XWORLD, Stage 3: Adventure on the Black Sea - From Istanbul to Astrakhan

The third stage of the XWORLD tour 2008/2009 crossed the Carpathian Mountains in Rumania and the endless expanses of the Ukraine and Russia to the Caspian Sea. This is an account of the journey by the participants who drove from Istanbul to Astrakhan with Land Cruisers. And gave breakdown assistance and received lavish hospitality.

"It will be strenuous, that much is clear. 2500 kilometres in one week. Off-road vehicles are the ideal means of transport for Europe's new East along the Black sea, because here there are potholes and roads without asphalt. Our journey - the third stage of the XWORLD Tour - begins in Istanbul. The bustling city on the Bosporus with the bridge which is lit in ever-changing colours at night exudes charm mixed with oriental leisure. We notice this on the first day of the tour, when we want to pick up our vehicles from customs at the airport. Literally a hundred times, the tour leaders have the passports in their hands. The tax number of HANSA-FLEX is missing, or the first name of the father of one of the drivers. Thankfully, an interpreter had been engaged, who could sort everything out. The procedure is friendly but tedious.

Finally we set out on the motorway towards Edirne, then via Kirklareli to Aziziye. Our destination is "Bulgaristan", as Turkey's northern neighbour is called in Turkish. At the top the Turks have put up a "güle, güle" sign, with "good bye" underneath for foreigners. The Bulgarians make an effort with a sentence in German: "Schön willkommen." The cars roll through a bath of chlorinated water to disinfect them. We drive along the Black Sea as far as Sosopol, one of the oldest settlements in the region. On the peninsula south of Burgas, old wooden houses are being repaired and fishermen are patching up their wooden boats. In Agalinakafe (Milet 2), a blonde woman, who can speak a few words of German, serves us black coffee. With it she throws longish bags of sugar onto the table, which immediately become collectors' items. Sugar in copies of Euro notes - from 5 to 500 Euros - that is amusing. The group spends the night in the new Santa Marina Holiday Village, with a view of the sea and a magnificent starry sky.

The next day there is a picnic and a few steep forest tracks, which although they need first gear, don't yet need reduced ratio. That comes later. Off-road vehicles belong off the road, and here is a good place to try this out. We soon cross the Rumanian border at Mangalia. An enormous shipyard and the navy attract our attention. The harbour of Constanta is also worth seeing, although the town still suffers from ugly modern concrete buildings. The destination for today is Mamaia, a few kilometres further north, with the five-star Rex hotel right on the beach. It is nice to see the six mud-covered HANSA-FLEX vehicles lined up like pearls in front of the elegant white building, to the left of the red carpet. After spending the night there, the next morning a few brave souls from our group risk a quick dip in the Black Sea, in order to be able to say: I was in there. Windchill factor: eleven degrees. A car ferry brings our off-road vehicles safely across the Danube and we roll on towards Bucharest. There, we first stop at the HANSA-FLEX headquarters on the edge of the town. A red HANSA-FLEX service van with all kinds of important hose connections and parts joins our convoy. The drive through Bucharest is a real challenge - fortunately each vehicle is equipped with a radio, so that no-one feels lost, even at red traffic lights.

The next morning we drive up into the Carpathian Mountains on forest tracks - just the thing for off-road fans. Anyone who wants to use the reduced gear ratio, or to drive at full power through mud and gravel, can find countless steep stretches. The group is led through sunken tracks in the forest, in which the side mirrors have to be folded in and reduced ratio is needed. Here the tracks often consist of knee-deep mud, because the winter is long in the Carpathian Mountains, which are up to 2500 metres high.

However, on the stretch to the north, the convoy has to turn back. There are too many boulders in the river, which cannot simply be pushed away. We turn back - and are surprised when suddenly four Rumanians come towards us on foot. After a bend at an altitude of 1,080 metres we see why: their triple-axle Scania logging truck is up to its axles in the mud on the left hand side and is blocking the way. The track is only as wide as the truck. We therefore have to turn back, pick up the four men and pull out the truck…

The action takes two hours. We put on the winches and straps; even more XWORLD vehicles take part. However, it is no use: on the last attempt there is just a bang and a hissing noise - the propshaft of the truck has broken. That is the end. The convoy takes the four forestry workers down into the valley and has to make a detour to the hotel in Sighisoava.
The next morning our route takes us towards Moldavia, via a pass and a gorge to the well-known monasteries. Lacu Rosu is the name of this impressive region, through which the high-level road winds its way. Between the pine trees we have a view of the high granite cliffs, and down below the river murmurs. Then finally, after many villages with storks which like to make their nests on the electricity poles to the left and right of the road, the first monastery: Bistrita. Prince Alexander the Good had it built in 1400. Icons, manuscripts and an altar in the dark tower - which can only be seen with the flashes of our cameras - give the place a feeling of eternity.

Then we reach the end of the EU: the border with Moldova. Sculeni is the name of the border town, and somewhere near the village of Bahmut the sun goes down, so we look for a campsite for the night. Down below is a lake, which is pointed out to us by a startled landowner who rushes up to the group in his Lada. Cooking by the light of the headlights, food at the camp table, with good red wine. Camp fire idyll a few metres further away, so that the sparks do not burn holes in the tents. This is all part of the romance of an adventure trip. In the distance a goods train clatters along the track. Otherwise everything is silent. The landowner provides us with a little history: Up on the hill, not far from our camp, Russian and German tanks met each other more than 63 years ago. The Russian army forced the German troops back. And what a gesture the young Moldvan makes to us the next morning: he brings us a pot with warm milk and a cheese yoghurt from his mother's kitchen.

Our next destination is Kiev, but on the way to this most westerly of all Eastern European capitals there is still a small country which officially does not exist: Transnistria. It has separated from Moldova, is one and a half times the size of Saarland, has a Supreme Soviet and a president called Igor Smirnow, who gets along fine with Moscow. In this socialist retreat, tourists have been very welcome since a few weeks ago. Entry has been made much easier. Therefore our tour leader decides to include an additional excursion into this curious country.

In the country we see scenes which can hardly be experienced anywhere else: On the meat counter, pigs' ears are for sale; whereas otherwise Cyrillic lettering is predominant, we suddenly see a sign with the words "Second hand". After initial reserve, we are received and treated like friends in a little village. At some time we have to travel onwards - towards the Ukraine. There are even some German border guards at work, who as part of EU aid, are meant to show what quick and simple customs clearance means. However, that has not been a great success. We have to wait. The drug sniffer dog has to sniff at each vehicle,

then finally we are in the Ukraine. We make good progress - the motorway from Odessa to Kiev is well-built. On the eighth day of the stage we reach the three-million inhabitant metropolis on the Djnepr. We still have four days ahead of us. These take us off-road through the east of the Ukraine, where we find a brilliant campsite near Dneprpetrowsk - once again next to a lake. After we have obtained enough provisions and firewood from the nice villagers, we look back on the day by the side of our camp fire. We cross the border to Russia near Volgograd (formerly Stalingrad), where for the first time for several days we are able to sleep in a hotel bed. And that is a good thing, because the final stage takes us along gravel roads along the Volga as far as Astrakhan in Russia. Thoroughly shaken but delighted, we arrive at our destination - and we are sad that we have to fly back to Germany."