Down to Western Sahara, over to Turkey and into the mountains of Georgia.

Three German chaps and guest rallier Emma drove their 1.2 litre Opel Agila a whopping 14,364 miles on the Poles of Inconvenience 2023.

They snagged 23 poles as they wobbled and criss-crossed their way through our network of splendid inconvenience. They met a healthy number of mechanics, wore out their tyres, lost a clutch and spent most nights wild camping. In the same tent. So they must really like each other. Or maybe they’re scared of the dark and get lonely at night. We’re not sure.

They did take their sweet time about it. During 67 days on the road they took several ‘holidays’, thus temporarily averting their gaze and attention from the solemn task of seeking out inconvenience in a totally inappropriate vehicle.

But we are a benevolent purveyor of adventure…

The sheer scale of their achievements in their tiny car doesn’t just earn them forgiveness, we crowned this team Champion of Inconvenience 2023.

We doff our hats to Alexander, Marc, Arthur and Emma.

Enjoy their excellent adventure write-up:

It was finally time – the poles of inconvenience launch party began.

We were dying to inspect some of the other rides that the teams brought to Prague. It was a wild range of cars from two very old cars that didn’t actually look like they could still drive to some more common models: Nissan Micras, Fiat Pandas and a few other Opel Agilas!

Most of the teams had also invested significant amounts of time into the cars including elaborate paint jobs, rally light rigs and interesting roof constructions. One of the roof racks was simply screwed into the roof with the screws being on the inside ceiling of the car.

POI 61 – Col du Parpaillon, France

Our target for the first part of the day, pole 61, was a tunnel located on a mountain pass, standing tall at around 2,700 metres.

At the beginning of our ascent, the road was paved, and we were cautiously optimistic. But as we climbed higher, the road gradually transformed into a challenging dirt track, which further morphed into something resembling a wide hiking path.

The steep incline tested our car’s power, and we found ourselves relying on a steady 1st gear pace to navigate the rocky terrain beneath.

To ensure a successful ascent, we adopted a strategy where one person drove the car while the other two acted as scouts, determining the optimal path over the rocks.

This coordination had the affect that our steady climb up the mountain was somewhere around walking pace.

After two gruelling hours of climbing, we reached the tunnel at the mountain’s summit, marking our achievement.

At the top, we were warmly greeted by a German off-road group comprising rugged vehicles like a Ford Ranger and a custom-built off-road Porsche Cayenne. Their initial amusement at our car’s presence quickly turned into astonishment, knowing that we had actually made it up the mountain.

In a friendly exchange, the seasoned off-roaders offered tips for the road down the other side of the tunnel. Their advice was clear: the descent would be even more demanding, and even their powerful vehicles were struggling.

The warnings from the off-road group proved accurate, as the road down was treacherous and worse than our ascent. We had to carefully crawl down the path at a snail’s pace of less than 5 km/h.

As we navigated the challenging terrain, the non-drivers in our group had their hands full. They not only helped guide the driver around obstacles but also cleared the path by moving stones, built makeshift bridges to traverse high stones, and even used our hammer to remove sharp stones in our way.

Despite the daunting obstacles, our car performed exceptionally well, impressing us with its resilience. After another four hours of intense off-roading, we finally reached the bottom, feeling a mix of exhaustion and accomplishment.

POI 62 – Cime de la Bonette, France

The fact that it was already 5pm and this pole was described as the highest road in Europe didn’t fill us with a lot of confidence.

After a quick assessment on the satellite view of google maps, it turned out that it was actually a fully paved road and the whole round trip would only take around 1 hour. Without further ado, we raced the Ohopel up the mountain road, and were rewarded with a view. Second pole of the day completed!

Engine troubles in Spain

Our car, the Ohopel, struggled with outside temperatures up to 42°C. Just before Barcelona, we noticed a change in the sound of the car. A new rattle could be heard from the engine. After a brief brainstorming session in our expert committee, we decided: as long as it keeps going, we’ll keep going.

