Charity Rallies (Charlie, Ryan & Sophie) organised a training weekend for us up near the Castle Howard Estate in Yorkshire towards the end of June. They'd arranged for Sam from the Royal Geographical Society - a man who had led numerous overland expeditions all over the world - to show us some basic hints and tips on surviving (and helping our vehicles survive) in the great outdoors.
It was a great opportunity to meet some of the other teams and learn some new skills - although we didn't do the more strenuous day's off road driving in Genghis as, minus sump guard, we didn't want to risk hitting a rock and having him die on us on the Yorkshire moors, before we even reached Dover. The fact that we didn't even know what a sump guard was until a week beforehand was irrelevant - now we knew what could break and how, we were determined to take steps to avoid it. We did, however, manage to try out our newly purchased pop up tent and folding chairs - part of a camping set promotion in Argos, who I believe (although am not 100% sure) kitted out both Ewan McGregor & Charlie Boorman for their "Long way round", and Roald Amundsen on his trip to the South Pole in 1910.
This was when things started getting properly real - we were able to share preparation tips, discuss lack of sponsorship and see the sort of roads we might encounter in Kazakhstan and beyond. We also got to know our fellow ralliers and the guys from the charity, and it was great to know we were doing it with, and for, such a lovely bunch of people.
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| our pop up home for the trip gets its first trial run - Genghis watches on |
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| Genghis lines up alongside Lost In Transit for the photo op |
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| All Weasel No Beaver get a crash course in Ford Ranger maintenance |
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| The view from Charlie's ex-army beast, on the Yorshire moors |
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| Lost in Transit practice towing Darting All over the World out of a ditch |
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| Sam & his Landy show us what real overlanding is all about |
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