Saturday 19 July 2008

And They Are Off

Start day finally arrived with Hyde Park filled with the sights and sounds of over 200 cars and several motorbikes ridden by some very crazy guys - it really was a spectacle. The last minute preparations and panic failed to occur and we had time to chat fora couple of hours to those who came to see us off. A real thanks to everyone who did come down - it really was great to have such fantastic support. Those present had the chance to sign the car and chose some very appropriate words of advice to add, one of my favourite being "Hope is not a management tool!"

Even in all his new attire E'wn was undoubtedly outshone by some amazingly decorated cars, although I'm not sure how a telephone box or a bath on your roof is really going to help the effort to get to Mongolia, maybe I'm missing something here.

The start got underway at 1pm and we headed out of Hyde Park through the impressive start gate onwards to Mongolia...well actually it was straight into a series of traffic jams tying to weave our way out East towards Docklands where we stopped to pick up Cedric's luggage. The atmosphere of the departure carried on through central London and we had some good chats with curious drivers and fellow adventures through open windows as we drove around Parliament Square. The main topic seemed to be "Which way is Dover? which was fine - but we were heading to Harwich!

Irritatingly our radio stopped working after only 8 miles, very annoying but somehow I suspect we are going to encounter much more serious problems than just that!

Some pictures will appear on the site soon.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good luck Cédric and Paul. Drive safely.

Anonymous said...

En route pour l'aventure, on comprend rien de ce que tu écris en anglais mais on suppose que vous êtes en "galère" ! Nous ne le dirons pas à ta mère car elle va s'inquièter..... nous t'embrassons très fort et vous souhaitons bon courage. Nous ne manquerons pas de vous suivre chaque jour et nous vous enverrons beaucoup de messages d'encouragements.

PS: ne faîtes pas trop les cons car vous êtes filmés.

Bisous/

Nath et Ludo

Anonymous said...

Damn.. I wish I'd thought to ask, I'd have come and seen you off from Harwich. Good luck guys, be careful.

Cedric Ladde said...

Thanks all for the comments. We read them all and appreciate it.

Merci pour les messages. Nous les lisons tous et cela fait super plaisir.