By ROBERT LINNEHAN
A discovery was made in Haddonfield two weeks ago that was on par with Jean Louis Michel and Dr. Robert Ballard discovering the RMS Titanic wreckage in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Fine, maybe it’s nothing like that at all, but for two young adventurers it was still pretty cool.
Scott Partenheimer made a fantastic discovery as he found several hours of raw footage in his father’s basement of his adventure from London, England to Ulan Bator, Mongolia in the 10,000 mile 2008 Mongol Rally.
Partenheimer and his friend Paul Shively participated in the rally in 2008, hosted by the League of Adventurists International Limited. The race
The group organizes the race each year with the intent of raising at least one million pounds for a designated charity.
The unique English organization, according to its website, was developed and created with the intent of making the world a less boring place.
Competitors had to raise $2,000 to participate in the rally. The two adventurers raised over $5,000 for the “privilege” to participate in the race.
The duo raced along a route through German, Austria, Slovakia and Ukraine before hitting Russia. The drove through Russia until they reached Ulan Bator for a grand total of about 10,000 miles.
Teams in the competition are only allowed to use cars that are purchased before the race for less than 500 pounds and have only one-liter engines. Average cars have four cylinder engines, which means a one-cylinder engine generates far less horsepower.
Of course, Partenheimer documented the trip with his trusty video camera, but unfortunately lost the footage soon after returning from the trip.
“The videos were saved on discs and were lost in the abyss of my dad’s basement, but I just found them last week while looking for something else entirely and decided to finally make the highlights reel I always wanted to,” Partenheimer said. “We shot dozens of short one to two minute clips, and some of those clips ended up on YouTube unedited. The full clip of us driving on the Autobahn in Germany has over 15,000 views. Americans driving a tiny car at only 70-miles-per hour on the mighty Autobahn makes for good viewing, I guess.”
Taking the raw footage, Partenheimer edited together a YouTube video detailing the trip. It was a great closing chapter to a once in a lifetime adventure, he said, and a great way to remember the trip.
