Steppe By Steppe: Launch - Woburn Safari Park

Saturday 10 Jul 2010 11:48

via SMS by Tony Edgar of Steppe By Steppe

Lost already. Found ourselves at the front of the convoy out of woburn safari park. We turned left and everybody else went right. Ended up lost in the country side 5 min into the rally! Back on the m1 now heading for Dover.

Egads. Talk about a farcical start. True to our usual form, we were late getting away from our flat in Brixton, leaving approximately an hour later than we intended.

Due to some issue with getting a licence to hold the event, the launch had been switched from Highbury Fields in north London to Woburn Safari Park in Bedfordshire. This meant we had to drive 50 miles in the wrong direction just to get to the start of the rally. We got stuck in traffic, both on the way through central London and on the M1 itself, and eventually limped into the park an hour late. I guess you could say we'd have been on time if we had left when we were supposed to. It didn't exactly fill us with confidence that we'd make it to Ulaanbaataar in time for our return flight, when we couldn't even get to the outskirts of Luton successfully.

We missed the parade lap through the safari park itself, and as a result had to sit and wait whilst everyone else completed it and lined up next to us for some speeches by a rally veteran (David Treanor, who wrote a very entertaining book about his experiences, "Mission Mongolia") and the charity staff.

My sister came along to wish us safe travels, along with my nieces and nephews, who had provided such wonderful van cleaning assistance when we took Genghis up to Gloucestershire a month earlier. It was great to have family there to see us off, and the sun shone on our excited chatter as we listened to last minute advice from those in the know. Most of all though, after all the build up over the previous 10 months, all we really wanted to do was get going. We were handed a voucher for two free beers should we decided to stop off at the Western Mongolia Campsite in Khovd when we got to Mongolia - and the very thought that they were expecting us to get that far set our pulses racing. We resolved we would stop off there, and savour the beer when it came. It seemed a very long, almost unreachable, way away.

Go Help were making a promotional video of the launch, and as the first klaxon eventually sounded to tell us to make our way to our vehicles, the producer came up to me to ask if I'd mind speaking to camera. I was getting a bit nervous that we should be back in the van and starting to leave, and responded in single-syllable monotone to his questions, upon which he said "err, well, we'll let you get back to your van", before the cameraman had even arrived. One of the things that made me really want to drive to Mongolia was seeing a promo video of the Mongol Rally a few years previously, with excited people wishing a last farewell from their vehicle as they drove off into the sunset on the trip of a lifetime. And there I was, in that same position, only to be too boring for telly. J does make it to the video - sitting with my niece. I was elsewhere at the time, trying to stop my youngest nephew climbing into the hippo enclosure. The producer moved on to All Weasel No Beaver, a couple of immensely cheery & likeable Aussies, and they ended up having probably the starring role in the whole video - they came out with the best line anyway. The clip is below, if you're interested (cos, you know, I'm not. Sniff).

And then! We were off! We trundled from our parking spot behind a beast of an ex-army Land Rover ambulance, only to see it peel off almost immediately and wait for us to drive past. As we later discovered, this was because the film makers wanted to have them say something to camera as they left. We, of course, weren't required and found ourselves at the front of the rally convoy leaving the safari park. So far so good. Then, without warning, the safari park employee who was leading us stopped and waved us past, and we were on our own. We hadn't bothered turning the sat nav on, and as we reached the exit from the park I suddenly realised I hadn't a clue which direction I should be going. Taking a stab in the dark, I wheeled left and hit the open road....... then watched in dismay as every single last one of the other ralliers turned right and disappeared from site. 5 minutes into the rally, and that was the last we'd see of pretty much any of our fellow participants.

No matter. Steppe By Steppe was Go on the 2010 Mongolia Charity Rally!!!