The Douglas Car Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 17:26:00 +0000

As our Mongol Rally fundraising pages draw to a close, the five of us would like to say a final thank you to everyone who donated or supported us in one way or another over the past year. The whole endeavour really wouldn’t have been the success it was without you. We raised almost £14k for our two charities, gave them a heap of exposure and delivered an ambulance which, with a little TLC, will enjoy many years of valuable service in Mongolia.

The trip itself was incredible – we drove 9617 miles through 18 countries in 32 days, scaled mountains, bribed police, tackled the worst roads we’ve ever seen, got stuck in sand, endured grim ferry crossings, spent weeks without showering and got totally lost in translation, but we were mostly stunned by the fantastic scenery and all the great people we met along the way. We’d definitely encourage anyone who can find the time to just go for it – it was an experience we won’t ever forget.

If anyone is keen to learn more about our trip, there is a selection of our photos up on our website at www.thedouglascar.com as well as the first half of a cheeky video diary of sorts (more will come as it gets done). Advait has also embarked upon writing a full blown novel which, judging from the first chapter, will be up for several literary awards when it is finally released in 2020 ;-)

Thanks again,

Dave, Nick, Advait, Matt and George

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 07:38:00 +0000

We’ve been massively slacking on the Blog front – this is due to a combination of a lack of Internet Cafes, and the fact that we’ve never been more on the run. In fact it’s been pretty much non stop. Here’s a brief run-down of some of the more memorable moments from Kosovo to the Caspian Sea…

We rocked up to Pristina complete wrecks after a massive night drive and were met by Scottish efore promptly passing out on the floor of his and Gerard’s rather nice flat. Couldn’t have needed it more at that point. We then spent the next 36 hours hanging out with Scottish, Hacker, Gerard, Standy and the rest of the Chad’s gang who were all doing placements of one sort or another at the UN. We ate well, drank well and enjoyed ourselves. Pristina really is a great place and it was brilliant to see Scottish and spend some time doing the usual inane things such as walloping footballs at each other in the park. Just like old times but in a slightly surreal setting!

After having such a great time we decided to punish ourselves with another lengthy night drive. Highlights included explaining ourselves after turning up at the wrong border (Serbia, no less) at 2am due to some suspect navigation, and the various service stations and dodgy toilets of Macedonia and Bulgaria. After all this we then took on the unforgiving rush hour of Istanbul, with the mission of finding the Dedeman hotel. No mean feat when we didn’t even have the address of the place to start with and our map simply showed Istanbul as a blob!

Waltzing into the 5 star Dedeman hotel in our grubby shorts and flip-flops was akin to meeting the Queen with chocolate on your face. Thankfully, the doorman knew we were coming and took time out from welcoming wedding guests to chauffer Dougie to the secure parking lot. Now to explain, Advait’s future Mother in Law kindly hooked us up with a fantastic sponsor for our trip. In return for placing Dedeman logos on the ambulance, they offered us several free nights at their posh hotels across Turkey, with meals thrown in. Jackpot! And so started 4 days of lounging by the pool, tennis in the sun, power showers, massive buffet breakfasts, and real beds. There was a little bit of drivng involved too mind, but the perks really took the edge off the Turkish heat for us as we passed other rally teams camping on gas station forecourts by the side of the road.

In the midst of this Turkish luxury, we spent a day (yes, a whole day) exploring the sights of the Cappadocia region. Without getting too scientific, Cappadocia has some rather large volcanic human termite mounds, which hopefully some photos will explain more thoroughly than this description! We were also witness to a bizarre Turkish ceremony that appeared to have been devised by someone under the influence of opium. We’re not sure if it was to do with coming of age or some poor young man in a crown was ready to be sacrificed, but it involved a lot of tuneless chanting, endless spinning, and a clown.

Next came Georgia and Azerbaijan, of which Georgia is memorable for being the first place in which we turned up at a restaurant and being completely clueless as to what we ordered. This resulted in what appeared to be 25 colostemy bags, but were actually meat filled dough packages followed by kebabs that could rival Jayne’s place. In reality, it was all really good, and a definite reminder that you should try everything once. The rest of Georgia probably warranted more than the short time we spent there, even the parts near South Ossetia, but we had a ferry crossing in our sights and were hell bent on getting there. The border crossing from Georgia to Azerbaijan was something else. We arrived there around 2am to be greeted by a pile of stinking sticky mud, diesel fumes, complete darkness, a couple of portacabins and complete confusion. One of the border guards asked if we’d ever been to Azerbaijan before, and on replying no, commented “well, you won’t like it”. He wasn’t wrong. The roads were the worst so far – Dougie got a good coating of mud.

We eventually found the right ferry port in Baku for our Caspian crossing and were met by 20 rally teams, some of whom had been camping in the port holding bay for 4 days. After our 36 hour drive we were delighted to find that there would be a ferry departing that afternoon. In reality, although it was great that there was a ferry leaving, we shouldn’t really have been looking forward to it quite so much…

Will post some photos when we get a chance, and for those of you following the map, sorry it's missing the comments - don't know why it's just showing the titles right now. Each mobile network we use seems to introduce it's own problems... However, it does have the pins in the right place - we're in Almaty, having had a rather large night out for Matty's birthday, and are about to head North to the Russian border where apparently all sorts of Border fun awaits. Game on.

Dave

Shots from the Road

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 22:01:00 +0000

Not got tıme to upload loads of pıcs but here are a few...! Wıll hopefully get tıme ın Baku to wrıte another proper blog entry. All ıs good here.

Daveş Advaıtş Mattş Nıck & Sly

Czech Out party 100kms from Prague

Macedonıan Border crossıng

Monastery ın a Serbıan Enclave wıth Scottısh.

Turkısh traffıc jams.

The First Leg!

