of massive statues

Sponsor of Macedonia: Stroud Furniture Makers 

We are proud to recommend  Stroud Furniture Makers who are based in the Cotswolds but serve clients all over the UK. The Sumaria kitchen was made by SFM and looks as good today as it did when it was installed over 11 years ago and is much admired. Stroud Furniture Makers are a family company dedicated to handcrafting the finest kitchens and bespoke furniture. Members of the Guild of Master Craftsmen, they take pride in the high quality of their materials and attention to detail, developed over a quarter of a century. You are welcome to view the fully equipped, modern workshop where they employ ten highly skilled master cabinetmakers who use traditional construction methods. These craftsmen will also deliver and install your kitchen so you can feel completely confident of a flawless finish. Take a look at their website here: http://stroudfurnituremakers.co.uk

Roman aquaduct for our Macedonia sponsor Stroud Furniture Makers

Dunce of the Day:

• • Day 34 – Rachel for being accident prone and leaving the tuk tuk on multiple occasions without Bharat’s permission. But also Bharat, for getting swindled at a petrol station, and paying €5 for only a thimbleful of petrol. It was also hilarious watching the petrol attendant shouting at Bharat that the tuktuk needed “Benzina” without Bharat knowing that it was another name for petrol.

• Day 35– Amy claimed that the tuk tuk was losing power in 4^thgear when she was driving along flat roads. Bharat conducted the same procedure we used before to get the tuk tuk working (see previous blogs) and let out some of the petrol onto the road, only to realise Amy had been driving for over an hour with the handbrake on!

Highlight of the Day

• Day 34 – Seeing a woman sitting in the middle of a field shepherding her rafter of turkeys!
• Day 35 – Bharat’s budding romance with the slow cooking movement in Macedonia grew and grew as he spent the morning speaking to the owner of Hotel Tutto. The owner was very engaging and clearly enjoyed Bharat’s high praise, as when Bharat checked out the room the owner gave him 2 bottles of wine and a goodybag of pickles and jams from the hotel’s garden! The owner was less impressed when Bharat tried to offer him some of the stale biscuits we had in the back of the tuk tuk. You live and you learn.

Funniest moments:

• Day 34: Bharat talking about how he thought Rachel had “slipped out of the tuk tuk” and James saying “what like a slippery fish? She just slipped out and slithered down the mountain side silently?”
• Day 35: Amy and Rachel coming across the first “long drop” of the trip and not being sure which way round to face!

Tuk Tuk Trivia:

• Number of stray dogs in Albania: thousands
• Number of half built empty buildings in Albania: more than finished occupied ones! See photos below.
• Number of scooters adapted to wheelchairs by adding a chair at the back: 13
• Favourite Albanian pastime: pressure washing all those Mercedes!
• Number of horse and carts seen: 23

A small selection of the unfinished, abandoned houses in Albania

Not quite sure what this is but it was spewing fuel out of the top as it bounced along 

Albanians loving the tuk tuk

Albanian maize stacks are EVERYWHERE!

A rickety bridge we decided against!

Sumo finds a friend half way up a mountain in Macedonia

The view from Hotel Tutto, Janče, Macedonia

Wild pears shown off by the kind owner of Hotel Tutto and the founder of the slow food movement in Macedonia

The glamorous office of the tuk tuk team – working on the blog in a petrol station in Macedonia!

Macedonian breakfast drink of wild cherries steeped in something!

Trogir –>Mostar –>Dubrovnik

5th -7th October

Trogir, Croatia

Trogir Harbour

The day started with Amy and Bharat bringing the vehicles round to our Trogir accommodation. To get to the door, the two had to go through a parking barrier and take a ticket. Once Bharat had his ticket, he sailed on off into the distance leaving Amy and the tuktuk behind the barrier. Amy pressed the ticket machine button and up flashed “No ticket without vehicle”. Amy pressed it another 10 times only for it to elicit the same response. By this point 15 vehicles were backed up behind the tuk tuk honking impatiently and so Amy took the unrealistic decision to try and squeeze the tuk tuk through the gap between the barrier and the pavement. With a crowd now watching, a plan destined to fail, and Bharat, Rachel and James with their popcorn out, the pressure got to her and she bashed the wing mirror of the tuktuk against the barrier (which is now very loose) and before you could say “tuk tuk” the barrier was poking through the tuktuk “door”.  Sheepishly, Amy reversed back to safety and got out to sound the alarm, furious as she saw Bharat revelling in her failure. With a queue now backed up along the whole seafront, the ticket man had no option but to let Amy through ticketless.

Trogir fiasco over, we took the main dual carriage way past Split where there is not one inch of undeveloped land and a lot of half-built apartments named after infamous Russian officials. Later, once the road had quietened and it became less built up, we stopped for a DIY sandwich in a town that had been completely abandoned for winter, except for a nasty wasp that stung Bharat.

At the Croatia-Bosnia & Herzegovina border we were met by the border guards, who laughed hysterically at the tuk tuk. The border was a breeze with none of the queues we had been warned about and we were pleasantly surprised not to be ripped off buying our tuk tuk insurance – nobody would insure us for non-EU countries so we have to buy it on the border for each country to come. What it’s actually worth if we crash is anyone’s guess! Into the mountains of Bosnia and Herzegovina (from now on “BiH”) we went. The scenery was different to what we’ve seen before, huge, often barren mountains that bordered wide, completely flat valleys below. From holiday homes lining every road in Croatia we now had hundreds of roadside businesses – people selling tyres, chopped wood, shovels, cleaning materials, machinery, fruit and veg – sometimes from a shop front, but often out the back of their car on the side of the road. It really reminded us of Kenya. The drive down into Mostar was dramatic, not just because you drive down a very steep slope into the city but because we had many kamikaze drivers overtaking us on treacherous corners.

Drone footage of the Old bridge at Mostar, Bosnia & Herzogovina

Mostar in the early morning by drone

We loved our time in Mostar – it is a city of juxtapositions: there’s a very prominent, large white cross on the top of the hill that overlooks the many beautiful mosques and minarets of Mostar below, the very beautiful old town is just meters away from buildings bullet ridden from the war; cheesy tourist traps are next to poignant murals and memorials reminding the people of Mostar not to forget ’93-’95; very old, traditional locals are sat amongst a modern, ultra-fashionable youth. It is a fascinating place and we wanted to stay longer so we could start to scratch the surface of what happened there and, more generally, get to grip with the complicated history of the Balkan states.

Rach on the Old Bridge, Mostar, Bosnia & Herzogovina

After a night and a morning wandering the streets of Mostar, Bharat with his gimbal/dongle/dingle and Amy and James on the drone, we left for Dubrovnik and the prospect of free 3G once again. We had a quick wander around Počitelj – an old medieval fortress town – which had thousands of pomegranate trees as well as impressive ruins. The tuk tuk and support car are not built for off road driving and as we tried to work our way back to our route we found ourselves on a rocky dirt track, trying not to tear the tyres as we climbed up and over a completely deserted hillside – James elevating cortisol levels further by talking about dormant land mines in the BiH hills.

