The undertakers are overtaking on the highway!

We got up early and made our way over to Park Ferme. Our car was already surrounded by fans. People taking pictures with us and wishing us good luck and/or telling us that we where mad. We are getting quite used to it though. We spent a couple minutes giving the car a last little sponge-bath before blastoff. It looked kind of almost clean - it was still not a good idea to lean against it in a suit. That is if you care about the suit. After a little discussion with the security guards we were allowed to move our car away from the racing/touring cars and together with the rest of the spirit cars.

Our friends showed up in funeral outfits and sent us on our way with (fake) grieving tears in their eyes. We drove up on the podium blasting the theme to Adams Family and got asked a couple questions. The answers was something I had been rehearsing for years - so that went as smooth as broken glass. But. We were on our way. The race was on!

After messing a little about in Budapest plotting GPS-coordinates and all that we got onto the highway. The car was running amazingly and it did not take long till the undertakers where overtaking on the highway! This is what our car was made for. Cruising on the highway. We are a high way star!

Our first stop was a tea party at Szekesfehervar. We had real fans. There where people who had seen a spot about us on Hungarian TV and had come down to the tea party just to see us! Apparently the spot had made us out to be "The funniest team." We gave them the show they came for. Shaking hands left and right - telling jokes about the engine and the car and Italian food. We also got to sign signatures. It was really quite bizarre. Oh, and the tea was good too!

Back on the highway we stopped at a gas station and found the world smallest man. He is in the race in team number 10. Apparently the worlds smallest man had the worlds smallest fuel reserves. He had ran out of diesel, even if the gauge was showing half full or half empty - I guess it depends on what kind of person you are. The fuel gauge was not the only problem. Earlier his team had been working on the car all night to be sure not to have any wheels come loose on the highway. The car, a Mercedes seems kind of flawed - even by our standards. The organizers had given him the car he is in, and he was not too happy about it, but quite happy with us as we helped out with jumper-cables and with the extra power they got the car running. Breakdowns are a part of the Budapest-Bamako, and he might have gotten a slightly larger piece then he ordered.

-We drove on to Ljubljana to do some of the recommended sight-seeing. We got to see the dragon bridge. Quite honestly it was rather unspectacular. As we where hanging out admiring it we heard some familiar voices. It was the brits from team 92 that we had gotten to know in Budapest. The ones partly collaborating in the big conspiracy that made Per knocked out most of the previous day. Trough out the day we met them 3-4 times. On the road. On the bridge. On gas-stations. It was quite eery - they seem to show up where ever we are. We started suspecting that our car has gotten some tracing device attached. We will be sweeping for bugs later.

After Ljubljana we pushed on for Genova and made good time. The car cruising along the highway at about 100-130kmh. It is running quite smoothly. We just have a slight problem with the gearbox. Engaging third is a small challenge. But we are learning new gear-leaver jiggling and juggling methods all the time.

The descent to Genova was quite interesting - twists and turns and tunnels. Our car is not awesome at twists and turns as it is fully loaded. We got to the hotel just minutes before the brits - it is quite obvious that they had been hard on our tail. Are they the MI6?

Posting rather late. In Malaga, have problems with finding internet cafe.