Well, it’s official. I’m home. 4 flights, 5 airports, and 53 hours of transit behind me I crossed the final border of the trip at O’hare International last night at 9:30pm. The woman at passport control barely glanced at the pages of stamps accrued in the last 5 weeks before stamping me back into the U.S.A. “Welcome back,” she said. Followed by, “Next. Come on, keep the line moving.” Customs, of course, was a breeze. Clearly I have nothing to declare.

A sign on a table at the worst airport in the world. Can’t remember the name of it, but it’s the Moscow airport. Avoid this place at all cost.

This is the leg. The leg we picked up in a car park in Prague. An utterly useless object, what could be better to have along for the ride? Border guards and locals were always curious to know why we had a leg in the car. We tried to convey that it could be used as an oar. I’m not sure they got the joke. At Dave’s Place in UB there was another leg on the bar. A team called Heather’s Leg brought it with them. Somehow we had the match. Same nail polish…as if that’s all that difficult. One night at Dave’s we passed the leg round and all teams present made their mark.

It was not easy getting home with the leg. Had I not just completed the Mongol Rally I might have surrendered it at the security checkpoints when told I couldn’t carry it on the plane. They took my bottled water, they took my toothpaste, but they could not take my leg.

This is Wayne. Wayne might be the craziest rallier of the lot. He rode some 8,500 miles from London to Mongolia on a Honda C90. Five weeks on a tiny motorbike with little more than the clothes on his back. No tent, no spares, not even other ralliers in convoy.

Wayne eating the twin bacon cheeseburger with grilled onions and fried egg at Millie’s Espresso in UB.

The last time he saw anyone from the rally was on the ferry crossing over the English Channel at Dover. He would ride up to 2 or 3 days round the clock, his speed slowly tapering down as exhaustion set in. Eventually he would fall off the bike and decide it was time for some rest. His employer granted 4 weeks away from work. It took him 5 weeks to complete the course and another week to get back to Leeds. Hasn’t got a clue if he still has a job. And, by the way, Wayne wants to do the rally again next year on a smaller bike. Specifically a Monkeybike.

This is not the actual C90 Wayne rode. His was a gold and cream colored contraption that finally died near the Russia-Mongolia border and was brought to UB on a truck.

So what now? Not sure really. I’m sort of dazed just now. Still trying to wrap my head around the experience, but I’ll get there. Imagine I’ll start answering the phone before much longer as well.

dominic

Sukhbataar Square. See you next time around

3 Responses to “one more before reality by Dominic”

1. Nathaniel Says:
   August 31st, 2006 at 5:28 pm

   That burger made me really hungry.

2. Nick Says:
   September 1st, 2006 at 7:45 am

   That’s funny, I was going to say the same thing about the leg.

3. Pete Says:
   September 4th, 2006 at 7:50 am

   Glad you made it back safely! I’ve been having fun driving fast cars along smooth roads, and eating expensive food! No sign of Wayne.

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