If you have been reading our journal (or regular posts) you know that on Tuesday 4th June Mike Van Pelt, the owner of Global Expedition Vehicles, arrived in Ulanbaatar to do some upgrades to the camper mounting system on our vehicle.
Following the problem we experienced with the camper mounts on the road to Yakutsk and it's subsequent fix (which I have commented on in the post Response to expeditionportal thread) Mike and I had an email exchange around the question of the strength of the camper mounting system. Arising from this discussion, and to my astonishment, Mike decided (without any pushng from me) to fly to Ulanbaatar, Mongolia with upgraded upper mounting plates and install them in on our camper.
What Mike said to me about his decision was that he wanted to make sure the mounts were "as stromg as they could be" while we were in UB rather than risk having another problem in some (even more) remote place.
So on June 4th, not only did Mike appear at our guest house in UB, but he arrived with newly fabricated upper mounts and associated parts and adhesives, and more over had arranged a repair facility that turned out to be very professional. Two days later the new upper mounts were installed and we were set to continue our travels.
I cannot overstate how impressed (blown away would be a better word) I am, with this latest example of great support from GXV. That Mike was able to arrange repair facilities and people here in Ulanbaatar from the US boggles my mind.
Personally I put Mike's actions down to two things. Firstly he is an experienced ovelander and understands very clearly what it means to have a vehicle problem "in the middle of nowhere". Secondly he is totally committed to his goal of building a world class expedition vehicle.
When we had our problem near Yakutsk, the first thing Mike said to me was "we [GXV] will do whatever it takes to get you going" - he has lived up to that statement, beyond all my expectations and hopes.
All I can say is - Mike, thank you.