out to be clouds. We stop for a break before
continuing even higher up the mountain.
back into the car, knackered from walking in
front, uphill all the way. I tell him, "No prob-
lem, keep us on the track, I'll keep the car
on its wheels." About a minute later, we're
on one wheel--the rear left wheel. I was
driving over a gully, keeping it in the middle
of the car and the left rear wheel slipped
right into the gully. I keep the throttle down,
locking the rear, thinking it will crawl through
but we're pretty close to rolling backwards.
Backing up almost lands us on our side. The
depth of the gully is what keeps us upright.
Well, upright is maybe not completely cor-
rect. Greg gets out of the Cruiser like a
submarine Captain and everybody gives a
hand to winch us back on all fours.
on the forest track. The others have less dif-
ficulty, partly because they saw how not to
do it but it's a handfull still. When everybody
to the hotel in Kalambaka.
the weather forecast is terrible. Fast tracks
in the woods. Oak trees today. The Cruiser
has to make a path again. After the woods,
the track goes back up into the mountains.
Fast driving so we decide to play with the
G Wagon a bit. We catch up and push
them up the mountain. All of a sudden, the
G Wagon stops in a cloud of diesel fumes.
Injection is dead. Toyota rules....
the Land Rover prototype. The last difficulty
of the Trophy is a canyon which descends
steeply and has huge rocks to negotiate, cre-
ating large steps. We can drive two thirds of
the way down, using some tricks to avoid the
first stairs. Where the prototype dives straight
down over the big rocks, we steer up the
side of the canyon, using the trees to not flip
the car and steer back down after the rocks.
There's no way I'm going down this without
a rear winch. The prototype has no brakes
and decides it's too tricky as well so we both
turn and drive back up--which is easier said
than done. We can drive pretty far, using
the winch where needed and put the car
against a rock or a tree more than once so
we're stable waiting for the copilot hooking
the winch up. After one last sideslope from
hell, we're on the top. A nice sunset is our
farewell gift.
are being held up. We can't take the ferry
so drive home to Belgium through Greece,
Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia,
Austria, Germany and Holland. A thirty-hour
drive through Europe to end one of the most
beautifull Trophies in my experience.
PROVIDED BY SPYROS KATSIMALIS,
PINDOS TROPHY