So we're back on the road and cruising down to our overnight ferry to Italy. Have you noticed how i only blog from the back of the car and not while actually sat on the beach?

A very unusual dumball day- we've just set off at 7pm after spending the day sleeping, playing pool polo and having a beach volleyball tournament a few hundred meters down the beach from where we did in 2006. It's a short (4 hour) across good motorways so we made the most of our plush greek resort and revitalised mind, body and soul.

Now, there is a road over the top over Mt Olympus. Our sat nav said it was one hour, others said 5 hours, it wasn't in the maps, and the locals said it would be 10 hours. So, given that we've just driven over some of europes most amazing mountain roads, we figured a little r&r was called for rather than leaving earlier. Some cars did brave it, and i'll be very interested to know if they saw any gods up there. Shame to miss a good road, but it was a nice beach.

In fact we've just heard- they didn't make it over and had to turn back. I think that means they didn't take the road over the top but we'll find out later...

I've swapped cars for a quick jaunt in dumball one and am enjoying a little bit of magic up front. Watching a little bit of Extras, planning a rousing final leg speech and preparing to accept hundreds of stupid photos from everyones challenges. Looking forward to those!

Oh- better slow down, just saw a sign the said 'Attention danger. Bears habitat.'

Ahh, Greek port authority

Interesting...

We're in Igoumenitsa, inside the secure international port.

Not that we've been challenged by anyone yet.. and not that we actually have any tickets yet.. but we just drove in. I know that we need to pick the tickets up, but only the person who made the booking can do that.

So, we're sat in the port, waiting for the rest of the world to arrive, hoping vaguely that they haven't broken down or got lost. Could be fun :)

The run down from Mount Olympus to Igoumenitsa was pretty uneventful. We came on early so I could meet up with my mum (Hi mum! /wave) who lives in Corfu. A nice spot of lunch and a few hours gab, and I'm ready to hit the ferry and party like there is no tomorrow. Except of course, there is a tomorrow.. and in true Dumball style its a 400 mile "sprint" across the south of Italy, to our glorious destination of Sicily. Damn, are we that close already? :(

Zoobs

Beach bums

It's a hard life driving thousands of miles and today the cars and their drivers received a good old beach break. Right now were on route to the overnight ferry to Italy after a seriously chilled day...

Dumball one

Greece and beyond

Morning all!

We're in Greece, at a lovely hotel right by the sea at the foot of Mount Olympus, and it's bloody hot.

Yesterday was a usual eventful Dumball day. Prishtina is an interesting city - one thing that they are desperately in need of are innovative marketing companies. Frankly, the petrol company cunning called "Petrol Company" was our first clue. However, after taking a wander around the city in the evening that was certainly not the only example of obviously named companies.

We ended up celebrating in the hotel - apparently they have recently introduced laws that force all of the beverage entertainment locations to shut at midnight. However, with a little negotiation with the hotel staff, they finally agreed to keep the hotel bar open for "as long as necessary". They obviously haven't looked up the Dumball before.

In the morning, we left Prishtina and headed south towards Macedonia. Our first stop of the day was at a petrol station to fill up the cars. Whilst there, we got a little American Football in with the locals, which they seemed to enjoy almost as much as us.

We then headed on to the Macedonian border, which was the usual "border tax" situation, followed by lots of arm-waving and gesticulating. Luckily, the fact our V5 isn't entirely accurate in terms of owner didn't hold us up at the border.

Heading into Macedonia, we picked up the toll road and continued south. The road was pretty much deserted, which allowed us to pull off some amazing manoevers with the cars. A quick hug of a policeman, riding a local's vehicle and trying to nick a police car later, we cross the border into Greece. (Thanks Macedonia - that €50 insurance was worth every penny for the two hours we were there!)

Finally reach the hotel pretty early doors - around 5.30pm, once we had moved our clocks forward again an hour. Had a swim on the pool, a bite to eat in the local all-you-can-eat buffet restaurant, then we headed down to the beach for a party, finally hitting the sack at around 4am.

So now, I'm up and about getting ready to depart. (The rest of the Dumball crew are hanging on til about 4, but I'm off with Dan and Mat to head to Igoumenitsa to meet my parents for the afternoon. We'll hook up with the rest of the Dumball as we get onto the ferry to Brindisi.

