Day 19 | 18.05.2016: Where Tyres Burst Like Balloons in the Heat

It was actually an event with explosive potential. On Wednesday, the programme included several kilometres of off-road tracks. At the Allgäu-Orient-Rallye, 74 teams are competing, quite a few of them in cars that aren’t even suited for dirt roads. So 74 teams all have the chance to get stuck in the Turkish terrain. Among them: Team Judo goes Orient with its two overloaded BMW 5-series and a front-wheel-drive Chrysler Voyager bearing the scars of a traffic accident. Ideal conditions for getting bogged down. The day’s programme had the potential to cause unrest among the field of participants with their ageing vehicles — yet no alarm bells are ringing; anticipation and bright eyes are everywhere.

We find ourselves in the south-west of Turkey, in a canyon that is normally impassable for cars. No one can resist the fascination of the impressive landscape. Our three rally cars move through the natural tracks as if threaded on a string. This is better than we imagined. Of course, you have to have a certain feel for cars if you’re going to take vehicles like these off-road. When the branches of bushes scratch the paintwork and stones scrape the underside, an ugly noise results, triggering an uneasy feeling in the occupants. The air is dry. The leading vehicle kicks up so much dust as it drives that you can’t see a thing. Keeping your distance is not a bad idea — and not just for visibility; the fine dust seeps through every crack. Not all drivers think the same way. So it comes to pass that one of our cars gets a flat tyre on the rear right after only about 3 kilometres of off-road track. Everyone pitches in, and the tyre is changed in 12 minutes. The flat tyre is no great surprise. What’s perhaps most remarkable is that everyone helps out and nobody points the finger.

The dust still blocks the view, the gap to the car in front probably still a little too small. A second flat tyre, this time rear left. On the same car as before. That’s exactly why we’ve been carrying spare wheels — despite the extra weight and the poor centre of gravity on our cars.

When we leave the canyon again, the white paintwork of the cars is sand-beige. Insect bodies form countless sticky smears on the windscreen. They look a bit worse for wear, our vehicles. We don’t feel much different. A cool shower will work wonders.

What else we experienced:

• During the spectacular drone footage filmed in the Turkish canyon, the drone has to make an emergency landing. It does so autonomously. Fortunately, we find it in an easily accessible spot.

• On our journey, we’ve passed the 8,000-kilometre mark.