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 16:46:00 +0000

After an uneventful stint through the chunnel, we emerged in France with the intention of putting some pedal to the metal till we reached Amsterdam. Sadly not having maps with a small enough scale to navigate through towns and cities meant we circled the 'King Leopold II tunnels' in Brussels some four hundred times. This wasted a good couple of hours and so we finally launched into Amsterdam around 2am. We waltzed into town with the hope of finding some action, but all we managed was a few glimpses of the red light district, a couple of beers and got soaked. Poor effort! Driving is more tiring than we thought. As there were only the three of us, rather than lugging our tents into the campsite, we just kipped in the 3* luxury that is Dougie. An interesting move when the next morning Advait tried to sneak into the campsite for a cheeky shower, was rejected big style and 10 minutes later we had the dutch rozzers knocking on our window. Some swallowed toothpaste aside, it was a surprisingly amiable encounter with the 'good cop' expressing a fair bit of interest in the rally, and the 'bad cop' taking our passports away for a brief going over. Nothing too stressful, and we did what we were told and hit the road with the mission to get to somewhere near Prague.

The drive to Prague was going smoothly until we learned that Matty was arriving a full day before everyone else thought he was. Ah well, that's coordination for you. We left the oblivious Matty with the task of finding us a suitable hostel, and lit the afterburners. A few hours later, we had a Matty, a parking spot, a bed and were chowing down on some Maccy D's. Was almost like we'd planned it. We left in the morning with a quick detour to the local Tesco before envisaging a quick twenty minute drive to the outskirts of Prague for the official 'Czech out' party. Imagine our surprise when we found out that it was actually a full two and a half hour drive away in a non-descript 14th century village. This meant we had a quick turnaround in way of putting up our tents on arrival into the campsite before heading to the castle which was the venue for the night. The theme was 'the age of exploration', so we went dressed in our scrubs, naturally.

The party itself was surreally good. Imagine the scene; hundreds of people in fancy dress eating barbecued food in and amongst the ruins of Klenova castle. After queueing for a few pieces of miscellaneous meat, we sat down at the picnic tables next to a group dressed as the Knights of the Templar. The head knight was clearly disgruntled, muttering something about it not being a bad meal for £650 (our entry fee to the rally). The evening went much further south after that, with a free Hendrick's gin bar not aiding our efforts to stay disciplined.
After having drunken banter with a South African wearing a kilt (don't ask), drinking until speaking became difficult, and setting Matt on fire, we bedded down for the night. Fortunately, when morning came around we were buoyed by the fact that it was clear the free Hendrick's gin had punished others more than ourselves. One guy was lying unconscious by a fire with a dog licking his face, and a bunch of mischievous Durham grads (!) throwing balls at him. Once we'd stomached the last of the potato grule that was on offer, we hit the road with Nick having the unenviable task of driving first off, with a head that felt like someone was trying to park a truck in there.

We intended to drive for the day, and camp somewhere over the Serbian border but then a unanimous decision was reached whereby we thought it'd be a better idea to reach Kosovo as soon as possible to allow for more downtime with Scottish George. This meant an all night drive, a feat which was made all the harder when we did a few unecessary laps of Budapest. The ensuing cyclical driving was pretty draining, with driver and navigator in the front and the two non-drivers in the back trying to sleep as they bounced off the walls and ceiling.
Driving though the Serbian and Kosovan borders in the early hours of the morning could be descibed as slighty spooky or by lesser men as shit scary. To be honest it was fairly uneventful but on around five hours of poor quality sleep in the last 48 hours our imaginations were running wild and when the rear door of the ambulance gets flung open and you're faced with a gruff border guard who speaks no English, it's hard not to have sticky situations running through your mind. That's even without the snipers posted on the bridge. We eventually arrived at Scottish's at around mid day after a stunning drive through a misty sunrise and promptly passed out in his front room. 26 hours driving and we were shattered!

By the way, we now have a Sly, the team is complete and we're chilling with Scottish in Pristina. Rock on!

Ready, set, go!

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 15:30:00 +0000

Sly, Nick and Dave rocked up to the launch not quite knowing what to
expect, and were met by a paddock crammed with 300 rally cars, all
decked out and ready to roll. What a sight!

The dougie fan club were out in full force, having travelled from all
over the place, and were happy to fend off the hordes of inquisitive
folk eager to hear more about us and especially how we managed to
raise as much as we did. The three of us, kitted out in our surgical
and patient get ups (thanks lizzie!) took refuge on dougie's roof and
just soaked up the atmosphere with a bottle of champers from Beccy's
Dad! Sweet.

Being at Goodwood Motor Circuit, it'd have been criminal to leave
without doing a lap, and we were ushered to the front to join the fire
engine covered in fur, the thunderbird 4, a car with hammocks hanging
from the side, one with a full blown Viking canoe on top, an ice cream
van and more. We weaved our way round at 20mph hanging out the windows
past the few thousand people waving in the stands. Cracking stuff.

Sly had to leave us due to visa issues (amazingly not actually his
fault - the rally organisers properly messed his up - more on that
another time). He's going to get himself sorted and fly out to Kosovo
to meet us later this week. Matty is at his bro's wedding this weekend
and will be meeting us in Prague on Monday, and Nick and I are about
to pick Advait up from another wedding somewhere near the Chunnel....
Never straightforward!

That's it, we're outta here. Can't believe it's actually happening.
First stop, Amsterdam!!!!

Dave

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Dougie finds fame in The Indy

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 14:40:00 +0000

To perfectly coincide with the rally launch, our good pal Chris fixed
us up with a piece in The Independent! National news baby!

Head to page 17 of today's paper for a full run-down of the rally,
cheesy quotes from Dave and description of our charity, Helen &
Douglas House.

Cheers Chris, we're chuffed with it!

