The journey is more important than the destination

The point of the "journey" is not just to arrive.

I'm lying on the floor of the airport typing what may be the last posting from the rally certainly the last one from Rome. I feel a tear welling up and a lump in my throat.

The previous night was spent in the novetel 10 miles out of rome (mini bar, bath, pool, expensive tv the whole nine yards). We had three drinks in the bar and then noticed that the hotel security officers were moving in on us tacking our photos etc.. So we went to bed. We didn't make it to Venice. We got up to rush hour Rome and when your used to doing 500 miles in a day 10 miles in an hour and a half seems pretty slow.

Last night we met up with the rally in Rome and left our last tracking beacon point there.
We didn't win anything but since we didn't finish a single task set :) but that really didn't matter. We met up with Ben and Mark and had a few beers with them, and then a few more. We also met with the lovely ladies from the blunder birds and gave them our email address and they gave me back my eee cover which I left in the bar. We also met up with team linguine who were loverly too. We also said our good byes to team last minute who were fab, cheers nicos epically who was like a father figure but clearly younger than me. Thank to all the other teams who encorourgaed us to carry on and accept our sad story and tales of woe with good grace. We then had more beer and slowley every one drifted home to bed.

Waking up in Rome was lovely, Rome is a city for lovers and is so beautiful that I will not even try to describe it. We spent a good day running round and trying to do as much as we could. It really needs a revisit soon.

I will try go get the videos photos and other material up as soon as I can.

So what are the conclusions, what are the lasting effect, what lesson did we learnt. I don't know yet but we have certainly had a Journey. Thanks for reading, following and getting in touch. I'm looking forward to getting home to Sam and the kids now so will end now It's 21.07 local time and I'm getting stiff here, on the floor :)

gregs phone down

two cars have just run over gregs phone in roma so tracking will now
be down .. thanks for watching

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yes we are there..

we are currently on a tour bus cruising the streets of rome. rome is
glorious sunny and the architecture is wonderful (sorry sam). we have
met with tim hannah katie and brad at the airport. last night hotel
was the novatel as we made for rome after seeing to the boys

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what the diffrence a day makes

so we are back in the rally again and all dressed up as cowboys and
indians . todays tasks was to paint the spare tyre with the team
number 499 and have a photo taken of it in venice. we dont have a
spare tyre in the hire car . we have can of trye weld... so this was
going to be tricky. the whole thing was not really an issue as we came
across our mates ben and mark who were suffering engine problems. we
stuck with them till they could safely park on the hard shoulder.the
tow truck was supposed to take 45 mins but after an hour i got hungry.
the local village was a delight although the did laugh at my hi vis
jacket. i managed to order panni and got toasted sandwiches instead
from a lovely italian lady. all we relly needed to complete the picnic
was a frisbe or a twister set. after the dead rover was recovered we
dropped the boys off at the genova airport where they got their
rental car which is not as col as ours. after this it was fairly late
so we decided to head for rome instead of venice..we hope that team
mia2 will regroup tomorow and join the rally at the finish point..

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und day

after making it to menton we had a very nice evening with everyone on
the rally the stewards had as down as out off the game so it was nice
to prove them wrong . had some drink with all the crews still going
including the blunderbirds and the lastminute team

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and another thing...

I'm posting on my laptop using a 3 USB pay as you go dongle. We're in France, but connecting to the Italian 3 network meaning we can use it just as if we were in the UK :-)

Or Bust

Well we are in a hotel 1km from Italy just outside Monte Carlo(see tracker http://testing.hertford.ox.ac.uk/map/)

We caught up with the guys who helped us out last night getting us to Lyon(thanks again Ben and Mark!!!). Their Rover is starting to suffer so we followed them the last 50 miles or so to make sure they got here ok.

Right, time for a more in depth run down of yesterday's events: -

Soon after 4pm on the autoroute towards Lyon the Pug starting getting grumpy. The clutch was slipping more and more. At first it wouldn't go above 120 or so KPH, then 100, then 80... you get the idea. Some how it managed to limp the last few hundred metres into a picnic stop and up quite a steep slope. We feared letting it cool down would do little more than allow us to break down more spectacularly and dangerously. So we attempted to fit the spare clutch cable we had with us. In hindsight we realise the cable was not the problem, but hell we had one with us!

Anyway a 2 spanner Haynes job turns out to be a total sod. There was no way we were gonna get the car working again with the tools available. I still can't believe Greg managed to get as much of the job done as he did as I was not a great help as it involved fiddly little jobs in confined spaces. Not my forte. So with great sadness we finally decided that the Pug had reached its final destination under its own power. Despair was looming, but then we looked up and saw a gleaming beacon of hope in the form of a White Rover 820 piloted by Ben and Mark. The poor blokes were unlucky enough to pull in for a rest at the same place and gave us a ride. We were unsure what to do, so we took all we could and locked the Pug and set a course for the nearest airport to try and hire a car. This proved difficult and we had two sat-navs fighting and snarling us up in bad traffic. We had to let the guys press on without further risk to their car's health so they dropped us in Lyon.

