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The primary school fete at Kemsing is always held at the end of June. As fetes go, it’s pretty typical of the genre, but worthy of continued support if only to reward the local kids for all their hard work during the year. Fifty-something years on and I can still recall the nerve needed to take even a supporting role in the school’s annual play…. However, amid the strawberries and cream, the bric-a-brac stalls and the silver band, the second-hand books and the jigsaws one feature stood head and shoulders above the rest. Adjoining the line of Classic Cars - and standing adjacent to an old, rickety paste table containing an assortment of potted annuals that appeared to have been liberated from a neighbouring garden - stood a nasty yellow Rover Streetwise. Wearing the lop-sided stance - and the foreboding appearance - of an abandoned MOT failure, the Rover had a pair of part-used off-road tyres sourced from eBay leaning against the faded grey plastic bumper and a map of Western Europe stuck firmly across the windscreen. A thin blue line wormed and wriggled its way eastwards across the map from Goodwood, near Arundel in Sussex, to Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, taking a route that passed south of both the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea by way of Turkey and Iran. I bought the plants - all of them, a mixture of half-starved Cosmos and some ornamental grasses. I also questioned the three lads who were manning the stall about their proposed project and it soon became apparent that any sort of mechanical preparation of the Rover had been kept to the bare minimum, the after-market sump-guard playing second fiddle to the installation of an upgraded sound system. Hooked, these professional anglers played me like a fish. The car was also a recent eBay purchase and apparently something of a real bargain, having just 40K on the clock and wearing a Buy-It-Now price tag of £700.00. No doubt the vehicle had also benefited from one careful owner before being acquired from somewhere north of Watford by Team-Immaculate Pasta. Why Immaculate Pasta? That’s one question that, regrettably, I forgot to ask! At the end of the afternoon I left the fete with my charity account £150:00 the poorer, but richer beyond belief. I’d bought advertising space on the Rover’s bonnet for my other pet-project, a monthly blog detailing The Ramblings of a Madman, the proceeds of which also go to charitable causes. More important were the words that had been left ringing in my ears. ‘You can do it. There’s still four weeks before the off’. A pipe dream for the young, perhaps: to get six weeks off work in the middle of the summer to undertake a ten-thousand mile Road Trip through nineteen countries was out of the question. Besides, I hadn’t even got a suitable vehicle or any sponsorship. And, to cap things, my Passport had expired. However, a seed had been sown that either needed nurturing or eradicating with a strong mix of chemical weed-killer. The weed-killer approach didn’t work: you’re never too old and the theory held that over half a century of automotive life-experiences should give me a head start over the youngsters who had more idea of ICE than what goes on under the bonnet. Matters significantly worsened once the rally started. True to their word, a constant barrage of e-mails began to hit the screen detailing their long, arduous journey east - France, then Belgium. A quick circuit of the Nuremberg track in German. Photographic proof of achieving 109 mph on an Autobahn, notwithstanding the speedometer was indicating a whisker over 120. Turkey, Iran. Then a whole heap of countries ending in …stan; and eventually Russia and the Mongolian border. Stories of speeding fines and punctures; corrupt police and bolshie border officials. It was an itch that needed urgent scratching, and www.theadventurists.com was accessed for more information regarding the 2012 event, and the criteria seemed fair. Anything vehicular could be used, providing it was less than ten years old and had an engine capacity of less than 1200cc - unless of course, you chose to undertake the arduous journey in a Public Service Vehicle, a redundant ambulance or perhaps a fire engine. The entry fee was a shade over £700, and a minimum of £1000 was needed for a nominated Charity. A plan had started to formulate that involved, of all things, an eight-year old vehicle from the nearest car auction....New update from Twitter
Posted by Maxwell at 2nd July 2012 at 11:35
The Accent will be on the M25 \ A12 heading into Essex tomorrow. Give me a wave if you see me!
New update from Twitter
Posted by Maxwell at 3rd July 2012 at 20:12
Another £50 donated to SHSKPA by a good friend who also thinks we're totally mad! Mad? From somebody who likes watching football?
New update from Twitter
Posted by Maxwell at 5th July 2012 at 14:08
There's a growing gang of well-wishers aiming to wave us off from Goodwood. Tally Ho!
