The Destination
For those wanting images email : alhunter@btinternet.com
Friday, 28 September 2007
Tuesday, 25 September 2007
We have made it... Gallery photos to come later
Arriving late at the hotel in Montelimar having driven 570 miles it was a pleasure to get a beer, bloody good steak followed by several beers, meeting the other teams was great, we managed to narrowly escape the weird Japanese drinking game by inches, good fun watching the other competitors embarrass themselves... the next day started well for most, however one competitor had slept face down on the concrete floor in the hall way, he was later seen retrieving his shoes from the swimming pool, he opted to leave his bed in the pool!!!
Having had breakfast we headed to the local Ford dealer to buy a new radiator overflow cap, however no joy the spares department was closed.... taking a management decision we headed for the Alps, we started into the hills and watched the temperature gauge rise, when it got close to the red we stopped, slowly releasing the cap watching the overflow bottle boiling..... a litre bottle of antifreeze and 6 litre bottle’s of mineral water later she had cooled down long enough for us to proceed!!, about 20 competitors stopped to help, which was great comfort... over the Alps down through the Gorge du Verdon straight into the next little village, parked the car and into a bar, several beers watched England play Rugby, down the mountains into Nice for a drive round the coast to Menton just beyond Monte Carlo.
Found the hotel followed by a restaurant on the coast had some diner, then went off to find some of the other competitors to have a drink with, heading to the organisers hotel we walked 6 blocks to discover the only hotel in Menton that doesn’t have a bar!!!, we walked towards the beach and bumped into some marshalls that advised us that most of the competitors were in the Casino, unfortunately Spartacus & Heath weren’t dressed appropriately so admission was denied, the bottle of Port and another planning session pursued.
We had breakfast on the balcony of the hotel overlooking the sea, watching the keep fitters trying to shred the pounds running the waterfront... St Trinians was upon us, dressed accordingly we frightened some hotel guests and a bunch of locals on our way to the start, a pleasant surprise to arrive at the start to discover it wasn’t a practical joke and everyone had made an effort... see photo’s
Overall a great day we headed for Venice looking at the challenge, management decided fairly quickly that we weren’t going to achieve today’s goal, carry your spare wheel on the train, then water bus into St Marks Square, we jumped a water taxi arriving at St Marks Square in time to watch the All Blacks play Scotland, several beers later and a great water bus ride back to the train station we saw several comrades carrying their spare wheels!!! The hotel was about an hour’s drive arriving at about 9:00pm we got settled met with the rest and had more beers... a lite bite and more beers...I had to rescue Spartacus who was busy testing Lemon Chello, I got away with only having 2!!, the early night we had promised ourselves turned into another blurry evening like all the evenings recently.
Waking early we headed for breakfast, loaded the water pistols, mounted the cannon, and got ready for the onslaught, some of the brave ones from the night before were talking about eggs & tomatoes for the fight on the beach however this wasn’t to be, The guns all loaded about 40 minutes of chasing the opposition around the beach reloading in the sea as needed, turned out to be bloody good fun.
The final run to Rome...... started with us surprising the competition with the water cannon, they all thought the water fight was over!! we had fun for a couple of hours dowsing down a number of competitors slowly at the start then on the roads travelling towards Rome, management decided that the unit should be packed away before the local police decided we were having too much fun..... Sat Nav was winding us around local roads far too slowly and we were being followed by a team that were using “Twat Nav – a bloke with a map... we headed for the A13 and eventually got on to run straight into an accident we were out of the car waiting to get going for about 40 minutes, the mountain passes and tunnels were great, too many people had air horns which echoed through the tunnels and passing comrades always started a hooting sessions!!, Which spread like wildfire when cars were stopped at motorway services...
The car got hot and overheated a couple of times, we discovered the fan wasn’t working without the air-conditioning running (this hadn’t been working for a long time!) more water and anti-freeze soon chilled it out, unfortunately these stops along with accident and our slow exit from Venice had delayed us to a point that we would not make Rome in time to contact a Car Breaker to dispose of the “Marrakech Express” we coasted into Rome and found our hotel, celebrating with a couple of beers at the hotel then headed for the centre to meet all those that participated, the Rally organisation was very poor, the prize-giving was due to start at 7:30, we got there at 8:30 to be told that they had pushed it out to 9:30 and by 10 past 10 we had given up and headed for a favourite restaurant for a true Italian Gastro meal to finish of the trip we ended up back at the hotel at 2:30 realising that sleep deprivation was catching us up......