During dinner at a rest area, we played our wild card and called a friend who’s a mechanic.

He suggested checking the oil level. Although we had done it a few days ago, we had since driven 2,500 kilometres. And surprise: the dipstick was bone dry even after the second check. After adding a litre of oil, the noise disappeared immediately.

Arriving in Morocco overland

We got into Tanger Med port at 11pm and while we knew that Morocco would be different, the drive out of the ferry port was a whole new experience.

We’re talking people walking around literally everywhere, kids jumping on the back of lorries for a free ride, said lorries assuming they have an automatic right of way everywhere.

It was mad.

What surprised us was that Morocco has an incredibly strong police presence and there were policemen at literally every roundabout and police checkpoints at every city.

One thing we did notice was that the Moroccan people all seemed incredibly friendly. Lots of smiles and we never felt uncomfortable!

POI 72 – Village Life, Morocco

Our 5th pole, a small mountain village. In this case, small means an assortment of about 10 houses spread across a hill and a mosque.

The road into the mountains, as expected, was again, of course, a quite steep gravel road, which we had to follow for 31km to the pole. This took us about 2 hours due to the varying conditions of the road and steep inclines, leading to an average cruising speed of about 15km/h in first gear.

After two hours, collecting about 5 kg of dust on our car and having a few situations where the Opel had to endure quite some hits. Stopping was no option because we wouldn’t have been able to start driving again on the steep gravel inclines so we carried on and made it to the pole.

Shortly after stopping our car and taking the evidence photo, a bunch of young men and kids approached us happily and were very interested in our car and what we were doing so far away from the normal roads. At least that’s what it seemed like due to the missing common language to properly communicate. Nonetheless, we were able to communicate with smiles and some hand gestures.

Into the Atlas Mountains, Morocco

As we reached the Atlas Mountains, the roads gradually turned into gravel paths. Just before a village, we experienced some unease in the car due to a new noise, this time coming from the front left brake.

Fortunately, we were in a mountain village, and there was a kind of workshop nearby. A child/youngster (we estimate around 14 years old) skillfully dismantled our wheel and removed a stone from the brake, and within 20 minutes, we were back on our way.

At 7pm, we had dinner with a breathtaking mountain view during a beautiful sunset on a mountain pass. Despite feeling more than an hour away from the nearest village, we still had occasional passing trucks and cars. People in the area are friendly, often greeting and waving at us.

However, at our spot, we were warned about the frequent rockslides, so we finished our meal a bit faster.

POI 77 – Tizi n’Takchtant, Morocco

Getting to the pole meant driving on a national road for about 60 km which started off paved, then turned into an ok gravel road only to then go full hiking route on us.

It was a first gear situation for about 40km but took us a bit more than 2 hours.

Once the road got better, we were driving alongside a large river where the environment started to change significantly. Despite the sandy and dry mountains around us, there was a strip of fields and lush orchard around the river banks.

Once we made it to the last town before the pole, where the google maps route ended, the real fun started. In preparation to get to the pole, we looked at google satellite images and found what looked like tyre tracks going to the pole.

Luckily Morocco basically has 5G everywhere so navigating to the pole was a mix of assessing what was drivable in front of us and checking where we were on google satellite vs. the tyre tracks that we found earlier.

The drive actually ended up being easier than expected and after less than an hour of off-roading we were standing on the top of the mountain pass taking our confirmatory picture at the pole.

POI 86 – Noor 3, Morocco

This next pole wasn’t at all challenging to get to but one of those cool places that you wouldn’t normally go to. Part of the plant was an arrangement of 7000+ mirrors on the ground that reflect and concentrate sun light to a tower in the middle.

This tower then heats up enough to melt salt (we’re talking several thousand degrees here) and generate electricity. This tower was glowing so brightly that we could see it from 20km away. As we got closer to it, we couldn’t actually look at it without sunglasses. Either way – pole collected.

