Team Dog

Last weekend, Team Dog rolled for one final time. In many ways it was the most important part of the rally for us because we were off to hand a large cheque over to Abbeyford. It was therefore, thoroughly fitting that Rover wouldn’t start. Yep, we’d all hauled ourselves up to Damien’s house in Didcot on a wet, miserable, cold and bleak Friday night only to find that the dog had a flat battery. Had Damien been a bit too enthusiastic with the air horn perhaps? Probably not, but the horn did make for a very rudimentary ammeter which made it all too easy to diagnose a flat battery as the problem. We got out the jump leads and, after ‘borrowing’ some electrickery from my daily driver car, had the dog started in no time. Right then, walkies!

Somewhere in Warwickshire we had our second scare of the night. Whilst travelling up the M40 a warning light lit up on the dashboard. The light, looking a bit like a Scottish saltire being fed into a food blender, had us all stumped, because the only manual we had (a trusty Haynes) was for the petrol version and the dog drinks diesel. Coasting up the slip road into Warwick services we ruminated on what the problem might be. Damien stamping on the bulkhead whilst shouting that we had no brakes, when approaching a particularly tight corner only seemed funny retrospectively!

Needless to say, it wasn’t the brakes. However, after several minutes of trying to guess what the warning light was for – never having seen any flag pureeing equipment installed on the car) we decided to ask a very nice man. A very, very nice man in fact. Yep, fortunately for us, there was an AA man in the middle of fixing someone else’s car at the service station. He immediately recognised the light as having something to do with low water levels in the radiator. Amos and I managed to top it up and tried to get rid of as much air that had got into the system as possible. The fix worked because the light never came on again for the rest of the journey - perhaps the bulb had blown!

It was at this point that we discovered that the dog couldn’t be locked. The central locking ‘blipper’ seems to have run out of battery and, as all of the door locks have been covered in fur, we had to keep watch on the vehicle and couldn’t leave it unattended. Whilst this wasn’t a breakdown as such, it was rather annoying especially as it was now getting late. It’s at times like this that minds start to wonder whether we would actually make it to St. Helens at all. It was now that I stepped up to the mark and in my role as team captain decided to say some reassuring words. “What could possibly go wrong?” With that, we were back in the car and on our way!

In the event, we made it to St. Helens, and more specifically, my parent’s house, at around one in the morning. After the briefest of nips of scotch (to help us sleep… allegedly) we all turned in for the night.

Saturday was to be what, for us, the whole rally was about. Our visit to Abbeyford Children’s Unit to give them a cheque for the amount raised by your efforts. Yes, you – the many people reading this who donated to our charity. Before we turned up at Abbeyford, I paid an emotional visit to my sister’s grave. This including parping the cemetery – if you knew Gill, you’d understand how entirely appropriate this was!

At around two ‘o’clock we arrived at Abbeyford. We were met at the door by some of the staff and kids. Once again, it was easy to see why Abbeyford is such a deserving cause. The kids were brilliant and loved the car. We were even treated to a guided tour of the building by Chelsea, one of Abbeyford’s regular guests, this gave Team Dog an opportunity to see the fantastic facilities and just what good work goes on there.

Then we met up with a photographer from St. Helens council who took photos whilst we handed the cheque over. Team Dog raised a grand total of £1150. Well done and many thanks to everyone that donated money to the cause. This money will help to pay for extra special trips and days out for the children of Abbeyford. One of the kids, with a particular soft spot for Thomas the Tank Engine will be treated to a day out at a steam railway. Other kids will be taken to the bowling alley or to the theatre. These special days are going to be known as ‘Gilly Days’ in memory of my sister. When I heard that, I had tears in my eyes. Sisters can do that to you!

Anyway, the kids loved the car. They loved the fur, they loved the look, but mostly they loved the horn. One young chap called the car ‘beep-beep’ which was a bit of an understatement!

After the photos had been taken and the cheque handed over we had a good chat with Marge, the lady that runs Abbeyford so well. She explained that ten years ago Abbeyford looked after 22 children, today they have 42. So in demand is their service that they will soon be moving premises to an all new custom built building. Well done to them we say!

