Boleslawiec / Poland, August 26th04

Today´s stage should´ve brought us from Boleslawiec to Kaunas in Latvja. After a calm night in our car in the backyard of a hotel (Gerd and Bärbel in the hotel) we started the engines at eight in the morning. For breakfast we had rolls and some descent german “Wurst”.

This Thursday wasn´t our day at all: After half an hour we had to watch a green liquid dropping down the Nissan´s cooling system. Our Toyota in rear position, the Nissan and two other cars had a very close relationship on the Polish highway - so the first incident was a heavy accident on kilometer 968… the Nissan experienced some severe damages on the left front and rear. It had to be brought back to Görlitz (Germany) by the ADAC (german automobile club). The Toyota broke it´s right collarbone. We brought the Toyota to a nearby service station. A german guy on the way back home gave us some language support to fix the price and other formalities (if you an call these so). Well, the costs: for the Toyota will be around 500€ and on the other bill there will be a one, unfortunately accompanied by four zeros.

It will take 24 hours to get the cars ready to put them back on the road… a fair bit of time to kill in a motel at the highwayside surrounded by trucks and roads. Also Gerd and Bärbel will spent the night in a hotel. We are lucky to have hooked up some Futurama episodes on the Laptop. So we enjoy a space odysssey with Fry, Leela & Co and some local beers as stock…

Tomorrow we have to start a 3000 km run to be in time in Ekaterinburg in the Oural!

TC (Toyota crew)