Tuk Tuk in the Bosnian mountains where we saw barely a soul

The scenery on our route to Croatia was genuinely stunning – unlike other countries where you have main roads traversing the countryside, BiH has tarmac tracks leading through the mountains making it feel much more remote and much more like an adventure. It didn’t ruin it at all, but we couldn’t help but notice how much litter there was everywhere. If anyone’s looking for a business venture – rubbish collection in Bosnia & Herzegovina could be the next big thing – you can thank us later.     

Back to Croatia, over the border and on to somewhere “near” Dubrovnik. We were there for 2 nights so we could do some washing and do some much needed life-admin, but we quickly realised we would spend 80% of our time in the local Croatian laundrette and café as the place we stayed in was both WiFi and washing machine-less, much to Rachel’s disgruntlement.
 

Dubrovnik old town is magical – that is, after all the cruise ships of Americans have left in the afternoon. We were tempted to do a Game of Thrones tour (i.e. Kings Landing for those of you who have watched), but decided that we couldn’t be “those people”, so instead we relied on our resident tour guide, James. James likes to read about each place before we arrive and then tries to nonchalantly pass off Wikipedia knowledge as his own. We haven’t tested the veracity of what he tells us, but there’s a high chance we’ll need to revisit everywhere again to glean the real story.

James in tour guide mode

Highlight of all the days: The people of Bosnia & Herzegovina LOVED the tuktuk. We couldn’t drive more than 5 meters without people smiling, waving and taking pictures. It’s been the best reception the tuk tuk has had on this trip and it made us all feel very welcomed! If anything, drivers spent too much time looking at Sumo when they should have been focused on the mountain roads and hairpin bends!

Sponsors:

Bosnia & Herzegovina: Sushila’s Pickles

If you one of our Kenyan followers then you really need to try Sushila’s homemade cookies and pickles. We have been saved by her biscuits when starving and miles from anywhere in the Bosnian mountains and Bharat has enjoyed the pickles on toast for breakfast, lunch and dinner! Take a look at their website: http://sushilas.co.ke/

Croatia: Le Creuset

Le Creuset’s original and most well known range of products is its cast iron range. Cast iron has been used as “the” material for cooking pots since Roman times. Even with today’s wide choice of cooking materials, cast iron, still forged and crafted by hand, reigns supreme with its versatility, good looks and ability to retain and spread heat evenly. The tuk tuk team all cook with Le Creuset and can attest to it’s superiority. But the company does much more than cast iron so take a look at their website and see their vast range: https://www.lecreuset.co.uk

Tul Tuk to Turkey team cook on Le Creuset whilst camping

Dunce of the Day:

• Day 28:Bharat for driving for 20 minutes with his door open.
• Day 29: James prides himself on his military-like organisation skills – every item has a place and it has meant that he has been the most organised and efficient team member on the trip. We use the past tense here, because about half way to Dubrovnik it transpired that James had left his travel pouch, containing his and Amy’s passports and the spare tuk tuk keys in Mostar – only a short 2 hour drive away. James was silently furious that his reputation had been tarnished and that we had some ammunition against him in the blog, and drove the majority of the way back without uttering a word.
• Day 30: No-one!

Funniest moments:

• Day 28: Bharat has struggled for the past few years to accept that his hair is thinning and soon he will have a Friar Tuck halo. So when he saw a photograph of himself from behind he genuinely asked why his hair was brown in the picture…Through the tears of laughter we had to break it to him that his “brown hair” was actually his scalp…

• Day 29:James was given a free shot of Croatian grappa (again!) at dinner. Not wanting to be rude, but also not wanting to upset his stomach having just recovered from his food poisoning, he poured it into his water glass. Moments later he was given a small top up of water by the waiter, lifted the glass to his lips, and downed the whole thing completely forgetting what he had poured in there seconds before. Forget the game “gin-face”, it should be “grappa face” from now on.
• Day 30: Bharat often gets very upset that we don’t use his photographs in the blog as he sees himself as very skilled photographer. Which might have been true back in the day, (and being fair to him, he has the worst camera of us all) but we thought we’d show you a small sample of what we’re asked to work with and get your view on which of Bharat’s shots you would choose…:

Tuk Tuk Trivia:

• Number of additional miles driven because of forgotten passports: 100
• Price of our coffee in Bosnia & Herzegovina:50p
• Number of minutes footage we have on Bharat’s video tour of Mostar: 2 hours and 13 minutes worth.

Memories of Emily: Just before the war started in Syria we went on a family holiday there before going to Jordan. It was such a special trip, not only because Syria is a beautiful country dripping in history, but because, with hindsight, we have realised that we managed to visit a place that many of our friends and family will now never see, or certainly never see it in the way we did. Emily was a BIG fan of shisha and wandering the souk-esque streets of Mostar, with the minarets sounding, and people sat outside with their ornate shisha pipes reminded us of her creating plumes of smoke from her pipe whilst we had a coffee in Damascus. Talking about this made us also remember the time we were riding camels through the Wadi Rum desert and Emily was taken off into the sunset by a Bedouin man while Amy, Rachel and Bharat, whose camels were all roped together, just went round and round in circles!

Emily in Damascus, Syria  2011

Emily is abducted on a camel in Wadi Rum desert, Jordan

If you would like to support us and donate to our charity, SUDEP Action, then please go to http://just giving.com/fundraising/tuktuktoturkey

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Bullet holes are a stark reminder of the 1993-1995 war

Beautiful cobbles of Mostar’s old streets

Mostar

Derelict, war damaged buildings

The road into Mostar

Mostar Old Town

Mostar, Bosnia & Herzogovina

View from Počitelj – an old medieval fortress town

All on brand in Počitelj

Sunset on the drive down into Dubrovnik

Ljubljana –> Lake Bled –> Trieste

29th September – 1st October

s-LOVE-nia

We departed from The White House in Ljubljana (barely) and went into the centre to grab a coffee at an edgy café that Amy had been recommended. After 10 minutes of awkwardly loitering, not really sure whether we could sit down or not, we took the plunge only to have a waitress shout at us not to push tables closer together – guess who wasn’t impressed?

Amy and James went ahead to Bled to put up their tent. Bharat and Rachel had jumped at the opportunity to stay anywhere but the tent, and so when their friends Abigail and Peter McNeile offered them a bunk bed they graciously (and ‘generously’) and gave up their ‘palatial tent’ for Amy and James.

Man’s not hot!

On arriving in Bled the McNeils had put on quite the spread for us and we were busy gorging ourselves on an immense Slovene picnic when it was decided we would be cycling round Lake Bled that afternoon. A few stitches and heartburns later we were busy peddling ill-fitted bikes to the nearest pontoon that rented rowing boats to the church in the middle of Lake Bled.
 