So, after all’s done, was it worth it? Was it worth driving to Italy and back in a £100 banger? Was it worth doing that long drive from Rome to Rheims? Was it worth the run-ins with the Italian traffic police or putting up with Damien’s snoring or Amos’ losing all of those fingers? Was it worth it all just to raise some smiles on a few disabled kids’ faces?

You betcha!!!

Anyway, once the handover was completed Team Dog went for an end of rally blow out on Liverpool’s Mathew Street. Once we found our way to the world famous Cavern, which was playing good ol’ cheesy music, Team Dog partied long and hard into the night. Here we found that despite losing most of his fingers in numerous incidents along the way, Amos can still carry a full round of drinks back from the bar. We learned that I can’t improve on The Proclaimers by singing ‘I would drive 500 miles and I would drive 500 more just to see Team Dog get to Roma and have a pint in Navona!’ We also learnt that Damien, despite any protestations to the contrary, really, really, really cannot can dance! Seriously, he’s worse better than my Dad. Boogie on Damo!

So, what’s next for Team Dog? Well, it’ll be the end of an era because as I sit here typing this, Rover is on eBay soon to be sold. Firstly, we promised Abbeyford that he would be sold and that any money raised will go to the Children’s Unit. Secondly, it’s parked outside my house, much to the chagrin of my neighbours and thirdly, we will have to make room for next year’s vehicle! Yep, you read that right. We will be doing another banger rally next year. Once again it will be to raise money for Abbeyford. So far we don’t know which rally it will be, or the route, or the dates. We don’t have a theme yet, it may not be a Rover and we might not even be Team Dog but there will be a rally adventure with a banger for us next year and we hope you will be following our exploits when we start this crazy merry-go-round again sometime in the New Year after all, what could possibly go wrong?

Until then, to all of you out there in cyberspace - especially those who’ve generously donated - many, many, many thanks. Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Andy

Team Captain

Team Dog

Well… we’ve been back a few days now but what with catching up with everything else, this is the first time we’ve had chance to provide an update.

After an evening of drinking in the Piazzo Navona (the bar frequented by the rally was too rich for our wallets, so we made some purchases from an off licence around the corner!), Team Dog bedded down for a well earned rest - and a lay in!

We spent all of Tuesday chilling out around Rome. We visited the colesseum where what must have been the whackiest guide ever showed us around! She was certainly crazy and had some ‘interesting’ stories of what went on there. The term ‘factually innacurate’ definitely sprung to mind - hey, Team Dog’s very own Archaeologist (Steve) also found much of what she said laughable… guess it makes it a little more interesting though sometimes!

We went from there to a nice cafe for lunch - and a proper ripping off Rome style. Why is it that we always manage to order a beer before looking at the actual prices?! Leaving still hungry (not that we hadn’t eaten, we’d all had ‘main’ courses, it was their micro portions that diddled us!) we set off to Vatican City to see where the Pope lives! It was certainly a magnificent place with all it’s pillars and large structures. It looked different from on the T.V, not sure why, guess it was just the perspective but it didn’t seem quite as big as I’d imagined. It was certainly a great place though - and had we been a day later, we could have witnessed the weekly audience with the Pope… hmm… next time, hey!

From the Vatican we headed back towards our hotel, stopping off for a meal on the way! This time, we left nothing for chance and dined at the Chicago Rock Cafe - knowing that a huge burger and chips would do the trick just nicely! This was gently washed down with a few beers and some conversation with a Canadian sat at an adjacent table. He was seemingly surprised that we knew where British Columbia was without having to draw a map and spent much time laughing about England’s miserable performance in the Rugby World Cup. How are the Canadians doing in that I wondered! Andy retorted by recommending that this guy should try Manchester for his next British holiday destination, I can’t help but think that he knew that we were clearly having a laugh at this stage. Oh well!