New update from Twitter
Posted by Maxwell at 12th July 2012 at 11:57
Panic Stations! House in danger of flooding from nearby river, Co-driver busy at work, guess Ade might be driving as far as Berne alone.
New update from Twitter
Posted by Maxwell at 11th July 2012 at 00:17
More gear being loaded into the Accent tomorrow: now need to find space for 249 T-shirts for the kids in Mongolia. Do they play cricket?
New update from Twitter
Posted by Maxwell at 9th July 2012 at 19:19
4 Days. Started to load the car - need to see where everything will fit! The spare spare wheel: in the boot, or strapped to the bonnet?
New update from Twitter
Posted by Maxwell at 8th July 2012 at 20:44
Weather for overnight camping at Goodwood looks like being wet on Friday. Hope the weather-man has got it wrong!
New update from Twitter
Posted by Maxwell at 13th July 2012 at 23:19
Arrived Fishbourne West Sussex
New update from Twitter
Posted by Maxwell at 14th July 2012 at 16:46
Think we may have a technical glitch Sat Nav recorded 110 on roundabout at Ansty, Sussex
New update from Twitter
Posted by Maxwell at 15th July 2012 at 16:12
Are we the first to get flashed by a fixed camera?
Posted by Maxwell at 15th July 2012 at 19:43
Finally found somewhere with WiFi. Legged it to Dover just to be waved into Security. Now at Miesenback Germany http://t.co/LrrddBXr
New update from Twitter
Posted by Maxwell at 15th July 2012 at 22:14
Pouring hard at Miesenbach, Germany. Guess it will wash the Goodwood mud off!
New update from Twitter
Posted by Maxwell at 29th July 2012 at 18:40
Eight-thirty, and we've settled for the night. Been up since 4:00am for a balloon ride that didn't happen. Still, we got our money back!
<p>Muppet news flash - as of...
Posted by Maxwell at 17th July 2012 at 08:45
Muppet news flash - as of Monday 16th - At Gossau, Switzerland, no internet, relayed via carrier pigeon
Spot of Lunch
Posted by Maxwell at 17th July 2012 at 13:18
Tuesday 17th Time for a spot of Lunch In Bischofzell
Canton of St Gallen, Switzerland
Recieved by SMS at 18th July 2012 at 12:18
great weather makes slow progress. Where are we heading next?
To all those...
Posted by Maxwell at 19th July 2012 at 08:49
To all those having trouble with tracking facility on adventurists site, our web bloke back in UK found that you have to
1. edit team settings in new control panel,
2. then click on Old Team Website in side menu
3. then click on blog at top of side menu
4. scroll to bottom update and save blog entries with location added on map or entery new blog entry with map location with the add location map function at bottom.
For us the Track Me function accepts location entry with out problem then probably drops it in a very deep hole in the ground.
New update from Twitter
Posted by Maxwell at 21st July 2012 at 19:30
Just arrived at B&B at Montesilvano, Italy
New update from Twitter
Posted by Maxwell at 22nd July 2012 at 13:15
Caught 1:00 ferry with minutes to spare at Bari, Italy
Progress update
Posted by Maxwell at 23rd July 2012 at 08:05
@sb05kpe: Made it into Greece at midnight, and found a hotel within half an hour. Pressing on towards Turkey tomorrow... http://t.co/QqBzqJHn
As of yesterday 23rd Jul
Posted by Maxwell at 24th July 2012 at 11:43
Hitting the beach - might stay a week or two! <a href="http://t.co/pGdPPPtw" target="_blank">http://t.co/pGdPPPtw</a>
Into Turkey
Posted by Maxwell at 24th July 2012 at 14:16
Passed Over Border into Turkey - Ipsala, bit of a diversion from planned...
New update from Twitter
Posted by Maxwell at 24th July 2012 at 22:04
Off to see the ANZAC memorial next. Then, who knows where we'll be heading.
New update from Twitter
Posted by Maxwell at 25th July 2012 at 19:33
Spent non-productive day paying respects at Gallopli. Now at Can,Canakkale, Turkey
Finding the time...
