A huge castle, the finest gin on the planet and 1000 people: a splendid recipe for a gargantuan party with the theme and dress code 'Age of Exploration'.
After wobbling forth from Goodwood, Barcelona and Milan in a tri-country display of spectacular adventurism the Mongol Rally 2009 teams from more than 25 countries around the world headed for a castle in the hills of western Czech Republic.
Non-believers would ask why you would stop for a festival-esque party with so much to do and up to 10,000 miles of driving ahead? Luckily The Adventurists believe in fighting the tyranny of boredom and that staging ruddy great big parties is a fearsome technique in the ongoing campaign! Adhering to the 'Age of Exploration' dresscode with the panache you would expect of someone driving to Mongolia in a tiny car, the ralliers turned up dressed as spacemen, space ships, sailors, pirates, musketeers, knights of the realm and among others.... chickens. Yep. Exploratory Chickens we assume. Brilliant.
Taking over a stonking great big castle needed some top notch music and general japery that matched the impressive surroundings so DJs and bands from as far as Israel and New York played in the rave caves inside the castle walls and on the main stage in the central courtyard. Hendricks provided a bar exclusively for serving the world's finest gin. Fire dancers singed rallier's eyebrows and performers provided entertainment and games from the afternoon into the early hours.
Teams all camped up in the grounds of the castle throughout the afternoon and the games and joviality began. As the sun set the castle was opened, a feast served and the music turned up really rather loud. Many of the reports of what happened between this point and the early hours are what could be called 'unpublishable' but rest assured it was all healthy stuff of the kind explorers of yesteryear would be proud we're sure.
Here's what some of the teams said with a sore head after the party:
"Just returned from the castle party. Brilliant evening of live music, tasty food, free Gin, mingling and dancing! The camping field is also still alive with music blaring, fires alight and ball games in the dark!"
Team Soldiers of Fortune
"What a night! We rode a skateboard on the back of Thunderbird 4. Won a game of binocular football and Bailey lost the only car key we have by tucking away too many absinthes! Good times"
Team Unspeakable Name of which their mothers would probably not be proud
"Klenova castle stormed, sacked & pillaged. Now back on the road & heading for prague for some hungover sightseeing. Oh and we just agreed to do the 2010 rickshaw run!"
This Khan Only End Badly
"Mental party in klenova castle with almost arsenistic fire dancers, goats, ska and jazz bands, trance and much needed free meat intake. With all 500 teams (incl 2 firetrucks,6 ambulances &a bright pink icecream truck and a boat, together for the first time it finally became apparent that in union we are making the world just a little less boring!!
Team Mammaquatia
You can see more photos of Czechout - The Age of Exploration here.
The teams are posting their updates now on the Live Updates page as they head east towards Mongolia.