It has now been more than a week since the Pulled Up In A Lemon girls convened in London to load (read overload) our mighty Toyota Yaris.
With the suspension maxed out, we have tackled France, the Unesco World Heritage town of Bruges in Belgium, Amsterdam, Germany and Prague — and all on the wrong side of the road! Accidents: 0; close calls: 7.
We hit the road after the Mongol Rally launch in Junk Town, which is located 40 minutes outside of Prague. It’s home to an eccentric group of locals, who live out their Mad Max fantasies, and host punk-style festivals.
On July 22, after some Mongolian wrestling, a huge tug of war and a massive send-off, 320 cars, carrying 650 people, set off on their adventures, hoping to meet again 17,000km down the road and eight weeks later. With rumours that only 70% of the Mongol Rally cars have made it to Russia in the past, us four Kiwi girls will pull out every trick in the book to make sure we are one of the finishers.
Our Pulled Up In a Lemon team is one of just four all-women crews and we have linked up with 10 Kiwi boys from Hawke’s Bay made up of three teams — Kubb and Tuggs, Pavlova Rova and the Mountain Oysters — to head east.
It was smooth sailing through the Czech Republic, Austria and Hungary on the three-lane highways — a luxury that will soon be missed. Our $40 tents have been serving us well, having not spent the past week in a real bed.
Our 998cc, £650 ($1200) Toyota, nicknamed ‘‘the Lemon’’, has allowed us to get off the beaten track, explore country roads, small towns and find some delightful camping spots — especially on the river bank of the Danube in Hungary, with Slovakia visible across the water.
We loved getting out of the tourist trap that is Western Europe and entering Romania. It’s like stepping back in time — a beautiful place, with green countryside as far as the eye can see, big mountain ranges, rural towns, picturesque churches and many smiling faces. A camping spot at the foot of the mountains, gave ‘‘the Lemon’’ her first off-roading test. She coped well ... although the backseat bandits did need to get out to lighten the load!
Keep an eye on us as our Kiwi convoy pushes on towards Dracula’s castle in Transylvania and negotiates the famous Transfagarasan Highway (a paved mountain road crossing the southern section of Romania’s Carpathian Mountains).
You can track Pulled Up In A Lemon progress using this link: trackme.kiwi/event/unlistedview/1227/496486 or download the app Track Me NZ and enter lemon@trackme.nz
Pulled Up In A Lemon is raising money for New Zealand’s Women’s Refuge. Its fundraising link is https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/pulledupinalemon
BY LUCY PRINGLE - Pulled Up In A Lemon member
Photo: Supplied
