A word about Macmillan.

Thank you all for giving.

I was told by so many people that Macmillian support really did help, often it was hard to express what the  Macmillian nurse did for them, so many said that when your family gets affected by Cancer, the support will be priceless.
Mark and Richard confirmed to me too that they valued the help that their families received.

When first met Sally the Macmillian nurse who helped Mum, my family and me I was so impressed.
It wasn't her great understanding of the situation, it wasn't the great patience that showed or even the fact that Sally knew all the agencies to get involved and set them in action.
What impressed me beyond belief is that she cried, she sat with me put everything in place that needed to be done, and cried because she cared.

Mum would not have received the care that she did, would not have lasted so long, would not have been able to express her choices or kept her dignity if we were not helped by Macmillian support.

Your donations will be well spent..

Thank you
Robin.

Aparantly there are cows in Belgium?!

We checked the levels on the Volvo for probably the last time.
The 850 reliability now giving us confidence of a steady journey home tonight.
After leaving Holland the car was silent, we didn't speak to each other until
France...I think Belgium does that to people.
Aiming for the 3pm Ferry..the end is in site.

Day 8

We started out about 10,  by 11am we pulled in to a McDonalds for a decidant western sober inducing meal.
700Km required in todays stage of the trip home and although mainly easy motorway driving we found it a
long slog with no aircon and yet another 8 hours in the car.
Lots of stops for essential coffee ensured we had a number of opportunities to overtake the Anthill mob
in their taxi allowing us to get the cameras out yet again.
We arrived in Maastrick late on Saturday night.
Home nice to be greated by a friendly receptionist, wanting to be helpful.
Comfy beds, enough towels, water for 3 and ..an iron all items missing from our last weeks stops.
Checked the just giving site, over a grand given including the gift aids, famtastic response, can't
thank everyone enough, can't thank McMillian enough.

I think Znalosti means taxi-losty

To celebrate the end of the rally the organoisers had a arranged a meal in
a resturant in the centre of the Prague old town.
All teams duly assembled to take that final ride, calling taxi's from reception.
So we waited, and waited, and waited, then phoned again and waited.
It seems that the taxi office thought "some English had called a number
of times with hoax calls, obviously drunk", not realising it was a number of
different "English". When we did get rides many taxi's could not find the
address, it seems there is no requirement for the Prague minicabs to have passed the "znalosti".
Unfortunately the meal became a disappointment with everyone arriving
With various amounts of tardiness, our team and the batmomile being fragmented.
Good humour was restored when "club rep Richard" rounded up all the social teams to
an Irish bar. With live music and the usual 2 for 1 offers a party atmosphere soon developed.
Having made the poor band play 6 encores they finally played "sweet home Alabama" for the last time
and moved us on.
"Harleys" was our next venue, fulfilling Robin's need for rock music and allowing all the teams to
continue to celebrate till the early hours.
We didn't have cameras and we would warn any Facebook users that any footage of embarresing behaviour
collated by the batmobile (later refered to as the Batty boys) has been fabricated.

Get ready those who said they would double the money!

Thank you to all who have sponsored us.
We have got here, it was fun in many parts and althougher a tough old drive.
Those who said they would double the sponsorship if we got Gerty home, watch this space, 2 more days of driving back to Blighty

We made it!

We made it guys....in Prague...oh yes here we are.
Stopping only for fuel., oil (lots) and time to make a curry at the roadside curtesy of Jamie Oliver
Now we have 2 days to get the volvo home again!

Start of day 7

Today we are reminded that this is a driving challenge, 400 miles of
"A" and "B" roads is expected to take over 7 hours.
Up at 6 today, it took every last drop of oil to register on the dipstick.
We have set off in convoy with the batmobile (a conververed vauxhall limo
with a claxon horn). Experianced ralliers they have introduced us to the
concept of a team sound track. Whenever the car arrives or departs from group
meetings the claxon horn is sounded and the "Doop" version of the charlston
is played at high volume. Its seems that toil boothes and border patrols like
this phenonomen a little bit less than we do!
So on to Prague!

Who wants to be a millionaire

On day one our inovative approach to the challenges found no
favour from the organisers, day two had us preoccupied with
maintaining the old girl so our we decided that we would not
waste more time on the daily challenges. Too far behind to be
contenders for any prize.
Having now had time get to know the other teams and socialise
we have found that our BTCC apparel on the volvo has won favour
with the buffs in the rally. Our ability to maintain the car
too has met gained us credability as many teams have resorted to
proffessional help along the way.
Cracking the wheel nuts during the daily briefings made a few
laugh too.
During the Bologna festivities there was an extended game of
"who wants to be a millionaire" run by an iphone clad participant.
Each team nominated a person to be in the hot seat, the phone a friend
was made availble to the team in the normal way. Robin was nominated
as he had a "no drink after midnight policy". His sober(ish) answers
took us to a winning a fantasy £8000 4 times that of the nearest rival.