As we parked up our bike at the jetty, a leathered Slovene woman barked the rules and regulations of the boat hire  at us and informed us that even one minute over would result in a extraordinary fine. With one hour on the clock we set off for the Island. James in one row boat with Rachel and Abigail and the other with Peter on the oars and Bharat and Amy relaxing at either end of the boat. Within minutes James’ boat had collided with a fellow holiday maker and the yelps and screams coming from the ladies being rowed echoed across the Julian Alps. As we approached the Pilgrimage Church of the Assumptions of Maria we could hear a Slovene wedding and, after mooring, managed to capture a glimpse of the celebration before they headed off in their boats, trumpets blazing, into the distance. On the island with the church Rachel was stopped by a lovely gentleman who noticed her Tuk Tuk To Turkey sweatshirt – it turned out that his wife (who we later met) had arranged the translation of our press release into Slovenian – what a small world and it shows the power of being ‘on brand’ – something Amy needs to significantly improve on.

Slovenian bride has a quick swig of beer before entering the church

Boat done, we continued our cycle along the pedestrian pathways of Lake Bled until we reached the foot of Bled Castle. Having reached the castle after 20 minutes of climbing, Bharat was not impressed with the expensive entrance fee and was debating sending us down from whence we came, but Rachel signalled that she was about to keel over after the climb and that the only watering hole nearby was the café inside the castle. Inside we went. After waiting for the sunset that never came, we mooched round the castle before finally cycling* home (*obviously we walked the whole way up the hills) – Bharat making a few minor 2km detours up and down hills which put a few strains on his and Rachel’s relationship.

The sunset over Lake Bled from the castle that never materialised

After a good meal in Bled everyone headed to bed for a good night’s sleep. James and Amy went off to their campsite and all was well…except for the sub 2 degree temperatures and the incessantly loud owls that chatted away all night. Rachel and Bharat fresh, James and Amy puffy eyed, we set off with Abigail and Peter  the next day to the Vintgar Gorge. It was lovely but very busy with tour buses disgorging every nationality trying to get there before the “rush”. Put it this way – we don’t think you can ever go without there being a crowd! That said, it was very beautiful and we’ve got inspiration for a “50 shades of Blue” photo series.

Amy goes off-piste on the Vintgar Gorge boardwalk

Bharat had been faffing the whole morning and Amy and James had enough when he said he needed to go back to Bled for his swim trunks (which, FYI, he never wore). The two of them set off on their own and managed to take some sneaky drone footage of Lake Bled before moving on to Lake Bohinj and doing the same there. Slovenia is genuinely so picturesque that we found ourselves having to be ruthless on what we stopped to take a picture of and what we didn’t.

We had a picnic by Lake Bohnij before renting kayaks that we took to the far side of the lake and Amy, James, Rachel and Abigail all jumped into the water trying desperately not to squeal at how cold it was (all managed, except Amy who jumped in first!).

It’s icy!

After Rachel and Abigail found themselves, yet again, going round and round in circles in their canoe and James and Amy hearing them from over a kilometre away, we all arrived safely onshore and drove to the bottom of the 20 minutes (vertical) hike up to the Slap Savika (waterfalls).

Does she realise she is the only one putting in effort?

Takeaway pizzas were on the menu after Bharat couldn’t bear to take his frozen limbs anywhere else in Bled and Rachel managed to break the TV in Abigail and Peter’s rental by hanging the Tuk Tuk To Turkey team’s underwear to dry on it.

Top of the stunning Vršič Pass 

The next day, at the recommendation of Abigail, it was a scenic detour through the Julian Alps and down the Soča Valley. There are no words we can find to properly explain the beauty of that area of Slovenia. All we have to say is that you must go for yourselves. A particular highlight was the slightly less well known Tolmin Gorge which had a bridge  that provided excellent photographic opportunities but also gave every single one of us vertigo!

Vertigo over Tolmin Gorge

We arrived in Trieste at night, something Bharat would later grumble about given the Fiat still had one broken headlight (our solution now is to try and only drive in the day as nobody knows how to change the bulb!). We hadn’t appreciated how hilly and windy Trieste was until we went up and down, up and down, round and round trying to find our host’s (Giuila and Diego) apartment. Eventually we arrived due to James’ exceptional detective skills (i.e. walking up and down every street in Trieste) – it is a city that is planned only for locals; good luck to you if you visit.

Funniest moment:

• Day 22: After seeing the church in the middle of Lake Bled, Rachel and Abigail tried to row James back to the shore and helplessly started to go round and round and round in circles. Bharat was getting very stressed about having to pay the fine for the 30 extra seconds that they were on the water and meanwhile the leathered Slovene woman was having heart palpitations and shouting after seeing the reason for the circling was due to Rachel and Abigail sitting side by side, trying to row with one oar each…
• Day 23: Bharat and Peter had opted out of canoeing on Lake Bohinj and decided to walk ¾ of the way around the lake instead. Tired, they then opted out of the climb up to some spectacular waterfalls. Bored, sitting waiting for Amy, Rachel, Abigail and James to hike up and then back again, they decided to go home in the tuk tuk, only to realise they’d left the house keys in Abigail’s car. Bharat and Peter had to wait a painful 25 minutes in the freezing cold before the waterfall party arrived home to find Bharat, in shorts and t-shirt, bent double shivering with the bright orange blanket spread over his and Peter’s heads as they waited to be let in.
• Day 24: Forgetting that we were in Italy, and being British, we shovelled down the snacks we were given by Giulia and Deago (our hosts in Trieste) thinking that it might be the only food we got that evening. However, much to our horrified amusement there was a never ending stream of culinary delights to come. After meats and cheeses, lasagne, asparagus pasta, a salad AND then a meat course, and then pudding it was game over, even for James. We all retired to our beds, jean buttons undone and clutching our bellies.

Memory of Emily: Across the Slovene gorges they have multiple rickety footbridges which reminded us of when we went to Tanzania on a family holiday and Emily, aged 5, had to cross a bridge, high above crocodile infested waters, that could only carry one person at a time. As she crossed the creaking wooden slats, Bharat instructed her to only step when she had moved her hand along the metal wire ‘railing’, as the bridge had totally open sides. 3 steps in and she was walking along, hands by her side, unable to hear Bharat & Rachel’s screams due to the force of the river below!

Dunce of the Day:

• Day 22: Amy who chose an overly edgy café for breakfast where we waited an hour to be served, had to sit on separate tables, and were made to eat cold, “minimalist” eggs.
• Day 23: Bharat who, without fail, comments on how he can’t possible eat a whole main course for dinner, and then, without fail, manages to very easily eat his entire meal and have some of everyone else’s plus an icecream.
• Day 24: James for taking control over the route through the Tolmin Gorges only to tell the team at the bottom of the Gorge they had to climb 80% of the way up again because he’d missed the crucial turn on the map.

Tuk Tuk Trivia:

• Number of fat Slovenians: 0
• Number of floors climbed in one day: 107
• Number of times Rachel hit Abigail on the head with her oar in the kayak: 10
• Number of times we flew the drone in 2 days: 11
• Number of times Amy almost crashed the drone: 2

 Countries Visited:  14 out of 21

Sponsor of Slovenia: Assured Bathing Solutions:

 Thank you to David Eatwell of Cotswold-based Assured Bathing Solutions Ltd for his support. They are bathroom contractors who are experts in bathrooms for people with mobility issues. If you would like a quote for any bathroom (with or without mobility needs) then tel: 01452 613009 or email: david@assuredmobilityltd.co.uk

Rest ASSURED no BATHING took place in this bath tub!