You can find the online version of the article here:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/mongolia-or-bust-the-appeal-of-the-mongol-rally-1751560.html?action=Popup&gallery=no

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£10,000+ raised for Douglas House!

noreply@blogger.com (Matty) — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 21:50:00 +0000

Way back in 2008, before we managed to get hold of our trusty ambulance and most of us had worked out exactly where Mongolia was, someone thought we could use our trip as a way to raise a whole heap of cash for charity. After visiting Douglas House and deciding it was the one for us, we started talking about targets. To this day I'm not sure precisely where the figure of £10,000 came from. I remember someone pointing out that it's 'nice and round' and that it 'sounds big'. Which I guess is difficult to argue with. Anyway, the trip was a long way off and not worth worrying about right away. Trouble is, once we'd said we'd do it we kind of had to give it go.

It's been quite a journey since then; we've sent letters, baked cakes, been to Wales, shook tins, got sunburnt, been sick, been sick again, counted pennies, had photo shoots, worn hideous orange T-shirts, shouted at people in a tube station, been on the radio and in newspapers, sold our bodies, sold our boxer shorts and generally pestered lots of people in an effort to get to that all important target. To be honest for long periods of time we seriously doubted that we would ever make it. But we have and I think there is one simple reason that we did. We had an absolute shed load of help. The response we've had has been incredible, with people prepared to offer huge amounts of their time, patience, skills and money. You have made this a great success and having visited Douglas House we know it will make a big difference. So here goes with some extra special thanks for the following people who have put in effort beyond the call of duty into our fundraising, and getting us ready for this trip:

Mike at Red Stone, Jim & Neville at SCAS, Ruth at Douglas House, Beccy, Kerry, Milston, Harry, Maria, Lisa, Tom, Clare, Lara, Michelle, Greg, Philip and Helen Smith, Ash at Snowforum, Reza at Zeefax, P&H Decorating, Betty and Julian Holmes, Craig Wootton, Cathy Gaynor, the Bar, JCR and Chapel at St. Chad's College Durham, Hymers College, Radley College CCF, King's College School CCF, Old King's Club, Old Radleian Society, Daphne and Anna Holburn, Fortune, JT, Chris Green, Elaine, Hetty, Pat & Carol, Dave's family, Nick's family, Adele and papa Parsons, Comms dept at Uni of York, Adur School Nurse Team, Will & Dan at GPS Log, Dean Jones, Barbara Doyle, Advait's Mum, and Heather, Nigel and Jo Smith

Now we've just got to get to Mongolia....

Great CNCF News

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 21:11:00 +0000

Another very successful fundraiser for our Mongolian charity, CNCF, was held in the home of Carol Barrett in Beverley early in July. Lots of Carol’s friends, wine and canapés, a great deal of good will and appreciation of such a good cause raised £232.30 – so a huge thank you to Carol for an amazing effort!

We are thrilled to say that not only have we reached our total but we have well exceeded it by raising a fantastic £1560.43. To everyone who has donated: thank you so much. From the word go, back at Christmas, when Dave’s sisters and Mum organised the carol singing, this charity has captured the attention of many people – especially in Beverley, Dave’s home town. We are delighted to be supporting such a worthy cause and hope that our collection will make the lives of some of the poorest children in the world a little bit easier for a while, whether in the Christina Noble schools, mobile night clinic or in the Ger Village which we very much hope to visit when we reach Ulaan Baatar.

4 days to go!

Dave

Douglas Car get stuck in at London Pride!

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 21:42:00 +0000

Ok, so we weren't actually collecting at the Gay Pride festival, but it certainly livened up our day in the depths of Tottenham Court Road tube station. Together with some *serious* dedication from Kerry and Beccy, Dave, Matt, Nick and Sly tackled the hoards of people in the sweat box that is TCR and raised a brilliant £637.59 for Douglas House. Awesome stuff, and thanks so much girls, you really helped rake it in and keep the rest of us going. (Amazing how much difference a short skirt/shorts and a pretty face makes!)

We're now so close to our £10k target for Douglas House - it's really coming down to the wire. So if you haven't already, please make a donation at www.justgiving.com/thedouglascar. Every penny counts, and will help to make a difference to people who really need it.

2 weeks until we leave.

Can. Not. Wait!

Dave

Dougie gets a do, and a new sponsor!

noreply@blogger.com (Advaldo) — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 15:21:00 +0000

After meeting Nickski and Sly in Oxford, we drove to the service station that is Dougie's temporary home and then convoyed to Red Stone Graphics, our brilliant logo design and application specialists. Mike Ing, our graphical guardian angel, had printed out the Britannia logos on two large sheets which he set about applying using nothing more than a scalpel and a hairdryer. We watched in amazement as within half an hour, both side panels of the ambulance were devoid of the 'sponsor us' stickers and now had our completed Britannia Tea and Britannia Petroleum logos adorning the bodywork.

In what must surely be the strongest argument for the existence of serendipity, we got talking to the next client on the waiting list, purely because we'd turned up slightly behind schedule. He was Arron of P&H Interior Decorating, and asked with interest about the trip and the charity, before proudly asking for two spots at £100 each! Me and Sly looked at each other aghast (more so than usual) and had to pick our jaws off the floor (Sly more so than usual) as a pile of £50 notes was thrust into our hands! This at present holds the record for our fastest amount fundraised yet, at approximately £100/min.

As if seeing two fantastic looking logos on Dougie weren't enough, the surprise donation absolutely made our day. We are now a mere £1,456.06 away from the £10,000 target we set ourselves, and with the potential for a few more surprises in the last month before we leave, we may get there sooner than we could have anticipated!

Oh, and there's totally a mouse in the house (Dougie) somewhere...see picture below for some excellent gnawing action on a coke bottle. Pet Smart here we come, I'll take two mousetraps please. If anyone from PETA reads this we'll be using the humane ones. If anyone from our joint account reads this, we'll be getting the cheapest ones.