Checking out of the hotel and find a Car Breaker in early morning Rome rush hour was challenging, however we managed to find the place eventually, tearing off the number plates getting the tax disc and completing the Italian paperwork along with those last photographs of the banger before she got crushed, checking the trip meter we had covered 1672 miles in the 5 days..... “Cushions” Sat Nav had suggested if returning home via the car we would be arriving home at 5:00am Wednesday morning we held that thought for just a minute (that’s all) and jumped a taxi to the airport, with the Sat Nav still running in Cushions baggage as we exited Gatwick car park we could hear her muffled voice giving us directions to Woking....... We’re home......
I need to download and resize the pictures and hope to get that done this evening...
A tired Angelino.....
Having had breakfast we headed to the local Ford dealer to buy a new radiator overflow cap, however no joy the spares department was closed.... taking a management decision we headed for the Alps, we started into the hills and watched the temperature gauge rise, when it got close to the red we stopped, slowly releasing the cap watching the overflow bottle boiling..... a litre bottle of antifreeze and 6 litre bottle’s of mineral water later she had cooled down long enough for us to proceed!!, about 20 competitors stopped to help, which was great comfort... over the Alps down through the Gorge du Verdon straight into the next little village, parked the car and into a bar, several beers watched England play Rugby, down the mountains into Nice for a drive round the coast to Menton just beyond Monte Carlo.
Found the hotel followed by a restaurant on the coast had some diner, then went off to find some of the other competitors to have a drink with, heading to the organisers hotel we walked 6 blocks to discover the only hotel in Menton that doesn’t have a bar!!!, we walked towards the beach and bumped into some marshalls that advised us that most of the competitors were in the Casino, unfortunately Spartacus & Heath weren’t dressed appropriately so admission was denied, the bottle of Port and another planning session pursued.
We had breakfast on the balcony of the hotel overlooking the sea, watching the keep fitters trying to shred the pounds running the waterfront... St Trinians was upon us, dressed accordingly we frightened some hotel guests and a bunch of locals on our way to the start, a pleasant surprise to arrive at the start to discover it wasn’t a practical joke and everyone had made an effort... see photo’s
Overall a great day we headed for Venice looking at the challenge, management decided fairly quickly that we weren’t going to achieve today’s goal, carry your spare wheel on the train, then water bus into St Marks Square, we jumped a water taxi arriving at St Marks Square in time to watch the All Blacks play Scotland, several beers later and a great water bus ride back to the train station we saw several comrades carrying their spare wheels!!! The hotel was about an hour’s drive arriving at about 9:00pm we got settled met with the rest and had more beers... a lite bite and more beers...I had to rescue Spartacus who was busy testing Lemon Chello, I got away with only having 2!!, the early night we had promised ourselves turned into another blurry evening like all the evenings recently.
Waking early we headed for breakfast, loaded the water pistols, mounted the cannon, and got ready for the onslaught, some of the brave ones from the night before were talking about eggs & tomatoes for the fight on the beach however this wasn’t to be, The guns all loaded about 40 minutes of chasing the opposition around the beach reloading in the sea as needed, turned out to be bloody good fun.
The final run to Rome...... started with us surprising the competition with the water cannon, they all thought the water fight was over!! we had fun for a couple of hours dowsing down a number of competitors slowly at the start then on the roads travelling towards Rome, management decided that the unit should be packed away before the local police decided we were having too much fun..... Sat Nav was winding us around local roads far too slowly and we were being followed by a team that were using “Twat Nav – a bloke with a map... we headed for the A13 and eventually got on to run straight into an accident we were out of the car waiting to get going for about 40 minutes, the mountain passes and tunnels were great, too many people had air horns which echoed through the tunnels and passing comrades always started a hooting sessions!!, Which spread like wildfire when cars were stopped at motorway services...
The car got hot and overheated a couple of times, we discovered the fan wasn’t working without the air-conditioning running (this hadn’t been working for a long time!) more water and anti-freeze soon chilled it out, unfortunately these stops along with accident and our slow exit from Venice had delayed us to a point that we would not make Rome in time to contact a Car Breaker to dispose of the “Marrakech Express” we coasted into Rome and found our hotel, celebrating with a couple of beers at the hotel then headed for the centre to meet all those that participated, the Rally organisation was very poor, the prize-giving was due to start at 7:30, we got there at 8:30 to be told that they had pushed it out to 9:30 and by 10 past 10 we had given up and headed for a favourite restaurant for a true Italian Gastro meal to finish of the trip we ended up back at the hotel at 2:30 realising that sleep deprivation was catching us up......
