Myself and Will head into town to attend the launch party at the Sleepycat club in Kensington. We are joined soon after by Richard Bond who is joining for the journey as far as Georgia. Vaughn of team Bad Colonies (opens in new window) who is desperate for the MOT certificate for the blue MKII Fiesta I sold him a week previously, spots us. I reassure him that we actually have the MOT certificate and will bring it with us for the meeting at Hyde Park the next day. The venue is in a basement below a shopping centre in Kensington, and is quite big. The turnout seems pretty good too, maybe 150 ralliers in attendance and a nicely painted Suzuki SJ410 outside.

There is some bad news from John who is organising the visas for most of the participants – the Turkmenistan visas have still not turned up. This leaves the 70 teams doing the southern route in a bit of a bind. John says us that they might be ready for the next morning, but doesn't seem too convinced himself.

The beer flows nicely and it is 1am before we head off in a taxi for Paddington, complete with some“lucky” grasshopper talismans pulled from the wall in the club.