Team Trans-Stan Express

Team Trans-Stan Express Two blokes taking on the 2023 edition of the Mongol Rally in an (un)trusty 1988 Fiat Panda 1000CL

A REVIEW. Northern Morocco.After the immigration drama at Tangier we drove East along the Northern Morocco coastline to ...
04/09/2023

A REVIEW. Northern Morocco.

After the immigration drama at Tangier we drove East along the Northern Morocco coastline to our spectacular wild camping spot on a clifftop overlooking the local villages.

1. The boys relax as the sun rises, preparing for a day pushing South.

2. Our camping spot in the morning sun.

3. Screeching South across the plains!

THE END.Thank you all so much for following along, this really is the end now we’ve rumbled through all the DSLR content...
03/09/2023

THE END.

Thank you all so much for following along, this really is the end now we’ve rumbled through all the DSLR content. We’ve raised an amazing £1,367 for and thank you all for your help.

You’ve seen all these photos before, but now they’re in Black and White for extra nostalgia.

We hope you enjoy them. For now we’ll have to wait to see you in the next adventure x

A REVIEW. Col Du Parpaillon.While we’ve all but departed your Instagram feeds, I’ve returned from Devon and have finishe...
03/09/2023

A REVIEW. Col Du Parpaillon.

While we’ve all but departed your Instagram feeds, I’ve returned from Devon and have finished editing the best of the remaining photos so we can stretch out a few more days content. So from where we left off, the next stop was the Col du Parpaillon, SE France.

1. My favourite photo from the whole trip, taken just after waking up in a valley after the Col in which we’d camped, the sunrise lighting up a section of the valley floor. and return across the river from the early morning rays.

2. Mandy lugging herself up the final stretch of the track to the Col.

3. The wagons at the mouth of the tunnel at the Col, taken from the top of the arch giving a view of the surrounding mountains.

4. representing on the tunnel arch.

5. Wake-up in the valley with Stan’s new bullbars.

6. Gathered around the campfire having descended from the Col.

REVIEW. DAY 7 - 4 countries, 1 dayAfter ‘s Yaris clutch was sorted in Tirana we found a campsite in the North of Albani...
14/08/2023

REVIEW. DAY 7 - 4 countries, 1 day

After ‘s Yaris clutch was sorted in Tirana we found a campsite in the North of Albania, at the border town of Shkodër. One of our favourite campsite with cheap beer open till late. Not much more too it.

1. On the way to Montenegro. Holding a DSLR outside a car at 50mph is not recommended.

2. 😎

3. A lethargic camp pack-up

4. The last of the chaotic Albanian towns

A REVIEW. DAY 5 - Karagyol ReservoirThe first of many clutch burners and the second time our exhaust jumped off. Some ni...
13/08/2023

A REVIEW. DAY 5 - Karagyol Reservoir

The first of many clutch burners and the second time our exhaust jumped off. Some nice views from the peak though, towering over 2,200m above the Balkan plains.

1. One of the seventeen million hairpins needed to wind our way up to the Pole.

2+3. Lil photoshoot with Stan at the peak.

A REVIEW. DAY 3 Part 1 - POI 36 AdventuresRouting for POI 36 (Pole of Toxicity) leaving the town of Campeni, the site of...
10/08/2023

A REVIEW. DAY 3 Part 1 - POI 36 Adventures

Routing for POI 36 (Pole of Toxicity) leaving the town of Campeni, the site of our €7 hotel!

1. and getting ready to set out from Campeni.

2. The Pole of Toxicity, the church spire visible above the arsenic bath

3. our resident geologist studying this geological specimen (presumably)

4. A roadside stop on the way to POI 37, “Through the Hills”

5. Our stallions taking a brief rest on the skiddy hairpin. Safe to say we weren’t up to sliding the cars off the side of the hill.

A REVIEW. DAY 1 - The start lineHere’s our selection of starting cars, feat the coolest and second coolest VW Polos at t...
10/08/2023

A REVIEW. DAY 1 - The start line

Here’s our selection of starting cars, feat the coolest and second coolest VW Polos at the start line (you decide!).

Against all odds we made it to the startline in central Prague. After some quick maintenance on the overheating Stan, we hit the beers and enjoyed our first bit of relaxation since leaving the UK.

Being woken to the sound of a German oompa band we packed up our kit ready to leave for the start of the adventure. Reconvening with to confirm the convoy we joined the queue to leave the site.

Slogging Stan to keep up with DHG with hit the motorway to head to Hungary.

Stumbling upon this dream of a campsite outside Budapest we pitch our tents and cool off in the nearby lake. A perfect end to day 1 in the European heatwave.

A REVIEW. DAY -2 - The realisationThese snaps are taken the day after we arrive in Eschweiler, West Germany, where the r...
09/08/2023

A REVIEW. DAY -2 - The realisation

These snaps are taken the day after we arrive in Eschweiler, West Germany, where the real Trans-Stan Express saga began. Initially battling a blocked idling jet in the carburettor we stumbled upon .e.coyote._ and who completely saved our trip, firstly by unblocking the jet so the car can idle without turning off!