Oh - we did lose two more cars yesterday. General Lee died with a head gasket problem, and I believe the Ben's Angels car suffered a bijou tappette to the front end which rendered it a little broken. (Don't worry - everyone is fine!) I think that brings our total to 4 down now, which is pretty good considering the terrain we've been going over.

Anyhow. Must have a beer. It's at least 10.20am now and my alcohol-stream has a high blood content. At least Des is driving!

Cheers

Zoobs

Kosovans treat us like marmite

But they mainly love us. Just met a kosovan who has a car wash in tottenham and offered us a free one next weekend. Excellent.

Downhill all the way from here- after the swedish nato forces waved us off, there was a short battle out of pristina and down to macedonia. More border insurance and it's time for a lunch break in the middle of nowhere.

I don't think this random cafe was expecting 20 'ballers to turn up unannounced and have just popped to the shop to get some more chicken...

All Hail George Bush

So, where was i? Oh yes, fruity...
Let me start by relaying a message from Lord Horn i received earlier today (tuesday?): 3500ft up in mountains between montnegro n kosovo, had a huge Adam moment. The boy woulda liked this!
He sure would. Today's drive was absolutely incredible.
So, the montenegro hotel was a massive downgrade from the decidedly dodgy one that we had originally booked, and of course finding it without any maps was a lot of fun. They held our passports for a good couple of hours this morning while the transfered money was transfered on the third hotel but we got there in the end and squeezed a bit of a rebate out of them to make up for the cockroaches... Which was promptly spent no bubbly for those lucky dumballers having a birthday this week.
But the real story for today was the drive- oh my f-ing g. Montenegro really should shout more about it's scenery. There's no way this phone or any pictures do it justice, but the drive over the mountains was simply stunning. We peaked at over 5000ft surrounded by nothing but rugged peaks and the occasional cow, many hours from any form of civillisation, stopping regulary to tend to either boiling radiators or red hot brakes. What superlative haven't i used yet? Mind-boggling.
Eventually we reached the border for the day- the UN administered state of kosovo. We've been trying all day to work out how an unrecognised state works exactly... And it doesn't. The road from mne to pristina was about 100km but far bumpier that any before, and completely unfinished so it took hours at 20mph. Insane.
Pristina is mental. So much so that they have imposed a curfew and the town is shut down at midnight, pubs, clubs and all. But we persuaded grand hotel to let us have a lock-in and we got most of our kosovan cultural fix from the hotel bar.
That's enough for now. Tomorrow- the EU! --

Kosovo

And so we make it to Kosovo. We took a windy windy route that can only be described as windy. Here's some pics...

Kosovo..... We made it!

Hello everyone!

Zubel checking in for the first time this Dumball. So far Wifi access has been a bit sparse, so I'm taking the opportunity to blog whilst I can.

The story so far...

We're now on what feels like our fourth week of Dumballing, although by the Dumball calendar we've just finished day 5.

Our run to Zurich on the second day was loooong, and fairly uneventful. We took the opportunity to cover a bit of road that we covered in the '08 Dumball again which led us into a traffic jam, and we ended up at the hotel around 10.30pm. Following a quick change of clothes, we head out to the Australian bar for a few beers, and then passed out from exhaustion in the small, yet perfectly formed hotel.

Day 3 was another very long day, heading down to Rijeka in Croatia. It started pretty badly, with Smalley's car dying in the car park of the start hotel (that was the second car death for the Black squadron), so the remaining three Black squadron cars joined our Pink squadron to create "Blink Squadron" and we convoyed as a group of 9 cars. The scenery was awesome as we took in the Swiss and Austrian mountains (found an amazing restaurant that had an impromptu barbecue for us with the most beautiful panoramic view I have ever seen), then turned south into Slovenia and Croatia. We stopped a few times, and again ended up late getting into the hotel. Total mileage so far, around 1,100. The hotel was a little odd, but the beer was €1.50 a bottle and we sank a few. Some people headed off into town to the "club", but I was knackered after the long day so decided (again!) to hit the sack.

Day 4. The Epic journey to Budva. A slow start, and we covered about half the distance by 5pm. We ploughed on and eventually made our way to Budva. Then through Budva.. then 15km the other side of Budva. After wrestling control of the sat-nav from Smalley, we turned around, beaded back into Budva and found our hotel at 1.30am.

