This morning we got word via email from The Adventurists (the organizing body for the Mongol Rally) that one of our fellow ralliers had died in a car crash the previous day, the 7th of August. There were three people in the car when they crashed, two are in critical condition and, devastatingly the third died from injuries received in the accident.
The Adventurists have decided not to reveal the identity of those in the car until their family members decide they want that information made public. In the meantime, the sobering information has hit our convoy of cars quite severely. It was shocking information and it made us realize the seriousness of the undertaking that we had, so far, treated very light heartedly. With messages flowing in from our parents and friends, we’ve adopted a more defensive driving style, we’re going slower and driving only until dusk.
We don’t know who the rallier was, but we’re sure he was a friend and he’ll be missed. His like-minded sense of adventure and willingness to travel to new places makes him someone we count as our own, and the loss of any such daring a person is a tragedy.
Our condolences to the family, and to all of his friends. Tonight we make a toast in his honor around the camp fire. From our team, the Face Race team, and the Mongol Schumachers.
(as an update and means of explanation about the delay in posting this blog: we write our blogs when events happen but we schedule them to post at a two week lag so we have time to edit and add pictures, and to ensure we never have large gaps in blog posts, etc. We wrote this post the morning we heard, which was the 8th of August. We have since learned the identity of the rallier who perished, and his team mates. His family has not made that information public, so we won’t either. Needless to say, the loss it still devastating some two weeks after the accident. Our thoughts are with their families.)