An early night was ahead for the team as we’d agreed that we should hit the Roman roads as early as possible the next morning and so we prepared to leave at 4:30am… which we would have done had our hotel reception not been closed! How do they work that one out? We hadn’t noticed the signs previously but the reception desk closes between 2am and 5am… which is not good if you want to check out between those hours. As it was, the receptionist didn’t get out of bed until gone 5 and so it was 5:15 by the time we set off to pick up the dog from the valet car park! Valet? Yes, absolutely! The car looked so daft when we dropped it off amongst all the expensive Mercedes and BMWs… it was even funnier seeing the guy drive it up the ramps for us, we wonder what he thought of the sloppy gear selector - thankfully he didn’t need to use the heated rear screen, he’d have had a shock had he have done as that’s where the horns are wired in!!

First stop was the colesseum, we had to get a photo with the Dog outside, it’d have been rude not to! We also gave the locals a good blast on the horns, just for good measure. We then headed off to the Vatican, another local landmark that we’d like the Dog pictured in. Whilst setting up the camera, we were approached by the local police and whilst their English was about as good as our Italian, I think we got the general impression that they wanted us to leave - pronto! So, without further ado, we took the picture and headed off - giving a final parp of the horns especially for the Pope, for good measure. I’m sure there’s a law about that somewhere, it just felt so wrong whilst incredibly apt! I wonder if we woke him?!

That was it, with Rome firmly behind us we were on the road home, a part of the trip that Steve was especially looking forward to (sorry Steve!). Some of you may have seen us on ITV Thames Valley Today. Well, the bit they didn’t show was the bit where Steve said he was most looking forward to going home. Now, whilst we know that this isn’t really what he meant - he meant to indicate that he was looking forward to us successfully completing the rally and getting home safely - this wasn’t the way it came across. I guess he was just star struck and generally, as a man of few words, made no exception! This all to the delight of Andy and I who continued to mis-quote him with much hilarity for the entire journey

Several hours in and we’ve left Italy and heading through Switzerland… albeit slowly. The traffic was horrendous as we queued for the St Gotthard Tunnel. We were stuck in the traffic for a good couple of hours before finally passing through. From there on the roads were relatively free as we pushed on our way. We’d hoped to get as far as Reims on our first day homeward bound although this began to look increasingly unlikely. We chose Reims as a waypoint because that’s where Steve’s brother Marc lives and he’d rather generously offered to put us up for the night if we made it that far. With our ETA on the TomTom ever increasing, Steve got in touch with Marc to see if he’d mind us turning up a little late. Well, a little late, it was 2am by the time we parked the Dog up alongside a Reims lampost and headed to Marc’s flat. I’m not sure many people would be happy to see us at such an unearthly hour but Marc greeted us warmly and was a great host. Whilst we only chatted for about half an hour or so, it was good to catch up and fill him in on our adventures - that he’d also been following via the website. Thanks again Marc for staying up so late and providing refreshments and rest for us three weary travellers - top bloke! … and next time (dare I say it?!) we’ll make sure we roll up at a more decent hour and take you out for a slap up meal

So, with 850 miles under our belts, Dunkirk was only a relatively short ride away in the morning - about 180 miles. We had plenty of time for a good sleep and still make the ferry on time. In fact, we were three hours early and so managed to get on the 16:00 ferry instead of the 18:00 one - bonus! We clearly amused the French border control who didn’t want to see our passorts, simply shouted “It’s okay, you’re funny, you can go through!”… perhaps I shouldn’t state that publicly but fortunately, the British guys checked our boot, just to make sure and so I guess that kinda makes up for it! In fact, British Immigration seem to have quite a sense of humour. When entering back into the UK, there were about five immigration folks running checks as we came off the ferry. Three people stood in front of two others. A guy that was stood behind the three ladies at the front saw the car and prompted for us to give him a toot on the horns… which we gladly did. His colleague, clearly hadn’t seen his motions and was not impressed, shouting “Well thank you very much for that” at us. I guess she’d been having a bad day… and that we’d just been set up! I suppose it did have a rather loud echo in there, awesome!

