Two British history students, Max Benitz and George Vlasto, both 22, puttered triumphantly up the Fulham Road in London after completing a 9,000-mile drive from Kolkata this week in aid of charity.
London, Aug.25 : Two British history students, Max Benitz and George Vlasto, both 22, puttered triumphantly up the Fulham Road in London after completing a 9,000-mile drive from Kolkata this week in aid of charity.
According to The Telegraph, Benitz and Vlasto passed through the 15,400 feet high Khunjerab Pass of the Pakistani Himalayas, to the potholed highways of Central Asia and finally on to the smooth autoroutes of France onto London, proving the durability of the "Old Lady".
Benitz said the car required two entire rolls of duct tape, but did not get punctured en route.
The two students, who had just completed a year studying Indian history in Kolkata as part of their studies at Edinburgh University, said they conceived of the trip mainly as an elaborate scheme to avoid landing at Heathrow in August.
Raising money for Kolkata's Future Hope, a former Daily Telegraph Christmas Charity for Indian street-children, their journey took them through Pakistan and China, before retracing the steps of Great Gamers through Central Asian cities like Samarkand, Bukara and Tashkent.
"The toughest part was fixing the bureaucracy. We had to go to Kolkata, Mumbai and the Delhi just to get the 'carnet de passage' so we could take the car across borders," said Vlasto.
Finally, nearly two-and-a-half months after setting off from Calcutta, they reached the Marsden Hospital in London, the second of the two nominated charities for which they have now raised more than 12,000 pounds.
The car failed its MoT test on two minor points. "We were staggered," said Vlasto.
ANI