By Johno Ellison

After nearly fifteen months, over 43,000 miles, 8000 litres of diesel, fifty countries and four continents the moment that we’ve been simultaneously looking forward to and dreading is finally nearly here!
In few short hours we will be driving Hannah off the Eurotunnel train and back onto British soil after having driven all the way around the world and hopefully broken two Guinness World Records for both the longest ever and highest ever journey by taxi.

The Arrival

We will be arriving back in London, where it all started in Covent Garden at 9.30 on Friday the 11th of May. This is where we will hopefully get presented with our World Records and we will give a cheque of all the money raised to the Red Cross. We understand that this is not very easy for people to come to, so most of it will be for the press with our partner, GetTaxi. This is why we will be holding our arrival party on Saturday the 12th of May atThe Frog in Clapham,South London at 3pm for our friends, family and anyone else who wants to say high and have a chat. There’ll be drinks and food deals and Hannah should be parked outside if you fancy checking her out in person.
Please come along and say hello, the nearest Tube is Clapham Common

Thanks

We will write a full finishing and thank you blog in due course but at this point we just want to briefly thank everyone who has supported us and helped us out along. You guys are the ones that have really made this possible and helped us raise so much for the British Red Cross.

I also want to thank Leigh and Paul for being such great travel buddies and for putting up with me in a cramped, hot, noisy and smelly metal box for fifteen months. Thanks also go to their families and to Char and Katie for being so understanding and supportive.

Thanks also to all the people who gave us directions, gave us food and water, let us sleep on their floors, beeped and waved at us on the roads and took pictures and spread the word about us in their own country. Thanks to the mechanics, armchair and professional, who got our heap of rust all the way around the world and the passengers gave us some variety along the way and stopped us killing each other.

Cheers guys!

What next?

The question that everyone is asking seems to have changed recently from, “How the hell did you come up with the this stupid idea?” to “So, what are you guys going to do next?”

The first answer from all three of us is definitely: “Sleep. For at least a week”. Driving around the world is great and we’re so lucky to have been able to do this but we’re all more than ready to spend some time in our beds sleeping in, watching crappy TV and eating home-cooked food.

The trip has left us almost completely broke so after a bit of rest I think we all need to get jobs pretty quickly but I’m not sure how easy the adjustment back to, “real life” will actually be. Hopefully we will be able to find something approaching the variety and fun of the taxi trip but the skill-set we now have is kind of specific so we’ll see…

We are writing a book about the trip which will hopefully be out next year and Paul and I have a new project called Rushin’ Roulette which will be going ahead this summer and basically involves a week long roadtrip from London to Moscow with challenges and tasks along the route. The winning team will be crowned with the ‘MissChief Trophy’.

People keep telling us that they want to go on similar trips, but don’t have the time or money… which is why we set this up! We wanted to try to bring some of the adventure and fun we have had over the last year and-a-bit to a wider audience and allow people to experience something similar without quitting their jobs! We’re not making money off it and it is designed to just be lots of fun.

We’re launching this week, check out the taster video here and the website at www.misschiefevents.com or www.facebook.com/misschiefevents

In the longer term I have an idea for a new expedition which just won’t get out of my head and so will probably be going ahead next Spring. Paul has also been talking about a crazy adventure in Siberia and Leigh is looking to set up his own business so watch this space.
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We look forward to seeing you all on Saturday!

Much love,
Johno and The Taxi Boys

PS – the last American, Israel and Eastern Europe/Russia blogs will be posted in due course, after the megasleep