So, all that was left was a drive up to Winchester in the Great British rain. An accident on the M25 slowed us even further but once we were passed that we were soon there. A warm welcome from Vicki as the Dog turned into the drive and a nice cup of tea, something that Andy had especially been looking forward too. We then watched our performance, and I do mean performance(!), on the ITV Thames Valley Today, a cheer and a laugh and that was mission complete. All that was left was to get the Dog back to Didcot and see Steve’s face beam with delight as we got into town around 10pm (sorry Steve, still can’t help it!).

So overall, what an absolutely fantastic trip. It was a long trip with many miles and we met so many people on the way. We managed to bring some cheer too, with the dog - good girl, she did us well! Whilst it was stressful at times (perhaps that was just me!) we all pulled together and got on with the job in hand - spurred on by passers by and people at home alike… and on top of this, with everyone’s help, we’ve raised money for a very worthwhile cause. The next step will be to drive up to Abbeyford in the Dog (masks ‘n’ all!), to meet everyone there and present them with a nice cheque as a result of our fundraising efforts. I look forward to that - although it will probably be the last trip we do in the Dog - she’s gotta go, so we’ll be putting her on Ebay just as soon as we’re done. Time for someone else to have some fun in the old Dog I guess, she’s plenty of life left in her, just needs a bit of attention.

Anyway, all the photos from our trip are now available here - feel free to peruse… enjoy

That’s it, Team Dog have finally made it! We ended up in Rome at the Piazza Navona at 19.45… and were promptly directed to leave by the local Police as the Piazza is a traffic free zone - it had to be done though and Andy was determined to get us there! Well done that man! The streets of Rome, are an absolute nightmare to get around but Andy’s done us proud, what a top bloke. Now all he has to do is get us to our hotel and then back to Blighty! We’ve a night in Rome to get through in the meantime and fortunately, a rest day tomorrow, spotty dog!

So ciao from all in Team Dog for the meantime, thanks to you all for your support, it’s very much appreciated. Do stay tuned though as the photos and video clips will be published very shortly and we’re sure you won’t be disappointed!

Steve, Andy & Damien

Right, that’s another 230 miles since the last update, we’ve done 1415 so far in this £80 banger, not bad eh?! The engine’s still running much hotter than we’d like but we’re continuing to take it steady. We’ve made good time today considering the traffic jam we were faced with at the start of the day. It turned out to be a three car accident with one of the rally cars having been hit from behind. The other two cars involved looked much worse, we hope they’re all okay - will ask around tonight and see.

The drive down from Sottomarina has been pretty straight forward, we’ve been on the E15 for most of the day, having also driven through the Dolomites. Italy really is a beautiful country… And we continue to intrigue the locals. On the occassions when we’ve stopped for breaks, we’ve returned to find the car surrounded by Italians, all taking pictures of the car. I’ve posed for a few with my dog mask on too - haha, I wonder where they’ll end up!

We managed to find some Loctite in a service station and so the eye that fell off has now been repaired!

Andy’s at the wheel again having offered to drive into Rome. Neither Steve or I fancied doing that bit, Rome sounds like a nightmare place to drive around - hopefully we’ll see!

52 more miles and we’ll be in Rome! Heh, if we break down now we could almost push it to the finish line

Good dog, nearly there!

Having arrived in the bustling resort of Sottomarina yesterday evening, the dog was surrounded by curious Italians, all taking pictures of us and the car. Even though we were parked amongst several other rally cars it was the dog that they seemed most interested in.

Having literally just left the crowds heading towards the Hotel Sole, our resting place for the evening, Andy spotted some blue lights in the rear view mirror. Initially, unsure of whether it was one of our fellow ralliers, we pulled into the right hand lane to let it pass us… Not so. It seems that the Italian Police wished to check us out!

One of the Police officers exited the car, donned his rather official looking hat and came to speak to us. We were each asked to produce our passports whilst Andy and Steve, who were both in the front, were also asked for their driving licences and vehicle documents. We duly obliged. Puzzled at why we’d been pulled over we waited anxiously as the Police radio’d through our details to their control room. Why had they pulled us over? We hadn’t done anything we shouldn’t have. We wondered for a while whether there was any aspect of the car that didn’t meet Italian regulations but could not think of any. Would this be the end of the line for Team Dog?

