ANKARA
   
    After a quick flight home then collecting the spare parts for the car it was time to fly right back again and get on with the repair job.
   
    I had a little trouble with the luggage by the time I got to Heathrow as my allowance was just a mere 20 plus kilos and just the gearbox weighed about 30 kilos but after a smile and chat with the person in charge they allowed me to take the extra weight onboard and I was away. First to Istanbul and then another flight out to Ankara. I arrived in Ankara at about eight in the evening and got a taxi straight to the Hilton hotel, a porter helped me with all m y bits from the taxi to the car park and to my awaiting car. It actually felt good to be back and to see the car all safe and ready for me to put it together. As soon as I arrived I got out of the nice cloths I was wearing and into a nice clean pair of overalls and began to unpack all the things I had brought out with me but the first job to do was to put the kettle on and brew up a cup of tea.
   
    To my amassment the underground car park was quite warm well I say warm, it certainly was a lot warmer than outside which was only a few steps away. Minus seven outside and plus four degrees inside, so you can see what I mean by warm though my hands did tend to get a bit cold whilst I had my rubber gloves on, they do tend to cut the circulation down a little. After a while I was well on my way getting all the bits laid out and dragging the engine over to where I was working. Even though I had arrived that night I was just too eager to get things sorted and so I worked through the night to get the engine put back together and finished at around three in the morning, all the while brewing up cups of tea to stay warm.
   
    As it was so late I could not see anyone to ask where a tap was to have a wash so I cleaned myself up as best I could and climbed into my sleeping bag and went off to sleep. The engine was now ready to be put back into the car.

   
    I awoke after a four hour sleep and when I woke I began to prepare the car, using the new trolley jack to it’s full and just as soon as I and the car were ready I went to seek the help I needed to lift the engine up and into it’s bay. I had tied an eight foot length of six by six to the engine which I found along with a load of others in the car park, this would enable us to lift the engine with ease and drop it into the bay.
   
    No sooner had I found three willing people the engine was in place and ready to be bolted down.
   
    I worked for the rest of the day on all the bits that had to be put back in and then all the other things like wheel bearings exhaust system and repairing all the little things that had gone wrong like the front wing which had to be wired on and screwed down, I had to cover that bit with tape as it looked so bad but at least it did the job. The whole front of the car had to be sorted out plus the lights which were not working by this time because the wires had all been torn away and lastly the broken wheel studs had to be replaced, then Mini was ready to go.
   
    I turned on the ignition and then the fuel pump and turned the engine over, I could hardly believe it when the engine started almost straight away. Well it was on the first turn of the key, I was so pleased with my piece of handy work. The final job before I could get away was to redo the trailer and get all the spare parts tightly roped down because I didn’t want to have to take anything off it once I was back on the road.
   
    That was it then, I was ready and so too was the car and trailer. I took it for a drive around the car park and was more than happy with it’s new parts but the noise from the two drive shafts were still noisy and did worry me some but I did at least have spare bearings just in case I needed them so I decided to worry about that if the time came.

   
    By this time it was quite late and so I had a little cold dinner with lots of cups of tea and then I retired into the car for a good nights sleep. I hear you say "why didn’t I have a room in the hotel" simple really (NO MONEY).
   
    I slept quite well that night even though I didn’t have much of a wash and I was to say the least very dirty but I thought about getting to Istanbul and to the camp site right in the city, then there I could at least have a really good shower and meal and a good nights rest.
   
    I woke up at about 7:30am and soon after I put my sleeping bag away and got ready to leave. I took the car out to the front of the hotel and took plenty of pictures then went in to thank all the staff for there kind help and just before going off I called into a local shop to buy food supplies for the journey.
   
    Oh boy am I happy, the car is working well and I am now on my way home, first heading for Istanbul which was to be my goal for the first day. The roads are great and there is plenty of snow around so I had to have the heated on all the time plus the roads were littered with rocks from the hills that line the road which were being shifted by the melting ice so it was quite dangerous at times weaving round the large rocks in the road. The engine began to overheat at one time so I pulled in and filled the radiator up, I had not tightened the radiator cap enough so the hot water was boiling over so after filling up with water and tightening the cap I was on my way again. I am very impressed with the roads and made very good time though I did have to stop on several; occasions to fill the radiator which made me think that the thermostat had failed to open properly and that was making the engine over heat.

   
    Just as I was approaching Istanbul and just on the bridge that takes you over the Black sea the engine stopped completely and I was puzzled as to what had gone wrong, in fact it was just a matter of minutes before I realised the wire from the ignition had come apart right by the ignition key and so it was not a major job and I was soon on my way again and over the bridge and into Europe. It was then that I saw a very welcoming sign that said "welcome to Europe" serious happiness fell upon me and I felt the car had now made it around the world, all I had left to do now was to get it back to England which was a mere two thousand miles away, just six days or so. That’s if nothing else goes wrong.
   
    I got to the camp site well before night fall and with the help of a local taxi driver who I followed all the way through the big city and booked in for the night.
   
    Fortunately I had been to this camp site before with my wife during our last drive around the world and I knew the owner Ebo who was still in his office and as soon as he saw the Mini came out to greet me, being an ex Mini owner himself he was more than happy to see that I had made it a second time.

   
    Sure enough I did manage to have a great shower and get my knotted hair washed and I was all clean and warm. I then cooked my dinner and sat down to write my diary which had been neglected for the past couple of days. It wasn’t long before I was ready to go to sleep and sure enough I was, though two hours later I was woken up by a rocking motion. At first I thought it was me having a bad dream and then I thought I had motion sickness from the long day’s drive but I had to get out of the car to check out what was going on and to my horror it was in fact an earth quake. A small one but, never the less it was quite disconcerting at the time and it took me a while to get used to the fact. That’s the second I had experienced during this drive, the first being in Melbourne. Anyway after that rood interruption I went back to sleep and didn’t wake up until almost 8:30am the longest sleep I have had in ages.
   
    I packed all my things away and after getting petrol and oil I got back on the road. I was thinking of staying in Istanbul for an extra day but I was by this time eager to get home so I got on the road at around 10:00. As I had some shopping to do on the way I lost a lot of time getting out of the area.
   
    Once out of Istanbul and into the country the roads got very quiet indeed and I felt really alone again but I was making really good time, well that was until the sea mist slowed things down as I was heading west following the coast road to Greece.
   
    I got to the boarder of Greece by about lunch time and had to wait for about an hour before the guards were ready to see me and the paper work for the car. There were so many different people to see before I could leave Turkey I could not begin to tell you what I had to go through and then once again when I crossed no mans land and to the boarder of Greece. Again the car was searched and all the documents had to be seen, I am sure it was easier to get into Iran than it was for Greece but after a couple of hours I was on my way through Greece and by this time it was getting quite late so just before day fall I stopped at a twenty four hour garage and parked the car next to some lorry’s and made a cup of tea. As the engine kept on over heating I decided it was time to remove the thermostat and run the car without one as I didn’t have a spare with me, that took an hour or so and after that I had my dinner and eventually went to sleep.