If you haven’t donated there is still time! Please visit: www.justgiving.com/fundraising/tuktuktoturkey

Vintgar Gorge

Perched!

Reflections at dusk over Lake Bohinj

It’s a long long long way down!

The view of the tuk tuk gnome from the back seat

5 layers, 2 hats, 1 scarf and still cold!

A vision in blue!

The wobbly bridge that reminded us of a scary few minutes with Emily in Tanzania

Soča Gorge, Slovenia

Tuk Tuk trundles over the Tolmin Gorge

Our picnic spot on Lake Bohinj with Peter and Abigail

25th and 26th September 2018

Vienna –> Podivín –> Bratislava–> 

Amy and James got up at the crack of dawn to go sightseeing with Sumo in Vienna. It was a crisp, sunny morning and they wanted to beat the tourists and, more importantly, whizz down the one way streets away from the eyes of the law abiding Austrians. They both felt very smug pulling up outside the Hofburg Palace, until they saw flashing blue lights, heard the howl of a siren and a saw a police car hurtling towards them. Hearts racing, the car tore past them and off onto things much more scandalous than two tourists in a bright pink tuk tuk trying to get a good Instagram picture.

Hofburg Palace, Vienna in the early morning

Mission accomplished, we all headed out of Vienna and made a beeline for the Czech Republic border. Strong winds meant that the “crisp” sunny morning very quickly became freezing cold, and James was desperately wrestling with the tuk tuk’s handlebars to keep it on the road. Numb and tired a few hours later we parked up to seek refuge in a cafe. The place was like a roadside trucker’s café from the 90s with everyone smoking inside and yoghurt with fruit served as if it was ice cream sundae. Caffeinated and fed we trundled back to the tuk tuk and it was immediately evident that Bharat’s worst fear had come true – two parking tickets. Our quick, cheap coffee had turned into the trip’s most expensive mistake yet! *Call for help* – experienced German translator needed for Bharat to appeal the parking fine!

Amy, who could not stand the freezing cold any longer, raided the camping gear for a sleeping bag in a bid to keep warm in the tuk tuk. Heaving herself into the tuk tuk in the sleeping bag made for hilarious viewing for Rachel and complete bewilderment for the local Austrian shop owners. You can have a chuckle for yourself:

We should have realised sooner why this corner of Austria was so abundant in wind turbines and even the sleeping bag wasn’t helping relieve Amy from the arctic winds. In a bid to relieve her misery, as we crossed over the Czech border, Amy was horizontal trying to do what she does best…sleep. Crossing into the Czech Republic was uneventful – the only noticeable difference was the plummeting population of brand new BMWs, Mercedes and other smart cars on the road.

John’s Castle, Podivín near Lednice, Czech Republic

Rachel took the team off to a castle near Lednice for a photograph to promote our Czech sponsor, White Swan Aesthetics, and an explore – and an explore it was, as we traversed the Czech countryside on the cycle paths. Rachel ordered the tuk tuk to turn left and 10m further on Amy found herself on a boggy footpath and having to reverse up a 12 degree gradient. Rachel had, yet again, failed to demonstrate her self-promoted navigation skills.

After a quick “grill lunch”, where Bharat selflessly opted for garlic soup, we headed down towards Bratislava for the evening and battled with the double threat of pot holed Slovakian roads and kamikaze drivers who have a real penchant for overtaking on tight corners with oncoming traffic driving in a similar fashion. We quickly unpacked our bags and went for an explore in the charming old city before sunset. Amy had described Bratislava as a “dump” from her Inter-railing days, but everyone was presently surprised by how charming it was. The chilly evening was a perfect time to get out our lovely scarves courtesy of our Slovakian sponsor, Bags of Plenty.

Fresh after an evening of facemasks and more banagrams, we set off for the Hungarian border and Bharat’s route planning which, until this point, had been largely flawless started to unravel. If anyone has an upcoming driving or cycling holiday on the Slovakian-Hungarian border, you are strongly advised to avoid the E65 road which seems to handle 90% of Europe’s heavy goods traffic. This made for a hair raising morning as Bharat and Rachel bounced down the road, the tiny tuk tuk almost disappearing amongst the 40 ton HGVs.

The apocalypse alarm went off and Bharat barked orders for an alternative route to be taken. Led by the often geographically challenged Amy, we set off into the Hungarian countryside passing through tiny villages and bumping along rough, unmade roads. Locals stared at us bemused from their ancient tractors and we were often forced onto the verge by bus drivers who seemed to have no respect for the rules of the road. It had been a long time since we passed a petrol station or anywhere to get food and it was welcome relief to come across a provincial town serving honey mustard chicken salads. Perhaps we should have guessed being sat across from a very out of place, Chinese Supermarket that honey mustard was just code for glutinous sweet and sour. 

Before reaching Keszthely for the night, we took a short detour via Europe’s largest natural thermal lake – Lake Heviz. Amy and James sped on ahead in the Fiat to secure entry for the team before it closed at 6pm, but Bharat (in the tuktuk), who couldn’t hear James’ instructions over the phone, took it upon himself to direct Rachel to some random lake in completely the opposite direction. Rachel and Bharat didn’t get to swim, but Amy and James took the plunge in the sulphery, eggy smelling, water for a whole 7 minutes before it closed.

Dunce of the Day:

• Day 18: Bharat – We stopped to fill up with petrol at a HUGE Tesco in the Czech Republic: the first Tesco of the trip. Bharat was adamant that they would accept his clubcard. They didn’t.
• Day 19: Amy and James – Who got trapped in the car park for Lake Heviz as they had no Hungarian cash and had to sweet talk some Australian travellers to bail them out. James had to turn up the charm further when the first 100 Forint coin was swallowed by the machine and they needed a second.

Sponsor of the countries:

• Czech Republic: White Swan Aesthetics 

Facial aesthetics is an art. Stunning enhancements and beautiful refreshing anti-ageing treatments rely on the perfect blend of knowledge, skill, a delicate approach and an artistic eye. The doctors at White Swan are trained to understand the subtleties in face shape and how to hand-craft results which work in harmony with each client’s individual features. Their doctors take the time to carry out the carefully constructed 6-step White Swan consultation protocol so that the perfect, bespoke treatment package can be put together and the best possible treatment outcomes delivered. Clinics all over London. Do take a look at their website: http://www.whiteswanaesthetics.co.uk

Thank you to White Swan Aesthetics, our Sponsor for the Czech Republic 

Slovakia: Bags of Plenty 

Bags of Plenty was set up in November 2014 by sisters Vanessa Ramm and Caroline Mackness. Their ethos is to share and bring beautiful things from hidden markets to British shores. They’ve brought beautiful knitted scarves from Dublin and handmade leather bags from Ibiza, everything wonderfully crafted and individually made. The lovely triangular woollen scarves worn by the Tuk Tuk to Turkey Team below were just what we needed in the very chilly air of Bratislava. Take a peek at their website and see the lovely and unusual bags, scarves and belts on offer:

https://www.bagsofplenty.co.uk

Tuk Tuk to Turkey Team in their snuggly woollen scarves from Bags of Plenty

 

Funniest moment of the Day:

• Day 18: Rachel banged on all day about a weird smell in the Czech Republic. After spending most of dinner googling olfactory hallucinations, she discovered that it was actually coming from her hands! Quite what she’d washed them with we’ll never know.
• Day 19: Lonely Planet described Keszthely as “lively with a relaxed ambiance”. We walked round the entire town and saw not a single soul, only a white cat. See photo below. Keszthely livened up for us slightly as we sat alone eating Goulash in the only restaurant open (which incidentally was run by a Hungarian who spoke with a broad Lincolnshire accent) and Shakira starting blasting through the speakers.