POI 85 – Creepy Petrol Station, Morocco

The pole was an abandoned gas station built in the desert for a movie set. Next to the gas station were four old and now unfortunately very damaged American classic cars. A great photo background, but not really a hidden gem as there were several other visitors there too. With another pole added to our list, we headed towards Agadir on the coast.

Our plan was to head south into Dakhla to explore the city, collect the pole at the southern point of the Dakhla peninsula, and grab some dinner.

However, fate had different plans for us.

Merely one kilometre into the dirt road, our beloved Ohopel broke down, with the clutch not gripping anymore, leaving us powerless and stranded. Despite attempts to fix the clutch and even calling on Marc’s mechanic friend, we had to admit defeat and call for a tow truck.

After a 45 minute wait, a kind man arrived with his somewhat aged tow truck.

While waiting on the tow truck, we had pushed the Ohopel back to the asphalted road, to be better visible and one of us got a ride with a Moroccan couple to the hostel to retrieve our passports and wallets, which we had left for safekeeping.

The tow truck driver was very kind. He had arranged for a mechanic friend to keep his shop open after hours to offload our Ohopel and assess the damage the next morning. With the help of the head mechanics friend who spoke perfect German everything was sorted out.

Crossing into Western Sahara

Approaching West Sahara and entering the region, we noticed a significant change in the way we were treated at the police checkpoints.

In the northern and middle parts of Morocco, being German tourists had granted us easy passage, with friendly waves and smiles from the police, bypassing the controls reserved for Moroccan cars.

However, here the tables had turned.

Moroccan cars were waved through, while we were required to show our passports, explain our origin and destination, leaving us pondering whether this was for our safety or due to confusion about tourists in this remote area.

Upon reaching the city of Smara, situated on the border of the two territories, we encountered a remarkable sight. Military buildings and equipment were evident, yet there was an underlying peaceful atmosphere, with locals warmly greeting us as we passed through.

After a rather windy and disrupted night, we began our day by dismantling our tent and hitting the road towards Dakhla, the southernmost point of our rally. Today, like the previous day, was another day of pure driving, given the vast distance of 750 kilometers to Dakhla. The lack of cities in West Sahara, with only four having above five thousand inhabitants and the largest one with a population of 137 thousand, meant that there wasn’t much to see along the way except for sand and stones.

One notable change during the drive was the presence of sand dunes next to the highway, occasionally covering the banks of the street. Despite the monotony of the landscape, we appreciated the unique sight of the desert terrain.

Throughout our journey, we encountered occasional police controls, and once again, we were stopped by the police for overtaking a truck over a solid line. Fortunately, the officer was understanding as we were remorseful, and with no danger posed during the maneuver, he let us off with a warning.

POI 83 – La Sarga, Western Sahara

After our first real breakdown yesterday, we checked out of our room at the beautiful Selina Hostel, and a friendly staff member gave us a ride to the workshop.

Upon arrival, the mechanics were already working on our car. After a brief inquiry, we were told that we had to wait until the gearbox was removed to know how much longer we would have to stay in Dakhla. So at 11:30 am, we unpacked our camping chairs and the waiting began.

Since nothing exciting happened while waiting, we compiled some numbers for you.

At this point, we have covered 8204 km and spent approximately 136 hours in the car. The journey has cost us 575 liters of fuel and 3 liters of motor oil.

The small tires have completed 4.7 million rotations, and the car has had two visits to a workshop. Hopefully, the new clutch will be added soon.

On the not-so-serious issues list, besides the broken air conditioning, there’s the trunk lid that no longer opens on its own and a peculiar sound coming from the front right.

The communication with the workshop was generally rather poor but after our gearbox was finally lying in front of our car, we were almost certain that it’s the clutch. The mechanics obviously knew this already and by the time we realized, they were already driving around town, trying to find us a new one. Acknowledging that we were absolutely no help we decided to have to lunch: flatbread with canned tuna in tomato sauce… 10/10.