P&H Interior Decorating are providers of brilliant interior design and decorating services in the Oxfordshire area.

Advait

Broadsided on Broad Street

noreply@blogger.com (Advaldo) — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 19:06:00 +0000

Following our success in Cardiff, the team headed to the heart of the Royal County for the latest fundraiser in Reading. Our total was nothing short of imperious either, with a fantastic £451 collected!

The challenge in this instance began even before the weekend, as on calling the council to check about our vehicle permit, they calmly replied that as far as they were concerned we weren't coming! Thanks to the wonderous inefficiencies of the civil service, our completed forms were somewhere in the bowels of the council's in-tray, and in no hurry to be found this side of Chelsea winning the Champion's League. After some frantic intra-group emailing of scanned documents, there followed a two-hour turnaround of resubmitted forms that was frighteningly reminiscent of our university hand-ins. However after making the deadline by mere seconds we were assured that the permits would be processed in time.

As it was Sly's first time driving the ambulance I waited with trepidation to see what fresh hell had become of the bodywork. But to everyone's surprise he had driven flawlessly from Oxford, with not so much as a fly to scrape off the bonnet. All that was left was to fill in the bullet holes (strangely all bearing the appearance of being shot from inside the cabin; Nick, don't ever touch a black man's radio), uninstall the hydraulics, take down the Tim Westwood and Vanilla Ice posters and you'd never know he'd driven it. We all met at our designated spot just down from Broad Street mall in the heart of Reading and began collecting. The location outside T-Mobile was right in the middle of a busy, pedestrianised shopping arcade and soon after parking Dougie the pennies started clinking into our Helen and Douglas pots. We bumped into a Douglas House worker who bestowed great encouragement and gratitude, and in this vein the morning continued, with several people asking about the trip and the charity. In more temperate climes than Cardiff, we didn't suffer as badly and managed to keep our energy levels up more so than previously.

The afternoon was brightened by the arrival of Jo, a.k.a the best girlfriend in the world (and I say this completely without hope of brownie points as she doesn't read these blogs) who came laden with iced smoothies. This served as our fuel for a final boost towards the late afternoon after which the crowds began to wane and we called it a day, not before a final 'see who gets the most in half an hour' competition. Nickski's pot floated away after it was caught in a light breeze and Matt's broke someone's foot when he put it down, with Sly's and mine coming somewhere in the middle. The prize was a Helen and Douglas sticker and tickets to Chelsea's next Champion's League final. Ok, so the latter's fictional, sue me.

With the final count coming in via text message, we were overjoyed to learn that the target was now a mere £1700 away. Taking into account upcoming collections and companies we've yet to hear back from, we have full confidence we can achieve our goal before we leave!

All in all, Reading was truly Madejstic! (...and no that wasn't a typo, but a very clever footballing pun on Reading's Madejski stadium, pronounced phonetically with the 'd' as a 'j'...and they say it's not funny when you have to explain your own jokes, pah)

Advait

Diolch yn fawr iawn Caerdydd!

noreply@blogger.com (Advaldo) — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 01:12:00 +0000

That's "thank you very much Cardiff!" for those not down with the lingo. I feel compelled to start on that note because of our tremendous success in the Welsh capital; our street collecting raised a whopping £660.87!

The journey from London to Cardiff had been far from a smooth one, with traffic jams galore on the way to Nickski's in Oxford. We entered through the open garden door to his great surprise as he was caught unawares sipping a shandy with Britain's got talent on. He hastily switched over to something more manly as we offloaded a few items into his Mary Poppins' handbag-esque garden shed, and picked up Matty. Nickski was unable to join us as somehow he'd got tickets to the FA Cup final and even more surprisingly, somehow Chelsea were in it. With a quick turnaround we handed the keys to Matt who had yet to drive Dougie. In mere milliseconds he'd succeeded in swerving a number of times before hitting a bollard, all in the space of 10 long yards. After the eventful beginning he drove more than capably all the way to Cardiff, inspite my best efforts to shine the map light into his eyes and Dangerous having his own disco in the back. After some fiddling with the various lighting options, he settled on a blue glow in the rear of the ambulance which we later thought might have been a UV light, as he emerged at the other end more David Dickinson than David Andrews (I'd have gone for the Hull link and used Phil Brown but you can't beat the alliteration of that bargain hunting oompa-loompa).

It's worth noting at this point the perks that come with driving something that has 'Emergency Ambulance' emblazoned across it. Aside from the several waves you get from real ambulances, there have been a couple of occasions already where we've made lucky escapes. Once was when yours truly was speeding down a dual carriageway, along which a police van was performing speed checks with a handheld radar gun. On seeing the Douglas Car approach, the policewoman holstered her radar gun and nodded! Thanks, we don't want speeding tickets anyway. The second instance was on the crossing of the Severn bridge, where vans are normally charged a credit crunch defying £10.90. Having carefully counted out and dropped the coins on several occasions, imagine our surprise when as we approached we were greeted with the sign 'Class 1 - Exempt' and a thumbs up!

We arrived past midnight at chez Milston Milston (Sr.), and dropped off to sleep almost immediately in the knowledge that we had an early start to our day of collecting.

Having donned our total football/bright orange Helen and Douglas t-shirts, we parked Dougie on our allocated spot in the high street next to Cardiff Castle and were off! Plastic tumblers at the ready we fanned out around the ambulance and let no passerby slip through our net, telling all what we were collecting for and exactly where we were driving to. With no prior street collecting experience, I was genuinely surprised at how tiring it can be. Constantly talking on your feet and in the sun really took it out of us, and poor Dangerous was feeling the heat inspite of the radiative protection of his fake tan.

