Time for an update

After not posting on here for quite some time, I thought it was time for an update. Having started a new job and having lots of things to do for the rally, I've not had chance to get on here recently. So, apologies for that.

A lot of exciting things have been going on over the last couple of weeks. If anybody has picked up a copy of the Sheffield Telegraph over the weekend you will have noticed a great big picture of Rich and myself on the third page. I was very impressed when I saw it. We were expecting a somewhat modest article relegated to the latter pages of the newspaper, so our prime time spot came as a great surprise. If anybody missed it, you can find a copy of the article by clicking here.

As if that weren't enough, Rich also managed to get his voice heard on BBC Radio Sheffield last weekend. He had a short interview on Saturday Breakfast on the 4th June. If you missed it, or if you enjoyed it that much and want to here it again, you can find it here:



Hopefully they'll catch up with us later on and I can get my voice on the radio too.

Last weekend we also held a charity bbq at Rich's house in order to raise funds for our trip. It was a £20 all you can eat all you can drink extravaganza, so to be fair (as Karl would say) it was quite a good deal. With a lot of people attending Rich got a keg of ale in especially for the occasion along with other beers, ciders, wines and various spirits. It is safe to say that everything was drunk and there were some rather inebriated people by the end. Thankfully the weather held off all afternoon and evening so that we could enjoy a few games of beer pong and table tennis. Many thanks to all those who came down to support us.

For more pictures visit our Photobucket album here with all our latest photos.

As for rallying affairs we have kindly been donated a roof rack by a lady called Hilary who responded to our advert on Freecycle. Though not an exact fit, we are going to make do and attach the rack courtesy of Rich's Dad to our car.

Work on the car itself has also begun. My Dad spent last weekend clearing out our garage in order to accommodate the car and allowing us access to the inspection pit so that we can get underneath it. The rear dampeners have now been changed (kindly donated by Adrian Kentzer of Fleet Services) thanks to some handy work from our respective fathers. It was suspected that these needed changing and upon removal of the originals this was made clear. I did my best to assist though felt rather useless passing over tools and other bits and pieces. Hopefully we'll learn a few bits and pieces before we leave!

Finally, I'd just like to mention the progression of our visas. We ordered our visas through The Adventurists very own Visa Machine. Our applications have slowly been progressed from the comfort of our homes saving us numerous trips to various embassies. You can see their progress here:

Hopefully the last few visas will come through in time for our trip. We now have our Russian and Mongolian visas meaning we can actually get to Mongolia even if the others don't come through in time.

I think that's all I have to mention for now. I'll post another update soon, along with anything I've forgotten to put down in this post.

xx

Collecting our Micra!

Hello everyone,

So, today was the big day. We were off to pick up our Nissan Micra! Arriving in Rochdale I thought it looked a lot better than I remember it. It still needed to be boosted as it had a flat battery but it seemed good nonetheless. We had to get my Dad to drive it back for us as we haven't yet sorted out our insurance. He wasn't overly impressed and apparently there are a few bits and pieces that need sorting out. But with a few weeks left till the rally, we can hopefully get it up to scratch. From the picture we've uploaded on to facebook nobody else seems that confident either including Phil, Tim and Florence already all saying we won't make it, but I have high hopes. The guy we bought it off said, "course it will, it's a Nissan". You can't argue with that!

xx

Car boot

Hello,

Yesterday was the start of all our fundraising to get to Mongolia. We headed down with a car full of stuff to Notre Dame car boot sale in an attempt to sell as many items as possible in order to raise as much money as possible.

With grey clouds in the sky we had our fingers crossed that the rain would hold off. However, after about 20 minutes the inevitable happened and it started to rain. We used a plastic sheet to protect our stuff until Rich's Dad turned up with a gazebo. It was perfect keeping all our items and ourselves out of the rain.

We managed to raise a total of £84.55 which was much more than we'd hoped for. We weren't actually expecting to sell hardly any of the items we had on sale.

Thanks to everyone who came down and supported us.

xx

Buying a car

Hello there prospective followers. This here is our first proper blog entry and we intend to make it a regular occurence as we get stuck in to the preparation for our rally. Please do check back for updates.

So, after some unsuccessful car hunting last weekend, myself and pooch set out this weekend to buy a car. Along with our respective fathers we descended upon Rochdale to check out a little Nissan Micra we'd had our eye on on autotrader.

After some difficulty finding the garage, we got directions and arrived at our destination. Last weekends car hunting had consisted of Rich and I looking at God knows what on the car and pretending we knew what we were doing. Hence the reason we had our Dad's with us. They gave the car the once over and did not look particularly impressed. Rich and I again were none the wiser to the soundness of the cars mechanics and instead elected to give the tyre's a good kick.

It was difficult to make a decision on the car so we went along to see the car's paperwork and see if a deal could be done. We were offered a best price of £1050 with the car being put through a full mot. Having spotted another Micra on the way to Rochdale we chose to postpone our decision to give us chance to have a look elsewhere.

The other Micra we'd spotted in Glossop turned out to be a 1.3 litre Micra, not meeting the conditions of the rally. So upon our return to Sheffield, we decided to get in touch to arrange buying the initial Micra we had seen. We shall now be collecting our new car later on in the week, at which point we'll upload photos to show all our followers, currently zero, just how much of a beauty she is! I forgot to take pictures when we were there today unfortunately.

Let's hope she really is up to the job and makes it all the way to Mongolia (without breaking down ideally). We won't know until we try though!

Finally, please come down to Notre Dame High School tomorrow for their car boot sale. We shall be taking a collection of our old junk (it may be your treasure) in order to sell to raise funds for our trip.

xx