Photo: The Adventurists.
After a terriffic party the night before, everywhere I look faces are tired and kind of scrunched up, but happy. It’s the day of the start of The Mongol Rally 2014, in Battersea Park at 8am.
Well, presumably not everyone’s happy!
David Kearsley Stephens, from hereon forever known as Nut-Sack Dave, is the first proper casualty of the race. Turns out that Dave, the night before the start in Battersea Park, tried to climb a fence while blind-drunk. Long story short: he punctured his scrotum on the fence and needed a transfusion of two litres of blood! No internal injuries though and he intends to rejoin the rally in Bratislava in a few days. He regrets that he will miss the Czech Out-party.
So there you have it: the first puncture of the rally.
For more light-heartedness, read Bear, Baths, an Arrest & a Rally-ending Collision at The Adventurists’ website.
YiB hasn’t punctured anything, and the team is in high spirits on the day of the start of the rally 🙂
Not so much Team Running Salted Fish from China, who managed to break their back window shortly before the start. We donated some gaffa tape to the cause and hope it holds all the way to Mongolia.
The Adventurists, the organizers of the rally, have set up a start ramp that every car has to cross. It’s really a bit more brutal than it comes across in the pictures (this is on purpose), so quite a few people are surprised when their cars pass it with a ker-crunch! sound. Three teams lose their exhausts here.
Photo: The Adventurists
Afterwards we drive together through London in the Khaanival. This works out well for a while, but then the traffic lights cause the 300 cars to break out of the line, and most of us get lost in the city of London.
Chaos ensues.
This is due to the fact, that whenever fellow Mongol Rallyers meet, there is a lot of honking, shouting and general silliness.
After a while, the Rallyers find their way to Dover. Some take the ferry to Calais, France, while others use the chunnel.
Yak in Black chooses the latter.
France is a country Yaris Hilton passes through swiftly, a bit of traffic around the major cities, but no grid-lock. As we approach Switzerland, the thunderclouds gather, and the lovely Swiss countryside seems to drown in a torrent of rain.
Reaching Lugano at 1:30am.
1108 km covered.
Today’s countries: England, France and Switzerland.