At some point in the afternoon, one of the mechanics came back to the shop with a smile on his face – they had found a new clutch that fits our car! Now it was just about putting the car back together.

There were car parts and bolts lying all over the floor, mixed with tools and other unidentifiable things. But oh well, it looked like they knew what they were doing so we weren’t worried. As things were coming back together, we did another quick trip to the ATM to get more cash and by the time we were back the car was basically done.

The mechanics did a test drive. We did a test drive. Paid with a bundle of cash. And we were off!

Even though it was getting late we still had work to do as there was a pole to collect on the southern end of the peninsula. It was a 20 minute drive but with the brand new clutch, it went by rather quickly.

Past an extremely smelly industrial area, was the southern tip, call “La Sarga”. We had no idea what to expect but were still surprised. The tip basically consisted of a massive Slum.

Next to the slum were a minimum of 500 wooden boats that must belong to fishermen but didn’t look like they have been used recently. It was generally a bit of an eerie place so we quickly collected the pole and drove back up north again.

Back in Spain

After almost 2 weeks in Morocco we were heading back to Europe today.

Once we arrived at the campground, we divided the tasks. After both loads of laundry were done, and we faced the challenge of hanging it all up to dry. With lots of string, two makeshift supports, and taking up three camp pitches, we managed to fit everything.

After enjoying two delicious burgers and two beers, we ended the day and went to bed with freshly washed pyjamas.

Next up the team took a ferry across the Mediterranean sea to Sardinia. And apparently forgot to book their luxury cabins.

POI 38 – Zelengora Pass, Bosnia & Herzegovina

Navigating to poles isn’t always easy as Google maps seems to have a strange understanding of what an even remotely drive-able road is.

Hence, our first attempt was a bit of a failure after we ended up on a field of rocks.

But not a problem.

Turned around and tried a different route. This one looked more like a road but still meant driving up a mountain for 16 kilometers with about 15km/h average speed. In all honesty, it was a tedious drive, especially as we didn’t know what to expect at the top.

But it was all worth it.

Once we passed the tree line, we were rewarded with stunning views of the Bosnian mountains. We could see far away valleys and multiple summits – definitely one of the prettiest poles we had done to date!

There was, however, one problem: by now it was 6pm and the sun started to set so it would have been tricky to drive down the mountain again and find a suitable spot to camp for the night.

Camping at the pole was, of course, an option but temperatures started to drop and the spot was rather exposed to the wind.

Luckily, a bit further down the track we found a crater like bit one the side of the road, which was protected from 3 sides and still offered stunning views out the forth: perfect for the night!

We quickly put on something warm, set up our camp and cooked up some pasta with pesto.

POI 39 – Carman’s Pass, Kosovo

The first 6 turns went well. Like a young goat, our Ohopel conquered each curve. But after curve 6, it got steeper, much steeper.

The wheels spun, the engine revved, and we lost momentum… until we came to a stop.

Even on the second and third try with a new run-up, no chance. It seemed like we had no choice but to give up at this point. However, we weren’t ready to turn around so close to the pole. So, we unloaded all our luggage and stored our things on the roadside under our tarp. We thought no one would pass by on this road anyway.

Fourth attempt. First, hill start with the handbrake (our former driving instructor would have been proud), build up momentum, and then full throttle and hope.

Stones flew, everything rattled, the engine roared, and then it happened. We conquered the steep section. Amidst the smell of the clutch was a scent of success and pride in the air.

We managed the remaining curves much easier due to the reduced weight.

Upon reaching the top, we took the pole picture, which felt like a victory photo today. As a reward, we had the figs as a snack and enjoyed the breathtaking view over the gorge and the mountains.

POI 42 – Karagyol Reservoir, Bulgaria

The pole itself was the highest paved road in the Balkans. However, after the first couple of meters, it was clear that “paved” didn’t really apply here.

The road had apparently been paved for the construction of the dam a while ago and hadn’t been maintained since.