In typical good cop bad cop style, the second officer approached to return our documents. It seemed that they thought the driver of the vehicle had been wearing a dog mask whilst driving - not so, as if! We think he made a mistake, seeing Steve wearing a mask in the front passenger seat of the dog and not realising it was a right hand drive car! That would certainly explain as to why Steve, a passenger, was asked for his driving licence!

Anyway, with a quick word from the nice officer about not wearing a mask whilst driving (which we hadn’t done anyway, their mistake) we were told that we could continue our journey. With that, we cheekily asked if he would pose for a picture with the car - he agreed and popped back to his car to put his hat on. As he did this, two butch blokes (fellow ralliers) dressed as St Trinian school girls came over to say hello. Resultantly, we got them in the photo too. It’s cracking, Andy, Steve, two butch men dressed as school girls and an Italian policeman all alongside a big furry rover dressed as a dog - how random is that?!

After much laughter we headed to the hotel to get checked in. Once settled, we headed out for a bite to eat and a few well earned beers. It was a strange old place; what had initially seemed a busy, lively tourist resort had suddenly muted - with much less people around and not so much music sounding from the bars. We bumped into a few other ralliers and tested out some of the bars. The final bar we went to were keen to know what team we were in and what car we were driving. They had a PC behind the bar and so we gave them our website address to check out! They thought the car was great and asked if we’d pose for a photo (dog masks on!) with the barman, how could we say no to that?! Having taken the picture they’ve said they’ll send us an email with the picture attached - we’re look forward to that!

Today we’re heading 325 miles to Rome, the final leg of the Rally. We’ve been stuck in a traffic jam on a toll road, still with 270 miles to go, for about 30 minutes now… not good as we have many more miles to go. We wonder what’s holding things up, who knows, we’re completely stationary. Hey ho, hopefully it won’t be for long.

Can’t wait to hit Rome, bring it on!

Wow, Venice, what a spectacular place, truly magical. Team Dog have just completed a whistle stop tour of the city. As we were unable to drive the dog around there (for obvious reasons really, this dog doesn’t doggy paddle!) we wore our Team Dog masks instead. We received just about as much attention with those on as when we were in the car!

The ice cream there was good too although I was somewhat disappointed by the lack of singing from the Gondaliers as they passed by… Do they not do that anymore?

We’re just outside Sottomarina now, I can see the sea! Time to get checked in and settled down for the evening - we’ll be in Rome this time tomorrow, how awesome’s that?!

Day two of the rally ended safely in the Alpine ski resort of Aprica around 5.30pm - we were pretty much the first team in but then we did take a slightly easier route!

One of the teams, in a graffiti’d Ford Mondeo rolled in minus a rear door! This was largely due to their stupid antics that pretty much all of us have witnessed at some point in the last few days. They seem hellbent on trashing their car en route to Rome. On this particular occassion they’d decided to throw one of their rear doors open against a tunnel wall. It broke and so had to then be removed from the car. It’s idiots like this that give the rally a bad name. I do hope they’ve been pulled over and banned from the roads. We’ll see when we get to Sottomarina which is just south of Venice.

Aprica was very picturesque but was a bit like a ghost town last night. We ended up joining team Pikey Police for a few beers in our hotel bar, having bumped into them again in a local restaurant.

This morning we set off for the start line having had a light breakfast in the hotel and settling up with Carlos, the hotelier. It seemed that one team had “forgotten” to pay their bill, having left earlier on. Carlos gave us their description and asked us to let them know he’d called the police. We offered to give them a slap too, in a light hearted manner! As it was we told Carlos where the start line was and so he made his own way down there and collected the money from them. I can’t imagine they’d really forgotten, it was a bit rude too considering he’d given them a last minute special rate. He was a nice guy, very friendly and so we were pleased that he’d caught up with them.

We’ve removed the sound proofing from the engine compartment today in the hope that our over heating problem may be eased. Seemingly not so, whilst it seemed a bit better to begin with today, I think we were tricked by the fact that we were mostly going downhill, something that we fortunately don’t have a problem with in the dog!

