SPONSOR ME HERE

At last, the mad pixies behind the exciting new fundraising site Will We Make It? have managed to let my challenge go up on their site. You can sponsor me here , and all the money raised by me goes straight to the British arm of FundeCruz, Friends of FundeCruz.

You can pay by credit or debit card, or via PayPal, and you can also have a vote - for a pound (which adds to my fundraising pot) - as to whether or not we'll make it (hence the cunning name of the web site). It's more fun than justgiving.com, the charity benefits directly, and they have the UK taxpayer's Gift Aid scheme in place too.

So go on, click here and help save some lives!

Will I make it?

.......I'm really not sure. I've found a car in Quito, a 1974 German-built shiny orange Beetle. It has allegedly been just been repaired, including the engine, and will also be checked over by VW Ecuador. The organisers, Ruta Del Sol, are dealing with a geezer on the ground in Quito, who's scouting around for suitably knackered and cheap vehicles to do the rally in, and this one came in the first six available.

The engine is a whopping 1.6 litre powerhouse, and it's only apparently done 4000 miles since overhaul. There's even a radio, and new seats.

Now all I need to do is sell my ass for a few weeks to raise a deposit, and the Beetle is mine!

The owner has kindly dropped the price from 1590 to 1450, but I'm hoping to get it for 1400, despite the fact s/he said all I have to do is fill it with fuel and beer and point it towards Rio.

A bit of fame...........

Once again, the lovely Friday cities people have come up trumps, interviewing me here about the trip. Annoyingly, I can't set up a sponsorship page yet. And I can't even walk properly at the moment. I've injured my back. Bodes well for pushing a Beetle out of thick mud in a few short weeks..............

Failing to plan is planning to have a laugh

I finally caught that 'Long Way Down' show on TV tonight, and was bowled over by the amount of organisation, back-up and general planning that those people put into the show. And it seems they do an awful lot of things purely to make for better TV. Like bungee jumping, surprise visits from family members, and stuff. Three bikes, two back-up, souped-up, state-of-the-art Land Cruisers, some sort of doctor and a security expert - I mean, where's the fun in that?

What I most enjoyed about the Mongol Rally, and now this challenge, the Ruta del Sol, is the air of confusion. I could spend every waking hour from now until February meticulously planning the route, and all eventualities, only to discover a giant-and-hitherto-before-unknown sea beastie has leapt out of the ocean and eaten the whole of South America the day before we're due to set off.

I mean, you have to take these things a bit seriously - I've already asked for some sturdy new pants and a torch for Christmas, after all - but planning simply doesn't work when it comes to true adventure.

After all, most of the planet was 'discovered' by accident, by mad seafarers who were busy looking for treasure, or cod, or nutmeg, and accidentally bumped into America, for instance. And I'm still not certain it's round, anyway.

I'm just hoping there's an Amazonian pygmy tribe somewhere on the trip waiting, just waiting, to worship a huge hairy fat bloke in a broken down Beetle.

And I discovered earlier that human life is not sustainable above 5,000ft, as unborn children are starved of oxygen. I might have to look into whether Tesco's Value range includes oxygen.