The kindness of strangers

The Flight Crew
Jul 20, 2017 · 2 min read

A week of running around the English countryside. Encroaching on the kindness of old friends in Birmingham and London. Behaving like a kids in a candy store at our new favourite store Halfords collecting together the equipment that will hopefully make a smooth journey to Mongolia. Including my personal favourite, tyre foam for when we get the inevitable puncture because who needs air filled tyres to create a smooth ride across the Mongolian desert.

Come Saturday we set off from London, heading south to Goodwood Motor Circuit. Pulling off the motorway into Chichester, after 200km of pushing Watson’s engine to a solid 70mph we encounter a rather horrible case of clutch juddering.

Tom eased Watson to the Halfords’ autocentre, where we again created great amusement by informing the mechanic that our blue beast we would be driving to Mongolia. But alas at half an hour to close, we were promptly informed that we wouldn’t be getting a new clutch until Monday. Disheartened but not defeated we pushed on to the start line destined to delay our departure from England.

Assembling the next morning with sore heads and still somewhat sorry about our delay, we noticed a fellow Suzuki R Wagon and ambled over to say hello. This steed belonged to Team Wagon, and these two delightful Danish gentlemen had completely outfitted their car including a handy outdoor shower. As the conversation moved around to our delayed start, Team Wagon mentioned that not only did they have a spare clutch, but offered it to us. All of sudden the lap of Goodwood racecourse was looking a lot more appealing.

Now I’m not sure if it was the goodly number of beers and Mongolian fighters the night before, the generosity of our Danish friends or just embracing the spirit of the rally, but as we pulled Watson to the start line of Goodwood motor circuit we had a change of heart, for the better or worse. Onwards to Freiburg.

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The Flight Crew

Headed by our fearless mascot ‘where will we go Wilbur’ we are journeying around the world ….

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