It is september 2019, a whatsapp message shows up in our Balkan Express 2018 group;
1. Are we going to participate in the 2020 Baltic Sea Circle edition?
2. Ehmm…
1. Sorry wrong question; who is going next year, I already subscribed 1 team 😊
3. Yeah sure!
2. Ahh, why not, I’m in!
And as a fourth member joins we decide to subscribe as two teams for the BSC 2020.
Now the fun begins!
As we live in the Netherlands, Germany and Romania preparations could be a challenge. All kinds of questions start to popup; what to do car wise, which charity will we support, are we camping, which route to take? The 2020 BSC will be the 10th edition so a special edition is guaranteed by the SAC, and is the logo telling us something? A double arrow, can we choose to go either way??
When the first excitement has settled we start to browse for vehicles.
What to do; extravagant or reliable, big or small, expensive or the cheapest there is?
In december 2019 the first car was bought as a ‘project’-car, brand and type will remain a mystery for a while as we wait for the car to be repaired. Apparently buying the cheapest car on ebay has a downside in our case… The mystery car shows more and more mysteries as the mechanics find more and more defects.
In February the second car was bought, this mystery is revealed rather quickly as it could be driven home after buying it. A Saab 900ng Convertible, called Sven, will join the ride! As it had only little issues it was prepared rather quickly.
Mystery car #1 was still under construction as COVID arrived in Europe and started to shut down our normal lives. It had an impact on the parts supply as well, so progress on the repairs was slow and the start of the rally started to approach.
When mystery car #1 was able to drive (or more like roll) again we revealed it as Henry, a Rolls Royce Silver Shadow from 1974. Yes it was the cheapest on ebay at that moment…
Somewhere around the beginning of May the SAC announced that the BSC 2020 edition would not take place, at least not in 2020. In 2021 the ‘Recall edition’ will take place, so postponed and not cancelled. It was a huge disappointment to hear but also already expected, and somehow it was a sort of relief as Henry was far from finished.
Now we’re in the beginning of 2021, about 5 months before the start of the rally. In the meantime we haven been working on our website and sponsor packages.
Henry is still not finished and is awaiting TUV certification, but we have some time and a lot of work has already been done! Sven is still in hibernation in a barn and will emerge somewhere in March to start the final preparations for the rally.
So, still quite some things to do until the start, we count on it to actually take place this year somewhere in June.
We’re excited to go and raise some money for our charity, on which more on the site, and have an amazing adventure!
More in the next blog!
