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Our Triumph Herald has been STOLEN!

When we went out to go shopping this evening we noticed to our disbelief that Tallulah was missing from her spot in the car park. After confirming with the landlord and care taker of the property that they had not removed it, we came to realise that she must have been stolen.

Who on earth would steal a £281 classic car? It wasn’t even in a roadworthy condition. We hadn’t even thought about insuring it because we didn’t think anybody would be able to steal it, let alone want to steal it. There is no way they could have driven it out of there, the fuel tank was disconnected, the rear had been taken off, if anyone had seen this car on the road they would have surely called the police straight away. If anyone were to steal it, they must have had a van or a trailer. We just can’t believe anyone would go through so much trouble for a car which monetary value is so low.

However, this lovely characteristic car certainly had a lot of value to us. And we want her back. I just hope this isn’t someone’s sick idea of a April Fools joke. Or maybe not, at least then there would be hope of getting her back.

Challenges Ahead

We watched “the Long Way Round” yesterday and we realised that we have a lot to do before the rally. So far we have:

• Bought a car (back in November, and drove it from Bristol to Coventry)
• Taken the car apart (to inspect the state of it and convert it to a saloon)

Which leaves us with a very sad looking front of a car.

Charity:

Together we have managed to raise over £200 for charity, but we want to raise over £2000! On the 10th of February we went to the Triumph Show and Spares Day near Coventry. We had a nice big stand with two tables and put up posters and a huge banner. This is what happened:

• We talked to a lot of people
• A lot of people told us we were crazy
• We talked to a couple of journalists
• We had loads of fun walking around and looking at some awesome Triumphs
• We raised aprox. £3

Although we didn’t raise much money, we did have an good time, especially talking to the guys doing the Triumph Trans American Charity drive. However, we have a lot of money to raise before July and I’ve got a full time job, Chris C and Chris R have got their final university exams - so fundrasing will be more difficult than we thought!

On a positive note we have had a lot of publicity, in the Coventry Telegraph, The Coventry Observer, we’ve been on the radio, the awesome people behind OLPC News (thats One Laptop Per Child) wrote a blog entry about us… but none of this publicity has seemed to generate any donations.

If you’d like to donate to our charities, please visit our Justgiving page. Thank you!

Kit Preparations:

We still have not done any real preparations for the trip. We need vaccinations, we need visas… Getting a Russian visa will be the worst, and especially for me as I have to get it from the Russian Consulate in Norway. Who, can you believe it, do not accept applications by post. And I can’t really afford traveling to Norway just to get the visa, nor will I have any time off to do it, I’m already using all of my holiday allowance on the drive to Mongolia. Sigh.

If you think you might have some kit to spare, please see the KIT NEEDED page. We need all sorts of stuff. Parts for the car, camping equipment, medical kit… Everything will be very much appreciated!

P.S. And of course there is the issue of me not actually having a driver’s license. The media keeps brining that up for some reason. But I’m learning. I’ve had 6 two hour lessons so far, with BSM. Last time I learnt to do a sweepy reverse to the left. And my theory test is coming up soon, so wish me good luck for that! Alright, back to work…