We're heading to Jordan

Originally we wanted to travel from Turkey through Iran, across the Persian Gulf to the United Arab Emirates. The Europa-Orient-Rallye organisation, in response to uncertainties about the political situation and ferry connections, reacted by changing the destination to Jordan.

The route is now somewhat shorter, but no less interesting or adventurous. From Mersin, Turkey, we will load our cars onto a ferry to Haifa, Israel. From Haifa we travel to Nazareth, Jerusalem, and then on to Bethlehem and Jericho in Palestine, and finally to the destination country of Jordan. There we will have to master one of the longest, most beautiful and toughest desert special stages in rally history.

For us at the Judo goes Orient Team this does not represent a major change. We intentionally chose our aid projects before Turkey, where we can determine the route freely as a team. The visa applications for Iran had not progressed very far and will now be dropped, though different paperwork awaits us instead.

But why didn’t it work out with Iran? On the one hand, because of the currently uncertain political situation in the Gulf region, which meant we could not get any guarantee of ferry connections from Iran to the United Arab Emirates. On the other hand, because of the extremely expensive Carnet de Passage for the cars when entering Iran, which would have left us with significantly less money in the team fund. This change therefore also benefits the aid organisations, as we are able to donate more as a team.

The route change has come early enough for us to adapt well to the new circumstances. It was not a great surprise to us, and we are looking forward to heading to Jordan as our new destination – a place that was always the destination in the early days of the Europa-Orient-Rallye more than 10 years ago.