Oh my, what a day. It is almost 1am here in London and we take off for Hyde Park tomorrow at 7am. Time for bed for us! Before we turn out the lights, I wanted to share a quick post about our final, crazy day in London.

Had you been a fly on the wall in the life of the Sandbox Savants today, you probably would have gotten quite a kick watching us scurry around London in our awesome no-power-steering Suzi, getting it (gender still tbd) all tuned up and ready to go. I’ll spare you from having to read a play-by-play and instead emphasize that today was all about awesome people, stepping up to help get us squared away and down to Hyde Park for the rally start tomorrow morning.

Our pre-departure activities ranged from rotating tires, mounting our spares, replacing the fan and auxiliary belts,  purchasing a handful of other spare parts, re-welding part of our winch, finalizing our route through Europe …  the list goes on.

Rereading what I just wrote, I suppose it sounds a little like -we- did the handy work. It’s important to note that Doug, Aparna and I didn’t bust out the blow torch and socket wrench. Aside from getting a little grease on our hands strapping our gear to the roof rack, we stayed pretty clean.

Today, Aparna’s friend Benny drove us around to various people and car shops to finalize the car preparations. Talk about down to the wire! I’m still shocked at the amount of work we got done today. Special thanks to Midnight Motors, Andrew’s Garage, Niel, Aaron, Benny and Steve for all your work on the car!

Alright, the bed is calling my name. We will post a few more pictures from today soon on Our Photos page. Also, keep an eye on the website for a link to our SPOT messenger, which should be up and running shortly thanks to my awesome housemate, Matt.

Until we post again, be well!  

Big Brother is actually watching! We three are here in London figuring out last minute details. We just became 100% legal to start our drive (tax/mot/insurance). The cops here actually have cameras which not only take a picture of your license plate, but also instantly tell the cops if you are up to date on everything… even parking tickets.

So with our new found legality we are off to Bedford to pick up our chariot and a few last spare parts. As is, we look to be on track for our Friday start at Noon in Hyde Park!

I would like to take a moment to thank everyone who came out to support my small fundraiser in New York. Through the little raffle we raised another $500 for Send-A-Cow, confirming our position as the top Africa Rally charity fundraiser with $4,464 raised to date. Raffle prizes included an assortment of products from Pangea Organics, a years subscription to Good Magazine, a backpack made from Recycled news paper from Keen, and others.

We have not only had tons of support in the United States but it has continued in London. My couchsurfing.com host Patty Pullen was amazing, showing me around town and giving me a place to rest my head for the few days before I met up with the rest of the team. Jessie was lucky enough to spend her first jet-lagged day in England with her friends Cath and Barry in Basingstoke, where she was fed and entertained by their two youngsters. Now that we are all together, we are staying with Aparna’s cousins in Barnet. Rekha and Srikanth have been the most incredible hosts, giving us warm beds to rest our heads and feeding us delicious meals. Their home has been the perfect headquarters for last minute rally business.

On Friday, we have some friends coming down to Hyde Park for the Rally start. If you are in town, come by around 10am for the pre-departure activities and stick around for the start at noon.

2 Days.

Two days ago I had the privilege of finally meeting, in person, both Steve and the Suzi.  Everyone say hi.

They say, “hiya.”

Steve is pretty awesome, and the Suzi is coming along quite nicely.  Steve has already: 

• fitted the bull bar,
• added a radio, 
• added some extra strong washer fluid jets, which will certainly come in handy given all the sand we’re facing, and
• added anti-theft locks to the wheels and the transmission, just in case.

Our chariot is in good shape, but we are not resting easy.  Before we launch — in just ONE WEEK!! — we should also have the roof rack and winch installed.  We’ll be picking up some necessary items, including a bunch of extra air filters, some nylon stockings to provide extra protection for the air filters, a basic tool kit, an additional spare tire and some other spare parts.  We’re also working on getting some international car insurance, which is turning out to be quite the pain.  That’s just our to-do list for the car! 

But don’t fret, my friends! Things are coming together nicely, and on Friday, July 18, we’ll be heading out on our escapade, come hell or high water.  

On a related note…

ONE WEEK UNTIL LAUNCH!!!!! 