Nonetheless, we ploughed on for a good six or seven hours, and experienced the full generosity of the Welsh public. Juan and Harry also came down for a few hours to help out; with the former applying some liberal ‘take no for an answer’ attitude and Harry relying on his posh and apologetic manner. Their help provided some much needed support, inspite a short period where they recruited the services of a particularly drunk local who seemed hell bent on driving people away. Nearly stole a t-shirt too (which came in handy later on, keep reading). The biggest cheer of the afternoon came when Everton scored after 25 seconds, sadly as our fortunes grew those of the footballing world fell from grace as Chelsea won. Probably cheated, it’s the only way they know how.

Back to the collecting, we got a startling amount of £1 and £2 coins, which would definitely add up come the end of the day. Several people were genuinely interested in what we were doing, and there were many occasions when following a donation we would find ourselves happily chatting about the trip and showing off the ambulance. There was also the odd generous soul who dropped in a note, not least of all the raucous hen party who plagued us pretty much from 11am to 11pm. They offered £2 from each of their party of twelve for a photo with our tops off. I warned them that my pre-marathon carbo-loading had continued with some gusto after the run itself, but they were goggle eyed at ‘Musclebound’ Matt Davis and so gave us £24 for our troubles! Not willing to leave us at this juncture, they wanted a souvenir. Dangerous ‘Commando’ Andrews obliged, and that’s all I’m saying on the matter. Any questions send in a request with a donation via our website and he’ll happily respond. Or if Beccy’s reading then don’t worry. Nothing happened. He wasn’t even in Cardiff.

At the latter end of the afternoon we called time on what had been a packed and fruitful day, driving back to MM’s flat to count our winnings. Dividing the heap of coins and notes into their respective denominations we each placed early estimates at the total, the largest of which was £501. Imagine our delight when we came to £660.87! This has now put a sizeable stride in our quest for the £10,000, and we were all over the moon at seeing what had been a tough and draining day come to such fruition. The only thing left was to celebrate our triumph and we headed out to sample Cardiff’s nightlife together with our fellow volunteers Juan and Harry, Holly, Maria and Andy (the poor man’s Harry).

The following day we began our drive to Oxford, nursing some pretty severe hangovers. Wales tried to make us pay on the way in via the toll bridge but it certainly made us pay as we left. None more so than old man Andrews, who showed the alcoholic aftermath caused by his advanced twenty-five-going-on-thirty years of age. At the risk of getting too graphic for the scope of this blog, he chundered. Then chundered some more at high speed. He may still be chundering but I don’t live with him. It must be said the second coming was hilarious; having said “I don’t feel so good” in the passenger seat he then stuck his upper body out of the window and redecorated the side panel. What the poor biker following us must have experienced is anyone’s guess, but it made a fantastic argument for wearing a helmet with the visor down. I as the driver had an unobstructed view of proceedings through the large wing mirror. After pulling a face of tremendous discomfort, there followed a relaxed and contented smile, not too dissimilar to what dogs must feel like when they stick their heads out of car windows. For the more attentive of you, we used the stolen-then-recovered t-shirt from the Welsh Oliver Reed for the cleaning operation. Being in the sightless back of the ambulance at the time, Matt couldn’t see what was going on and just figured it was raining outside.

The trip was rounded off nicely by a barbecue at Nickski’s, with the food very kindly provided by Mrs. Hawkins and the comedy provided by her father. We left Dougie in Oxford, waiting for a few new logos to get printed before our next fundraising weekend in Reading.

Huge thanks to J.M.Milston for the accomodation and night-time chaperoning, and Harry for coming to help out with both the collecting and counting. We also wish to extend our sincere thanks to Mrs. Hawkins for the use of her garden shed in the storage of random spare parts and for all the food.

Mae fy hofrenfad yn llawn o lyswennod, hwyl fawr!

Advait

We Love The North Face!

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 16:40:00 +0000

The generous guys down at The North Face shop in Covent Garden have kindly donated some kit for our trip. Not only have they given us a superb expedition first aid kit and water sterilisation tablets, but also a very good price on a Steripen, which you dip in your bottle to purify any suspect water. Pretty useful when places like Mongolia still have cases of Cholera and even the Plague!

Julian at TNF became aware of our trip through his mum, who has also been hugely supportive of our project when she learned about it through Dave’s Grandma. She personally has donated a top-of-the-range camping stove, which will be seeing a lot of use with our planned roadside diet of pasta, super-noodles and vitamin pills.

If anyone is thinking about heading off travelling anywhere, I couldn’t recommend a trip down to The North Face shop more – their assistants are the most knowledgeable I’ve come across, so thanks again to Julian, his team and his Mum!

Dave

Yorkshire Rallies Round

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Fri, 29 May 2009 12:28:00 +0000

Three fantastic fundraising events filled Dave’s home town of Beverley, East Yorkshire last week and the glorious sunshine beamed down on the Christina Noble Children’s Foundation. We are delighted to announce that with thanks to the generosity of everyone who joined in WE HAVE NOW MET OUR TARGET FOR THIS HUGELY IMPORTANT MONGOLIAN CHARITY!

Earlier this month, when golden-hearted Elaine Crompton casually asked ‘well, what can I do to help?’ Dave’s Mum knew she was in the right place at the right time. Elaine runs her own Bliss Therapies and, with the help of her son Joe and friends Nicola and Hetty, the idea of the Pamper Party was hatched. Elaine and Nicola spent the evening tirelessly giving everyone Indian Head massages and manicures, while all the guests ate, drank and were (very) merry at £5 a ticket. Everyone agreed they’d like to join in on the Rally and their extra contributions proved their support.

Bank Holiday Monday gave Dave’s family time to bake, bake and do some more baking for an Open House, and the front and back doors of his house were open to a steady stream of coffee-drinking local well-wishers. The ambulance parked out front generated constant Rally Talk and live demonstrations of the nifty collapsible stretcher were a real hit. Everyone was really impressed by the vehicle (and glad to see how reliable and solid it looks!). Dave’s Dad did the business with the cafetieres, and his sisters Zoë and Grace encouraged neighbours and friends who have known the three of them nearly all their lives to have another brownie, flapjack, cookie, piece of cake or tiffin – and then another! It was great to see so many neighbours and friends, and Dave and his family are grateful to everyone who came.

