Goodwood to Czechout

On Saturday, July 14, 2012 we participated in the Festival of Slow at the Goodwood Raceway as guests of the The Adventurists.  For those that don’t know, the Festival of Slow is the annual event that is the send-off for all of the teams participating in the Mongol Rally.  With four of our team members having participated in Adventurists events in the past, we were invited to take part in the festivities.

We saw the racing of the fastest mobility scooters in the land, scooting at breakneck speeds of over 80mph…hundreds of ill prepared teams about to start bumbling across Europe and Asia, Mongolian Wrestling, lots of rain, hilarious vehicles, and more rain.  One of the highlights was a competition that the Adventurists set up.  Each year, they give a prize for the least prepared team/team least likely to make it to Mongolia.  Once that team was decided upon, Team Shoebaru raced them to change a wheel on each team’s respective vehicle.  We were finished with the competition before they even had the  wheel off.  So perhaps that shows a tiny level of vehicle competence on our end?

After two weeks of solid rain, we were looking forward to the promises of a dry mainland Europe.  The first night, we camped in Belgium and went to bed WITHOUT it raining.  However, we woke up to pouring rain and we packed up our things and headed onwards.  After overheating twice that day, we stopped at Marc’s place in Stuttgart for dinner.  He is a friend of Scott’s and was extremely hospitable, providing us a fantastic meal.  We spent that night in Munich and the next morning met with the InterNations team that is based there.

The drive from Munich to Klenova, CZ was the prettiest and most fun drive thus far.  (A good portion of that can be attributed to the fact that it WASN’T raining)  However, we overheated twice in the last 10 miles of the journey to the Czechout party in Klenova.