Today was one of those satisfying days where a solid amount of progress was done, without any one aspect particularly standing out. The car is slowly but meticulously being repaired, and given what’s at stake, we’re loathe to rush things whereby mistakes are more likely to be made.

As work continued, evidence of the car’s sound design was further revealed as we saw, for the first time since installing the battery pack back in March, the bottom layer of rear batteries. We had no idea how they would have lasted over the last 20,000km so it was with pleasant surprise that we saw how pristine it all was. Literally, there was not a spec of dust or the remotest sign of water here; proof that our waterproofing concept works! Everything was as shiny and new-looking as the day we installed it, and this pleased us greatly. Nonetheless, work continued apace until around 7.30pm.

During the afternoon, Clemens and myself sent some time with Claudio (the director/cameraman of the documentary series) doing some filming in the apartment. In addition, we began discussing how we were going to work together to ensure that the documentary is fully funded. Essentially, we have been offered the opportunity to start broadcasting the show on BBC World News, the world’s largest TV channel, on January 1st 2011! This is really soon, so as such, the funding of the editing and other production-related expenses has to be dealt with.

With work on the car and other activities finished for the day, we reconvened at the apartment before leaving on a somewhat unusual dinner arrangement. We had invited by the British Consul to have dinner alongside another adventurer who is travelling around the world in 8 years. The setting was a German restaurant about an hour south of Cartagena, which the owner especially opened up for us when he heard that there were 3 Germans on the team! Sometimes it helps having them around

Anyway, we enjoyed a delicious meal out of the city in the most beautiful of surroundings and most stimulating of company. Both Graham (the Consul) and Paul (the adventurer) were very entertaining with a number of great stories accumulated over the years. The night was not without its serious notes however as we discussed the problem of passing through FARC territory in southern Colombia, and what the recent successes of the Colombian security forces may mean to a bunch of Europeans travelling around in the most visible car for miles around! But the advice was that as long as we keep our heads down, we should be fine!

With this in mind, we continued our meal, said our goodbyes, and headed back for the city completely knackered. All these early starts coupled with hours of work in the garage really sucks the energy out of oneself! Nonetheless, it’s always a great feeling to know that you are making a positive and discernible improvement to the car.

On a separate note, RGE would like to welcome Paul Jackson to the team. Paul has come to Colombia and will be staying with us for the rest of the trip as a video editor. As skilled as they come, with jobs like “Long Way Down” in his repertoire, he will be in charge of churning out the web clips that you can see on the videos section of our website. The process of editing these clips, even though they are short, is extremely difficult and time consuming, so Paul will be able to reduce Claudio’s workload on this front. Welcome!

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