Donations pass 1300 pounds!
3 JulA happy day today, as donation levels surpass 1300 pounds. This is a magic number, as for our team it is the minimum charity contribution to qualify our entry in the rally.
As per our donation page, above 1300 pounds 50% of money donated will be put toward team costs. The amount shown on our fund-o-meter refers to the total amount of money raised for charity. To see the amount of money being put toward team costs, view our donation history.
The magic donation to take us over the milestone was a second cash injection from our major sponsor Bohena Olives, a business owned by Herb and Jenny Gale from Narrabri. Bohena Olives have remained anonymous until now, but we’ll be providing more information about them between now and the rally.
It’s also good news in Ulan Bator, where things have calmed considerably. You can read more about the current situation on the BBC website at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7486794.stm. The BBC also have some interesting analysis on the riots which you can read at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7485473.stm.
In other news, Stephen continues to wait nervously for his Ukrainian visa. Tim is in a better situation, having picked his passport up from the Kyrgyzstan Consulate today. However he was unable to get to the Kazakhstan Consulate as he wasted 3 hours when his train broke down! Never mind, tomorrow is another day.
We also had to pay the event organizers a four hundred pound deposit today. You get this back when you either arrive in Mongolia with your car, or prove you disposed of it legally and in an environmentally sound manner along the way.
I continue to spend all of the money. Among today’s purchases were 3 Eurohike tents, sleeping mats and pillows. The tents came from Millets, and were half price. This made them the same price as our evaluation tent, but of far better quality. I was unable to see one pitched, but decided to buy them quickly as they only had 4 in stock. If they are no good I’ll be making use of their 28 day return policy. The new sleeping mats are 50mm thick, which is double the evaluation mat which Tim gave the thumbs down on the weekend. The pillows are of the blow up variety, but seem quite comfortable to me. Millets very kindly gave us a 10% discount.
Obviously the fact we bought 3 tents indicates we’ll be having a tent each. We decided this was the best way to preserve our friendship!....but who will sleep with the car keys in their tent??
