By William Coleman
The Bristanbul tour had some fantastic new additions this week in the form of ex Eastender Ryan Philpott and Dean Howard, who’s new cookbook will released later this year. Neither of them had towed before let alone on the other side of the road. We also had 2 of our camera crew dip their toe into the world or towing.
There was a little bit of nervousness among some of our new towing comrades but I assured them that they were worried about being worried and I was able to pass down the knowledge I was given by Lee Davey and Simon Howard at the beginning our adventure.
Once the guys got behind the wheel all of their fears went away, just like mine did. I spoke with one of CaravanTimes’ production team Sonja Linnanvuo who towed for the first time in her life. The towing environment could not have been trickier, the less than ideal roads of Romania. Following her first time she had this to say; “I really do not know what I was so worried about. Once you’re behind the wheel it’s just like driving any old vehicle. Yes there are a few more considerations that need to be made when maneuvering, but overall I cannot wait to do more.”.
When entering Romania I saw a different world. The layout of the land is very much eastern Europe and has a bit of dilapidated feel. Once I was out of the urban area and in the mountains the world changed once more. We entered a modern skiing hotspot with every modcon of any tourist destination.
I opted to do a little bit more towing on this leg of the journey, which may have been a little bit too generous as we were very much in the mountains. I have driven across plenty of mountains, most of which were during this tour, but the Carpathian mountains do not have the road surfaces of the Croatian Mountains. The potholes are deep enough to swim in when it rains and it’s an almost vertical route down the mountain.
All in all, today was a success all round. No border issues and all the new drivers did exceptionally well for their first time.
