Team "Bling 'n' well up 4 it"

Landy Rally 2008 – Our story

Well, what can I say, the daydreams started at Land Rover Fest in Peterborough in Sept 07, as I stood in awe with my son Cameron at the sight before us. A  vehicle, parked in quite an eye catching display, that we later came to know as Tango 1, was displaying signs showing “Landy Rally  event recovery & support” and of course we had to ask what Landy Rally was......see pics 

This is where I first met the man behind Landy Rally, Tom McGuigan, and having had a good conversation with him, I decided there and then that I would be entering Landy Rally 2008, which would come nearly a year later. I came home and started putting out the feelers for a Co-driver who would share the driving and the experience with me and quickly found a friend Kenny McCallum who was up for the challenge ahead.

Landy Rally is a European Charity Drive for four wheel drive vehicles covering 10 countries in only 7 days, where teams are free to choose their own charity that they wish to raise funds for. It is a competitive event, but at the same time it is not speed related, but is very much a fantastic drive through Europe, enjoying the company of your fellow competitors whilst carrying out the various tasks that have been set of you. Off road driving is included in the itinerary and route, however it is not extreme and is deemed to be non damaging, to allow people (like ourselves) with “shiny” vehicles to compete without getting their vehicles damaged.

As soon as the booking forms were made available on-line we quickly completed them and posted them off to Tom. That was it – we were committed, but as it seemed (and was) months away, apart from organising some local sponsors to help with the costs,  we never really did much about getting organised, thinking all along that we would have loads of time. How wrong we were as 2008 must have been the fastest year of my life, suddenly realising that with only weeks to go I still hadn’t got my gearbox sorted out, or the clutch, or the overheating problem, or the poor brakes....need I go on.

To cut a long story short all the mechanicals that I knew needed done were sorted out and we were finally ready to head off on our trip. Thursday evening of 12^th Sept ’08 saw us finally slip away from the comfort of home for the long drive to Dover. Panic started to seep in as we heard more and more about the fire in the channel tunnel and how the police had started stockpiling lorries on the motorways – would we make it in time? Well we weren’t about to hang about to find out, we literally pointed our Landy in the direction of Dover and headed off.

The plan was that a good number of the teams would all meet up at Clacket Lane services on the M25 and head to Dover in convoy. We reached the services a couple of hours early, as did Paul & Phillippa in their Disco, so we decided to head off on our own 2 vehicle convoy. En route we stopped and did our good deed for the day by helping out a damsel in distress who had found herself with a flat tyre. Flat tyre filled with air again, we headed off to Dover feeling good about helping someone out.

Finally getting checked in we met up with another few teams who were on the same crossing as us but were concerned at the lack of vehicles compared to what should have been there. Almost as boarding was complete a pile of Landy Rally vehicles arrived seemingly from every direction – they had made it by the skin of their teeth!!! The sailing was pretty uneventful – especially for Kenny who fell asleep – but the convoy of 14 vehicles leaving port heading for Calais was extremely colourful.

We found the campsite, met up with Tom and the scrutineering crew, and pitched the tents ready for the following morning. The start line on the Saturday was a hive of activity with everyone running around getting their vehicles registered, recieving their road books and challenges for the day and generally letting the sheer adrenalin of what we were about to embark upon take over. What an amazing feeling seeing more and more vehicles line up – we were excited!!

 The moment came when we woke Calais up with a blast of colourful flags and musical air horns as we headed through the town centre in a massive convoy with a police escort. We were off on the first leg of our adventure heading from Calais right down the motorway into Spain, but what were we to do but play Bingo!!! We had been given a sheet of 100 items to photograph before camp that night – now that was really a challenge when you saw what was to be photographed!! – men wearing only a hat, lady in bikini, car towing horsebox etc – not easy! We ended up in a convoy of 5 vehicles and stayed in that convoy all week.

We made camp for around 1.15am to find that half the teams were still behind us somewhere but we decided to head for bed as it was a 6am start the next morning. Heading off from the campsite on Sunday morning saw us head through Spain in the direction of the Andorra border, via gravel tracks in the vicinity of Pamplona that took us across paddy fields – yes paddy fields,  don’t know how Tom found these!! – but they were fabulous and definately made the day as we spent around 2 hours on them!! It was around this time that Paul from Team Northern Rival, decided to pop the question to Phillippa who quickly said yes, so we congratulated the happy couple on their engagement and proceeded to get lost. The group at this point decided to name the convoy Team Get Lost, or the Get Lost Crew. The comradeship between the crews was fantastic, the banter across the cb radios was second to none and the actual journey that had been set for us was incredible.

A couple of minor hiccups met us at the campsite that night but Tom was quickly on the ball and got everything sorted out for us. Following an organised group meal, we decided to crack open some champagne and celebrate the earlier engagement. This resulted in a slightly later departure the following day – now I wonder why? – but when we did head off we drove across the border to Andorra, where we all filled up with fuel at only 1 euro per litre – heaven! From there we headed right through Andorra back into France and then upwards, and I mean upwards as we seemed to keep climbing until we came to a special section Tom had found for us, which was the “four forest section”, comprising a route through the forests on unsurfaced tracks etc, and yet again, Tom had really excelled himself as the route he had found was incredible, and again coupled with the banter and laughter coming from everyone in the “Get Lost Crew”, things just couldn’t have been any better. From here we headed through France passing nearby to Narbonne, Beziers, and up to Gap for our next camp site. Arriving at around 10-30pm, Tom met us at the gate and showed us where to set up camp for the night. It seemed a long night, probably because everyone was really looking forward to the treat instore for us on the Tuesday – off roading at Val-D’Isere. We couldn’t resist a quick photoshoot just before we left campsite as one of the campsite gnomes looked like Tom, so we took a picture of Kenny asking “Tom” directions..... 