Something most bizarre then happened. Greg and Ross wandered around looking for a hotel or a car hire place, then happened upon a bar, at which we did not have a beer! The very kind owner who did not speak English helped us out by calling around for a taxi. This took a good while because they all seemed to be booked, but despite this he carried on until we were sorted and would not accept any payment. I would like to add at this point that we sadly cannot thank all the people who helped us out by name because there were so many of them and we never would have remembered them all. Anyway I also called the AA who I have UK breakdown only with, the guy was also really helpful and gave me some numbers to try. Our taxi then arrived and we set off for the nearest airport. This turned out to be about 60KM away so we felt very glad to have freed Ben and Mark of their burden. We arrived and accidently overpaid the taxi driver who shouted back that there was a problem and made sure we got the extra back. Another lovely bloke.

We went into Avis car rental and spoke to yet another very helpful person called Lucie. She sorted us out a Renault Twingo which we could either return to them or to Rome airport depending what happened next! She spent a good deal of time making sure we got the most cost effective option so thanks go to her.

Ok, we had added the GPS location of the Pug to my Tom Tom so headed back there. We have been using French motorways and needing to do lots of u-turns. This has meant a lot of trips through toll booths( 2 Euros 80 for a u-turn. Bargain!) We got back and were delighted to find that the car was still there and was not surrounded my armed police or military. We had been instructed to call for help from an SOS phone, but there wasn't one there!!!! Next stroke of luck was that there were 4 French women having a rest break who when approached late at night in a glorified layby by two blokes wearing camo trousers and covered in grease just said bon soir and did not flee. One of the spoke English and spent 20 minutes on her mobile trying to get us help. In the end she had no luck and offered to call from the next SOS phone they came to on the motorway and give our location. Literally 10 minutes later another very nice man turned up in a low loader! Again we did not share a common language, but eventually we parted with less cash than we expected and did the necessary paperwork. That was it, the Pug c'est fini.

By this time we were pretty wiped out so drove back towards Lyon and stayed the night at the nearest Etap Hotel which was about 50KM away. We let the marshalls know what had happened and they said catch up tomorrow and that's what we've done. We still intend to drive to Rome. Stand by for more as I'm sure Greg will have plenty to add soon.
Over.

Minor hiccups

Brief update from the road! The pug is dead :-( The clutch failed, we
limped into a picnic area, attempted repair, but it was no good.

Then two angels in the form of Ben Mark from team 526 Carry on Tour
gave us a ride to Lyon. Huge amounts of help from lots of lovely
French people followed. Details later. We're on our way to Monaco in a
rented Twingo!

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in france

so we have made it to calais and spent a very nice evening speaking
german spanish italian and some french.. the rally starts proper today

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Hello, hello I must be going

Yes it's almost 5 o'clock in the morning and I'm wide awake like a kid on Christmas day

It would appear that the chunnel had another incident yesterday causing operation stack again, so we still don't know which is the best way across.

Just to remind you that the tracking web site is http://testing.hertford.ox.ac.uk/map/ if you want to see where we are !

List completed and travel sorted

Yep we have finished the list with the final item duck tape being crossed off at lunch time ..

We also have a confirmed ticket for the Chunnel on the 18:18 which is fine for the 19:00 registration at calais.

Things are looking up with two day left to go !

I think we decided today to have some photos taken by the bridge but to change out of the gear for the crossing so we don't have any problems. Don't want to spend the first night as suspected AWOL squaddies do we .

Hair today, gone tomorrow

Ok to fulfill the action man look we need action man hair cuts

This meant getting rid of my gorgeous locks :)

picture to prove it ... Yes ross did do a good job
















Definitely more thug like ... itchy too

The "No you can't have any bloody network" look ;)

So Norfolk line to the rescue it is then ...

I tried to get information out of the chunnel people today and they couldn't tell me what was happening in the way of when we could travel. Apparently they are now trying to get all the booked passengers on the few trains they have which could mean we have to travel much later or much earlier than we can ... They are currently running one train every 2 hours and stopping in the evening instead of going on through the night (which sounds like carnage really).

So I decided to book with the norfolk line just for back up (it's only cost £21 which is much better than not going !)

Ah not so good

Just got a email from those nice people at euro tunnel saying that due to a fire last week we might not get on , or be delayed or have to travel at silly-o-clock. As their "help lines" are all shut or have a monotone recorded message on them we will have to check in the morning...

A bit miffed as they made us jump through soooo many hoops to get the tickets in the first place....

Mail to blog messages

Just to say we should be able to post while on the road as long as we can get the google mail mobile clients going ..