Well..... what can I say. It reminded me immediately of "Hi-de-hi". The place was a little, uhm.. dated. It looked like they had reopened the hotel in the morning we arrived and half of it was condemned. We were convinced that there was a cure for cancer in the shower tray and the food was interesting. However, the most important thing was that beer was bloody cheap, so we drank into the wee small hours of the morning and then passed out again in bed. (see the pattern forming yet).

Now, I must stop briefly and apologise for the short summaries of days so far. As I mentioned at the start, this now feels like the fourth week of Dumball, and there has been so much happening that a lot of it has passed without me remembering (and without me being able to catalogue it on the blog). However, now I shall launch into Day 5 - the epic journey from Budva to Pristina in Kosovo.

The day started well. We came down to the car park to the Spirit of Austerity's car firmly planted on it's side. Breakfast was "interesting", in Croatian style and we weren't allowed to get our passports back from reception until the bill had been paid. In true Dumball style, we partied in the glorious sunshine in the car park until all the wrinkles had been smoothed out, then we returned the Spirit's car to four wheel heaven and headed off.

To start with, the drive was fairly easy although the cars were struggling a little with the mountain climb. I spent some time hanging out of the rear window enjoying the sunshine (yes, I'm sunburnt) whilst we played gentle dodgems with the "Blows the doors off" team. (thanks for the whiplash, beyatches..) After a small detour, (we all make mistakes....) we finally found our feet and headed out to the infamous Kosovan border - all the while the locals were marvelling at the amazing Space Shuttle of the "Lunartics" (man, that craft has some sweet work done on it - just between you and me, it gets my vote).

So, the border worked pretty much as all the borders worked in '08. You arrive, you purchase insurance for an absolute extortionate amount (€40 in this case). You then behave yourself as you pass through the border, pray a little, hope that no-one notices that the V5 is in the name of someone who isn't in your party, and also hope that the fact your front bumper is held on entirely by gaffer tape. (Thanks Knights - please remember you have a tow bar before reversing into the front of us :P), and the number plate is gaffer-taped to the bonnet. Despite all that, they let us through, and after a brief stop to distribute some "Everclear" (look it up - it's very alcoholic), we proceeded on into Kosovo.

Wow, the road was actually really nice. The locals very friendly and accommodating. We're making really good time to get to Pristina. Then we hit the "Roadworks".

Now, I can appreciate that flinging up infrastructure is a tricky business. However, the last 30km to Pristina are effectively a gravel rally track, around 50m wide, with lanes defined by the current flow of traffic, luck, and collision avoidance.

It was frickin AWESOME

Then we pull up at the Grand Hotel Pristina, which was the most beautiful sight I have ever seen. They have wifi, hot running water, electricity and a bar. Tonight's plan is to eat here in the hotel first, (I believe that we have an announcement at 22.00, and I'm not privy to what's being announced so that could also be interesting) then we're heading out to town to celebrate the fact that we got here without being blown up by a land mine!

So, I'm showered for the first time in four days.. I have wifi.. A beer in my hand.. and I'm blogging. I feel human again and am looking forward to the next four weeks of Dumball.

Sorry for the lack of pictures. I'll figure something out..

Zoobs..

Wait a minute...

That's not a dumballer! It's nice to see that other people paint up an old banger and drive south and east for a laugh! And no, i wasn't driving when i took this picture, before you ask.

We just saw 2 more! Not quite as beautiful as the dumball of course but we definatly have a banger rally on our hands. Wonder where they're heading.... And here we have the view from bosnia. Breathtaking scenes all day through the croatian mountains and dalmation- never fails to disappoint. A little disappointed to be driving as it gets dark again, but hardly surprising (and we wouldn't have got to see that sunset would we?). Just a short ferry across a lake and a couple of hours to go before we have see if the administrative nightmare in budva has been resolved... Oh, and a little thing called the Montenegro border. This is where things start getting fruity...--
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Raising the Roof

Well, whether or not we made it to the hotel by 11 is still a matter of hot debate, but we made it to club boa by 1 and got up to the usual business till the wee hours- a good job as they had opened especially for and even fed the snake.
Currently blatting a bit of croatian motorway before rejoining the dalmation coast road and heading to sveti phil's for a spot of lunch munching. See phil? It's NOT a holiday, we have to go out of our way to fine silly signs with you name in! --

Triple booked...