The road leading to Val-D’Isere was incredible, passing close by to La Mure, Vizille, Grenoble, Pontcharra, Chamoux and Tignes. The scenery on this road was incredible with the camera being clicked on just about every bend we went round. Val-D’Isere itself was incredible and dropping transmission into low box and engaging diff lock, we climbed right to the top of the ski lifts where the views were quite simply outstanding. This was definately one of the highlights of the week so far. Yet again it was quite hard to comprehend the friendships that were developing amongst “Get Lost Crew” as we had lunch and generally a real good laugh, all enjoying the event for what it was. Tom had yet again excelled himself in his choice of route and venue and we all thought that he would find it hard to top the Val-D’isere trip. We were to be proved wrong, and I mean really wrong!!!

Wednesday saw us head through Italy and drive the Garvia Pass, climbing to 8845 ft with no barriers at the side of the road – incredible. We even managed a snowball fight at the top of it which was just brilliant, especially when one landed inside the Landy and melted all over the drivers seat!!!!...Think it was about then I asked kenny if he wanted to drive for a bit! The scenery was fantastic and the adrenalin was something else as it was getting a little scary on some of these hairpins but you just wanted to keep driving as every bend you turned the views were better that the last – You really had to be there to appreciate what we’re trying to describe. Camp that night was in Italy, and Tom had organised a fantastic 3 course meal for us all in the restaurant in the campsite, complete with bottles of wine on the table. This finished off a fantastic day as the food was superb, the company first class and to top it off it was warm, because believe me it wasn’t warm outside!!!!

How could it get any better we asked, but still at the back of our minds we knew we were going to drive the Stelvio Pass the folowing morning, which, according to Top Gear, is the best driving road in the world......and believe me when I say that now we have done it, I completely agree!! 48 hairpins up the side of a mountain, again climbing to around 9000ft the whole experience of the roads, the scenery, the whole ambience of the place was just too surreal to put into words. We off roaded in the snow at the top of the pass, we played football at the top of the pass, we just stood in awe at the beauty of it all from the top, and once again we had the most amazing time in our small group – just incredible!

We headed down the other side of the Stelvio pass with flags flying and horns blaring and got countless stares from other visitors who stopped to take our pictures, or simply stand in amazement while watching this convoy of brightly decorated vehicles with flags and horns descending the hill in front of them – Awesome. Our convoy had increased to 7 at this point which simply meant we made more noise, had more flags flying, and had more people to share a good time with and share the experience with, and I have to say that every member of the “Get Lost Crew”, from all 7 vehicles are absolutely incredible people in their own way. The cb radio banter was excellent as we left the Stelvio Pass and headed through Switzerland and Leitchenstein heading into Germany for our final camp site before the finish line was reached. We had a slightly later start than planned on the final day which meant the majority of the convoy agreed to bypass driving through the Black Forest, however we decided when we are this close we might as well do it, so for the first time in the week, we decided to leave the security and banter of the convoy and head across to Triberg at the centre of the Black Forest to see the house of 1000 clocks, and get a photograph next to the world’s largest cuckoo clock – amazing. We then headed back into France, up through Luxembourg and then into Belguim where we stumbled upon a large traffic jam. By sheer chance we ended up sitting side by side with another Scottish team in their Discovery – The Bidgiemire Team, and in showing the comradeship that was felt from all the entrants, they handed us across a 12volt kettle, 2 teabags and 2 cups. We boiled a kettle while sitting in the traffic jam, gave them back their kettle and some choccy biscuits that we had, and carried on our journey back to Calais. Our thanks go to Graham & Linda from Bidgiemire for this very kind gesture – you don’t know how good that cup of tea tasted!!!

 We finally caught up with the rest of our convoy just as they were approaching Calais which meant that “Team Get Lost” could sail into Calais as one complete convoy again – absolutely perfect timing. We had made up  a little time by crossing the motorway just south of Brussells which had no traffic jams on it, whereas most other crews had gone further north and got stuck in traffic.

The prize giving dinner was even more of a shock to us when we were called out as having won 4^th place, which was totally unexpected. First place was taken by Pete & Jim from the “Get Lost Crew” and Spirit of the Event award also came to the “Get Lost Crew” when Tim & Keith from Team Taff took that well deserved award. An absolutely amazing week, an amazing journey right from last September at Peterborough, some amazing people, some fantastic new friendships, some memories that will last a lifetime and an experience that will be very hard to beat.

Would we enter Landy Rally again?..........just you try and stop us!!! Tom you’ve got yourself one hard task ahead of you if plan on making future Landy Rallys’ any better than this one, ‘cause last week will take some beating!

I have to say a massive thank you to Tom & his crew of officials, because without them we wouldn’t have experienced what we did, we wouldn’t have made the new friends that we have and we wouldn’t have the memories that only Landy Rally could have made.

Landy Rally is after all a charity drive and our chosen charity was CHAS (Children’s Hospice Association Scotland). At the very beginning we set ourselves a goal of raising £2500 for CHAS, and while we were away experiencing the event, donations arrived at home which took us to about £3 over our target, so not only did Landy Rally give us a fantastic time, it, along with our very generous sponsors, Motorcare Warranties, Experian Automotive, Mautra Double Glazing Repairs, Auld Lang Signs and Moorend Garage all helped us achieve our fund raising goal and help some terminally kids and their families have a better life.

A final thought – what could possibly be better than having the most amazing time possible whilst at the same time raising lots of money for your chosen charity – Landy Rally – well done Tom McGuigan.