So, this morning we’re heading to Venice for a walk about. There are some challenges but a) we have no dresses! and b) we really can’t be doing with dragging our spare tyre into the middle of the town! I think we’ll just do a bit of sight seeing instead. We’re not alone in this though, the Donkey Boys in their Mercedes “Police” car are giving it a miss too.

I took the first part of the drive this morning. It was a beautiful drive down through the mountains, through quaint little villages and past many spectacular lakes. There were a lot of tunnels too which began to get very smokey with all the exhaust fumes.

On to the motorway and it seems the Italians absolutely love the dog! I think we’ve had more waves, thumbs up and toots on the horn than any other part of the journey so far! Andy and Steve have also been posing for photographs from passers by. Several cars have even pulled into the hard shoulder to let us pass just so that they could get a proper look! They really like our musical horns here too and fall about laughing when they hear them… Phew, that’s a relief!

We’re sat on the E70 as I write this, Andy’s at the wheel watching the temperature gradually rise before easing back to 60mph to allow the engine to cool again. 24 more miles to go and we’ll be in Venice - excellent, I’ve always fancied going there but never really had a reason too - now I do, cool! First thing we’re gonna do is get the cornetto’s in, superb! More photos too. Sorry for not having published any yet, i’m still waiting to find an Internet cafe that allows my USB card reader to be used. I’ll try in Venice, even if it’s just a few for now, just to give you all a taster! Steve’s literally just had to remove an eye from the dog whilst in motion, it was just about to come off. Must find some glue from some place and get it stuck back on, well done Steve, good work!

Ciao for now!

Nicely refreshed after our brief but very pleasant evening at the Jugendstillhotel Paxmontana (which we’d highly recommend), Team Dog headed for the Rally start line, allegedly at the Maxon Motor car park. However, despite driving around in search of the mysterious start line, we failed to find it… A great start to the day!

Consequenty, we forfeit the days challenge, which is a shame really. Mind you, we’ve had to forfeit tomorrow’s challenge too since none of us fancy dressing up as St. Trinians school girls for the day - especially in Italy where they tend not to be so amused by the finer points of cross dressing!

Whilst searching for the start line, the team had to make a big decision with regards to the route for the day. Do we go for the 6 mountain passes, which could simply kill the engine and lose any chance of the dog getting to Rome; or do we take a more direct route and cover just 2 of the passes… Decision time was upon us.

After much consideration, we unanimously decided to take the second option. Whilst it’s disappointing to miss out on 4 passes, it seemed the best option given our inability to climb.

Our newly discovered route took us along the motorway to Chur before sending us up a rather severe mountain climb. I say severe, that’s only the case if you happen to be driving a big furry Rover that overheats just at the sight of even the smallest of inclines!

We paused for ten minutes just before the peak ~1800m, we’d overheated quite a bit and had a queue of traffic snaking behind us - 20 mph is not a sociable speed to be driving at

The scenery is absolutely stunning. There’s plenty of snow in the highest regions of the alps and there are many beautiful lakes, it really is something quite special.

The first pass that we crossed was Julierpass, about 2250m, the second was Berninapass which was a bit less but every bit as stunning. Again, we’ve got some great shots that I’ll upload as soon as we can get some decent internet connectivy. Both passes were a fair struggle and several stops were required in order to allow the engine to cool. At Bernina pass, the air was much thinner and colder, which was an enormous aid in terms of cooling down the dog!

We’ve about 30 miles to go now before we hit Aprica, just inside the Italian border. Today’s been great, the most scenic of the weekend, I certainly hope that we’ll be returning to the alps some day in something a little more capable of climbing than the slow and hot “dog”!

In between these two passes, we drove through St Moritz, a glorious town with its stunning, crisp blue lake that grabs you as you wind down the tight mountain roads. Very nice indeed.

Tomorrow is time to hit Sottomarina, we’re pretty much halfway to Rome now and there’s a certain air of confidence within the team that we’ll be taking the dog all the way. Fingers crossed!

