All stations go!

Well, we've had an eventful few days here at the IOTM headquarters.

On Tuesday Leigh and Johno journeyed over to Newslade Community College in Leicester and spoke to the Sixth Formers about supporting our adventure and helping us raise our ambitious target of £20,000 (Donate here: http://www.justgiving.com/itsonthemeter) for the British Red Cross. It was an interesting afternoon out and presenting the idea to 300 young people really hammered home the enormity of the challenege a little more.

We're really looking forward to working with Newslade and hope that we can get them as excited about the trip as we are.

Meanwhile Paul was attending the Engine Room Pitch workshop as part of the Sheffield Documentary Film Festival to learn a bit more about what to do with the footage we will acquire over eight months.

This was followed by BBC Radio Leicester featuring us on their breakfast show along with soundbites from some rather bemused cabbies. The full interview can be heard here, about 21 minutes in

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p006ysyj/Ben_Jackson_25_03_2010/

We have also sent off for some shiny new passports and are waiting to hear back from a motoring museum in Sydney regarding them being the final reciepients of our beloved Hannah the Taxi so generations of visitors can see the hunk of junk we broke the world record in!

Finally, we are waiting with our fingers and toes crossed to hear whether we have been shortlisted for the Performance Direct Non-Standard Insurance Awards. Results are announced on 31 March.

Over Easter we will be reunited with Hannah, although she is uninsured, untaxed and needs an MOT...

The routes we wander - Detailed itinerary

Quite a few people have been asking us about the timings of our route in more detail so here’s a country by country itinerary with rough dates.

We are obviously wary about posting anything too concrete in the public domain this early but hopefully this will allow you to plan our international liaisons.

• Leaving party: Friday 3^rd September 2010
• Departure event, London: Saturday 4^th September 2010
• North-East Europe/Scandinavia: Mid September 2010
• Russia/Eastern Europe: Late September 2010
• Central/Southern Europe: Mid October 2010
• Northern Africa: Late October 2010
• Middle East: Mid November 2010
• Pakistan/India: Early December 2010
• China: Early January 2011
• Hong Kong/Vietnam: Mid February 2011
• South East Asia: Early March 2011
• Australia: Mid April 2011
• Sydney: Late April 2011!

If you want any more detailed dates drop us an email at info@itsonthemeter.com

Johno

IOTM Team

Adventure Travel Live! Exhibition

Hello Readers,

On Saturday Paul and I went to London to visit the Adventure Travel Show @ the Royal Horticultural Gardens.

We arrived at 11am after 3 hours on the slowest train we could possible find to visit some famous travellers from around the world. There were talks from global explorers and directors and we met with plenty of companies who seemed excited with our expedition.



If you haven’t visited this show before and are thinking of travelling I would advise you to go next year; it’s really informative and gives significant insight for travellers heading off the beaten track.


Over the next couple of weeks we will be talking to the people we met at the show and hopefully gaining their cooperation in our 30,000 mile adventure!

As always we are constantly looking for new sponsors so if you fancy supporting this unique adventure then don't hestitate to email the team at info@itsonthemeter.com


Keep checking back for new updates including progress on the taxi and team biographies.


Leigh Purnell

I.O.T.M

P.S - Add us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itsonthemeter

New Year, New Website!

Happy belated New Year to all our readers.

Things are progressing slowly but surely in the IOTM camp. We hope you like our new-look website. We'll be adding more and more content as things progress.

We recently had a meeting with our bank which really made it clear in our heads that we are really going on this adventure!

On the sponsors side things are coming along quite well. We are delighted to announce that Cygnus Automotive Ltd. are our first major sponsors. They are premier manufacturers of taximeters and taxi cameras based in Cannock, Staffordshire.

As always we are constantly looking for new sponsors so if you fancy supporting this unique adventure then don't hestitate to email the team at info@itsonthemeter.com


Keep checking back for new updates including progress on the taxi and team biographies.


Johno
IOTM HQ

PS - Add us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itsonthemeter

Planning, planning, planning

The team finally met up today for the first time in a few months to seriously discuss the direction of the trip.
Leigh had been away working on an education project in Uganda, Johno had been backpacking down through the Western Balkans and Paul has been working all summer in sunny Gloucestershire so it was good to finally be able to see each other face to face and talk through the things we had each been thinking about.

We had a good talk through many areas and left with renewed enthusiasm for the project. Our main focus at the moment is searching for suitable sponsors in the wide range of areas a trip like this needs; car parts, fuel, insurance, clothing, camping equipment, communications, branding, filming and so on and so on.
If you know anyone who may be interesting in working with us on our adventure then don't hesitate to send them our way.

In addition we're still awaiting confirmation from Guinness World Records and we're going to be sprucing up the website a bit over the next few weeks.

Thanks for reading and check checking back!

IOTM HQ

It's on the Meter Blog Launch!

Welcome to the blog of It's on the Meter - an epic attempt to drive 25,000 miles from London to Sydney in a London Black Cab named Hannah.

We are planning on leaving in late 2010 and hoping to raise at least £20,000 for charity.

We're in the process putting together a proper website which this blog will link through to as well as making Video, Photo and Social-Networking channels and a Justgiving page.

For now you can also follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itsonthemeter

Stay tuned and tell your friends!

Johno,
IOTM HQ