Thursday, 23 April 2009

85 Days Remaining

Well it's been a while since I've blogged last so I thought I'd give some updates. The visa applications for Russia, Kazakhstan & Mongolia are in the post as we speak, so fingers crossed I haven't made any "school boy" errors on the paperwork. My bank account is now officially £210 lighter that before, and the beauty of it is I get none of that back if they decline my application, what a great system, you could just take everyone's money then reject them for no particular reason.

Anyway, that's one of the last big ticket items that needed ticking off my to-do list. In the post this week arrived some bargin basement roof rack bars for the swift off the good ol' eBay. So that gives us something to fix a roof rack too, I've found a website that does the car stickers for our sponsors farely cheaply so that'll give us as much of a margin on the sponsors contributions as possible.

I have also recieved yesterday the first corporate sponsor cheque in the post, which is great, it all helps, another is in the post on its way so that's abother bonus. Hopefully my workplace will be able to sponsor some more, and then its up to us to squeeze every penny out of friends, family, workmates, random people on the street and pretty anyone we come across.

I'm hatching the idea, though I've avoided it to date, that I may set up a bands night either at a venue in the city, or at Kingston Uni's student union bar, and make a bit of money on the cover charges hopefully, so watch this space, and we'll see how it develops.

Another unexpected result has been the post-rally travelling plans, which originally involved catching the train form Ulaan Baatar to Beijing, China and then catching a ferry to Japan and travelling around Japan. This PLan is still in action, but there has been the addition of a small stop off on the way home to the UK, you may have heard of it, its a little place called the United States of Hell Ya! The plan is in the planning stage, as is the case with many a plan. But it seams to have evolved that with the exception of the train to Beijing and Japan, that I will now be driving the across the all Northern Hemisphere landmasses pretty much. My partner in crime will be Owen Coomber, a member of the Mongol Rally 2009, he's in team Xtreme much of the plan is fluid at the moment, so there's the likelyhood of multiple changes and detours but the general plan is buy a $200 banger in the US and then drive it across the US, if it breaks down then buy another $200 banger, and so on, and so forth. A car much like the one to the right, which I spotted in Alaska and thought at the time "What a legendary rust bucket to drive the horendous amount of miles across the states". Little did I know that I may well be doing just that a year later. We'll see how it goes...but it has so much potential it seams mad not give it a try!

Monday, 6 April 2009

102 Days Remaining


The Eldon House
Originally uploaded by stringberd
Only 102 more sleeps until the adventuresome event begins!

Another weekend of adventurist carnage was had in Bristol, myself and Mike managed to rock up at the very very nice pub by the name of "Eldon House" Great Beer, Great Staff, and a very homely pub. Needless to say we got there early and started the festivities with some food, and then proceeded to get royally battered with the other rallists. All in all a good time though, Mike wasn't fairing well on the Sunday morning, but my trademark hangover cure seamed to work, it consists of orange juice (fresh with the bits, no less), bacon sarnie, Paracetomol & nurofen.....then the piece de la resistance....National Lottery Scratchcards!!! It works in only the way that drugs, alcohol, fried food & gambling can! I'm still adement that the gambling is the key ingredient, the drugs are just for effect haha

Then on the sunday Benedict Allen, one of the first tv adventurers, who pretty much started up the genre, gave a talk to us about various expeditions that he's undertaken.

He was funny, in a way that only a publicly schooled, tweed wearing 40yr old can....and needless to say his life have been threatened on more than one occasion by various means whether it be bandits, starvation or disease. All round a jolly good chap!

Then after my fill of tea & cake after the talk from our fellow adventurer, I was graciously offered a ride back home in the newly purchased Skoda "Felacio" as Owen my driver has nicknamed it....it proved itself well as Mongol Rally stead so hopefully it will see him and his team through, my payment for the journey involved a ginsters pastey and a bottle of lucazade from the local garage, and after a few sat-nav based detours it worked out pretty well, and I arrived back not to late, so I could get my beauty sleep.

Other than that, we'll be sorting out our visas for the trip over the Easter period, so i'm sure that wont be as simple as we all may wish it to be, so I'll keep you up to date on any further mis-adventures...

Cheerio!