Last February we came back from Kiel and there were a lot of strange looking rally cars on the road. After looking up what it was, we found out it was CARBAGE RUN winter edition 2023.

“Always wanted to join the Gumball Rally? But unfortunately, not (yet) in position of a Bentley or Ferrari? Stop saving, because the Carbage Run is much more fun! Europe’s biggest and craziest barrel rally. A 5-day adventure through Europe in a car that cannot cost more than 500 Euros. Started in 2009 in the Netherlands and grown into Europe’s biggest craziest Road Trip with several editions at home and abroad. Every year many people participate in many different editions of The Ultimate Road“

Here we are going to keep track of our progress. We do think a winter run is a fantastic thing to do. So, let’s make it possible!

Feb 2023

Babysitting for the children when we are away for at least a week at the end of January 2024. Grandma is going to babysit, we are so happy about this. We love you mum.

Mar 2023

Arrange the days off at work. probably leaving on Friday and back om Monday,

so 11 days away.

Also planning what type of car to buy. We like to buy something nice and high on the wheels.
– Subaru, For Ester (forester😜)
– Ford, Explorer (this one will use 5L/100km, for a trip of more than 5000km 😁)
– Kia, Sportage

Apr 2023

Yes, today we bought our ticket to race in Hel, and all sold-out in less than a day. So we are very happy to have the chance to enjoy this marvellous experience.
Now we need a car for sure.

Nov 2023

This month we bought a For Ester, sorry no a Subaru forester. Yes, this car was from someone who did start last summer a carbage run. but did not finish the run. So now it’s our chance to finsh the winter run.

But by buying a car more than 20 years old, there is always work for a car like this. and because we have plans to make a trip of more then 4.000km, we like to have a car that is engine and suspension wise in good state. Also we did buy a car in the Netherlands, so we need to import it to Germany to get it registered under our name. And the TUV is much harder than the dutch APK.

Dec 2023

Today we did buy our ferry ticket back home. Instead of driving the 2000km we will take the ferry from Helsinki to Travemunde Germany, this will take 36 hours. This will be 36 hours of relaxing. But we will have the saturday to see Helsinki, if we come so far it’s a waste not to view the city.

Also we are still working on our “for esther”, new clutch, water-pump, belt’s, bougiecabels and crankcase seal’s. After this the welding will start, in the back by the suspension and one side panel needs some new sheets of metal.

On thursday the 20th of December, the manual about our run was emailed to us. This happened in the morning, when I was at work. We do have a WhatsApp group with fellow runners and it went crazy about booking hotels. Unfortunately we were only able to book that evening at home and in some places there was no hotel/cabine left or the price was much to high.

But that evening we did book all overnight stays.

Our first sleep is in A) Malmo and the run starts on the 21th of Januari at B) Ring Knutsrorp, then C) Örebre, D) Sörberge, E) Boden, F) Oulu, G) Kuopio and the finish in H) Espoo on the 26th of Januari with a big party.
From there we will leave in the morning to take the ferry from Turku to Stockholm, and drive home possibly Sunday night or Monday morning.
let’s see what happens.

1-18 Jan 2024

What happened the last 18 days. We did change the clutches, every suspension bussing, new tires, timebelt, engine fluids and some other little things. We went to TUV for MOT, but than we needed the CoC paperwork what we didn’t have and expected this would take some time. So we then went to the RDW, because the car still had Dutch registration papers. Then we got the okay. And unexpected, later that day the TUV called that they had the CoC-papers and we went there also and we got the okay. So we now do have a very save car.

19 Jan 2024

Even a save car can’t be perfect. The gearbox is making noise. So we had to switch the gearbox for an other used one. But this one was even worse then the original one😭. Time to think about our options. New plan, Pieter will drive to Friesland for another used gearbox, tomorrow. We will put the top-rack on the car with a light bar.

20 Jan 2024

Today was the original plan to leave early for Malmö. But as you know, we are not ready. So went to our shed to take out the gearbox to be ready for Pieters arrival.

We tested the one Pieter brought us, and then decided to go with the original, the less worst of the gearbox. Now we hope for the best.
So here our roadtrip starts.
We are about to arrive at midnight in Malmö. Let’s see what happens, but we have done our first 140 km without problems. 😊

We are on the ferry from Puttgarden Germany to Denmark, so we travel the +500km without problems. But it was very dark in the night, so there was nothing to see.
Tomorrow we will start between 7/8 o’clock in Kågeröd.

21 Jan 2024

This morning we did get up early because it was the first day of the run, we had to be in Kagerod between 7 and 8 o’clock. On a track we had to check in and there we had to wait until 9 o’clock. Then every car tried to leave at the same time, impossible, so we left the track at 9:30.

We had two options of the route, long or short way (478km or 509km). We selected the long way, 1 hour longer and 31km longer, but probably the more interesting route. The further north we came, there was more snow and ice, as well on the landscape as and the roads. With around 300 cars on the trip it was surprising how little traffic jams we had, we were not constant in a car train or something like that. A lot of teams were driving to all (wrong) sides, and turning back. So it is important to check your roadbook and drive by it. But because a lot of oncoming cars we other teams we were wondering if we did choose the right way (but we did). We passed some beautiful winter landscapes and frozen lakes. And people along the way that where waving. Apparently wondering who those idiots are. We took a lot of back track roads, instead of the main road, so there were all curves, hills and snow. For the fist day we love it.

The car did well, we had only a small issue and we had to replace 2 tail light bulbs. We really enjoyed driving the agile 4 wheel drive in these conditions.
We did finish around 7:30 pm, not bad for the fist trip.

We are sleeping at the City Hotel Örebro, and look at the street in front of the hotel! we are here with a lot of other Runners.

Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass it’s about learning how to ride in the rain