Following your instincts

Over the last few days and weeks I've been thinking about my continued participation within The Roof of the World rally.

I've come to the difficult decision that I'm no longer going to be joining the team in Baku for the final two weeks of the trip.

I know by walking away now I am going to have egg on my face and I'm not going to be very popular with quite a few people, but I'm going to trust my instincts and do what I believe is the right thing for me at this time.

Ashley has done an amazing job of getting sponsors and money for the charities involved, and I wish him and the team only the very best for the trip.

I would like to thank all of those who have expressed an interest in my participation in the trip, and an even bigger thanks for all of those who have donated.  Needless to say all monies will be donated to the charities.

Roof of the World Rally Video

A short video of Ashley Platen-Mills telling us what the Roof of the World rally is all about.

Although the video doesn't look anything special, it's a small step forward for me because it's the first time I've synced video with an external sound source.  Even if I do say so myself, I think I did rather well!

Donate at www.charityroadtrips.org.   It's for the children damn it!

Ahmad Tea Training

Today, our team involved with "The Roof of the World" rally spent a couple of hours at Ahmad Tea in Chandlers Ford learning how to make tea.

Apparently turning a teabag in a mug for 10 seconds isn't exactly the right way of doing things.

The proper way is to put (in a pre-warmed teapot), 1 teaspoon of tea for each cup, and then 1 extra for the pot.  Add boiling water, and leave to stand for 4-5 minutes.

The idea behind going to meet Ahmad is because the team will be serving tea to the locals as we make our way from London to Tajikistan.  Ahmad have given us some mugs, tea cups, saucers and tea pots with tea cosies.  I'm quite looking forward to photographing them, the team and the locals in some obscure places as we serve tea in the oh so British way.

If you'd like to sponsor us, the main charities are Make-a-Wish and Sworde Teppa.  Any donation, however small is very much appreciated.   If you do donate via my blog, please leave a comment saying you came via my website.

Many thanks :)

The link is - www.charityroadtrips.org

Ethnic attacks in Kyrgyzstan

I've just seen these set of photographs of the ethnic violence in  Kyrgyzstan on the Boston.com Big Picture page.

www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/06/ethnic_attacks_in_kyrgyzstan.html

The Big Picture is one of my favourite photo journalism websites.

This time, it's all a bit close to home.  In less than 4 weeks time I'm due to start a trip across the middle east that was originally going to go through the heart of where all the troubles are at the moment.

I'll be documenting the last 2 weeks of the Roof of the World rally that ends in Tajikistan.

I've even got a visa in my passport for Kyrgyzstan and I think it's safe to say that I won't be needing that visa.  The borders with Kyrgyzstan are apparently closed, so we will be forced into changing our route.

I was already a little nervous about the trip, and this isn't exactly doing much to put my mind at ease.

For more information about the trip, and the charities we're doing it for please visit www.charityroadtrips.org.

Our chariot awaits

This is the vehicle that's going to take our team all the way from London to Tajikistan in July.  I'll be spending the last 2 weeks as we battle across the hardest part of the journey.

It's all for charity, and all for the children.  For more information read my blog posts on the Roof of the World rally.

To donate - www.justgiving.com/charityroadtrips

Please mention my name if you donate.  Thanks :-)

Beware of the wild hamsters

As regular readers of my blog will know I'm going on the last 2 weeks of the Roof of the World rally which will take me from the country who came in fifth place in Eurovision this year, Azerbaijan across several countries ending in 'stan' before finally finishing in Tajikistan.

We'll be encountering all kinds of wildlife along the way, including, wolfs, bears, wild boars and camels and of course not forgetting the most dangerous of the lot, the wild killer hamsters.

My adventure starts when I fly into Baku and meet the team who have driven all the way from London over the previous 2 weeks.  Our first challenge is then to get across the Caspian Sea, on a boat that may or may not leave when it's supposed to.

I've had to obtain 5 visas for the trip, 1 for each of the country I'm visiting.  It's the first time I've ever needed to obtain a visa before setting off on a trip, and especially as some of the countries are relatively closed to outsiders it was an interesting experience.

Once make it over the Caspian Sea (which is likely to take well over 24 hours) we'll be travelling across the desert of Turkmenistan heading for the Uzbekistan border and the city of Tashkent.

From here we start to climb into the mountains using loosely described "roads" towards Kyrgyzstan and Sary Tash at 9000 feet above sea level. Due to civil unrest in Kyrgyzstan we may have to make a detour, otherwise we head for the Tajikistan border and the second highest road in the world – The Pamir Highway in the Pamir Mountains.