Luckily, the Communications Office at the Uni of York where Dave’s Mum works enjoys the odd biscuit or two with their tea and coffee, and hovering up the leftovers of the Open House proved no problem for this generous group of colleagues who normally focus only on words. Despite many people being away over half-term, the CNCF collecting tin was heavy at the end of the day, and thanks are due to everyone who contributed.

So many people in the Beverley area have become Rally-conscious that Dave’s family is thinking of setting up a loudspeaker system for regular updates, but until we do that, feel free to sign up to this blog to receive updates of our adventures by email!

Many thanks to Elaine, Nicola, Hetty, Joe, Dave’s Dad, Richard, Zoë, Grace and especially Dave’s Mum, Dodi for all their hard work. The total funds can be viewed in all their glory on our CNCF JustGiving page, and just because we’ve reached our target, don’t feel you can’t still donate!!!!!!

Leaps and Bounds

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Thu, 28 May 2009 12:06:00 +0000

Some great progress was made last weekend when I bombed up to Sheffield in the ambulance (still no stereo – must get that fixed). After meeting up with my mate Craig, we first picked up some steel plate with which to fashion some kind of rudimentary sump guard before steaming over to Manchester. The mission of the day was to find, among other things, some replacement rear side windows to make life just a little bit more bearable in the back of the van (the prospect of sitting facing backwards and not being able to see out for 10,000 miles over extremely bumpy terrain is not a particularly pleasant one!). We rocked up at Manchester Van Parts and were met by Nathan and David, two extremely helpful guys who immediately busied themselves searching their extensive warehouse full of parts for the bits and pieces on our wish list.

Unfortunately, it turns out the windows in the back of our van are custom made, and if we’re going to replace them it will have to be a custom job – not one to be taken on lightly I think. Hmm. However, we managed to come away with a couple of spare wheels, a replacement rear door window (don’t worry, we will carry the frosted originals to reinstate the van as an ambulance once we reach Mongolia), spare front suspension legs and a bench seat to take the number of passengers in the front up to three. Was a tough call whether to go for the seat with matching upholstery or the one with the extra seatbelt, but in the end we had to take the hit and accept our fashionable misgivings. Amazingly, it will bolt right into the same holes currently occupied by the single passenger seat – couldn’t have planned that one better if we tried!

The lads at Van Parts gave us a good deal on our haul and went a long way towards changing my opinions of Manchester when as we left, one of them reached into his own wallet and pulled out a note for us to put towards our charity, which is now visible on our JustGiving page (I had to promise I wouldn’t spend it down the pub). It was a touching moment, and even prompted me to support Man U in the Champions League final last night – something I once vowed never to do!

A pub lunch and scenic drive later, we arrived at Decathlon where we launched a raid on their camping department. We’re going to sound like the most unfriendly bunch of mates here, but it was previously decided that we’d be better off having a tent each for the trip, so I loaded Craig up with 5 small pop up tents. ‘Unfortunately’ there were only 4 sensible colours so I got one each of them and was ‘forced’ to purchase a bright pink flowery special edition, which after a race to the ‘shotgun not’ text vote, is going to be Sly’s for a month. Hahaha.

Anyways, plenty of other camping gear was bought and without prompting, one of Decathlon’s staff who was a bit intrigued in my purchases offered us a decent discount as it’s for charity. Good lad.

I’ve waffled too much as usual, but many thanks have to go to Craig for putting up with endless rally chat and for generally being a big help and a top bloke. Also to Rich ‘Daddy’ Dunning for providing a bed for the night and Clare for providing a moment of chill in a pretty hectic day! Finally, huge thanks to Pod of Psi Phi fame and Electromusic of Doncaster, who have donated five rolls of gaffer tape. I have the sneaky feeling that we’re all going to be held together with the stuff by the end of the trip. Cheers mate.

Watch out for some more charity news to be posted soon!

Dave.

Rule Britannia

noreply@blogger.com (Advaldo) — Wed, 27 May 2009 18:16:00 +0000

The Douglas Car wishes to sincerely thank our latest corporate sponsors, Britannia Petroleum and Britannia Tea Co. Ltd. They have given us our largest donation to date, and in doing so have really helped us on the way to our fundraising target of £10,000 for Helen and Douglas House.

The sponsorship comes as a continuation from my school days, when another of the group's companies, Zeefax, sponsored our home shirt for our Sunday league football team. The red, white and blues of Britannia Petroleum and the green hues of Britannia Tea will complement the current ambulance livery brilliantly. We aim to carry their names around our remaining stops in England and then on the rally itself with pride.

In the current economic climate even the best of wishers have sometimes been unable to do so monetarily. So a huge thanks are due to Mr. Reza Beyad and colleagues for enabling us to continue in our quest.

Britannia Petroleum are manufacturers of AC and DC SCR Drilling SCR systems for onshore and offshore rigs, and platforms.

Britannia Tea Co. Ltd. imports the finest tea from India, Sri Lanka and Kenya.

Douglas Car hit Southampton!

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 19:38:00 +0000

Last Saturday, Dave, Matt and Nick hit Southampton with the ambulance (recently coined "Dougie", though we'll see if that sticks...) for a spot of street collecting. Being new at all this, it took us a while to get in the swing of it - collecting is an art, and could be the basis of a billion uni dissertations. Also, the 6am start didn't help! We soon found our stride however, and later when we were joined by friends Juan, Maria, Squeak, Clare and Lisa we gathered momentum and raised a healthy £276.88 for Douglas House. Thanks so much for helping out guys! A further thanks must again go to Mike Ing at Red Stone graphics for providing us with posters and banners to help make an impact.

