Bling 'n' well up 4 it

finally on the road

Well what can we say? We're finaly on our way to Dover. There are always challenges
that spoil your best intentions though as  had planned on leaving at
around 8pm tonight but with all the last minute packing etc we never got
away until half eleven! Not having eaten dinner we stopped for fuel and grabbed a
good ol' Ginsters cornish pasty each to stop the rumbles in our stomachs,
although don't know if they were caused by hunger or nerves! We're making
good progress and the land rover is behaving itself which is what we want.
Weather dry, roads clear which is good news as we don't have time for traffic
due to all of our rendevous points being brought forward due to the fire in
the channel tunnel making the ferry ports busier. Keep checking back for more updates.

D & K.

ferry

Having got 2 dover early we were a little concerned that there were only another
3 land rovers to be seen! The tunnel closure was causing havoc with the
roads but as we started to board the ferry land rovers seemed to appear 
from everywhere, big sigh of relief - they had made it. What a sight it was too,
lots of stickers and flags making a very colourful sight. We're on board 
the ferry at the moment trying to find out just how many teams are here. All
i can say is it is going to be a very colourful convoy heading into calais!

happy birthday landy rally

Last night we headed to the campsite from the ferry in a convoy of 14 vehicles 
before setting up camp and cooking some haggis for dinner. Following that
we headed off to the local pub for our get together to meet the teams that
we hadn't already met . Team Monstar then presented Tom (organiser)with a 
landy rally 1st birthday cake. After a few drinks and a really good laugh we
headed to bed in preparation for day 1.

day one

Arrived at the start line for 8.15am not having had time for breakfast as we
had forgotten to change our watches to french time. We registered our vehicles 
and were given our road books for the day. As expected we had a really long day 
ahead of us with a proposed journey of 668 miles. I say proposed because a load 
of us had a great start by going in the wrong direction at the very 1st roundabout 
which cost us lots of miles and about an hour in time. Finally pointing the 
vehicles in the right direction we headed for our 1st meeting point to collect 
our tasks for the day. What are our tasks for the day.
......well we need to find and photograph 100 pre determined items. These it
seems vary from easy to hard such as a male wearing shorts through to old  vw
beetles or polish number plates. We've currently got  22....oh dear!  We're
in a convoy of 4 vehicles including Tim in his GPS equipped Pajero so check
out our position as we're only a car length behind him! Its now around 5.20pm
and we've still got around 350 miles to go but around half the vehicles are
further back somewhere! It's very hot, sun's out and the land rover is behaving 
brilliantly (shouldn't really say things like that and tempt fate...we've already 
got a chipped windsceen from Tim's pajero tyres throwing stones at land rovers!) 
will send another update when we eventually get to campsite.

still on the road

50 miles to bordeaux then another 120 odd miles to the campsite so a fair bit 
2 travel yet! Light starting to go so chance of getting more pics very slim. 
We've now got the sum total of 27 pics unless we find people in swimming
costumes etc. Another stray landy stumbled upon us and joined the convoy so
we're now 5 in number. We've had a bit of a game of musical lanes playing around 
swapping lanes and passing each other and generally having a laugh. I 
know, childish, but it has made the 700 mile day one a bit more exciting, and
we've the pics and video as evidence of the fun. Think it's going to be a
late night!

convoy

Our convoy just doubled to 10, we're obviously going too slow as another 
convoy just slipped right past!

60 miles to go

Still going

lost

Still looking for campsite!

yee haa

We've made it! Lots of teams still a couple of hours away! They've done
a fantastic job of hiding this campsite! Doing breakfast at 6 so not a
lot of sleep again. Comradeship excellent, banter fantastic, going to
be brill week if this keeps up. Sittin' here with coffee relaxing for
10minutes before bedwhile we're watching others just starting to get
their tents out the back of their vehicles! Can't wait until tomorrow
and the dust bowl!