This area is very remote but has spectacular scenery, so plenty of photographs will be taken, which are available to anyone that donates. We follow the China / Afghanistan border along to Dushanbe and on to the Children’s School at Quergan Teppa run by the Charity Sworde Teppa.

There will be some "dangers" along the way, such as dealing with the high altitudes, maybe having to give a small bribe to border guards and others along the way.

Although to be honest my 'fears' about the trip are smaller things, like how we deal with the heat - likely to be around 50c in the deserts; what we eat and drink and the risks of getting sick from it (I'm packing lots of imodium just in case!)

My target for the team is £1000, which is going to help cover some of my costs (including visa applications, injections, and flights).

After we get back I'm hoping to put on an exhibition of some of the photographs, and also to stage a charity auction where you can buy and own some of the more stunning images from our adventure.

I'm a bit behind in my target, so any donations would be much appreciated.  You can donate via the Just Giving website link below.

http://www.justgiving.com/charityroadtrips

A Rally Charity Do

Ashley, the man on the far left makes stuff happen.  He makes stuff happen good!  I've only known him for a couple of months since he dragged me into his Roof of the World charity project, but the boy is good.

So last night was a charity do dinner thingy at Monkberrys in Bournemouth.  There must have been at least 50 of us in the room, and we pretty much took over Monkberrys.  Most of the guys were sporting their logo'ed up charity shirts.

In the picture above Ashley and David (on the left) are doing the whole trip, from London to Tajikistan.  While Abby (purple dress) is going from London to Azerbaijan.  Kerry (in black) will be joining them in Istanbul and going through to Azerbaijan.  I'll be picking up the tour in Azerbaijan, and then John (with his hand on my shoulder) will be joining us in Toshkent and we'll both be going through to the end.

After a very pleasant dinner was the charity raffle and then charity auction.  Ashley had managed to get his hands on a boxing glove signed by Frank Bruno, and rally shirts signed by the Poole Speedway team, and Bournemouth Football club.  There were loads of other donations, but these were the most visual.

With the auction over and lots of money made for Make A Wish and Sworde Teppa Frank Sinatra stepped on stage.  Anthony Adams was Frank for the evening.  While not exactly my choice of music, but he was rather good and the perfect choice to finish the evening with.

Oh, Nick I hope you make a speedy recovery.  Nick fell over a small step and put his shoulder out and had to be taken to hospital.  It shook me up a little because it reminded me of when I fell over a similarly small step twisting my ankle so badly that I also had to be taken to hospital.  Hope you're feeling better by the time you read this Nick.  I also hope the next time I visit Monkberrys they've put some tape on the step to help people see it.  Dark coloured step, dark coloured floor and low lighting means an accident is always likely to happen.

Oh we raised a tad over £2500!  However we want to raise more.  Please visit charityroadtrips.org to donate.

Enough of me, and to some photos from the evening.

Video Blog on The Roof of the World Rally

While meeting, Ashley, the man behind my involvement in The Roof of the World Rally yesterday I asked him to do a short bit to video explaining exactly what it was we're doing.

This is what he had to say.

Please donate - www.charityroadtrips.org.

Video Blog - Visa Applications

I'm rubbish with paper work, red tape, and all things like that, so I'm very glad we've got Ashley to organise all the visa stuff for our charity road trip across the middle east.

Sponsors

Sponsors for the charity road trip I am involved with are starting to come on board.

Some are sponsoring their services & time, others might be making a donation or loan of their product, while the rest are donating that good old fashioned resource called cash money.

BIG BIG thanks go to everyone on this page for their help and support.   Each and every one of you rock!

I'll be updating this page as more join me and the charities involved.

1. Lisa Blackler / Honesty Marketing - Lisa be helping me with marketing.


2. Russell Hewer / Tailored Tours UK - Cash donation.


3. Teresa Francis / Feminine Wear - Cash donation.


4. Denise Meredith / Sponsalis - Denise has sponsored one of my rabies injections.  Sponsoring pain rocks!


5. Emily Cagle / Emily Cagle Communications - Emily will be working hard to get me some good PR!


6. Denise McCallum / Prime Investigations

Pay to see my pain

So my marketing lass has come up with the idea of getting people to pay to see me in pain.  Personally I think it's a really rubbish idea because everyone likes me so much that surely no one would want to see me in any form of discomfort?

This is what Lisa the marketing guru has to say.

"Our friend Mr Michael Palmer is going to embark on a mammoth journey, fraught with danger in support of an amazing charity,  The first danger he face is a series of injections to protect the locals from his germs (that is what you said, isn't it, Mike?)  The good news is that they hurt.  A lot.

