Tag: adventure

Ready, steady, go!

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On Saturday 15th July, Shane and I arrived at Goodwood Motor Circuit for the launch of the 2017 Mongol Rally.

After parking Martha amongst her friends and putting up our tent, we were joined by some friends of our own– Rhiannon, Hannah and Catherine – who had travelled far and wide to see us off. We took them to see a few of the other cars, gave them one last chance to write on Martha and then had a drink and something to eat before they headed back and we started to mingle with some of our fellow teams.

Hannah, Catherine, Georgia and Rhiannon with Martha

The Adventurists put on a whole evening of organised fun – from Mongolian wrestling to sword fighting to a late night dance party, there was plenty to see and do, and no shortage of other people who were just as crazy as us and planning to drive their cars all the way to Mongolia. We even met a couple of people planning to drive the whole way to Mongolia on a motorbike. To me, this seemed mad. They would have no spacious back seat to store ridiculous amounts of super noodles (or have a nap in), no protection from the elements and no one else to take over the driving when they’ve just had enough. They are very, very brave. Or very, very stupid. It makes doing the Mongol Rally in a Micra look like a trip to a theme park.

Mongolian wrestling

 

Sword fighting

 

Some messages from our fellow Mongol Rally teams!

 

Last kiss before we argue so much we hate each other

 

On Sunday morning, Shane and I woke up in our little tent (our home for the next eight weeks), and had our first argument, as Shane insisted we get up and pack the tent and sleeping bags up at 7am, even though there was nothing to do and nowhere to go for at least another hour or two. Sure enough, at 7.15, we were sitting in the car with nothing to do and nowhere to go, and I was wishing I’d had an extra snooze.

Eventually, it was time to get moving from the campsite to the race track. We had time to stop for a quick picture with the other Irish teams taking part in the rally, which also gave us a good opportunity to test out the roof rack (it held Shane and I and our belongings without complaint), and then it was time for a whole group photo and the Mongol rally prizes.

All the Irish Mongol Rally teams!

 

There were three main prizes:

  • “Spirit of the rally”, given to the team who most fully embraced the spirit of the Mongol Rally by taking the smallest, most rubbish car, which was most likely to break down. This went to two teams who were driving Morris Minors (one 1964 and one 1970). They had already broken down four times just trying to reach Goodwood.
  • “Best pimped car”, given to the team who made their car look the most ridiculous, or most interesting. This went to a team who had covered their car entirely in fur.

 

  • The third prize was more of a forefeit than a prize. One team had brought a 1.6 liter vehicle (which is very much against the rules – the car is meant to be 1 liter or less). As punishment, they were publicly shamed and given a heavy exercise bike which they now have to put on their roof and bring all the way to Mongolia.

Next, we lined up row by row and completed a lap of the race track , and then we were on our way! The Mongol Rally has officially started!

Rally cars ready for a lap around the track

 

Our first stop was Dover. Our only problem was that there was a major accident on the M25, which we tried to avoid by going cross-country around the South Downs. The scenery was beautiful, but it took us an hour longer than planned and we got stuck behind numerous slow moving vehicles, including a steam train. We didn’t get to Dover until 3.30, and had to wait until 4.40 for the next ferry. Our plan to do another three hours of driving after reaching Calais was looking increasingly ambitious, and our Mongol Rally whatsapp group was pinging with news from other teams who had reached Amsterdam, Brugges and even Germany, while we were still yet to leave the UK.

But, better late than never, we made it on to the ferry and found plenty of other teams going at much the same rate. We also heard that there had been some teams who were not doing so well, and had broken down between Goodwood and Dover.

Car broken down between Goodwood and Dover

As we sail away from the cliffs of Dover, this will be our last blog from the U.K. Our plan is to spend the next two days meandering away across France, Belgium and Germany before our next big stop: Prague.

White cliffs of Dover

Checking out the competition

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With Martha ready for adventure, Shane and I thought we would take her out for a drive to make some new friends. The Adventurists were holding a get together at Ashdown Motorcross Circuit in Oxfordshire for people about to set off on the Mongol rally and their “cars”, so we drove down to have a look at the other cars and meet some of our future travel companions.

We made it down the M40 and A34 without any problems, but to get to the Motorcross Circuit we then had to drive for a couple of miles on a rough, uneven dirt track. First we wondered whether we had come the right way. Then we realised this was Martha’s first little test. Thankfully there were no problems – Martha definitely handled the non-road like a little adventure car – and she trundled along much faster than the considerably newer (but unmodified) Nissan Micra which followed us. Martha: 1, other Mongol rally cars: 0.