Can you tell I’m excited?

For better or for worse, ATMs won’t be available to us during large chunks of our journey. And, since the last time I checked most road side food stalls in Africa have yet to partner up with the major credit card companies, cash will be the king of currency while on the road.

We are faced with the unavoidable reality that we will need to carry more cash with us than is particularly comfortable. What makes cash carrying even less fun is that light robbery is an issue in many parts of the world, including some of the places we are headed.

Most money belts are bulky, and the majority of products out there aren’t particularly discrete. Doug found an actual belt with a hidden zipper pocket, but for Aparna and I, who don’t have belt loops, we needed something different.

We searched high and low for all types of money holders, including bra pockets and money belts designed to lay across our chest. After a considerable amount of time searching, we finally stumbled across the most awesome solution!

The POWER POUCH™ sports bra, designed and sold by Gracie’s Gear and Training is a practical and comfortable solution to our money stashing woes! What’s even cooler is that the company’s founder, Gracie, is a dynamic, generous woman! Her company will be donating a variety of Gracie’s Gear threads to outfit Aparna and me for the journey. Gracie is no stranger to philanthropy and in her first two years of operations, Gracie Gives has donated to causes across the board. Her generosity continues with her support of our fundraising adventure, and we are super grateful to her for her enthusiasm, huge heart, and helping us solve our cash stashing woes!

14 Days until we leave London for Cameroon …

Over 150 people have supported us in one way or another. Through your support, we have raised bundles of cash for our charity, Send A Cow, and a nice stash of moo-la, allowing us to buy a car, spare parts and supplies for the upcoming journey.

Also, we have received many thoughtful in-kind donations, and, while offers of half used spare tubes of sunscreen and Smokey the Bear handkerchiefs are incredibly cool (thanks, Dad), the gifts from Jim Ridge take the cake when it comes to awesomeness and effort!

• Jim admitted to spending hours on a Cow Bell Outlet site, picking out “the perfect tone” for our cowbell gift. Also, check out that cool artwork! It’s the Send A Cow logo, drawn on by one of his friends to commemorate our cause!
• And, with our shiny new Samuel Eto’o jersey, we will fit right in upon arrival in Cameroon! This is one border where the guards won’t give us trouble!

Here is a special shout out to Jim Ridge for the thoughtful gifts and for his effort in recruiting the group of HSPH Electricians who Jim persuaded to support us with a collected cash donation!

Check out more photos of the new diggs on our Photo Page!

Introducing our newest communication/safety device/toy, The SPOT Messenger!

We purchased this little guy for a couple of reasons. First of all, he allows friends and family to check our whereabouts on GoogleMaps. This is a fun feature, but it also allows all of you who care about us to feel at ease, knowing our location at any given time. In addition to being able to track our journey on GoogleMaps (which is pretty darn cool), he has a feature that also allows us to call for help or notify a search and rescue company in the event that we get into serious danger.

Time and travel to remote areas will determine if this was a good investment, but the idea is great and we are hopeful that it will work on our journey! According to the service map on their website, we should get coverage during most of our journey, even in the Sahara! Towards the end of our trip, however, coverage may get spotty.

Check back soon, as we hope to create a newly designed map on Our Route page that will combine our planned route with the live updates from the SPOT.

I tested him out last night while at the Milford Drive-In movie theater in western Massachusetts. You can see where we were by checking our SPOT map page!

More on the device soon, but we are pretty excited and wanted to share!

18 Days until we leave London for Cameroon …

As you know, we got a car.  Let’s take a moment to chat about Monsieur Le Chariot, or Suzi, if you will.

As it turns out, our gender-bending, identity-seeking vehicle has got a lot more under the hood than expected.  When we bought the Suz, we thought we were getting a used car in good working condition with a 1.3 litre engine.  We were psyched.  Then we got a couple of surprises.  Now we might be close to overjoyed. 

First, we got a little extra oompf,

The previous owner, Steve Simms, has replaced the 1.3 litre engine with a newer 1.6 litre engine.  A little extra oompf to assist us on our voyage, but certainly not enough to transform our adventure into anything too easy.  Our mettle will still be tested.  We wouldn’t have it any other way.

but now we must pay! We could use even more oompf from our fans…

While this is great news, it also has fundraising implications.  As you know, to enter the rally we needed to raise at least  £1,000 (approx. $2,000) for Send A Cow.  With your support, we have surpassed our initial goal of $2,000 and raised $2,600 so far, which is absolutely fantastic.  Now that our engine is a little bigger, we still need your help!