Checking out of the hotel and find a Car Breaker in early morning Rome rush hour was challenging, however we managed to find the place eventually, tearing off the number plates getting the tax disc and completing the Italian paperwork along with those last photographs of the banger before she got crushed, checking the trip meter we had covered 1672 miles in the 5 days..... “Cushions” Sat Nav had suggested if returning home via the car we would be arriving home at 5:00am Wednesday morning we held that thought for just a minute (that’s all) and jumped a taxi to the airport, with the Sat Nav still running in Cushions baggage as we exited Gatwick car park we could hear her muffled voice giving us directions to Woking....... We’re home......
I need to download and resize the pictures and hope to get that done this evening...
A tired Angelino.....
Friday, 21 September 2007
Day 1 - Dead & Buried car getting hot!!
After testing the water pistols we headed for Calais, got caught behind a fellow contestant at passport control, we went round them 10 minutes later they were running and back in the queue... the ferry crossing went quickly, Heath drove the car off the ferry managing to get the car nearly sideways due to wet conditions, arriving at Calais we headed for the Auchen Super Mache, then on to the Formula one hotel (I think we all decided we would never stay in one of these ever again...), due to previous Rallies they took all passports and told us too be quiet and orderly, we are struggling with this request.
We went for an evening meal at one of Cushions favourite restaurants and had a good meal washed down by a couple bottles of local red... then off to registration where we met a lot of other competitors, all propping up the bar at the Holiday Inn, all went horribly wrong when we forgot the planning meeting over a bottle of port...
Looking out the hotel window this morning, a little dark and overcast, the car park littered with Bangers, the restaurant was a buzz with like minded soles discussing strategies and swapping stories so far, met a team who had made it to within 20 miles of Dover in a old Mercedes estate they had to leave it on the side of the road due to overheating.... straight into a local Loot magazine they managed to buy a XR3i cabriolet and are praying for a good trip...
Off to the start, what a turn out approximately 200 cars, the realisation that some of the participants have spent days and days on preparation made our virginal attempt seem lightweight.... Ah next year we can be bigger, better.... the planning should start now..... check out some of the photo’s.
We went for an evening meal at one of Cushions favourite restaurants and had a good meal washed down by a couple bottles of local red... then off to registration where we met a lot of other competitors, all propping up the bar at the Holiday Inn, all went horribly wrong when we forgot the planning meeting over a bottle of port...
Looking out the hotel window this morning, a little dark and overcast, the car park littered with Bangers, the restaurant was a buzz with like minded soles discussing strategies and swapping stories so far, met a team who had made it to within 20 miles of Dover in a old Mercedes estate they had to leave it on the side of the road due to overheating.... straight into a local Loot magazine they managed to buy a XR3i cabriolet and are praying for a good trip...
Off to the start, what a turn out approximately 200 cars, the realisation that some of the participants have spent days and days on preparation made our virginal attempt seem lightweight.... Ah next year we can be bigger, better.... the planning should start now..... check out some of the photo’s.
Stopping for lunch at Le Petit Pasteur at Chålons-En-Champagne we had a truly fantastic meal, this was true French cuisine that only delayed us 3 hours..., the in Spartacus’s dribble....Angelino took over driving, drove too fast and the engine started overheating, I’m back at the wheel nursing her back into shape..... we travel over the Alps tomorrow so we need to make sure the overheating is not a problem... we will buy a new overflow bottle cap to feel a little easier and watch the temp gauge which has been bouncing just above the N (nearly in the red) and below the M in NORM....
Cushions has been doing a great job with the photography, he may very soon be known as “5 snaps H”, unfortunately when the stickers were made the window ones spelt the name Cusions, hence the “H”...
Due to the lunch delay and the overheating we’ve turned into the sweep crew and with 2 hours to go till we reach our destination we have just past a Austin Maxi cruising at about 60 mph....
Looking forward to propping up the bar tonight a late night Port Planning meeting and tomorrow....
Angelino
Cushions has been doing a great job with the photography, he may very soon be known as “5 snaps H”, unfortunately when the stickers were made the window ones spelt the name Cusions, hence the “H”...
Due to the lunch delay and the overheating we’ve turned into the sweep crew and with 2 hours to go till we reach our destination we have just past a Austin Maxi cruising at about 60 mph....
Looking forward to propping up the bar tonight a late night Port Planning meeting and tomorrow....
Angelino
Wednesday, 19 September 2007
Count Down Continues.............
T Shirts have been collected....... looking good
Spartacus has been modifying the roof cannon, the first pump was not up to the job so Industrial action has taken place with the purchase of a better pump (suitable for pumping water around a caravan) competitors, beware.... a soaking is on the way, lucky we have the estate to take the 5 gallon tank...