The day was also great for thinking of ways in which we could improve our methods and we're looking forward to our further collection days in Cardiff (30th May), Reading (13th June) and Durham (20th June). Let us know if you'd like to help out!

In other news, Advait managed to complete the London marathon in a cracking time in some serious heat, and some guys Dave met on a mechanics course who are also doing the rally managed to get their hands on an ambulance too! Check out their beast here.

Cakes!

noreply@blogger.com (Matty) — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 21:26:00 +0000

Massive thanks go to all the MottMacDonald staff who contributed to my cake sale last Thursday. Was impressed by the interest, generosity and general levels of consumption shown by everyone involved. Loads of credit to Lara for pretty much running the show, Greg for cooking flour free brownies (who’d have thought that could work), Emma for top baking advice and Michelle for that fantastic banana/white chocolate wonder (she can do amazing things with a whisk). The sale raised over £80 for Douglas House so thanks again everyone.

By the way the photo above is not actually from the cake sale, although one of my cookies did come out slightly ambulance shaped.

Matt

Some days you're the bug, some days you're the windshield

noreply@blogger.com (Advaldo) — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 22:53:00 +0000

It was over half a year ago that Beardshaw the Dangerous and Nick 'Stamford ain't no bridge' Hawkins had very kindly asked me whether I'd be able to join them on the rally. At this point, however, I had been unceremoniously shown the investment banking door after the whole financial house of cards had imploded. Not knowing where next month's rent was going to come from was suddenly and unavoidably top priority. Following several months of jumping through hoops (many directly in front of brick walls), the full horror of which is beyond the scope or relevance of this blog, I was overjoyed to finally secure gainful employment and moreover sign on the dotted line for the Douglas Car.

Sly even had the good grace to welcome me by attempting to engage in some good old fashioned trash-talk. I feel this is a good point to emphasise the 'attempting', as through a mixture of typos and inability to properly reference his ebonics lexicon, he succeeded only in that rarest of feats, the 'auto-sledge'. My best retaliatory tactic was pacifism, as I watched him metaphorically dig his own way to Mongolia.

In way of an introduction, I know the current team members from our time together at St. Chad's College, Durham University. Dave and Sly had extensive exposure to my (lack of) rowing prowess at countless 6am outings on the river. We even reached the heights of being in a boat of eight that went down to the Head of the River Race on the Thames in March 2004. It was only Hawaiian size waves that prevented us from helping Sly complete an homage to Cool Runnings and become the first African-Worcestershirian to compete in the prestigious event. I also enjoyed a brief yet lucrative football career, during which I interacted unwillingly with Nicksi. It was actually his presence that forced my hand in early retirement, as I was asked to sacrifice my widely acknowledged and prodigious talent to help further the progression of those lacking footballing and/or motor skills. We didn't have the heart to tell him that the 'Cannavaro' on the back of his shirt was actually italian for 'Billy Madison'. Apt nonetheless. I know Matty mainly from inebriated chit chat at several university balls and events, which over 3 years probably number in their hundreds. It's a little known fact that inspite an apparently modest sailing hobby he's made countless millions as an Ellen MacArthur impersonator at working men's clubs.

If any of the above makes it past the edit I'll eat my hat, but by then I'll be only a few thousand complaints away from my own Radio 2 show.

On a more serious note, the reason I had held this endeavour with such high regard was the mixture of the cause we were fundraising for, and the experience we stand to gain by the actual driving phase. Having read about the unique care that Helen and Douglas House provide, I'd be tremendously proud to be part of a team looking to raise such a substantial amount to aid them in their efforts. In addition to this, the fact that we can leave our trusty chariot at the other end for some real benefit is definitely an added advantage. I actually had a fair amount of interaction with Mongolians when I was trekking across the Great Wall in China, and their general plight is in itself something that requires highlighting. The country is heavily geared towards subsistence farming and with a huge export of resources leading to a tremendous trade deficit, a large percentage of the population are below the poverty line. The healthcare system is very much that of a developing nation, and the gift of an ambulance to one of the country's many understaffed and struggling hospitals will be truly invaluable. Thanks at this point need to go to Barbara Doyle and her nursing team at St. Peter's Hospital in Chertsey, who have very kindly agreed to stockpile as many surplus medical supplies as possible for us to take on board and leave with the ambulance at our destination.

There's not a doubt in anyone's mind be they team member or onlooker about the magnitude of the task ahead, but we've all been through more than our fair share of travelling and life experience challenges. Driving an ambulance from London to Mongolia across untold expanses of Asia is going to be a bumpy ride at best, but it'd be no fun if we had smooth tarmac laid out from start to finish.

Besides, in the words of the great Doc Emmet Brown, where we're going, we don't need roads.

Helen House on Telly!

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 00:30:00 +0000

Now then, now then.... There's a certain amount of info on our charity, Douglas House on our website, but you can't beat a proper account of the great work they get up to over there in Oxford. It is truly groundbreaking. Take a look at this...

As a follow up to the award winning BBC series "Children of Helen House" shown in 2007, a programme is being broadcast on Thursday 2nd April at 9pm on BBC2 which revisits some of the people documented in the original series. Entitled "Children of Helen House - Revisited", the program mainly looks at Helen House, the UK's first Children's Hospice and sister organisation to Douglas House, however we're hoping that it will also touch on the similarly groundbreaking work for young adults that is carried out at Douglas House today.

Cancel that pilates class, forget about staying late at work and set that video recorder - if you're serious about understanding about what we're up to, this can't be missed!

Keep a look out for some more exciting news coming soon!

Lots of Douglas car love x

Douglas Car Update...