The lively town of Keszthely, Hungary

 

 

Tuk Tuk Trivia:

• Number of Hungarian women with dyed Burgundy hair: 37 spotted and counting
• Accomodation we’ve stayed in next to a local torture museum: 1
• Number of HGVs that overtook the tuk tuk: 53
• Number of countries in the EU not using the Euro:9 (we’re going through 5/9)
• Countries completed:11/21 – over halfway!

 

Highlight of the Day: A Czech waitress asking if we wanted water with sparkles! Who wouldn’t!

 

 

 

Bratislava Old Town, Slovakia

 

John’s Castle, Podivín, Czech Republic

 

Statue of Peeping Man, Bratislava Old Town

 

The first Tesco we’ve seen so far on our travels

 

She will emerge from her chrysalis when the temperature rises and the wind drops in a few days time…

 

 

Great set of gnashers

 

Castle Lednice, Czech Republic

 

Google leads us down an overgrown footpath yet again

 

Our journey so far. On track and 11/21 countries visited so far

 

One of hundreds of nodding donkeys littering the Austrian countryside as we drive towards Czech Republic

 

Rather than relaxing James and Rach found the face mask thing quite disturbing

Keszthesly, Hungary

Tuk Tuk on the Train Tracks

Blue Church, Bratislava, Slovakia

Free blow dry

Vienna, Austria at dawn

September 21st and 22nd

Austria

“I can’t take this anymore” uttered James at 4am in the morning as Rachel and Bharat’s snores echoed up and down the valley of St Anton. We had very kindly been put up in a shared room by friends of friends, but 4 beds in very close proximity with only one set of earplugs was traumatic for Amy and James. Want to hear a snippet for yourselves? Look no further:

Rachel finally saw the funny side of this when she caught James and Amy wetting themselves laughing later the next day as they listened to this clip on full volume on the Fiat’s speakers.

We left St Anton behind us very early on Friday morning and headed down the valley towards Innsbruck which was yet another very beautiful drive, particularly in the early morning sun.

An early morning start (again) from St. Anton

On our way to Innsbruck we came across the professional BMC Men’s Road Racing Cycling Team who were training for the Innsbruck Tirol 2018 team time trial. So far this trip Rachel has not been shy to drive at breakneck speed down the wrong side of the road, but overtaking the 7-strong team on the bendy, mountainous route seemed to make her much more cautious. In a tuk tuk you’re not looking at a quick getaway with 0-40mph taking over a minute, and with cyclists pacing along at Sumo’s top speed it’s not an ideal scenario. However, Rachel eventually saw an opening, plucked up the courage and roared on past the team, who seemed to love the tuktuk and team member Stefan Küng, decided to use Sumo as part of this training programme as he chased after us to ride in Sumo’s slip stream.

She isn’t overtaking on a bend honestly!

Innsbruck was lovely and we stumbled across a covered market selling fresh produce including pasta for our dinner that evening. We had a coffee in the square and it was so hot by that point that Amy was noticeably dripping with sweat, much to James’ amusement. We hadn’t realised that Schnapps was the local drink until we saw this wall of different flavours – Bharat taking the woman up on her multiple offers of  “something fruity?” or  “something creamy?” !

Something fruity? Something creamy? Schnapps

Pretty pastel houses in Innsbruck

After Innsbruck the drive was more like the boring Belgium drives (made slightly better by the mountains either side) – busy, big roads lined with unattractive houses and factories. We decided to liven up our scenery by taking a detour via Lake Achensee which took us back up to 1800m. Rachel dipped her cute little toes into the freezing blue waters, whilst Bharat quacked at the ducks near by. Apart from the quacking, it was very peaceful and extremely beautiful.

Lake Achensee

It was then a long way to Kitzbühel and whilst we had one French bus tour conductor who loved us (and even sent us messages afterwards), we had a lot of angry drivers in smart cars irritated by how long it had taken us to kindly move over when we had clearly seen the 60 strong queue behind us (still, they’re more patient than the Swiss!):

 We arrived in Kitzbühel and were very kindly given the keys to stay in a chalet by Clive, a family friend of James’, for two nights. We were exhausted when we arrived and were grateful for our first two night stay in one place. Although we are seeing some amazing places and have been blessed with beautiful weather, we are constantly driving/social media-ing/blogging and often only sleeping for 5/6 hours before moving on the next day. We almost cried with happiness at the prospect of being able to do some washing – Bharat had already started turning his boxers inside out! We really noticed how tired we were the next morning when, despite over 9 hours of sleep, we still felt groggy and bleary eyed. It felt so good to sit in pyjamas and play bananagrams with a cup of coffee.

Funniest moments:We’ve mentioned before how Bharat often needs a translator, so we’ve started videoing some of this blunders to make an “Idiot Abroad” series. It’s a shame we are never videoing at the exact moment but these retakes are filmed immediately after the faux pas occurs. Let us know what you think and whether we should continue!

 

Memories of Emily:

• Being in Kitzbühel brought back memories of ski holidays and of a particular trip where, despite having all the gear and being flown all the way to America, Emily (aged 3) did half a day of skiing and then refused point blank to go anywhere near a ski slope for the remainder of the trip. After many a painful conversation about how this bit of her was cold and that bit was cold, and how this was uncomfy and that was uncomfy, Bharat and Rachel gave up and decided she might enjoy the less strenuous “snow play”. But even there, there was no chance of her going anywhere near the white stuff and she spent the rest of the trip eating pizza and colouring in. When the next family ski trip came around Rachel and Bharat decided to leave her behind and she was much happier staying with friends Stephanie and Chip whose daughter, Holly, taught her to ride a bike without stabilisers within a week!
• Rachel took a photo of Amy which looked so much like Emily that it made her cry. She now can’t find the photo which has made her cry even more.

How we’re feeling: Rachel – “I’ve been feeling rather tearful and sad over the last few days in the mountains. This has happened before and I don’t know if it is the beauty and majesty of the mountains and the big skies or maybe feeling closer to ‘Emily on her cloud’ which is a phrase we use a lot with all her friends. Bharat and I drove the tuk tuk as high as we could up the steep mountain tracks in Kitzbühel to try and reach the clouds but the track ran out before we were enveloped in any cloud. We did manage to take the picture below though:

Dunce of the Day:

• Day 14: Rachel for insisting she was a good navigator and leading the charge in getting the Tuk Tuk team to Lake Achensee, but within 2 minutes getting lost and sending Amy and James down a 1,633m tunnel in the tuktuk and then back again! Believe us, tunnels are not your friend in a tuktuk with open sides.
• Day 15: A dunce free day! Hooray.