As we drove into the meet-up area, I noticed with some excitement that there were quite a few other girls there (I had been prepared for a severe lack of women given the number taking part in the Mongol rally in previous years). When I mentioned this to Shane, however, he joked that they were probably only here to accompany their boyfriends and wouldn’t actually be going on the rally. I snapped at him for being so sexist. In total, I met five other women who were taking part in the Mongol rally. In the case of the other women who I saw at the event, sadly Shane’s sexist assumption turned out to be absolutely right… they were there with their boyfriends and would not be driving to Mongolia.

On the plus side, the five women I did meet (and the men) were all pretty cool. Based on our experience of watching previous rally teams on youtube, we were expecting most of the teams to be made up of 18 year old guys on their gap-yahs, but our real life experience was completely different. We met a father and daughter team, two couples, and a number of people who had given up (or were giving up) their jobs to take part in the Mongol rally, and some who were completely changing their lifestyle to work less and travel more. They were also really adventurous and up for some fun, and many spent the afternoon competing in a monkey-bike race to win 100,000 Iranian rials (worth about £2).

Some of our fellow ralliers racing on monkey bikes

We also met some pretty cool cars. There were quite a few Micras, a Yaris or two, and some other slightly more exotic choices, including the Trabant and the beach buggy which are featured in a blog by the Adventurists here. We also heard tales from the Adventurists of someone undertaking this year’s rally in an electric Nissan Leaf. “Wow!”, Shane and I said. “Oh. It won’t make it”, the man from the Adventurists said.

Q: "What colour do you say your car is when filling in visa forms?"    A: "Yellow. Or custom. Yellow / custom. Although the car used to be blue.  Maybe we should put blue."

 

Q: "What do you do when it rains?" A: "Get wet."

 

Q: "Are you going to install a roof box?"       A: "We already have one. It's also a canoe."

Despite some of the cars being a little more unusual than Martha, she still stood out. She attracted a lot of attention for her golden colour, her rally-ready appearance and for the fact that she is my actual car. Everyone else we met had bought their car specifically for the rally, while Martha and I have a longer-term bond.  In comparison to some of the other cars we saw, Martha was pretty well kitted out with her tyres, roof rack, extra wheels, sump guard, super-strong lights, big battery… some of the cars had had no improvements whatsoever.

Suddenly we felt a little better. We may be under-prepared, but so is everyone else.

 

 

From rusty to ready

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With two weeks to go until we wave goodbye to the U.K. and head for Mongolia, we still have a lot of preparation to do. From moving out of our house to assembling all the equipment we need to hitting our charity fundraising target, we are starting to feel under pressure to tick off the items on our to do list. Our main driving partner (Martha), however, is now ready to rally.

To understand the scale of this triumph, it’s worth a quick blast from the past.

—-

Three months ago, I took Martha to a local garage in Solihull to get her MOT, which was just about due to expire. I thought this would be relatively simple and straightforward. Over the five years I’ve owned Martha, we’ve perfected our MOT routine: I take Martha to her MOT. She fails. She needs some minor work to get her through. I hand over money. She passes, and she’s good to go for another year.

However, in 2017 – the year I planned to take Martha over to Ireland and drive her to get married on my wedding day, and the year I planned to drive her 10,000 miles to Mongolia – the MOT routine didn’t go quite as smoothly as usual. In fact, it didn’t go at all. Martha failed, and I found myself having a familiar conversation with the man at the garage (I think his name was Dave), with a not-so familiar ending:

Dave: “Sorry, your car has failed the MOT.”

Georgia: “OK. What does it need?”

Dave: “The thing is, given the age of the car and the mileage it’s done, it’s not going to be worth your while repairing it.”

Georgia: “Oh, well, actually I love this car, so…. What does it need?”

Dave: “I’m afraid we wouldn’t be able to repair it for you, even if you wanted us too. It’s gone past that stage. It’s what we call an ‘uneconomical repair’… it’s failed on [lots and lots and lots of things that I didn’t understand]. We wouldn’t even know where to start with some of that, and it would cost you thousands. It’s a no-go I’m afraid. We can help you organise scrappage.”

Georgia: “I see. No… that’s not an option. I’ll come and pick up the car tonight.”

When I went to pick up Martha from the garage, I told Dave about our plans to take Martha to Mongolia. He laughed. A lot. When he had finished laughing, and asked (several times) whether I was really serious, he told me that I would never get there and needed to pick a different car. I picked up Martha’s keys and told him I would send him a picture of Martha when she reached Mongolia. As I left, he was still laughing.

