Day 1. Launch!
Day 1 – Goodwood Launch, and drive to Germany on Sunday the 19th of July, 2015
Despite waking up early, and getting to the gate first, we didn’t get to leave until fairly late. I dug out the Djembe (Tam Tam) from the car (bluebird is a treasure trove of unnecessary items!) and tried to wake up a few teams with some bad drumming. It didn’t work too well, but it did succeed in getting out 30ft flagpole driven over while it was on the ground. The flag still flies, but is a little crooked now. Ah well.
As we left the camping field and headed towards Goodwood racecourse, we were amazed by the number of teams. There were literally hundreds of cars, all about to embark on this most ludicrous of expeditions, taking roads from Northern Siberia to Northern Africa… all to get to Mongolia for one reason or another.
No time to stop and ponder though! Must get going! Oh no, wait. There’s a bridge to get out of Goodwood… oops, too late. The flagpole holder is now a little bit more flexible as we go under the bridge, and snap three of the five welds holding the flag on. Now, every time we accelerate, the flag bends precariously backwards – we warn the car behind us to keep back as quite likely the flag will end up on their windscreen… they listen, but the car behind them grows impatient and cuts in front… ah well.
A quick lap of the racecourse (sitting on the roof playing the Djembe, with the flag flying high of course!) and we are off. We drive to Hastings, where another team has organized a fish ‘n’ chips lunch. I’m not sure if it was the excitement, the soon-to-be nostalgia or something else, but even though I don’t usually like fish and chips – this one was amazing. I eat it all up, and share a few chips with a passing seagull that decides our car is a good perch to rest on.
—insert image here—
No time to digest though, off we go again! Luckily for us, our detour via Hastings means we missed the M25 and M20, and in doing so, missed a very large accident that slows down all the other teams that were skipping lunch. Oops! We get to our ferry in the nick of time and meet up with some Italians and Canadians on the sundeck. Little did we know that we would be convoying with them quite a lot in the coming days.
As we hit the shores of France we realize that the two things we didn’t check on the car was the internal fan and lighter socket. Typically, both are faulty. A quick bodge gets the lighter socket working, but the fan seems to be missing a pipe and blows air into the area behind the instrument panel, which is pretty pointless. The philosophy of “ah well” kicks in and we force onwards.
France, The Netherlands and Belgium are a blur or motorways, expensive motorway food and red bull. Eventually we get to Colne, and find a campsite recommended by another team. At 1am we crash for the night. In the morning, we find teams coming out of the woodwork at the campsite, but not the team that suggested the campsite. Odd! When we do find them, it turns out they camped in the (free) field across from the campsite; smart!
Next update… tomorrow. In theory!
M.