10 minutes after fixing this the distributor packed in, causing the car to shut off as it warmed up. Diagnosing this was nigh on impossible as we ran through every possible item it could have been. After .karmel spend the entire day on German public transport and spoke in broken A Level German to several garages a spare rotor arm was sourced for our spare distributor. This has been bulletproof since leaving Eschweiler and continues to prove its worth on Stan.

As we wind down from the  rally, it's time to reflect on what we've achieved over the past four weeks. Here are some mea...
07/08/2023

As we wind down from the  rally, it's time to reflect on what we've achieved over the past four weeks. Here are some mean stats to take away from the rally.

8,389.2 miles driven
£1,097 raised for charity - donations still open, link in bio!
~120 zip-ties
19 countries
10 Poles of Inconvenience
5 alternators
4 exhaust ejections
2 major breakdowns
0 finish lines crossed

It has been a truly wild trip, one we'd do again in a heartbeat. Over the next month, we'll be making a r***e of all the antics, starting from tomorrow, with the unseen photos from the DSLR. We hope you enjoy them.

Finally a thank you to everyone for your undying support in this trip, and to for such a mad event - go check them out for their other adventures, some of which are a bit closer to home if the POI is a bit too much! It hasn't all been sunshine and rainbows, but your reactions to our stories and messages have kept us going. Thank you all.

See you soon.



END OF VOLUME ONE

END OF PART FOUR - PUSH FOR PRAGUEDAY 22 - HomecomingWell here we are ending Volume 1 of the Tran-Stan Express adventure...
07/08/2023

END OF PART FOUR - PUSH FOR PRAGUE

DAY 22 - Homecoming

Well here we are ending Volume 1 of the Tran-Stan Express adventures after 4 parts. Part 5 has sadly been cancelled by our alternator as there never was a return trip from Prague.

The finish line looked a blast, top work to - gutted to miss out but might have to see you at another one…

Nevertheless Day 22 was a bag of nerves and finally a relief to reach Dunkirk and head to the holy land of breakdown cover.

A pleasantly punctual ferry (after Tanger shenanigans) took us to Dover and a short, left-side of the road night drive home (yes the lights still work) lands us in London, marking the end of this epic journey.

But don’t worry! We know you can’t handle a sudden cold turkey from the Trans-Stan Express content so we have more! More! Stay tuned, it’s good.

DAY 20 - Disaster StrikesOk I’ll cut to the chase here. Yesterday we were making great time to hit the German border rou...
05/08/2023

DAY 20 - Disaster Strikes

Ok I’ll cut to the chase here. Yesterday we were making great time to hit the German border routing all through Spain and most of France. At 10pm with 2 hours to go, 2,500km into our mammoth 3,500km mission to Junktown, we notice our internal garages failing.

Pulling in to a service station we figure the alternator has packed in. 20 hours to the finish line, the clock is ticking.

cunningly asks the Gendarmerie if they can help - within 20 minutes we have a recovery truck taking us away. Setting us back a cool €220 (funnily enough nobody will offer European breakdown cover for a 1990 Polo) we’re dumped in a scrapyard after explaining we can fix it ourselves and don’t have time to wait for a garage to fix it on Monday!

Left to run wild in the scrapyard we set to work tearing apart cars to scope out alternators similar to Stan’s. In the middle of the night this feels somewhat like the start of a horror movie, walking around dark, dank warehouses filled with bits of dead car.

Burning the midnight oil (or the last of Harry’s head torch battery), we try to dit two alternators, but to no avail, with a lack of charge and alignment striking us down. At 3:30am, 5 hours after commencing repairs, we call it a night, the realisation that Junktown is slipping away from us settling in.

We can only hope that the next day looks favourably upon us.

DAY 17 - Put it on expensesLeaving Fes we pushed on South to POI 84 (Tizi n’Tamtdit), a bit of a motorway slog but no bo...
03/08/2023

DAY 17 - Put it on expenses

Leaving Fes we pushed on South to POI 84 (Tizi n’Tamtdit), a bit of a motorway slog but no bother, Morocco can keep us entertained.

Anecdote 1: Outaide Rabat the convoy is pulled over by a lone policeman on his moped.
What’s he looking for? Documents? A chat with the boys? Ah yes - cash. The UK stickers on the back of our cars, acting as beacons for those looking to these swindle five, the haggling begins (never thought we’d be haggling with a policeman but here we are).

Starting at €70 then down to €10, and back up to €40 (it’s complicated) we resume our push South.

Cost to team: €40

Anecdote 2: .plaice gets too affectionate with a Ford Fiesta.

Kind of says it all really, though now we’ve lost our spotlights. Devastated.

Cost to team: €100

Anecdote 3: Nearing POI 84, 1600m up in the Atlas we pick what we think is a quiet spot on a mountain track. That is until we meet several locals who are rather excited to see us. Jokes in broken French and English are exchanged, along with bread, juice, and “UN OEUF!”.

Still confused as to how we’ve been given dinner by some strangers in the middle of the Atlas Mountains, they depart on their motorbikes on the clifftop road, in the dark, with headlights powered by iPhone torches. Obviously.

Cost to team: €0

Another rollercoaster of a day and we head off for POI 84 in Day 18.

See you then.

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