With The Grand Tour Series 3 still at least 4 months away, information on the ground is still relatively scarce. So far we already know that there will be at least one Cheap Car Challenge and that the boys have driven three American muscle cars in Detroit. But in the last few days we’ve caught wind of a new Grand Tour Special which has just been filmed – this time in Mongolia!
Edit April 5th 2019: Click here for The Grand Tour Mongolia Special full episode preview
For those who don’t know, Mongolia is a landlocked sovereign state which is sandwiched between China and Russia. It is not only one of the most sparsely populated countries in the world, but also features wildly varied geography – with the Gobi Desert to the south and cold mountainous regions to the north and west. Sounds like the perfect place for Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May to be let loose in, don’t you think?
Aside from images posted on Clarkson’s Instagram, a column he recently wrote for The Sunday Times ($) has revealed further information as to what we might expect to see.
“On Wednesday I woke up in a tent, in a field, in Mongolia, and as I sat on the aluminium bucket that had been provided for my morning ablutions I ruminated on how I could possibly survive the coming day,” Clarkson wrote. “We had to film the sort of scene that would cause most American actors to demand three weeks off in the Bahamas, but because we were against the clock we had it done by nine and were ready to film a river crossing. It was a big river and it was fed by melting snow, so it was what people who’ve just dived into an unheated pool and want you to follow suit call ‘very refreshing’.”
The Mongolia Special will be a six-day camping trip across the country, which according to Clarkson was a “six-day orgy of exhaustion, animal lavatory facilities, discomfort, dirty fingernails, damp camping trip clothes, army food and James May’s spinnaker-sized sinuses.”
There were also plenty of insects, which is something that should go down well with Hammond – who is notoriously scared of them.
“They were the sorts of insect that are only really bothered about getting into your ear,” Clarkson explains. “So you’re clinging on to a rock, and you’re thinking that you’re nearly 60 and you’re frozen from the river and hurting, and all of a sudden you have a panicky fly in your ear and you can’t dig it out because you’d fall to your death.”
After filming for the Mongolia Special wrapped up, Clarkson & Co spent some time in Ulaanbaatar (the country’s capital), before flying through Beijing on their way back to England – though it is unlikely that either city will feature in the final episode.
It isn’t known at this stage when The Grand Tour Series 3 will kick off, but a November / December 2018 start is a safe bet. We can’t wait!