Wow, what a day and what a drive. Around twelve hours, several tunnels and numerous ‘comfort’ breaks later (Andy’s bladder ain’t what it used to be!) later we’ve finally arrived in Sarnen, Switzerland - having completed the first leg of the rally! Superb!

The drive was long, 500 odd miles of French motorway. The dog’s still good, getting around 70mph on flat straights (which is reasonably less than the 130kph speed limit), whilst managing a poor 60-65 up any hint of an incline. That’s fine though, we’re no speed freaks and that’s probably just as well!

The challenge for today was to take photos of 30 French number plates and use the letters from these to make up words on a scrabble board. With dog mask on I set about taking the pictures. Having amassed a reasonable amount of letters, Andy’s turned them into words which we’ll add onto the board and claim our points in the morning.

Strasbourg was interesting. Got there around 6pm amongst the last of the rush hour traffic. Took around an hour to get through the place but we kept ourselves amused by interacting with fellow drivers and passengers alike. They seemed to appreciate the dog more than any other traffic yet! It certainly helped pass the time in what would have otherwise have been the dullest part of the journey so far!

I took the wheel between Strasbourg (conveniently just as we hit the traffic!) and the Swiss border. The border police made it perfectly clear that we should not use the horn during our journey through Switzerland, well, that was us told!

We’ve just checked into our hotel here, it looks awesome, stood on a hill in the middle of nowhere! Can’t wait to see it in the sunshine - well done Andy, excellent choice!

Right, now where’s that bar!

We arrived safely in Calais yesterday evening having had an enjoyable crossing - hey, free wifi on the Norfolk line, excellent! Managed to sign on for the rally without any hassle and so made our way to our hotel to get checked in there.

Fortunately, we arrived within half an hour of the Restaurant closing so ordered ourselves dinner and a few beers. That’s when we met up with Team Pikey Police, the proud owners of a Volvo 440 that’s had its roof chopped off. Nicely done though, I might add! It does pose some difficulties for them should it rain but they’re confident that their hi-vis jackets and waterproof trousers will keep them dry!

Several beers later we headed into town to check out the local nightlife. Andy managed to find some nice men to dance with (go Andy!) and then thoughtfully agreed the loan of some floor space in our already cosy room to some guy who was getting rather too friendly with Steve. Somehow, I think we were in the wrong bar!

Moving swiftly on… A quick pint in club 555 (just orange juice for me as I’d nominated myself to do the first leg in the morning!) we returned to our hotel for some much needed sleep.

Fortunately, the alarmclock on my phone worked this morning - Steve’s didn’t - and so we had little time to get our things together and get to the start line.

Wow, a fantastic array of bangers of all shapes and sizes! Hundreds of cars ranging from tanks to cows (not forgetting the dog!), police cars and even an Adams family themed hearse! Many teams were in fancy dress too… Elvises, vicars, Sparticus and even the Red arrows! Got some great pictures which I hope to upload later today.

So, the engines started, horns were sounding non-stop and the rally commenced. Several hundred cars all snaking around Calais on the start of what will be a great weekend. Being the first time driving on the continent for me, I found things suprisingly simple! I think the TomTom helped there as it gives a nice visual indication of which way to drive around the roundabouts.

I stayed in the driving seat for the first 140 miles before we broke for a bite to eat. The dog’s running well provided we don’t go too far over 70mph. It seems that under pressure, it begins to overheat… Not a problem though as this is easily solved by easing off the throttle and cruising at 65 for a mile or two.

Once at the services (which was quite an achievement in itself as I’d missed the ones we needed to stop at in the UK!) I overshot the fuel pumps believing that we could return to them after we’d eaten… Whoops! I’d have been quite happy to drive the wrong way through the services in order to get to the fuel but by this time it was Steve’s turn to drive and so we decided to wait until the next services, despite being rather low on fuel!

… Which is where we’ve just left. All fueled up and just another 345 miles until the next checkpoint which is in Switzerland. An ambulane has just spotted us and it’s occupants laughed before giving us a blast of their sirens and flash of blue lights. I told Steve they were police and that we were being pulled over, i’m cruel like that at times!

Go Team Dog!