The road surface was broken everywhere, with huge potholes, and sometimes an entire piece of road was missing. But by now, we were already used to roads like this.

The initial kilometers were ok. We navigated around the potholes like pros and drove deeper into a valley. Only when the road got steeper, the Opel began to struggle.

We decided to unload our car again about one-third of the way to save weight. This would be a mistake later, but we obviously didn’t know that at the time.

With the significantly lighter car, we then finally managed to reach the top (2600m). We heard from other rally participants that it wasn’t advisable to drive down the other side of the mountain to reach the dam directly. Another team who tried didn’t manage to make it back up. Therefore, we parked our car at the highest point, put on our hiking shoes, and walked the 3 kilometers on foot.

The view over the lake and the mountains with the sun slowly setting was beautiful.

The descent by car once again provided a breathtaking view as our Opel struggled down the narrow road towards the valley.

We reached our stuff, which had been waiting untouched under the tarp. However, while packing, we realized that we only had two sleeping bags left. Despite an intensive search involving climbing on steep slopes, using the drone, and pondering where the sleeping bag could be, it was lost.

This also settled the question of where we would sleep tonight.

As we continued down the remaining way, we found a motel for the night and drove there.

For €35, you really couldn’t complain. The triple room was spacious, and the bathroom was new and clean.
Since we had bought groceries already, we set up our camping stove and dishes on a bench in front of the motel and made wraps with fresh vegetables and minced meat.

We laughed a few times about the lost sleeping bag today and went to sleep.

POI 34 – Handmade Road, Turkey

The hand made road pole (officially called Kemaliye Stone road) is a gravel road on the side of a canyon that was built by hand over 130 years.

A random internet post calls it one of the most dangerous roads in the world (don’t worry, we survived) due to its steep drops on the side and unlit tunnels. We drove onto the road and even after the first couple of turns it was worth it.

The road surface wasn’t too bad and we had a perfect view of the blue water down in the canyon.

There were tortoises searching for shade in the tunnels and chicken-like birds running on the road. Even the unlit tunnels weren’t a problem as our rally lights could make them as bright as the day with the switch of a button.

There was, however, one substantial problem at about 25% of the way: a bridge was missing and was currently being constructed.

We circled all the way back, past the pole and onto the main road to arrive at the south entrance an hour later … and then just enjoyed the beautiful drive.

Would we say it’s one of the most dangerous roads in the world? Maybe if you’re drunk or unable to stay on the path but otherwise we felt pretty confident. But what we can say is that this pole was definitely within the top 5 poles so far!

POI 45 – Anatori’s Crypt, Georgia

It would be the wildest day of our journey, but more on that later.

The road led straight out of the city [Tblisi] for quite a while until we had to turn off the motorway and follow a little stream up the mountain. The road went deeper and deeper into the mountains and soon the first potholes started to appear.

The further we went, the worse the road became.

First, there were complete sections of the road missing, and eventually, it was all gravel. At that point, we still had 50 km to go to the pole. Google Maps estimated our arrival time to be 1.5 hours but from experience, that definitely wouldn’t be the case.

So, we continued our journey, taking curve after curve and then up the mountain to the summit. When we reached the summit, two hours had passed, most of which we spent in first gear at 20 km/h, and we still had another 18 km to go.

We had long passed the point of a possible return so we just kept going – the pole had to be close.

From the summit, we went downhill on the other side of the mountain into another gorge. Going downhill, we made somewhat better progress. After nearly three hours of grueling driving over gravel, hills, and potholes, we finally reached our destination.

At the pole, we found old buildings where human remains from a tragic fate were preserved. The once-thriving village had been ravaged by the plague, and the villagers were infected one after the other. To avoid infecting their fellow villagers, the infected individuals voluntarily entered the buildings and waited there for their deaths. Only one person from the village survived.

POI 48 – Bayburt of Yolu, Turkey

Not far from the Black Sea in a canyon, we reached the starting point for the pole at around 3 p.m. According to Google Maps, there were countless curves and elevation gain ahead of us. We fought our way forward on the path for the first few meters, which was as steep as no pole before.