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 20:34:00 +0000

So, we've now spent a bit of time behind the wheel of the ambulance (well, most of us - unlucky Sly!) and we love it! It drives like a peach. I hope this isn't tempting fate, but considering its age, it has been truly well looked after by Jim Vincent and the guys at SCAS's workshops, and surprisingly, it sits quite happily at 85 on the motorway - just perfect for the German autobahns. George is thinking of taking on the modifications to it, and will hopefully be fashioning some armour plating for its underbelly and doing some more tinkering. We have also managed to sort our parking problem thanks to the very kind Paul Chaston at Paul Chaston Commercial Property, who was all too keen to let us store it at one of the properties he is advertising. Cheers Paul!

To keep you all updated on our fundraising progress, we hit £1,000 from donations on our JustGiving site recently, and currently have another £700 or so on its way from various sources including St. Chad's College JCR Charities Committee where we all spent an awesome 3 or 4 years at University, and Dave's School, Hymers College. We are really thankful to everyone that has donated so far, and you can rest assured that it means a huge amount to the staff and everyone that stays at Douglas House. It means a lot to us that so many people are showing their support for us.

On the team sponsorship front, we've also had a considerable donation from Nick's school, Radley, which will help to cover some of our costs such as fuel (it costs £80 to fill up the ambulance's tank!), and are looking for more team sponsors to advertise on the side of the ambulance - a great opportunity to get seen on the road, and in our ongoing media coverage!

Watch out here for further news, including fundraising events, improvements to the van and details of a one-hour documentary about Helen & Douglas House to be shown on the BBC, so stay tuned!

Official Handover- Matt and Nick become famous

noreply@blogger.com (Matty) — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 18:27:00 +0000

Today Nick and myself were officially handed the ambulance by SCAS. We picked up the ambulance for the first time and Nick took it for a spin (he was very nervous), before we met up with local press at Douglas House. It may be worth checking out the following in the near future: The Oxford Mail, The Oxford Journal and BBC Radio Oxford (updates coming soon). As well as a good chance to meet some people staying at Douglas House at the moment, we were also able to meet with Mike of Red Stone Graphics and Neville Wade of SCAS – both who have been very helpful in the last few weeks.

The day was quite informal: both of us chatted to the media, then had our photos taken by various people, including adoring fans (!)

Nick opened up the throttle on the way back and the Douglas Car groaned and rattled its way up to seventy. 10,000 miles in 4 weeks? No problem!

Lastly, it is Douglas House’s 5 year anniversary tomorrow – we wish them well.

Gearing up for Handover...

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 13:50:00 +0000

Mike at Red Stone has been busy getting our ambulance ready for the official handover this Thursday at 11am at Douglas House, Oxford. The logos of our current sponsors are now all on the ambulance, and we hope you agree that it's really taking shape! We have our fingers crossed for a good turnout from Oxford's local media, who will hopefully be keen to print / broadcast some interviews from both ourselves, and members of SCAS and Helen & Douglas House.

In preparation for the event, and explaining the reason for involvement by SCAS, the NHS Trust’s chief executive, William Hancock said:

‘When our vehicles reach the end of their useful life, they are usually disposed of through the used vehicle trade as scrap. Their value is very little and certainly does not reflect potential continuing use. We are delighted to be able to make this vehicle available for the Mongol rally, especially, since it is also a way of supporting a very worthy local Oxford charity.’

As you can see from the picture above, we have left plenty of space for future sponsors. With lots of coverage in the press planned, including an article in The Independent, it makes a great deal of sense getting your logo on the side of our ambulance! If you're interested in collaborating with us, please visit the sponsors page of our website for more details, or get in touch. And let us know if you see anything about us in the papers!

Stay tuned for details of how our handover goes...

Red Stone on board!

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 16:38:00 +0000

Here at Douglas Car HQ, we have been amazed by the generosity and enthusiasm shown by people towards our project.

The most recent person to donate their efforts to The Douglas Car is Mike at Red Stone - a one stop shop for all your illustration, graphics, and image related needs. After a brief phone call with Mike, who was already aware of the great work Helen & Douglas House do, and whose workshop happens to be just round the corner from where our ambulance is, he pledged to donate his services at no profit to himself. We are hugely thankful to him for seeing the potential in our project.

Red Stone are going to design and apply a great custom design to our ambulance, ready for the official handover on the 19th February. Further logos will be added as we (hopefully) gain more team sponsors, helping to raise awareness both for them at our fundraising events, and for Douglas House. If you would like to advertise on our ambulance, please visit the sponsors page on our website.

We were originally a little reluctant to show you the draft design Red Stone have prepared, but heck - we were just too excited about it!

Checking out the Ambulance!

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 20:33:00 +0000

After a great night catching up in Oxford, we headed over to South Central Ambulance Service NHS Trust's ambulance workshop to take a look at our trusty steed... It's great!

Now obviously, it's been well used as it is almost ten years old, however we think it has more than enough life left in it to make a useful contribution to the hospitals of Ulaan Bataar. In the back it has a trolley stretcher, two seats, full electrics and a heap of storage space. With only 100,000 miles on the clock and an engine that has been well cared for during its active service, we also think it will get us to Mongolia in one piece! We are really thankful to Jim and the guys at the South Central Ambulance Service NHS Trust workshop - they've been absolutely brilliant so far - checking the ambulance over and preparing it, as well as storing it for us. We'll take it off your hands soon, promise!

We have plenty of ideas about how we're going to go about preparing it for the rally - first of all, a roof rack and extra undercarriage protection is a must and full graphics detailing our sponsors, charities and trip are required. We're considering replacing the front passenger seat for a bench seat that takes two, and finally, as 5 weeks without any Girls Aloud is just not an option for Sly, we will most definitely be fitting a stereo.

Watch out for details of our official handover, which will be happening soon - hopefully complete with media attendance from local newspaper, TV and radio crews, and for more details about our ambulance, head over to our vehicle page.