First of all, the size of Heathrow cannot be over-exagerated. I landed at gate 42 in Terminal 3, and the walk to gate 22 where several halls combined was easily a third of a mile.
Today was going to be a busy day. If everything went to plan I would grab my rental, head to my hotel in east London, ride a few trains and buses for 2.5 hours up to the dealership in Rushden, drive the car about an hour and a half to the storage facility, then make my way back into London. It would be tight getting to the storage yard as they would close at 5, but it was all possible.
Customs was a breeze, though it took a little longer than it should have due to a group of about 50 Chinese kids who I can only guess were going to some band competition or perhaps an intramural football tournament. I picked up my bag immediately and made my way to the lost luggage booth. At the desk there’s a TEP wireless pickup, which is where I needed to pick up the portable wifi device I rented for the weekend – which I CANNOT RECOMMEND ENOUGH. If you’re traveling internationally, paying your cell provider for international data is basically legalized sodomy. I think AT&T charges something like $40 for 200 mbs of data, which you could eat up by running your GPS for 30 minutes and checking Facebook once. No thanks. I rented a device from TEP when I was in Germany for 10 days and it was great. 3G+ speeds anywhere there is cell service. Any non-Euro international ralliers especially I can’t stress enough how convenient this is, especially in a city like London. Good god I don’t know how anyone gets around the city without non-stop GPS. I think the rate for TEP is something like $7-8 a day, which is well worth not getting screwed on international roaming or buying multiple SIM cards.
I rented a car through Sixt, which was going to make my life a little easier over the weekend but in retrospect I’m not sure it was necessary. The car I was there to buy is a 5-speed right hand drive car, and I didn’t want to throw myself to the wolves driving an opposite stick AND on the other side of the road for the first time. I figured getting an automatic rental would get me settled in. The woman at the rental counter saw that my birthday was the day before so she hooked me up with a rental several classes above what I rented. Funnily – she excitedly offered me a BMW 428 gran coupe, which is awesome to drive. I know this because that’s what I drive at home. She ended up putting me in a brand new (14 miles on the odometer) Mercedes coupe. Woot.
Let me tell you about how big London is. Fucking massive. Let me tell you about how many people are in London. Way too many. It was 26 miles from the airport to my hotel, which was about 9 miles east of the city center. Taking the most direct route would have taken 2 hours. Hell, when I drove back to the airport at 5:30 in the morning it took an hour and a half. Like most European cities the streets around the city are small and winding. Driving on the left side ended up being easier than I thought. That being said, driving in the city is a nightmare. Lanes open up and disappear just as fast, with all manner of things painted on the street. I swear 2 lanes could cross an intersection and within 50 feet you would be expected to merge back together. Somehow I made it to the hotel, checked in, and then it was time to go get the car.
I picked my hotel mostly because I had credit card points to cover the weekend cost, but it was also a 5 minute walk to a rail station. The trip out to Rushden would require 3 rail trips before hopping on a bullet train out to the country side and finally taking a bus to the vicinity of the dealership. The rail system in London is impressively complex. Some of the change stations in the inner city could have 5 different rail lines, so getting off one could mean going 4 stories up and back down in a different direction, all underground. I’d love to see a rendering of what all the tunnels and corridors look like stacked on top of each other. As long as you have half your wits about you it’s easy enough to navigate around. There are 2 ways to ride the system: pay for each train as you go, or buy what’s called an Oyster card. My first couple trains I paid outright, but it’s pretty inconvenient as machines may or may not take credit cards so you have to have enough cash. It’s waaaaaay waaaaaay easier to buy an Oyster card. You load the card with credits, which obviously cost varying amounts depending on where you’re going. The card has an RFID chip in it so instead of having a paper ticket that you run through the gate you just tape it onto a pad on the gates and BOOM you just walk in. Btw if you decide to pay as you go, don’t throw away your ticket. Most stations require you to scan your ticket in order to leave. So yeah, buy an Oyster card. When you walk into every station there will be machines for tickets and a separate one that looks a little different, and will usually say something to the effect of “Oyster only!” It’s good for all public transport in London. I could be mistaken but I believe if you want to ride a bus inside the city you have to have one.
Eventually I arrived up in the burbs and found the dealership. Shout out to Mike Wells Cars in Rushden. I’m sure they thought I was crazy at first. Yes I’m in Texas, yes I want to buy this 13 year old car remotely, and if you can keep it there until I get there in 3 weeks that would be great. I had already sent them the address to send the V5C paperwork, so that taken care of. All I had to do was pay. If only buying a car in the US was that simple. The owner Mike asked why I was buying such an old car, and of course the answer is almost unbelievable. I got a little kick out of him showing me some of the features, and by features I mean the wipers and such. I appreciate the gesture lol, but a little unnecessary in this day and age. Team Yak to Yak Champs is proud to announce that Doblo Origato – a 2004 Fiat Doblo car van thing – is now a member.
It’s a big stupid silly car that kind of makes me laugh when I look at it. It genuinely is ugly and ridiculous, but it’s ours. A face only a parent can love. We chose the Doblo for a few reasons. Primarily, space. We’re all tall, and I have no desire to be cramped in the front or the back seat. I didn’t realize how much headroom the thing has, there’s a solid 8” above my head. Giant trunk too. We all thought it was important to have sliding doors in the back because once we get into 3rd world countries we can do all manner of silly things hanging out the side of it. A note to any future Mongol Ralliers: If you have more than 2 people and are considering a van type of vehicle, be careful if you set your sights on a Renault Kangoo, Bedford Rascal, and the like. The windows on those sliding doors only crack open. I emailed a team from a rally past to get their advice on the Kangoo. They loved it and it did come recommended, but they did say that driving through the desert with no a/c and no ability to roll down the rear windows could be pretty miserable. I know that there are going to be 1 or 8 days we wake up from having a few drinks and not feeling tip top, and being in the backseat of a hot car with no airflow is a recipe for barfing in a car. No bueno.
Unfortunately by the time I topped it off with gas, driving it out to the Oxford area to put it in storage seemed like a stretch to make it in time. Back to London it is. It took about 3 hours in stop and go traffic, which I thought would be a real chore with the stick shift being on the opposite side but I’ve driven enough 5-speeds that it became easy enough. The first half of the drive was a lot of fun. Here I am thousands of miles from home and I’ve just bought a car for such a ridiculous reason. There was never a question as to whether we’d go through with the rally once we signed up, it’s been a dream for too long. Securing a vehicle is the first big hurdle and we did it. It’s real, it’s on. Come on July!
I got up early the next morning to hit up a home supply store and head to the storage facility. I saw pictures from a team that had gotten several plastic bins to keep all their shit organized in the trunk. There’s a outdoor storage place in Oxfordshire called Barrett INSERT NAME that said they would store the car for 40£ a month including tax. That right there is a steal. Most storage places I found wanted to either charge a ridiculous amount by the week, or were the type of place that you would keep your Ferrari. Our Doblo is going to be driven through a river at some point, we don’t need it to be in a climate controlled environment. Yeah it’s a hoof to get out to the storage place – about 1.25 hours driving direct and 2.5 back on public transportation, I’d say it’s very well worth it.