Posted by Maxwell at 27th July 2012 at 09:11
Where do they find the time..? Where do the other teams on the Rally find the time to Blog? Notwithstanding we are not in the front-runners, nor pushing from the back, it’d been a hard grind. OK, so it hasn’t all been dawn to dusk driving, we pottered around investigating the Alps Switzerland before skipping the Stelvio Pass and ‘doing Greece’ in two days. The Italian\Grecian Speed-Fast ferry service was superb, with little fuss checking in. With the ship sailing at 1:00pm we arrived at the dockyard with just five minutes to spare. The next ferry was a much simpler affair, being a small crude ship that plied back and forth across a narrow neck of water leading to the Sea of Marmaris. We discovered that by driving just 10km we could halve the cost of the crossing to the mainland, paying just Euro 25. Twenty minutes later saw a Le-Mans-type start: as the ramp crashed to the concrete jetty every car, lorry and truck moved forward into the pinch-point simultaneously. Guess this was to be good practice for storming some of the more far-flung border crossings we will soon have to encounter. As we approached the town of Can we spotted a suitable-looking hotel, on enquiring it fulfilled all the criteria apart from one, it didn’t have air-conditioned rooms. Intrepid travelers negotiating an adventure to Mongolia in a Hyundai don’t need molly-coddling, so we took it. The following day we took a convoluted route avoiding auto-routes and in doing so stumbled on the real meaning of the Mongol Rally. A rickety old wooden bridge needed further investigation: we stopped, although there will no doubt be much worse bridges to encounter the further east we go. We pulled onto the side of the road behind an old white Fiat, or it may have even been a Lada. In the middle of nowhere, a Turkish – for want of a better word – peasant appeared with a striped carrier bag in one hand and a fistful of coiled net and chain in the other. He was looking pleased with himself, the catch would no doubt be tax-exempt and would keep his family for a couple of days. Wherever the Hyundai stops it attracts curious on-lookers. Some are timid, and shy away from asking about the graphics whilst others have no such qualms. Our fisher-friend fell into the second group and, after exploring every nook and cranny, he offered some of his lunch to us. Delving into the spacious boot he rummaged around to find a couple of misshapen tomatoes, a fistful of chilies and an onion the size of a tennis ball, something he proceeded to crush between his hands. Soon, a picnic had been laid out on the hood of his trunk, along with a mound of freshly-baked bread and a copious amount of salt. As stood around having an impromptu snack a packet of Garibaldi appeared, and we bid him goobye.
New update from Twitter
Posted by Maxwell at 30th July 2012 at 08:59
Heading north to our exit point from Turkey at Trabzon Great roads
New update from Twitter
Posted by Maxwell at 30th July 2012 at 09:42
We were in two minds on how to reach Trabzon. One was to swing south and take in all the usual tourist resorts, the other was to take a more-or-less direct route as far as Cappodocia, then head due north. We chose the latter, and it was the correct choice. The roads to the east of the capital are great. Once the long, boring bit across the flat plains are out of the way the road – in the main, a dual carriageway – twists and turns as it gains in height. Switchback corners and long hills, and tunnels, some as long as 1.5km. Towns with indescribable names flash by, together with some rare sights. In the center of one such town stood a Renault Fuego, itself a bit thin on the ground in the UK. However, there was no chance of bringing it home, on closer inspection it was revealed to be a burned out wreck. Trabzon itself is a typical port but it had a bustling night life – the central square was heaving whilst a small group of dancers were encouraging public participation, a sort of Turkish line-dancing. On arrival we drove straight to the port and within 30 minutes had secured a passage to Sochi, leaving at 7.00pm on Tuesday. However, we have to report to the ‘office’ at 3.00pm to deal with the paperwork. However, be that Turkish paperwork or Russian paperwork wasn’t made clear. As an aside, an e-mail was sent to the DVLA regarding the retention of the vehicle registration SB05KPE. They were very quick to reply but the answer wasn’t good. Had I wanted to retain it then I should have applied before we left the UK, a ‘replacement’ number would then have been issued. Fine, apart from the fact that had I done that then SB05KPE wouldn’t have been the vehicle we took on the Rally. Don’t you just love Red Tape? New update from Twitter
Posted by Maxwell at 31st July 2012 at 17:43
just set sail . Blagged tea on bridge with the captain.
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