—-

With no help whatsoever from the local garage, Martha made it to Ireland for our wedding. She didn’t break down on the way to the venue, and she even managed a little trip around Kerry, untroubled by some of the rough and windy roads.

Dad driving Martha and I on my wedding day

Shane and I with Martha at our wedding

Martha navigating difficult roads in Kerry

Martha posing for a picture in Kerry

 

A long time before the dramatic MOT-fail, Shane’s Uncle had very generously offered to help get Martha in tip-top shape for the rally if we left her with him after the wedding. So, wedding over and mini-moon around the ring of Kerry complete, we left Martha in Ireland for a few weeks of TLC. Whether Shane’s Uncle realised exactly what he volunteered for, I don’t know. He does now.

This week, we went back to Ireland. Shane’s Uncle and brother had done an amazing job looking after Martha – getting rid of the rust, making some armour for her so that she survives the non-roads in Mongolia, making a bespoke roof rack completely from scratch to give us some extra storage space and extending her battery tray to make room for a bigger battery – and over the last week Shane has joined them in working from dawn until dusk (well… more like until midnight) to make sure Martha has everything she needs and more.

Shane fixing Martha

Shane’s Martha to-do list

Shane’s Dad fixing Martha

Shane’s Uncle fixing Martha

Shane, Shane’s Dad and Shane’s brother fixing Martha

We also had a lot of amazing and generous help from motor factors in Kilkenny. Thank you to:

  • James Walsh Auto Electrical for paint and wipers so we can see we are going.
  • Top Part for a rather large battery so that we can leave the lights on to put up our tent, charge items over night and still be able to start the car in the morning.
  • Madden’s car breakers who let Shane’s Dad and I explore their car graveyard and take whatever we needed off old (although not as old as Martha) Nissan Micras. They even stopped their real work and used their serious tools to get us some extra bits.
  • An anonymous motor factor who doesn’t wish to be named but went above and beyond, supplying brakes, suspension and service parts for Martha.

All the above motor factors offered their time, expertise and parts completely free of charge to help us raise money for our chosen charities – Cool Earth, Cystic Fibrosis Trust and Cystic Fibrosis Ireland.

A trip to Madden’s car breakers for bits and pieces

The sad car graveyard at Madden’s car breakers

Helping ourselves to a few bits off this Nissan Micra

—-

Yesterday we brought Martha back with us to the UK. Her MOT expiry date had been and gone, so we couldn’t drive her legally unless we took her straight to an MOT centre. Luckily there was a garage in Holyhead – just a six minute drive from the ferry port – which had time to test Martha.

Shane and I waited nervously. If she failed, it would leave us with several problems. How would we get home from Holyhead? How would we fix it? How would she ever get to Mongolia?

But this time, Martha passed. And when I told the man at the garage that we were going to take her to Mongolia, he didn’t laugh. He didn’t even look surprised. He nodded, and said she was a good car. In fact, he even said “Your Nissan Micra is more likely to make it to Mongolia than a £20,000 Land Rover”, and he said it without a hint of sarcasm.

And in that moment, as Martha sparkled in all her golden splendor, with new brakes, new tyres, new shocks, new springs, a brand new handmade roof rack, new lights, a new battery, new armour and new non-rusty bits, we knew that thanks to the nonstop work of Shane and his family and the generosity of motor factors across Ireland, Martha’s transformation into a super expedition vehicle was complete.

Martha ready for her adventure

Martha is ready for the trip of her lifetime. Now Shane and I just need to get ready too.

 

 

 

 

Why do we travel?

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As we prepare to leave our comfortable everyday lives behind and head off into the unknown, it’s good to remind ourselves exactly why we are doing this. We get asked a lot about our motivation and what makes us want to travel, so thought we’d each write some words from our own point of view (without discussing with each other) about why we travel.

Shane

It is not easy to leave the routine of work, friends, family or colleagues, or the simple and easy life we have. Our most difficult challenges on a weekly basis are doing the shopping or looking after the garden. When you travel there are sacrifices – you are further away from home, from friends, from familiar places, food and people. Saying goodbye is never easy, even if you are going away on the greatest trip ever.

So why do we travel? The usual answer I would probably give is that I want to see the world and not just see it on TV or read about it.

I have heard it said that people either travel to find themselves or to run away from something. This is probably true for me too, although I don’t travel to find myself exactly, but more to be able to be myself. When you are in a working environment or even in a community you feel pressured to fit in or to conform to social expectations. Travelling is not rebelling against this, but when you are in an environment that is so different to that which you are used to then you might as well be yourself as you will never be able to easily fit into the community or surroundings you are in.