All four participants visited the Surrey Arts Wardrobe (Thanks for the tip Ray Wilson) and St Trinians School Girl pinafores have been acquired, the photo's should be interesting.... Cushions is relegated to Tour Photographer and will be "Flash Harry" for the fancy dress day.....
Just Giving is starting to tick and the pledges are coming, Thanks to all those who have given so far....
I have added some photo's the next lot will appear tomorrow evening...
Angelino
Spartacus has been modifying the roof cannon, the first pump was not up to the job so Industrial action has taken place with the purchase of a better pump (suitable for pumping water around a caravan) competitors, beware.... a soaking is on the way, lucky we have the estate to take the 5 gallon tank...
All four participants visited the Surrey Arts Wardrobe (Thanks for the tip Ray Wilson) and St Trinians School Girl pinafores have been acquired, the photo's should be interesting.... Cushions is relegated to Tour Photographer and will be "Flash Harry" for the fancy dress day.....
Just Giving is starting to tick and the pledges are coming, Thanks to all those who have given so far....
I have added some photo's the next lot will appear tomorrow evening...
Angelino
WOT!!! - Were Off Tomorrow.........
Last minute preparations.... typical blokes!!! I hear you say..... all the stickers are now on, we managed to some big Chase stickers made... Thank you Alister, we've managed nationality flags next to our names to complete that Rally authenticity and look...
The boy's are heading for Surrey Arts Costume Wardrobe for the final fitting's for the "Flash Harry" - Cushions costume and the rest of us are taking the ST Trinians School girl costumes a little to far.... thanks for you input here Spartacus.... short skirts, fishnet stockings... need I say more!!!
I will post more photo's later today showing the great array of stickers....
Spartacus is having too much fun building the roof weaponry which will be kep't out of site until we have cleared out of Calais and may not make an appearence until necessary in true military fashion
The boy's are heading for Surrey Arts Costume Wardrobe for the final fitting's for the "Flash Harry" - Cushions costume and the rest of us are taking the ST Trinians School girl costumes a little to far.... thanks for you input here Spartacus.... short skirts, fishnet stockings... need I say more!!!
I will post more photo's later today showing the great array of stickers....
Spartacus is having too much fun building the roof weaponry which will be kep't out of site until we have cleared out of Calais and may not make an appearence until necessary in true military fashion
Thursday, 13 September 2007
The mission goes on....
Flights arranged for the return..... Tuesday morning early start for the return home...
Nearly have some interest from a scrap yard in Rome through contacts of Heath.. will know more today....
Custom Polo shirts with our name on and everything have been arranged by Spatacus luckily they should be with us early next week.
Heath has arranged more descriptive stickers for the car, should be with us on Friday, our resident sticker applier Paul (Heaths son) will get them on over the weekend for another photo shot... more to upload to the site...
Only 1 week to go...... Ye Ha.... can't wait...
Angelino...
Nearly have some interest from a scrap yard in Rome through contacts of Heath.. will know more today....
Custom Polo shirts with our name on and everything have been arranged by Spatacus luckily they should be with us early next week.
Heath has arranged more descriptive stickers for the car, should be with us on Friday, our resident sticker applier Paul (Heaths son) will get them on over the weekend for another photo shot... more to upload to the site...
Only 1 week to go...... Ye Ha.... can't wait...
Angelino...
Monday, 10 September 2007
Stickers go on - planning progress's
Mike and Paul have done a fantastic job of applying the stickers, there's still more decoration to be done so if you have any ideas please let us know.....
The ferry choices for the Thursday crossing need to be confirmed but late afternoon chaos in Calais looks most likely.
The car went for a run down to Stone Henge over the weekend which it completed very successfully thanks Mike, his steady right foot (or was that the cruise control) gave a average fuel consumption of mid 30's (mpg)...... better than we expected....
Some preliminary work has been done on costumes (Greg obviously has a large wardrobe suitable for the ST Trelians theme)..... more to be done here....
Greg has some good idea's on the water feature which revolve around a 5 gallon tank in the boot and an electric pump.... can't wait...
More updates soon
Angelino....
The ferry choices for the Thursday crossing need to be confirmed but late afternoon chaos in Calais looks most likely.
The car went for a run down to Stone Henge over the weekend which it completed very successfully thanks Mike, his steady right foot (or was that the cruise control) gave a average fuel consumption of mid 30's (mpg)...... better than we expected....
Some preliminary work has been done on costumes (Greg obviously has a large wardrobe suitable for the ST Trelians theme)..... more to be done here....
Greg has some good idea's on the water feature which revolve around a 5 gallon tank in the boot and an electric pump.... can't wait...
More updates soon
Angelino....
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