last night

finally got to the campsite for the back of one to find that the
first team arrived around 10 o'clock and the last team arrived after
5 o'clock in the morning. the heavens opened and turned the campsite
into a river! it dried up for folding the wet tents away and we had last
nights10 o'clock drivers briefing at 8.15am this morning. we then headed
off in our convoy of 5 the same as yesterday, comprising ourselves,
tim & his dad keith with the pajero, lady v and guy in the 90, paul &
phillippa in the disco, and jim & pete in a 110. we climbed up a very
steep and twisty climb and saw some spectacular views and took the
opportunity for a photo shoot. we then came down the other side of the
mountain and as nobody had had time for breakfast we have all piled
into a roadside cafe and have just tucked into 10 helpings of ham
and cheese omelette. very nice and have to say it was needed! we're now
heading to have a play in the dust bowl.

***MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT***

paul from team northern rival has just popped the question to phillippa
and she said yes! Congratulations to them both on their engagement.

day 2 so far

I certainly can't call the land rover "bling" anymore as it's just spent
the last 2-3 hours off road traveling along gravel tracks and is dirtier
than it's ever been while I've owned it!. Day going great so far, don't
really know where we are but it's been a lot of fun. just stopped for a
quick bite of lunch and a drink to wash away the dust that is absolutely
everywhere! think it will party night tonight with it being Vanessa's
birthday yesterday (21 again) and the engagement this morning, so a
little celebration is in order we think. By the way, we have named our
group "Get Lost" and we'll leave it up to yourselves to work out where
the team name has come from!

Received at 16:30, 14/09/2008

More pictures...

Received at 18:12, 14/09/2008

 day 2 continuation 

having had a relaxing lunch in a lovely layby we deciddd that we probably
weren't where we should have been. having lived up to our collective team
name again we set the sat nav to take us to the next point we could see
that we were meant to be and headed off complete with some empty redbull
cans tied to pauls back bumper. 3 convoys of land roverx seemed to hit
a road toll at the one time. the one with the lamb chops headed off
in front, while we went away quicker than pinky & lenny. at least that
showed that either we had actually taken the right road or everyone had
got lost on the same road we had!  Heading to the campsite soon to get
tents set up hopefully in daylight this time!  we've an organised meal
tonight followed by a knockout challenge after that, although we don't
quite know what that will be yet, and not sure we want to!  i'm sure it
will a laugh and a lot of fun whatever it is! Following that we need
to crack open some wine and celebrate Paul & phillippa's engagement.
More updates later.



Received at 10:45, 15/09/2008

TEXT MESSAGE: Update 2 site will follow when we can access internet.

Received at 13:15, 15/09/2008

Received at 16:17, 15/09/2008

 sunday night / monday morning campsite 

Finally got internet access back.  last night we arrived at the campsite
at around 9.45pm having caused an absolutely massive convoy. The convoy
was created along the last 10miles or so of the journey leading up to
the campsite as it was dark, it was a very twisty road and not one you
could really safely overtake on. over and above this it was extremely
busy and we were stuck behind a slow moving lorry. It gave us a couple
of opportunities to pass it one vehicle at a time but we decided to stay
close behind it. This caused the traffic to start to build up behind
us and when the lorry finally turned off we were happy to continue
to drive at the same speed. being amazed by the string of headlights
behind us, we decided to stop at the first village we got to to let
them all past......and there were 94 of them! 2 miles later we managed
to cross the road having let another 47 vehicles pass but you'll need
to ask Tim how he got the traffic to stop to let us cross!!  Bit of a
mixup on arrival at the campsite but Tom arrived a few minutes behind
us and everything was sorted within a few minutes of his arrival - well
done Mr McG!  tents went up and as were almost the first to arrive we
managed to create a brilliant area for the "Get Lost" crew. Food in the
bar, followed by lots of champagne and wine at the tents an absolutely
brilliant was had at camp.  I have to say that during the night I have
never been so cold as were very high up in the hills just inside Spain.
the crew got together and we all enjoyed a hearty breakfast of bacon &
sausage before packing up and heading  to Andorra..........to be continued



Received at 16:38, 15/09/2008

 Monday - day 3

Following breakfast that was mentioned in the earlier blog, we left camp
and headed the 2-3 miles across the border into Andorra. We all filled up
with cheap diesel at only 1 Euro per litre then stopped at a local
shop for some nic-nacs. We turned off the main road and climbed up a
very steep hill with a few hairpin bends (or rather - lots of hairpin
bends)where we came across lots of cattle on the road. The views that
we had were fantastic with some absolutely amazing scenery -perfet for
a photo shoot! It wad at this point that "Badger's" (event manager)voice
came over the cb radio asking to join us which of course we immediately
agreed to - got to keep the main people happy! need to drive now so will
update later.


