From despair to where?

Ok so we are in Istanbul, sadly as I'm sure you heard Hyacinth is not. After smoking pretty badly through Bulgaria it got to the point where we had to physically push her across the Turkish border. We spoke to two mechanics, and it basically amounted to two or three days work and a full engine re-build, we were quoted 870 euros for the work and we couldn't see how we could get her back on track afterwards with our non transferrable Turkmen visas starting tomorrow (They imprison people there for overstaying their visa). The reason for frying the engine? At some point the air filter was removed and not replaced so the engine has been sucking dirt off the road since we left Britain and probably before. Bottom line is we should have checked. What a stupid reason to have to leave the rally.

So we have had a day of deep discussion and despondency but hopefully we are now back in the game. Another team have offered to give us a lift, and whilst we still have issues with the Turkmen visas we could fly over Turkmenistan and get away with it, which we couldn't do with Hyacinth.

On the upside Istanbul is amazing. We had a breakneck raxi ride last night, and are staying by the blue mosque. If the car hadn't broken down we were planning to push on past Istanbul without even stopping to try and make it to Turkmenbashi on time, so there are some positives.