XWORLD, Stage 1: Asphalt jungle, gravel roads and snow slabs - from Bremen to Istanbul

The first stage of the XWORLD-Tour 2008/2009 was exactly 4,237 kilometres. An account of the journey by the participants who travelled from Bremen to Istanbul - along wide roads, bumpy gravel roads, through narrow tunnels and past a picturesque landscape.

"We're off at last. We have been looking forward to our XWORLD off-road adventure trip for weeks now. It's good to be seen off this way: many staff, friends and partners of HANSA-FLEX had come to witness the start of the tour. Over the next 20 months it will pass through 34 countries and two continents - and we are the ones travelling the first stage.

On 9 March, at half-past ten in the morning, our 5 distinctive Toyota Land Cruisers and an escort vehicle set off punctually from the headquarters of the HANSA-FLEX Group in Bremen. Our first goal: Berlin - lots of motorway, but for a start it is good to learn how an off-road vehicle reacts. It is a different feeling to steering a normal small or medium-sized car. We arrive safely in the capital, have a short photo session in front of Brandenburg Gate, visit the Reichstag and have our evening meal on the Berlin TV tower. The main topic of conversation during the meal: next day's off-road training.

Second day: We set off early in the morning and drive from Berlin to the Meuro opencast mine. An "off-road event" is on the programme. The "event" requires all our driving skills: loose sandy banks, narrow passages, steep cliffs and finally fording a deep river. Thank goodness: the door seals really do keep the water out - no-one gets their feet wet. We still don't realise that we will really need this hard training a few days later…

However, the next few days are very relaxed. We enjoy the drive via Dresden and Füssen, visit Schloss Neuschwanstein and drive to Austria via Garmisch and the German Alpenstrasse. After crossing the Gerloch pass we reach Klagenfurt, our destination for the fourth day of the tour.

The next morning we want to drive on towards Zagreb - which is not so easy. We drive to Slovenia along side roads and officially closed passes. We are glad that we have four-wheel drive and a very good suspension. We travel through the countryside on unsurfaced roads, until we reach Croatia and arrive in Zagreb in the evening. A nice gesture: The HANSA-FLEX branch manager is waiting for us there and invites us to a great lamb feast in a beautiful restaurant on the outskirts of the town. The hotel for the evening is magnificent and famous. One of the participants stays in the suite in which Tito once spent the night.

The morning of the sixth day begins with a shock: someone has broken into one of our vehicles. The small rear side window was broken and various items had been stolen - even though we had parked the car directly opposite the police station as a precaution…! Because of this, our departure to our next destination, Zadar, was delayed somewhat - but eventually we actually got started. After 50 kilometres we turn off onto side roads and later get onto gravel roads which bring us nearer to our goal. We are shocked by the remnants of the civil war, which can still be seen: shot-up houses, minefields to the right and left of the road, trenches, shell-holes and countless crosses with the faces of the dead at the roadside. In the evening we arrive safely in Zadar.

From there, our journey the next day takes us along the coast road to Split and from there, towards Dubrovnik. Now some of us get our feet wet: during the midday picnic at the water's edge some of us cannot resist and go bathing - at the beginning of March (brr…). However, the break was refreshing and necessary, because the road becomes more difficult. We travel through the mountains towards Bosnia, carefully steering our Land Cruisers along gravel roads and through river-beds.

During the late afternoon we cross the border and soon reach Mostar, where we spend the night. The rebuilt Stari Most (Old Bridge) is a special experience. In the early morning we start off through the mountains towards Sarajevo, but we soon leave the normal routes. For 20 kilometres we drive off-road along a river - more than half of the way is through up to 500-metre long unlit tunnels, each just about as wide as our off-road vehicles. However, by now we are experienced drivers: we manage it without a single scratch to the paintwork and arrive happily in Sarajevo and reach our destination for the night, Zlatibor, in Serbia. Up to now we have travelled exactly 3,009 kilometres.

When we wake up in the morning we become aware that our stage is gradually coming to an end. In a somewhat melancholy mood we enjoy the journey through forests and over snow-covered mountain passes towards Belgrade. Here the first vehicles become victims of snow slabs, which suddenly detach themselves and trap the vehicles. With a winch and great sensitivity with the clutch and accelerator, as a team we get each vehicle free. However, the snow slabs in the mountains continue to cause us trouble. We cannot cross one of the passes on the planned route and have to drive around the mountain, so that we reach the Bulgarian border much later than we had hoped. An unaccustomed feeling: we suddenly reach the European Union and are stringently checked at the border… Exhausted but happy, we reach Sofia in the late evening.

The last three days of the first stage are rather relaxing. The off-road event near Sofia no longer causes us any difficulty - we enjoy the pure delight of driving and mastering difficult stretches. A visit to HANSA-FLEX in Plovdiv and a lavish evening programme in the "Happy Village" restaurant make our experiences in Bulgaria unforgettable.

In the morning, only 450 kilometres separate us from our final destination, Istanbul, which we reach after a relaxed drive. We let XWORLD gradually come to an end with two days in the metropolis on the Bosporus and a comprehensive supporting programme and a sightseeing tour. We are proud to have been the first participants of this adventure tour, and some of us are certain to travel on one of the other stages."

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