Received at 20:18, 15/09/2008

 our route so far........

As requested by the kids at Springside Primary who have asked for this
blog to be left..........

We left home and headed across to Stonehouse, then to Carlisle,
Birmingham, Oxford, Slough, Maidstone & finish at Dover where we got
the ferry to Dunkerque in France. We left home at 11.30pm on Thursday
night and got to Dover at around 10.30am.

 From there we headed to our campsite at Calais, getting there for about
6pm.

Saturday morning saw us leave Calais around 9.30am with all our flags
up and blowing our horns making lots of noise! From there we headed
South passing close to marquise, abbeville, neufchatel, rouen, alencon,
le mans, touurs, chatellerault, poitiers, saintes, bordeaux, castets,
bayoune, biarritz, st jean deluz and then just crossed the border into
Spain where camped at a campsite at Irun. we got to that campsite around
1am Sunday morning.

Sunday saw us leave the campsite at 8.30am and head through pamplona
where we spent a good few hours driving along gravel tracks etc. we
then rejoined tarmac roads around Tudela. We then headed for zaragoza,
lleida, balaguer, la seu seo, and finally up to where our campsite was
for Sunday night at la forga demoles which is just before the border
with Andorra. We got there around 9.45pm.

Day 3, Monday, saw us have a long lie and leave the campsite at around 9
o'clock. We headed straight across the border into Andorra at Andorra la
vela. We drove straight through Andorra re-entering france and heading up
to narbonne, beziers and we're currently heading for gap, mont dauphin,
briancon and finally we should reach claviere which is just inside
Italy. All being well we should arrive at tonights campsite at around
half past midnight, having had another very long days driving!

We'll do a blog like this each day for everyone.



Received at 08:25, 16/09/2008

Received at 08:56, 16/09/2008

 day 3 - continuation 

Following the earlier blog, "Badger" joined our convoy as we were still
climbing up the very steep hill. The views were totally picture postcard
perfect and absolutely stunning. We stopped for a photo shoot just before
heading off into tracks leading us through a couple of forests where we
actually decided to stop and have lunch for the first time this week. We
then headed into another two forests for some more fun and eventually
came out at a lovely little town called Axat. We stopped at a small
supermarket for provisions and at this point Badger decided to leave
our company and push on ahead to find some lpg for the range rover.
We then made a decision that even by following a more direct route we
still had a minimum 6hr drive to camp. We decided that as it was already
4pm we would deviate a little from the road book to save a little time. We
didn't mind doing this because the trip through Andorra followed by the
four forests section was absolutely brilliant. We had all had a fantastic
time and really enjoyed the unurfaced tracks in the forests.  A text
message came in around 10pm advising us that an alternative campsite
had been booked that was closer to our location which meant that we
actually got to a campsite around 11pm instead of after midnight. Yet
again it was absolutely freezing during the night but it's not to bad
again this morning.

Having left the campsite that was 3km North of Gap, we're now on the
N85 heading to a place called Tignes at Val-d'Isere to spend the day
off-roading in the mountains.



Received at 10:04, 16/09/2008

Received at 14:30, 16/09/2008

Received at 12:30, 17/09/2008

TEXT MESSAGE: Internet has been unavailable since we entered Italy last night,
and as we are here all day and Thursday morning, probably not be updating the
site until tomorrow afternoon.
Stelvio Pass tomorrow morning!

