Received at 03:08, 12/09/2008

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 
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. 

Received at 15:08, 12/09/2008

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!  

Received at 15:45, 13/09/2008

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.  

Received at 16:27, 13/09/2008

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.  

Received at 19:23, 13/09/2008

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!  

Received at 19:40, 13/09/2008

convoy

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

Received at 22:01, 13/09/2008

60 miles to go

Still going  

Received at 23:45, 13/09/2008

lost

Still looking for campsite!  

Received at 01:44, 14/09/2008

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 10
minutes 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!  

Received at 10:23, 14/09/2008

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.  

Received at 13:44, 14/09/2008

***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.  

Received at 13:52, 14/09/2008

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 15:07, 14/09/2008
Photos from Day 2

 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.