So please, support Mike in his adventure and pay for his pain - he needs money for the injections and for his flight etc.  Let's show him what we think of him and give money to send him miles and miles away for weeks and weeks..."

So that's Lisa from www.honestymarketing.co.uk

Thanks Lisa.  I think.

I'm on the sponsorship trail

I've had a few other things on the go over the last couple of weeks, but the Roof of the World charity road trip has been on my mind for most of it.

Now I really  have to start raising some funds to actually make the thing happen for me.

I need money for all kinds of things, from flights, vaccinations and insurance.   There's also something I forgot.  I don't think I've ever needed to get a visa before visiting a country before, but we'll be visiting 5 countries and I believe all of them will require getting a visa.  Hopefully they won't all be charging $100 USD like Azerbaijan does.

Okay I'm doing some Googling....   Turkmenistan is $61 USD, Uzbekistan is $25 USD, Kyrgyzstan is $100 USD and finally Tajikistan is $80 USD.

I might have got these wrong - this is just from Google and it might even be higher if we need assistance in getting them.

Interestingly that the countries we're visiting all appear to require a "Letter of Invitation" .   I guess being British / European we're a tad spoiled.  I'm not used to this whole needing a visa and other complications before visiting foreign lands.  Thankfully our leader and chief and driver, Ashley, is in charge of getting all the visa documents together so there's a much better chance of it all actually happening than if it was left down to me.

So that's another $400 or so I need to raise now, bringing the total closer to the £1000 that was originally mentioned.  Of course I want to raise more than £1000 so that I can get some money for the charities involved as well.

You can read more about the trip through my blog entries.

It would be great to have your involvement and support.  It's looking like I'll  need all the help I can get.

I have a button!

I've just created a new Paypal account just for the charity sponsorship for the Roof of the World Rally.

Click on it and see if it works! ;-)

I'll be updating the total weekly.   So far I've got £10.

Charity Road Trip

I love travel, road trips in particular.  I always find myself watching the celebrity travel documentaries from the likes of Michael Palin with a little bit of envy.

So when I was approached a couple of weeks ago regarding doing some photography over the final 10 days of a road trip that starts in London and finishes in Dushanbe, Tajikistan it immediately got my attention and interest levels up.

It's called "The Roof of the World" Rally, it's all for charity with the profits going to Sworde-Tepa and Make-A-Wish.  The website is www.charityroadtrips.org.

Currently my involvement is to photograph the start of the rally in London on 3rd July 2010, and then to fly out to Baku, Azerbaijan to meet up with the rally on 15th July and then stay with it all the way to the final destination of Dushanbe.  As the crow flies its around 1000 miles, but our planned route will be much longer along what appears to be some "interesting" roads.

If I said I wasn't a little bit worried about some of the places we'll be visiting I'd be lying.  Lets face it the area hasn't exactly had a positive press over recent years, but this is a huge opportunity for me, and impossible to put into words just how excited I am.

As you might expect with it being for charity I'm not going to get paid, so I'm going to have to find a way to fund myself.  By far the biggest expense will be the air fare, probably around £700, so I need to raise quite a bit of money.

How?  Well I'm going to be approaching some companies direct also asking for small amounts of sponsorship in exchange for advertising space on my website.  I'll be creating a special section of the website dedicated to the trip and updating it with news and sponsorship information as things progress.

Maybe I should get myself sponsors for all the injections for inoculations I'm going to need prior to July - I've been told I'll need 11 jabs.  Have I mentioned yet how much I hate pain & needles?

That's all for now.  There's lots going around in my head.

Update: I've just got information through on our ideal route.  The exact route we take depends on visas, so it might change a little, but this is the ideal scenario.    Baku – Turkmenibashy – Ashgabat – Mary – Turkmenabat – Bukhoro – Samarqand – Tashkent – Andijon – Osh – Pamir Highway – Dushanbe – Qurghonteppa.

My first sponsor

I now have a marketing department!

The wonderful Lisa Blackler from Honesty Marketing has come on board to help me market myself, the trip, the charities and to get some more sponsorship.

Lisa says this about herself  "Lisa Blackler created Honesty Marketing to bring her straight-talking, practical approach to real life business challenges. With 22 years experience and a lively, creative approach to business relationships, Lisa relishes a challenge."  She also said "Despite bearing a passing resemblance to Dot Cotton, Lisa has centuries of marketing experience. She is an incurable flirt and insists on being giving chocolate at every business meeting."

I'll leave it up to you to decide which version sums up the real Lisa Blackler best.

I am however very pleased to have her help.