Tuk Tuk Trivia:

• Number of times Bharat has won Bananagrams: 10/12 times.
• Number of weeks/days left until Istanbul: 3 weeks and 4 days!
• Number of countries that serve fresh milk with coffee: 3/9

The Austrian’s know how to stack logs!

Beautiful glass bottles in Innsbruck

The Hills are Alive with the Sound of Sumo!

Sumaria toes in Lake Achensee

At least we will smell ok for the next few days!

September 17th and 18th

France, Germany and Switzerland

We always knew we needed James on this adventure – we had a 7am wakeup call and 15 minutes later there was a croissant and coffee for everyone. Little did we know he was buttering us up for an 11am wine tasting at a vineyard not on our route, but luckily for him Bharat is always keen and the views over a quintessentially Alsace valley alone were worth it. At the tasting it became apparent that wine might be the undoing of James and Amy’s relationship, as she sat head in hands trying to ignore the indelible picture of James’ wine tasting technique – video below:

Conman or Connoisseur? from Tuk Tuk to Turkey on Vimeo.

James came up trumps again and suggested we drive through the Vosges mountains rather than following our original route. We wound our way up the hills to breath-taking views at the top and even passed a few ski lifts on our way.

Before we reached our hosts just outside Belfort, we went to visit Le Corbusier’s Notre Dame du Haut in Ronchamp. Despite pleading, the tuktuk was not allowed up to the church so we set off on foot to inspect the architectural marvel and, despite not being the most culturally astute bunch, we all enjoyed our visit.

The night was spent with Laura and Sylvain and their two children – Laura lost her sister to SUDEP when she was 17 and we know her through SUDEP Action. Rachel took Sylvain and their 2 year old daughter for a ride and promptly shot off on the wrong side of the road, which had Laura head in hands praying for Rachel to be careful with her baby! Rachel and her passengers arrived back 5 minutes later, totally oblivious to Rachel’s driving blunders, but without a doubt she is now cementing her reputation as being the most dangerous of us all.

Tuesday morning and a normally organised James can’t find his wallet…anywhere. The whole car emptied, every bag searched and it was still nowhere to be seen. Laura’s 5 year old son had remained silent whilst the frantic search was underway and it was only after all other options had been exhausted that the search party realised he had a cheeky grin on his face. Clearly he was after some more pocket money, as it turned out he had stashed James’ wallet in his hiding place for a rainy day!

Eventually we set off and drove to Basel where we had a Swiss bargain of 4 coffees and 3 croissants for £42!!!!! Bharat turned whiter than Rachel’s cappuccino and instantaneously decided he wasn’t a fan of Switzerland…

…and neither is James after our stressful detour through some Swiss hills (one of Amy’s famous shortcuts). Nearing the top of a very long and steep incline, the support car, in first gear, ground to a halt and started to roll backwards. An unusually rattled James tried multiple times to do a hill start to no avail. As we started to smell the aroma of burning rubber and the squeals of the engine, the trusty tuk tuk chugged on past Amy and James, who, at this point, were both leaning forwards in the Fiat, as if that would help. Bharat came to the rescue and managed to crawl up the hill, but whether that was because Amy had got out by that point and, as Rachel put it, had “significantly lightened the load” or because James is just diabolical at hill starts we’re yet to verify. We have the Alps to come, so stay tuned.

 

Drama over, detours over…we returned back to our original, flatter route all the way to Bassersdorf to meet our amazing hosts, Paul and Rebekka who saw us on ITV News and offered us a bed for the night (and an entire roast dinner!).

Dunce of the Day:
– Day 10: Amy – fell asleep AGAIN and her phone flew out of the tuktuk AGAIN – we know cats have 9 lives, but iPhones? Bharat now has her under strict instruction to tape it to her hand next time her eyes start to droop.
– Day 11: Bharat – for a lot of honking, gesticulating and expletives driving through Zurich at rush hour.

Funniest moment: James spat a sample of wine into his glass creating a disgusting foam and the owner of the vineyard looked horrified thinking her prized, handpicked grapes had caused the mess. James couldn’t explain why he hadn’t used the spit bucket and it was very enjoyable watching him get redder and redder in the face.

Highlight of the Day (for Amy and James) v Low Point of the Day (for Rachel and Bharat): Amy and James in need of their caffeine hit, convinced Rachel and Bharat, who were adamant that we needed to push on, into thinking the lunch place took 20 minutes to make “fresh baguettes”, and had a coffee in the sun whilst R&B sat in the baking car park waiting.

Interesting fact: Basel is a city which spreads over three countries – Germany, France and Switzerland.

Our route so far! Mostly to plan except for bypassing Heidelberg as it was too expensive and several hundred miles further

Amy and Bharat in Bergheim

Riquewihr, France

Riquewihr, France

Wine tasting at Weinbach, Kientzhein, France

Notre Dame du Haut, Ronchamp, France. Designed by Le Corbusier

Basel, Switzerland

Our hosts in Belfort, Laura and Sylvan with children Arthur & Céleste and neighbours

Bharat loves his macaroons in Riquewihr

We meet lots of wonderful people who ask about what on earth we are doing and why. They take away our card, sometimes donate, but always go away knowing more about epilepsy and SUDEP than they did before.

Beautiful old footbridge in Bad Säckingen, Germany (we walked over the bridge from Switzerland)

12-13 September 2018 – Netherlands and Germany

Brussels to Maastricht to Prum

Getting out of Brussels was another hideous and slow drive followed by boring straight roads interspersed with small dull towns. We tried taking country roads, but were thwarted as every one we took petered out into a dead end or a cycle path. Like clockwork, Bharat announced the tuk tuk counted as a bicycle and soldiered on but even he had to turn back eventually.

The drive was significantly livened up when Rachel spotted lots of rotating manequins in the shop windows, but Amy quickly corrected her – they were actually real-life semi-naked gyrating women advertising “Finding Love” amongst other things…

Twenty minutes later and many a window later, we stopped in Lieges for a quick lunch before eventually arriving in Maastricht to stay with (yet another) Vanhoonacker! The charming Sophie and Bernard kindly gave us some comfy beds and Bernard treated us to a gourmet homemade meal. Amy saw some stroopwafels in the drawer when helping wash up and very unsubtly said how much she loved them – we now have the box in the car!

Town Hall in Leuven

The drive to Prum started after Bharat arrived back from Brussels…see Hero of the Hour.The day was very rainy and cold which meant that, after a good stint in the back, we put the sides of the tuktuk down to thaw frozen limbs and attempt to keep spirits high. We hopped from Aachen to Monschau which was a beautiful drive through rolling hills – the countryside in the Netherlands and Germany undoubtedly beats that of Belgium…

We drove through a misty forest with strikingly tall, thin trunked trees which made Sumo look tiny! On arriving at the campsite Amy and James set up the tents with Bharat and Rachel having their two pennies at the end. The tent Rachel and Bharat brought is palatial, particularly when compared the one and a quarter man tent given to James and Amy by James’ parents for the trip – we are yet to pull straws on who’s in the tent and who’s in the tuktuk…

Sumo arrives in Monschau, Germany

On the way to Maastricht

Rach finally works out how to switch her camping headlamp on!