I also think travelling makes me more aware of my surroundings. Often many people never appreciate what is in their own area as they are so caught up in their daily routine. When on holiday they appreciate the smallest of things and people feel more alive.

When you travel you also meet so many people from different cultures. You can talk about and explore differences, but then as you get to know people you ultimately realise that we are all the same. We have the same needs, the same dreams, aspirations and wishes, and it’s a wonderful thing to discover and makes the world feel much smaller and easier to get around.

Those who know me know I’m not writing this blog to make everyone who isn’t able to travel jealous! It’s to give people who are unable to travel for any reason the chance to experience places and experiences through someone else, as well as inspiring others to do the same. Sorry if it infuriates those who are looking at the window at another downpour…

To go traveling is not an easy decision. It is scary, but it is also invigorating.

Georgia

Why do we travel? … The same reason we do anything at all. To pass the time.

Samuel Beckett, ‘Waiting for Godot’ – Vladimir and Estragon

Of course, the time would pass anyway, but given all the options of how to spend it, choosing to travel works for us. It’s not as meaningful as saving the world, but once you’ve been there, done that and got a bit tired, it can be a good way to refresh, to have new experiences, and to remind yourself you’re alive without jamming a fork into your eyeballs.

People travel for all sorts of reasons. To take a break, recharge batteries, escape, have new experiences, see new places, break out of the everyday, find something that’s missing, or to find themselves. Sometimes people travel for a few days or weeks to take a holiday, and sometimes people travel as a way of life.

Bob Marley and his camel friends, Merzouga Desert, Morocco

So why are Shane and I travelling? We know we have a limited amount of time in the world, and we want to make the most of it. The time will pass whether we sit at home all day watching daytime TV, slave away to reach the dizzy heights of a high-flying career, or seek out new experiences, new cultures and new people. We want to learn more about what it is to be human, about planet Earth, about ourselves, and about each other. We are newly married and want to spend as much time together as we can. We want to challenge ourselves, and to focus on what really matters.

Nam Tso Lake, Tibet

For the last three years I have been working at Coventry City Council as a Programme Manager in the Public Health department. My work has focused on trying to reduce health inequalities in Coventry, which is something I’m passionate about. I do want to use my time to do some good in the world, and helping to make the world a better place is important to me. But it isn’t easy, and the old days of long-term job security, a linear career and a comfortable retirement are long gone for those of us born after 1980. Shane and I might not live to 70 or 75 or whenever our retirement age might be, and we don’t want to wait until we’re that old to enjoy life.

There isn’t one way to pass the time or to live life. Working long hours to pay for an expensive house which you never live in (because you’re working long hours), or to make a lot of money that you can never spend (because… guess what… you’re still working long hours) isn’t a priority for Shane or for me. While we are very good at accumulating stuff, we also know that spending money on possessions won’t make us happy. We don’t have an endless pile of cash to travel with, but while we know (or we hope!) we can always get another job and make more money in the future, we can’t ever get our time back.

Borobodur Temple, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Ultimately, we travel because pushing boundaries and having adventures is at the core of what it means to be human. We are always striving to grow, develop and push beyond what we know and what we are familiar with. My dream is to be an astronaut and to venture out into space and beyond the frontier – to visit new planets and new worlds – but until NASA comes looking for me, seeing more of our own planet is the next best thing. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences and new horizons. We are conditioned to a life of security and conformity, which might give us peace of mind, but can limit us at the same time. To get the most out of life we have to free ourselves from the expectations of society and look for meaning and beauty. We have to get out and do it.

Serengeti National Park, Tanzania

The most common regrets people have at the end of their lives are wishing they had had the courage to live a life true to themselves rather than what others expected, and wishing they hadn’t worked so hard. We don’t know what’s round the corner, so we travel because we don’t want any regrets about the way we’ve spent our time.

Anyone know a good marriage counsellor?

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So all the suits are returned, the wedding cake has been eaten, all the thank you cards sent out. The wedding is sadly officially over...

Now, what to do next, get a dog, have a baby? No, we have decided to do something slightly different. We are going to take Martha, Georgia’s 21 year old Nissan Micra on a drive. Not just a short drive or even a weekend away but a drive across the world to Mongolia. We are setting out in July with the aim to drive Martha to Mongolia while raising much needed funds for two deserving charities.

Please take along around the site and please visit our facebook page. If you like what you see please follow us,  use the form below to subscribe to our blog, share this page with others and, if you are able to, donate some money to our charities.

Thank you,

Shane, Georgia and Martha.

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