Fenland duo Dan and Dave reach Tokyo in Larry the Toyota Yaris
“Chatteris to Tokyo – Done!!” Those were the triumphant words posted by Dan Handley and Dave Brooks on Facebook after arriving in the Japanese capital on Monday evening.
The pair from Chatteris have completed 13,884 miles through 22 different countries, and finally reached Tokyo on day 59 of their adventure.
They said: “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.”
Dan and Dave , who work together at Chatteris-based Toyota specialists Fensport Performance, are at the end of their mammoth drive in a 16-year-old Toyota Yaris car to raise money for Children in Need.
They have so far raised £2,021 for the charity, beating their target of £2,000.
Posting on their Facebook page they said: “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. 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 were 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 into reality and we couldn’t be more thankful for that.
“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!”
They will be flying home later this week and Larry will be returning home, too, thanks to a generous sponsor who offered to pay for the car to be shipped back.