Tomorrows going to be fun as people turn up at the 3 different hotels we've been booked into... Nice of them to give up at least 12 hours notice after we've already re-printed the manual once!

Awesome.

These views never get old. Nor does 50 'ballers doing busted jump in front of nature's finest, but you'll have to wait for colin's pics for that. Speaking of which, he is getting old. He was 40 this year you know ;)

The earlier estimate of a third is proving to be correct, there may be a little more night driving than we hoped for! Currently driving through the Hohe Tauern National Park in Austria, soon (in dumball terms) to drop down into slovenia and onto Croatia- if we don't get there by 11 I owe the TCT 20 quid. If we do, Rick does. So they don't miss out either way.

Speaking of which, how the fundraising going? Why take a small moment to pop over www.dumball.org to see exactly where we (or Zubel's phone anyway) currently are and click 'sponsor a dumballer' and chuck some cash at your dumbest team. Ignore the totaliser on the vmg page- we've raised loads more than that! Stay dumb!

Alps.

5 hours in (about a third? Who knows) and we're deep in the austrian alps dining on schitzel and debating which route will get us to croatia before midnight.

The view has not disappointed but the length is weighing heavily on some inexperienced dumballers minds... Currently heading up a 13 car convoy, unlucky for some, particulary those following directions from this sat nav!

And i beleive we've lost 2 cars so far today. 33 to go...

Just received this from an unsuspecting Frenchman

Wow,... We must be strange

Hi,

I'm from Cernay, France. Near the German and Swiss border. I've just been in a supermarket when I saw strange people, strangely dressed !
Outside, some strange cars... And one broken (a yellow Mercedes). The strange people where trying to fix it drinking, laughing and happy.
Usually, around a broken car, people don't smile.
It was a very strange situation.

So I've asked to one this strange men, what they were doing. When I've heart that you are having fun for a good reason. It was not a surprise. You are so strange. So...

Congratulation for the things that you are doing. 

Drive save, and I hope that everybody will come back from Sicily and see the happy faces of the people that you are helping,

Best regards from France,

Christophe Meyer

Champagne anyone?

>

So one dumball day finally completed! Thank you very to Daniel, Rachel and Mike for supplying the awesome space laser which the LSP use to protect the galaxy from er... Batman! Kappow! Splat! Etc. And boring drives- of which today is definately the last.

We are in winterthur- 40k from Zurich. The plan was to hit the town at Club X-Tra, but after 14 hours on the road i suspect we'll be staying local. Maybe.

Top Dum have just arrived! I'm off. Peace.

The LSP and crew have taken a minor detour... To luxembourg, the land where you can buy 5 kilos of nuttella at the petrol station.

3 mini disasters so far...

1. Our cigarette lighter doesn't work. No mobile chargers, no sat nav, no music. Bollocks. Dumball engineers swing into action.

2. Top Dum have left one of their fighter pilot helmets in the hotel. Already. Fed ex swings into action- it should be with us in montenegro.

3. I'm driving today. So no updates for a while. We also now past the midway point on the chunnel, which means we are on european data, and the update frequency may slow down. And if you don't here from us in ex-yugo countries hopefully it's because there's no data, not because we have made any diplomatic errors...

We're off!

Can you guess who the secret mega star was yet?

Rick and addy share a moment doing a little needlework...

And my team have finally arrived! LOOK AT THEM!

It begins... A hundred idiots just paraded their way though brighton in our first launch party! A lot of organisation swings into action (sort of) and dumball 5 is off!

That's a couple of chargers sorted!

Cigarette lighter sockets are like gold dust on the dumball...

And the mobile blogging is nearly working!

The route - highlights!

...and along that route, we have a number of spectacular journeys and sights to see!

Our route takes us through the heart of the Austrian Alps, passing the Hohe Tauern National Park:

Things get a little fruity as we cross into Kosovo on a mountain pass in the middle of nowhere:

See how the Serbia/Kosovo border is in red because its a disputed territory?

Having made our way through former Yugoslavia with hopefully only minor diplomatic infractions, we head to the Greece coast and have a relaxing day in front of Mount Olympus, home of Zeus:

Click for bigger!

The Route - revealed!

Dumball 5: The Godfather Route Map