A Fresh Start

I needed a fresh start, a new destination, a new adventure and most of all, a new vehicle. My previous vehicle is currently residing in Addis Ababa and is no doubt populated by hordes of Ethiopians. It's a long story (which you can read all about on Travelpod here :
 http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/spooky388/number38bus/1194554340/tpod.html
 involving dinner parties, speed cameras, extreme hopscotch, Weymouth football club shirts large quantities of dust and a rapidly disintegrating Bristol VR double decker bus.
So, having returned to normality in November 2008, I found myself pestered. "When is the next trip?" and "Can I come on the next one?" were frequent questions I had thrown at me. I'm sure most people assumed I was insane to buy a double decker bus and set off to deepest, darkest Africa, but now they wanted to come along, no matter where I was going and without even knowing what form of transport I was taking. Crazy fools...
The plan I devised to cope with the maddening hordes involved a much smaller mode of transport. Seeing the tuk tuk drivers of Cairo weaving in and out of the traffic had set me thinking. How about bringing some of them back to England ?What an adventure that would be ! Obviously with all of these people keen to tag along, we'd need more than one. How about 50 ?
The plan was formulated, revised, re-considered, discussed at length and after much more deliberation and sole searching finally thrown in the bin. The Syrians had let me down badly. With the ongoing political issues or potential civil war, I wasn't convinced that leading a squadron of novice tuk-tukers through a Middle Eastern war zone was an entirely sensible plan. The Indians had also let me down, hiking the prices of new tuk tuks every time I spoke to them. The World economy had also let me down by being in the doldrums and limiting people's spending power. Oh well, on to the next hair brained scheme...
It came to me one evening over a beer or two. I seem to be at my most creative when slightly inebriated, just 90% of the ideas are discarded once sober again. British registered vehicles, bought in Britain with a rally starting in Britain and returning to Britain. It does away with visas, shipping costs, vehicle registration issues, complex border controls, civil wars and other trifling matters.
The idea when floated past the potential participants was greeted with positive comments and I'm sure a fair bit of relief. It was a goer. A name was conjured up by a colleague and we were off and running. The Windy 500 was born. Vehicles worth £500 or less was the stipulation, 23 countries on the route and 23 days in which to do it.
My bank manager was happy too. Strangely, when I had originally floated the tuk tuk idea past him, he had agreed to lend me money. Now, with this slightly less ridiculous plan on the drawing board, he was a whole lot more relaxed when he saw me strolling in to the bank. So, with company set up, bank accounts organised, website up and running and potential participants flocking to get involved, it left me to deal with more important issues. How can I raise money for the charity ? What vehicle should I be buying for under £500 ? What if it breaks down ? And, more importantly, how many Windy 500 mugs can I sell ?