Sifting through a few old photographs, I’ve just found this one from the Mongol Rally in 2006.

At the time I imagined this to be a something of a graveyard shot of Mabel – our fiery red 1984 mini. The photo was taken about two weeks into the rally in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. By this time we had already crossed France, Belgium, Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Moldova, the Ukraine, Russia and Kazakhstan.

Here we are parked up on a kindly local’s drive. The rear sub frame has collapsed and the drive shaft gone wrong. Goodness knows how we drove it for another two weeks and for another 3,000 miles.

If you don’t know what the Mongol Rally is, then here is an excellent introduction.