After months of careful "planning" and telling people we were going to drive to Mongolia, we have actually set off. After all starting is the first step to most things. I started this trip solo by driving to Chris' in Dunbar after chucking all my worldly possessions in the back of the car and saying good bye to the parents. Luckily no-one was home at Chris' - well apart from Chris, I'd be confused if he set off without me or the car - so we were quick to head out on the open road, and quick to get stuck in traffic. It seems the A1 is the best method to transport a train and not the railway running along side.
Day 0 - The Adventure Before the Adventure.
Start: Our respective homes in East Lothian
Finish: A house in Reading
Slowly we progressed towards Manchester, where we needed to collect some camera equipment. Our first clue that the gps wasn't actually taking us to Jessops was when we arrived at a house that didn't appear to be a large shopping complex, but that did appear to be a small house. A quick check of addresses confirmed that we were in fact in Farnsworth. First lesson learned: the GPS only really works if you put the right address in. After a quick google we were on our way to Manchester to face a labyrinth of closed streets and construction works. We accept our confused fate rapidly, parked up, and set about asking for directions. After a brisk walk through the city centre pleasantly interspersed with more direction asking I found Jessop's and picked up our spare battery and monopod. It seems Jessop's is intent on becoming Britain's least accessible photography store, not only is it not in a random house in Farnworth, its also not immediately adjacent to where we parked in Manchester.
Worther's Originals can only hold back starvation for so long, so back on the road stomachs were rumbling and real food was needed. At the next service station we parked up and were quickly approached by a bizarre man pointing at his car and telling us it was his. I just nodded and agreed, as it would take a confident car jacker to immediately brag about stealing a car in a car park to a couple of strangers. Only after he mentioned the rally did i realise he was part of a pair of friendly Australians who had just picked up their car for the rally and were heading back to London. They're taking a classic mini cooper bought blindly from the internet, with no functioning dials on the dashboard and someone else name stickered to the car. It didn't take long to spot them on the motorway since they we're being overtaken by every truck on the road. I'm sure we'll see them again somewhere in the middle of nowhere.
The afternoon shift was uneventful apart from road works, so we arrived in Reading to a BBQ of burnt meats early in the evening. Now we're sitting in my brother's flat figuring out the tracking device (it should work if you go to The Crumb Trail, and remembering most of the things we've forgotten at home.