Received at 14:14, 18/09/2008

 quick update

In, switzeland, roads too twisty to type much. Val-d'isere amazing,
climbed to 8800 ft yesterday, and did stelvio pass this morning. It
was incredible, words can't descibe the experience - awesome. 10 times
better in reality than the television. Went off road in the snow and
the day so far has been amazing! Heading for leitchenstein now, then to
campsite in germany where i will attempt to update fully.



Received at 23:56, 18/09/2008

 route update

Internet very poor so just a quick update on route. we left gap on
tuesday morning and headed to val-d'sere via la mure, vizille, grenoble,
pontcharra, chamoux, albertville, moutiers, tignes, then we left
val-d'sere heading for ville d aoste via tignes, col d st bernard. We
got to camp around  10pm. Wednesday saw us leave camp at around 8.30am
and headed right across italy to valdidentro, passing through  ivrea,
novara, milano, rovatta, lago d'isea, darfo, edola, ponti di legno and
bormio. This was an amazing day as we climbed to over 8800ft and had
a snowball fight a the top of the mountain. The views were absolutely
outstanding and must have taken a lot of hard work to find, but well
worth it.



Received at 00:15, 19/09/2008

 stelvio pass

Utterly amazing! Awesome. Incredible. Just some of the words used to
describe the stelvio pass in italy. To me, none of these words even come
close to describing the scene that was before us. We went off road in the
snow, played football at the top of it and were totally awestruck at the
beauty of it. We then left the stelvio pass in our convoy of 7 vehicles,
having had bofa bill and loncbt join up with us on wednesday. Our route
from the stelvio pass took us through sponding, pass dal fourn, davos,
klosters,  &bad ragas in switzerland. We then vadoz in leichenstein
into austria, heading through feidkirch and on into germany hdading
through bregenz to our campsite at uberlington. The week just keeps
getting better!!



Received at 18:30, 19/09/2008

Received at 22:45, 19/09/2008

 we made it!

We're back at calais in one piece....yee ha! More update will follow.



Received at 02:30, 20/09/2008

 YEE HAA! 

Team "get lost" which had only 5 members, just picked up 3 main
prizes! Pete and jim (stuck in the mud) got 1st, we (bling) got 4th, and
Tim & Keith (team taff) got a well deserved "spirit of the event" award -
they did after all get us to camp every night! WELL DONE TEAM GET LOST!!!!



Received at 17:04, 20/09/2008

 route update

We're finally back on UK soil heading to cardiff to meet up
with one of our sponsors, motorcare warranties for some vehicle
photographs. Yesterday saw us break away from our convoy as due to severe
time constraints the group had chosen to miss out the drive through the
black forest that was in the road books. As we wanted to go, we took
the difficult decision to pull out the convoy and leave the security
of driving in a group as well as the companionship and comradeship that
normally helped make the day a lot of fun. We headed across to triberg,
the centre of the black forest where we visited the house of 1000 clocks
and saw the world's largest cuckoo clock. We then headed up to offenburg,
strasbourg, metz and into luxembourg, followed by a trip right through
belguim heading up to namur and eventually right across to france via
charleroi & tournai. It was just before namur that, by pure chance,
we were caught in some traffic and ended up along side another scottish
team in their discovery, and we had a very welcome cuppa as they gave us
across a 12volt kettle, teabags and a couple of cups and we went ahead
and made tea while sitting in a traffic jam! The traffic cleared and we
shot off. By taking a slighty different route we made good time which
resulted in us being reunited with the rest of the "get lost" team just
before calais, allowing us to end a perfect week by all cruising to the
finish line in calais as one united convoy with horns blowing and flags
flying. That brought an end to our 2900 mile trip through 10 european
countries in 7 days. We've still around 450 miles to go before we're
home and we add up the total round trip home to home total mileage.



Received at 17:15, 20/09/2008

 TEAM GET LOST

Myself, Kenny, Keith, Tim, Vanessa, Guy, Paul, Phillipa, Pete & Jim of
the original team get lost, along with Bill, Pam, Iain Keri and kids who
joined later in the week all had a fantastic week and we're all going
to share photos so keep watching for plenty of pics on the different
team websites.