Sponsor for Netherlands: Unique Home Stays

The UK’s most luxury and unique self catering cottages and large homes. We definitely wish we were staying in one of their beautiful houses rather than our campsite! http://uniquehomestays.com

www.uniquehomestays.com

No Unique Home Stays luxury today for us!

Tuk Tuk Trivia:

• Number of people James has spoken to in German: 1 (accuracy yet to be verified…)
• Number of times Bharat took a wrong turn: 4
• Number of times James burped at the table with our hosts?: 1 (and one too many)

Smells of the Day:

• Day 5: More cow dung and a very fishy smell at the Belgian/Netherlands border…
• Day 6: Cinnamon – a particular village in Germany, which clearly is gearing up for Christmas already and making a lot of Zimtsterne!

National Drink: Jenever, a cherry flavoured liqueur which Rach declared was like cough mixture – 2/10

Dunce of the Days:

• Day 5: Rachel: Kept trying to put coins in the notes slot of parking machine (Amy and James were wetting themselves laughing at Bharat’s pained “Oh for goodness sakes” across the car park) AND left all her jewellery in Brussels…(however, she was closely followed by James who not only burped at our hosts table (see above), but swilled the wine in his glass to look sophisticated and promptly doused the table with some of the Alsace’s nicest Riesling!).
• Day 6: Paul and Jacqueline Hewitt (James’ parents) for donating a one man tent for James and Amy to sleep in.

Hero of the Hour: Bharat who got up at 6am and drove all the way back to Brussels to retrieve Rach’s jewellery, which he did without complaining once, which is very unusual!

Sulker of the Day: Amy, who discovered Bharat & Rachel had brought REAL PILLOWS after telling her and James that there was no room.

Interesting fact about Belgium: There is very high stamp duty, there is no capital gains tax on property and no inheritance tax – something for us to bring back home!

Aachen

Monschau

Maastricht

DAY 1 AND 2 – London  Kent  Dover  Dunkirk

AND WE ARE OFF! We had an incredible send off from Pearl & Groove bakery on Portobello Road (our UK sponsor). Having worried initially that only 10 people would turn up, we were overwhelmed by the throngs of people that came to wave goodbye and made it such an awesome atmosphere! We had beautiful cakes, Prosecco (with thanks to Armit Wines http://armitwines.co.uk ), a singer, Turkish Radio and Television filming us, and even a short Indian ceremony to wish us luck on our journey – video below of the breaking of the coconut, the throwing of rice, some Sanskrit chanting(!) and a lime and chilli good luck garland.

En route to our first overnight destination, Cranbrook in Kent, we had a quick pit spot at Rachel’s sister’s house for some tuna sandwiches and a family picture before meeting James’ school friend, Hussam, with his wife and beautiful 3 month old daughter in the timeless glamour of a Harvestor carpark! Later, after a tuktuk chase through Kent, Michelle Samuels, who lost her sister to SUDEP, eventually tracked us down for a quick photo opportunity just before we pulled into James’ parents house. It was about 6pm when we finally arrived at the Hewitt’s home and we were met by a lovely cup of tea…or so we thought, until Paul, James’ father, sheepishly admitted he had accidentally blended mint and Early Grey tea (yuk!) – we swiftly moved onto something a little stronger.

After a good night’s sleep, a bacon butty and black coffee we set off for Dover through the Garden of England, Rach doing her live Radio 2 interview from the backseat of the tuktuk (trying not to swear as Bharat swerved round some hairpin bends).  Listen here: 

As we arrived at the Port of Dover, James, with lightening speed, took the opportunity to unnecessarily show off that he could speak French to the English passport control officer…more of this to come no doubt. Bharat booked the tuktuk onto the ferry as a motorbike, which surprisingly nobody batted an eyelid at, and it was strapped into place in the belly of the ferry as we crossed the channel to Dunkirk.

Funniest moment: Rach being caught by the Radio 2 producer whilst on the loo! Safe to say they rang back 5 minutes later.

National Drink – UK: Chapel Down, English Sparkling Wine – delicious and the perfect way to toast our first day!

How do we feel (Amy): “I felt really emotional after our leaving do – it really hit home how much everyone has rallied behind this campaign for Emily. However, it was actually boarding the ferry in Dover that made it feel really real for me. I’d done a test drive in the tuktuk to James’ parents a few weeks ago so driving there for the evening almost felt like we were going down for the weekend! But mid-channel, as we said goodbye to the white cliffs of Dover, it really hit home that this was it and we’re finally on our way!”

Memories of Emily: We were waved off from Kent by David Sibree who lost his son Tom to SUDEP just over three years ago. Hearing David speak about Tom made it an emotional departure as we remembered both him and Emily and how much we have all lost.

TukTuk Trivia:

• Number of wrong turns: 3 (culprits: Amy twice + Bharat once)
• Best bladder control: Bharat
• Number of awareness postcards handed out: 5
• Number of new Instagram followers: Hundreds!

Dunce of the Day:

    BHARAT!

• 1 dangerous wrong turn
•  1 mobile phone left in tuk tuk 
•  1 motel key locked in room
• 1 panic over lost tuk tuk key (found later on his person)

As many of you know we had a match donation promise for donations made to our Just Giving site during August.

By the end of the August month we had managed to raise over £10,000 in donations to SUDEP Action, which meant that Nina and Jayesh Shanghavi had a hefty match funding bill!

Nina and Jayesh are the founders of the incredible Nyama Mama restaurants in Nairobi, Kenya. These restaurants are cool, unpretentious, fun, modern day African roadside diners. Locally inspired and full of flavour, the restaurants are taking Nairobi by storm. Their ugali fries ( a modern twist on the Kenyan staple food of maize meal porridge called ugali in Swahili) has been a big hit with diners.  And if you don’t believe us (because yes, we are biased) they’ve won lots of awards too, including:

• Continent Winner for Best African Cuisine at the 2018 World Luxury Restaurant 
• Best Home Style Cuisine at the MEA African Excellence Awards 2018

They have a number of sites across Nairobi and they also have a Pan Asian restaurant called Mr Yao and plenty of new projects in the pipeline – check out their website here: http://www.thegoodearthgroup.com/nyama-mama

Nina and Jayesh are also Emily’s auntie and uncle and so she holds a very special place in their hearts. We are so grateful to them for their continued support and we are also very grateful to all of you who donated in August and made the most of their generosity (!).

The TTTT team x

Roll Up!  Roll Up!

We are taking our alliteration to new heights now with our Tuk Tuk To Turkey Tees! TTTTT!

Available for a limited period only so please do browse our Tuk Tuk to Turkey Shop ASAP! 

Click here to be taken straight to our shop: TTTT Shop

Our tuk tuk logo is now printed in the colourful paisley design of our very own real-life tuk tuk! 