As a “penalty” — in quotes because it’s charity! not a penalty! — teams that have engines bigger than the 1.0 litre must raise an extra $200 for every additional 0.1 litre. With a 1.6 litre engine, we’ve got a “penalty” of $1,200, and our overall goal (including the “penalty”) is raised to $3,200.  With $2,600 already raised, this means we need to raise an additional $600. If you have been thinking of donating, now’s the time to do it!  You can donate and read a little about Send A Cow here.

Then, some divine assistance!

As it turns out, Steve Simms, the Suzi’s previous owner, is actually a mechanically-inclined guardian angel.  Of the wingless variety.  Steve was really fired up when he heard about our adventure, and offered to help us out.  Boy did he ever.  In the 7 days since selling us the car, he has:

• found a friend who agreed to sell additional parts at cost;
• found another friend who can sell us additional tires very cheap;
• obtained a radio and power point which he then installed in the car;
• fitted his old bull bar  and winch to the car; and
• has begun creating a roof rack for the car out of used steel from a junkyard.

If you are not bowled over by his fabulousness perhaps you should re-read that list.  This is a man, who did not know us before last week, going out of his way to make sure we can actually make it from London to Cameroon in his beloved Suz.  All he asks for in return? Pictures of his babe in action.

Right now I think Doug, Jessie and I are all competing to be president of the new Steve Simms fan club.

Thanks, Steve!

From time to time we use this blog to thank all the companies who have contributed to our fundraising adventure. However, one person who has yet to be directly thanked for his contributions is my dear friend Paul Kafasis. Paul is actually the mastermind behind the layout and functionality of this wonderful website, and I can’t believe we haven’t given him a proper public shout out!

Not only is Paul a steller guy and an exquisite milkshake maker, he also happens to be quite good with technology of all sorts. This is probably a good thing, considering he is the CEO/lacky/co-founder of an outstanding software company called Rogue Amoeba.

In any case, Paul spent time helping us build the site from nothing and he did an awesome job giving us a public face. Truly none of our successes would have been possible without his help and we get lots and lots of compliments on the site, so thanks Paul!

When you have a moment, I suggest you visit Rogue Amoeba’s website and consider buying some of their fantastic software! I particularly like their product Radioshift. You can use Radioshift to listen to over 50,000 radio listings from around the world and then subscribe and automatically record any of thousands of radio programs. It’s really cool, you should check it out!

After a long, hard search we are proud to announce that we bought a car this morning!

Introducing the fourth and final member of the Sandbox Savants’ team, our 1988 SUZUKI SJ413 V JX SAMURAI. This little metal box will be our home for the duration of or journey and carry us Savants to the finish-line in Kribi, Cameroon (or until we can’t move it).

This was a very exciting day because not only do we finally have the vehicle, but we bought it purely with your donations! You all made this possible and it is truly amazing to feel your support it such a real way.

Most importantly, once the car makes it to Cameroon it will be sold with the help of the Adventurists and the proceeds will go to Send A Cow! Additionally, because the car’s engine is 1.3 litres, instead of 1.0 litre regulation size, per the rally rules we are being penalized and must raise additional money for charity (about $200 per point litre over). We almost have enough to cover the “cost” of the extra engine size. If you want to put us over the top, go to our Donate page and give a little!

Thank You!

Please visit the vehicle page to read more about our little Suzi (actual name and gender to be determined when we meet).

We want to give a special thanks to Manitoba Harvest Hemp Foods & Oils and our friend Autumn, who has graciously donated a bunch of yummy, nutrition packed shelled hemp seeds for our journey. Manitoba Harvest is the largest farmer owned vertically integrated hemp food manufacturer in the world, offering fresh, high quality staple hemp food products.

The company seeks to educate the public about healthy lifestyle choices and to offer staple health food products and to encourage & support sustainable farming in North America.

What a great fit for our fundraising adventure!