‘You have reached your final destination’ – Chatteris duo, Dan and Dave, have finally arrived in Toyko, the capital of Japan.
Two friends from Chatteris embarked on a journey two months ago from the small Cambridgeshire town to the capital of Japan in a 16-year-old Toyota Yaris.
The Fensport employees have been on the road since Sunday, August 12 and left the county with a blue-light escort from Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue.
The journey is all in aid of Children in Need and this newspaper supported the pair at our Fenland Enterprise Business Awards as the £742 raised at the ceremony went towards the charity.
Shortly after arriving in Tokyo, Dan and Dave said: “Chatteris to Tokyo done. 13,884 miles through 22 different countries, and on day 59 we have finally reached the thriving capital of Japan.
“It’s been tough, a lot tougher than we imagined, with a lot more driving every day than we originally planned, but what an experience it’s been!
“We have visited some absolutely stunning places throughout Europe and Asia and have met some incredibly generous and heart-warming people in every country that we’ve passed through. It’s been a real eye opener.”
Their journey has been well documented in this newspaper, as well as regular updates on the boys’ social media page ‘Chatteris2Tokyo’.
Dan and Dave added: “The media only report negativity and we’re all made to believe that the world is a bad place. Well we can honestly say, from our experience, that is not the case at all!
“Every single person that we have met from Croatia to Azerbaijan, Tajikistan to Russia, have all been amazing and the hospitality has been 110 per cent!
“We’ve made some great contacts and some true friends for life, and if any of them was to visit the little island that we call home then we’ll be sure to welcome them with open arms.
“We would like to take this moment to thank each and every one of our sponsors for the support they’ve given us over the past year, especially the guys at Motor-Vision, without them this trip simply wouldn’t have happened, they turned our dream in to reality and we couldn’t be more thankful for that.
“We hope that you’ve all enjoyed following our journey and hopefully we’ve inspired more people to get off their backside and go see what the world has to offer outside of the typical tourist destinations!
“Little Larry the Yaris has done incredibly well and has done us super proud! We really put him through the ultimate test and he absolutely smashed it!
“He’s more than just a car to us, he’s a legend! Whether you’ve been following our journey from the start or you’re a new follower, if you’ve enjoyed our updates via social media then please can we ask for a small donation towards our chosen charity, BBC Children In Need.
“We have already hit our fundraising target but let’s keep going! Whether it’s £1, £5 or £20 it all helps and we want to raise as much money as we possibly can for such a great cause.
“You can donate via the button at the top of our Facebook page or via our website - www.chatteris2tokyo.com. A huge thank you to each and every one of you that has donated so far, you’re all beautiful people.
“We have 3 more days left to explore Tokyo before flying home on Friday, plus there will be a ton of new footage when we get home, so we’re not going anywhere just yet!
“Yesterday we met an awesome guy called Ko at the car show we attended in Fuji, who has very kindly let us stay at his house during our time in Tokyo!
“Today Larry had a well deserved rest and Ko has been chauffeuring us around to various restaurants, parts shops and car meets in his awesome GMC truck.
“Thank you Ko. A true gentleman and he’s shown us exactly what we came to Japan for... The car culture!”
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