Fortunately, the road was concrete at these points, so the Ohopel struggled but managed it without any bigger problems. When the road became somewhat flatter, it turned exclusively into gravel.

Since we would be taking the same route back down, we decided to unload our luggage again to avoid unnecessary strain on the Ohopel. This time, we made sure that our equipment didn’t go missing again.

Light as a feather, we flew up the remaining 20 steep curves to the top of the mountain, just above the tree line.

The view over the valley and the mountains compensated us for our efforts. Although the efforts were somewhat limited because driving the Ohopel up the steep gravel path was also fun.

On the way down, we collected our stuff again (this time everything was still there) and drove back to the coast for 2 hours before turning into the next canyon towards a campsite.

Transfagarian Highway

Then we were off to the first big attraction in Romania: the Transfagarasan pass.

From other rally participants, we were told that there are tons of brown bears on the pass. Could you think of anything better than driving a mountain pass with a car that can break down at any moment, while there are animals around that can reach 2.8 meters? Nice.

Then suddenly one of our phones started to beep (even though it was on silent) and it showed an emergency notification saying that there was a bear sighting in a nearby town.

“Avoid the area and stay away from the animal”?

More like, drive to the town and search for this this damn bear! But we didn’t have to. A couple minutes later, there actually was a massive bear just casually strolling on the road, enjoying the sun.

It wasn’t at all fazed by the cars driving past it but just kept walking. Some further kilometers down the road there was another one. Then another one and another one. After bear sightings were almost normal by now, we saw a new highlight: a mother bear with two cubs.

These cubs were already the size of large dogs so we decided to not go out for a cuddle. One of the cubs was interested in our side mirror and even tried to take a bite out of it after standing up on the side of our car. This obviously left some scratches but they were barely visible with all the existing ones and definitely worth it.

POI 37 – Through the Hills, Romania

Today was serious business: It was pole day. As we packed up our tents, there were chants from the group: “Pole Day, Pole Day, Pole Day!”

Motivation was high, and practically nothing could go wrong. Plus, for once, we had breakfast, thanks to some prior planning on our part.

We spent the first 1.5 hours driving through countless villages towards the pole. In the car, we occupied ourselves with reading, Instagram, or our beloved Rubik’s Cube until the GPS interrupted our peace with the words, “In 500 meters, turn right.”

Tension filled the air because turning onto a Pole Road was like the feeling you get when opening a surprise egg, the moment a fireworks rocket explodes, or the instant your favorite band takes the stage.

Joy, disappointment, and fear were all closely intertwined. What would today bring? We took a deep breath, nodded to each other, and made the turn.

The road had seen asphalt once upon a time… a very long time ago. In the first few meters, we had to slalom across the lanes, reducing our speed to a maximum of 20 km/h. According to Google Maps, we still had 12 kilometers to go. What fun!

Our slalom was momentarily interrupted by a sign indicating road closure. Luckily, it seemed to be after our pole, we hoped. So we continued on the increasingly deteriorating road.

After nearly 2 hours, we finally reached our destination: a bridge at a lake. It wasn’t the most spectacular pole in terms of the view, but looking back, the journey was quite cool. We set up our chairs and had lunch there. Then, with the pole in our pocket, we made our way back along the bumpy road to the main road.

End of adventure, end of the car

The two-hour drive [towards Bratislava] was first interrupted by the reappearance of the engine warning light. We had lost cylinder 2 to misfiring problems again. But thanks to our incredible 70 horsepower, we could tolerate the loss of a quarter of our power and make it to the next parking lot.

A simple restart cleared the error message and gave us back the cylinder. We continued our journey, hoping that the error wouldn’t occur more often…

Do the Poles of Inconvenience in 2024

Sign up is open for this year’s edition. Grab a couple of your most irresponsible mates. Find an unsuitable vehicle and go forth to hunt down Poles of Inconvenience.