We held an online poll as we couldn’t choose between two great designs but the results came out 50:50 so we decided to please everyone and are offering both the logo across the front with the tuk tuk icon in the middle and also the ’emblem’ version with the tuk tuk crest on the left.

There is a ladies t-shirt, a unisex t-shirt and a sweatshirt available in both designs. We’d just love it people would come and wave us off in them on Sat 8th September from Pearl & Groove, 341 Portobello Rd, London between 10am and noon!!

All profits go to SUDEP Action so go on… buy one, buy two, buy more!!

It has been 9 months in the planning but our departure date is now just 4 weeks away. Eeek!

We will be leaving in the tuk tuk on SATURDAY 8th SEPTEMBER from Pearl & Groove cafe/bakery at 341 Portobello Road,  London, W10 5SA.

We will be gathering there at around 10am to say goodbye to friends and family and actually departing at noon. Pearl & Groove will be making special Tuk Tuk to Turkey cakes to celebrate! There will be fizz and nibbles too. Emily would love it.

Pearl and Groove are one of our 21 sponsors. One for each country we are going through.  They are sponsoring the UK and hosting our leaving party. Hooray! Check out our Our Sponsors page for more details about them and their beauteous gluten free cakes.

We would love to see any of you who can make it! Please wave us off and we would love for you all to film/photograph us and post it on your own social media using our hashtags.

We just need to get packing now and get some publicity! 

See you there!

Amy, James, Rachel, Bharat 

Please take a few moments to watch our short 2 minute film which we hope shows what we are doing and why it is important. Thank you!

There is some lovely archive footage of Emily, music composed especially for us and the Tuk Tuk to Turkey team talking about Emily, epilepsy, SUDEP and our mad idea to drive a tuk tuk from London to Istanbul!

We are indebted to the following people who kindly donated their valuable time and expertise.

Credits:

Director/Producer: Sam Metcalfe
Online Editor: Robert Leventhall
Music Composer: Oscar Osicki
Offline Editor: Suzy Ghaleb
Audio Mixer and Recordist: Sonny Lota
Audio Assistant: Jody O’Brien
Assistant Director: Christian Humphreys
Post Producer: Louise Channing / Guy Townsend
Directors of Photography: Jay Ellard / Loewy Simmons

It has been a very busy couple of weeks at Tuk Tuk to Turkey HQ!

We have been learning to drive the tuk tuk around the lanes in the Cotswolds which has been quite nerve wracking with the narrow lanes, high cow parsley and sharp bends. Rachel had a near miss with a large coach barrelling around the corner and Bharat managed to mount the pavement in Naunton village at 30km hour before dismounting it equally fast and shooting off towards a junction – stopping just in time! James and Amy had their first try at driving the tuk tuk over the weekend which was far more successful! James even managed a perfect reverse into a field gateway. Gold star!

The tuk tuk needs ‘running in’ like an old-fashioned car for the first 1000km which means not going over 30mph even in 4th gear on the main roads. Actually 30mph with no sides to the vehicle feels quite fast though and also very breezy and cold even on a lovely warm day!

Rachel has recorded a 1 hour radio interview with Charles Dewhurst interspersed with music on Radio Winchcombe in which she talks about Emily, epilepsy, SUDEP and Tuk Tuk to Turkey. The show will be aired on 107.1FM on Saturday 26^thMay at 2pm and will be available online thereafter at http://radio winchcombe.co.uk

This weekend we have been shooting a short film about what we are doing with the tuk tuk and why we are doing it. We hope that it will promote our cause and raise awareness. A young film maker called Sam Metcalfe very kindly offered to make the film for free and he brought along a great crew who worked incredibly hard for 2 days. The weather was amazing and we should have some amazing shots of the tuk tuk trundling up and down the Cotswold hills as well as the serious stuff about epilepsy and SUDEP and the Prevent 21 campaign.

We have also been finalising our on-line auction which goes LIVE at 9am on Sat 2^ndJune. We have some incredible auction lots from a week in a ski chalet in Verbier to a portrait commission to dinner for 8 cooked by a Cordon Bleu chef in your home to Chelsea and Arsenal tickets! There are over 50 different items so there is something for everyone!

Head to http://jumblebee.co.uk/tuktuktoturkey and have a browse at what we have on offer. Make your plan and put the date in your diary to make sure you don’t miss out!

Bharat is putting the final changes to our route in place and we will be updating Our Route page very soon. He has even booked our ferry tickets across the English Channel.

We also have some very kind friends arranging various fundraising events on our behalf from a quiz night in Cold Aston, Gloucestershire on Sunday 10th June at 6pm to a summer lunch party. On 12^thMay, Emily’s friend from Leeds, Pete McEwan held a Race Night in Shoreditch which served cocktails called SUMO (after Emily’s nickname) and held an amazing raffle. The night was hilarious fun and raised well over £2000 for SUDEP Action.

The coming weeks look equally packed with new avenues and offers to explore so it’s all very exciting!

We are getting so so so excited!

Our tuk tuk has landed in the UK from India and is being road tested this week before it is allowed to get a registration plate.

Apparently, it will only have a registration plate on the back as there is nowhere to put one on the front. So this means that we don’t need to worry about any speed cameras! Yippee. Oh wait………its maximum speed is only 40mph unladen, going downhill and with a following wind. Oh well.

The tuk tuk will be ‘shrink-wrapped’ with a colourful design we have chosen next week. Even more excited now! We want it to make an impact as we tootle about.

27^th February 2018

Wake up mid-dream. In the dream our tuk tuk is swinging in a huge net at a great height as it is lowered onto a ship at Istanbul harbour. Perhaps it’s because I met someone that evening who described his car being shipped back to England from somewhere exotic 40 years ago, but whether it is or not, it seems rather back-to-front to be working out how to get the tuk-tuk back home when it hasn’t even arrived in the UK yet.

So many possibilities have been swirling around our heads and we’ve had so many suggestions:

• Get 2 volunteers to drive it back – it will be much quicker if they don’t need to go through 21 countries!!
• Tow it back on a trailer?
• Hire a transit van and drive it back? Although can we even do that? Drop off a vehicle thousands of miles from where you hired it?
• Sell it in Turkey?
• Donate it to a charity in Turkey?
• Someone told us a story which involved finding someone in the RAF who could pop it in the back of a Hercules!

We’ve been told that we will love our tuk tuk by the end of our adventure and that it will feel like part of our family.  People we meet on our way will sign it, stick things on it and one of us will no doubt crash it, leaving it with some “rustic charm”. And we’ve named it ‘Sumo’ after Emily so of course we won’t want to part with it! Bart also fancies driving it to the pub on Gloucestershire summer evenings and we’re pretty sure he is offering his chauffeuring services in it as part of our auction……. so watch this space!

So today, amongst all the other moving parts, we’ve been writing to car shipping companies to see if they can swing our tuk tuk into one of their containers to make sure we get it home in one piece. Although if any of you have any other ideas – we’re all ears!!

Love Rachel, Bharat, Amy, and James x

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