It looks just like text only but that is ok for the in between posts we guess :)

can we fix it !

Car tool kit bought for £24 quid thanks to a sale on amazon .. just duck tape now !

Pucker Draper 95 piece one, its more to bring back but I would rather be safe than stuck.

Final painting

We painted the car today

we started out by cutting some cardboard templates using Dave's combats for shape ideas. these templates were used on selected positions of the car



Usually they worked ok



We then added our home made stickers



And Tim the genius then supplied the bullet hole transfers for that authentic war zone feel .



Before finishing the car we made templates of the childrens hands and painted them too



The final car looks something like this and does get a lot of attention in the street



Thanks also goes to Katies grand Parrents who allowed us to spray on there drive !

oops perhaps we should have got a new battery !

Just tried starting the car and it seems to have a flat battery

I had not run it for a couple of weeks so it may be just draining down !

Used the HRV to give it a jump start so we will be taking the jump leads with us .

hurrah

looks like we have got more than the £250 money for the guide dog association . At the last count we had already reached 259 with another £70 in cheques and promises . Monday we will put a sponsor us sheet and poster in the lodge ..

Last two items left harrah

Fire exstinguiser

Water pistols & rifles

An inverter (300W or bigger)

European lens kit

Tow rope

TomTom (new maps)

Maps

Working Head Unit !

M88 helmets (and goggles)

Webbing/molle jacket

camo trousers

First aid kit

Cammo hats

Brassards

Camo shorts

Sun tan lotion

triangle reflector

Cowboy outfit and Indian outfit

Car Paint

Tool kit

Duck tape

cable ties

down two the tool kit and the duck tape .....

howdy paryner

have costume too !!!

ditto

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=350094633094&ssPageName=MERC_VIC_RSCC_Pr4_PcY_BIN_Stores_IT&refitem=260280529225&itemcount=4&refwidgetloc=closed_view_item&usedrule1=StoreCatToStoreCat&refwidgettype=cross_promot_widget&_trksid=p284.m183&_trkparms=algo%3DDR%26its%3DS%252BI%252BSS%26itu%3DISS%252BUCI%252BSI%26otn%3D4

cept the tiny url :)

The car paint job

The car is going to be sand and rust camo which will probably really hard to do but I have see some rednecks on youtube do it really well ! Bizzarely they have Ice cube singing "today was a good day" on the begining of the video (ironic choice if ever..)

These are the steps so far (laying down the base coat mat in this case)


Take one pre-loved car



Wash it in warm soap water



but one litre of metal paint and one 2 inch brush



If unsure ask kind man to mix to sand colour (dulux labradour sand 4 don't you know)



paint car with paint



admire work and hope wife doesn't notice :)



Next bit involves spray paint templates and a huge amount of fun (or swearing)

Indian Costume

Check!

http://tinyurl.com/5k57tv

getting closer

I think this will be the final list, have got everything else and with such a few days to go it's getting quite exciting...

Fire exstinguiser

Water pistols & rifles

An inverter (300W or bigger)

European lens kit

Tow rope

TomTom (new maps)

Maps

Working Head Unit !

M88 helmets (and goggles)

Webbing/molle jacket

camo trousers

First aid kit

Cammo hats

Brassards

Camo shorts

Sun tan lotion

triangle reflector

Cowboy outfit and Indian outfit

Car Paint

Tool kit

Duck tape

cable ties

We should be painting the car this weekend now so I need to work on camo and how she is painted :)

Matt and Steves - sage words

Just met up with Steve and Matt from Keeble and St John who both have done a number of runs (winning one s2n and coming second in another). Not sure we can be anything like as good. Especially with 98 teams signed up !! They gave some good advice, and hinted about the challenges .

1) do it for fun but beware even the non competitive bits become really competitive
2) thing will go wrong but other teams will help you out
3) take at least 2 cameras
4) standing on top of mountains with little clothes on will get you cold :)
5) don't even think about upsetting police in Switzerland...
6) you can't have too many really big water pistols and water.

If the scenery is anything like what they showed me its going to be great :)

Thanks guys

Painting the car

So most cars are sprayed in the factory they were made in. Some are touched up or resprayed later. We are going to paint ours in a field somewhere, most likely with rollers...

Yes I understand this is not the usual technique but we are not looking for the perfect finish, just something which looks something like camo and can withstand a bit of rain.

Not surprisingly there are loads of pages on the web telling how this can be achieved, which start off telling you to wash the car and then tape it up, and then whack on the enamel ...

Watch this space for the results ...

Oh dear, still no car stickers.

Ok starting to get a little worried about our rally stickers. They haven't yet shown up and the car just wont look the same without them ! Apparently some teams have received them others have not, as the organizers are in Czechoslovakia at the moment we will have to wait !

We also have to paint the car and do any last tinkering (fill it up with redbull and chocolate bars).