Less Canals than Birmingham

Robin took the helm in the morning, even though he went to bed 2 hours later than the other 2 who turned in at 4,he was in best shape.
IBM CEs have a rule, always be the last to leave the party, and at 4am, he met Jan who played basketball for riders, as you can imagine, 2 hours of putting the basketball world to rights.
We made a detour to the wonderful, historic city of Venice....fantastic.

The volvo, checked, fueled and watered we pushed on into Slovenia.

Saucy City

The historic city of Bologna was great place to visit.
All teams had the same idea of checking into the hotel then heading straight to the centre.
We met many teams in the square, some we had not even had a chance to chat to over the week.
The square became the set for a number of photo challenges including team "wish upon a car"
dressing up as the mermaid Aerial and bathing in the fountain.
The ladies in the team really impressed us with their determination, every day new costumes, new princess!
We took a number of photos for team "wheres Wally" who have merged in the crowd in every location.
We also happened upon a "living statue, he did look like he was made of chalk, the one little let down was the IBM lanyard
that fixed his head dress in place!
Later in the evening Mark became tour guide and organised a big social, all teams involved, the odd glass of wine drunk too!
For some reason Richard and Mark decided to run back from the centre, to the hotel 43 miles away.
Robin was leftwith the "Batmobile" team, who manged to squeeze all 5 of them into a Fiat Punto taxi (alone with the driver).
The batmobile team did entain everyone during the evening with their topgun "you've lost that loving feeling" act.

Wednesday - Hot Box Blues

Wednesday was trek a through the centre of Italy to Bologna.
With the sun blazing down and and no aircon in the car, tempretures were well over 30deg.
Thinking "inside the box", Mark suggested that the only way to feel cool at this tempreture was to get hotter,
then we would welcome the drop to a mere 34-35 Deg.
So the "Hot box" game started.
All windows up, heating to the max, who would be the first to crack?
Having seen the temp rise through 40, then on to 50 degress we set the target at sweaty 55!
As soon athe doule nickle appeared on the gauge Robin poured water over himself and everyone else
so was declared Loser with a big "L".

The morning after the Mountain

We decided that if we were to stand any chance of getting this old tank home we needed to try and sort out all of its issues and give it a bit of TLC. So we left Richard to sort out the Lambda sensor which is one of his super skills, while Robin and Mark check out the brakes to make sure they were still there. Luckily they were, woop, woop. As they were we gave them a quick dusting(not something we would ever do to a house).

Next up was the levels. So far we have used 2 litres of oil. Hmm these italians love thier olive oil but our Volvo loves a bit of Turbo Lube R. We are assuming after years of neglect this it is way of forcing another oil change. The "coolant" which does not really have any coolant in it was topped up with more of the finest mineral water you can buy(that give it a bit of volcanisity).

Now we are searching the tinterweb(www not webb) for a tractor museum pft say Richard who can not understand why Mark and Robin think the tractors are cooler than pimped up cars with red leather interior(mmm very boudoir).

The Alps

Yet another early start on Tuesday, we were all worn out from Monday and all regretting the those few drinks in the early hours.
We tried to head to Itally without going into Switzerland as we wanted to avoid the road tax. Having hoit 3 seperate borders and turning around we soon found more and more bangers driving in different directions having the same problem.

The CB radio really paid off and soon we found an driver who had done the route before and was confident on which way to head.
More and more cars joined the convoy of the weird looking vehicles. A real sense of comarardery ensued even to the point of playing inter car "eye spy" over the radios.

The mountain roads soon started to tax the cars to their limits. There were reports of cars in others covoys failing and our own car started to flash warnings at us.
Coolant level was the first of many but the old volvo didn't overhead, and kept its power.

We made multiple stops for other cars to cool down and the drivers to get release from the smells of clutch and brakes.

Reckless Robin turned started to show his parenting skills and decided to play daddy to the group of drivers.
Pulling the volvo into the lead postion he set a slower pace through the climbs and acsents and everyones car started to complain less, making progress easier. (He soon went back to form when he made doughnuts on the ash covered local school football pitch at the top of the pass!..it had a foot ball post but it was a carpark! Ed.)

Robin's recklessness looked insignificant compared to Richard risking life and limb to get some good photos.
He spent the majority of the day with only his legs still in the car, Mark shouting for his life everytime a lorry came the other way.

Mark supassed "the" slowest lap of the Ring on record with the slowest decent out of the Alps.
Robin nursed the car out of the region to Ritten and provedhe could drive a long distance and let the volvo sip fuel rather than burn it like the space shuttle on the autobahns. Then with in a few km of the hotel Reckless Robin reared his ugly right foot again as one of the Jags over took him and he could not let them think the volvo could not keep up. So with possible knockered breaks he made it to within a inch of their bumper(WIN, Happy Robin).

Richard continued to risk his life for the pictures by balancing on crash bariers with 100 foot drops and cars flying past just to get a good picture. While these pictures do look "amazing" they do not do the local countryside justice.

Quote of the day(international double entendre )

Bar maid 'i coming too your bed?.... yes?' meaning you guys need to go to bed as I am closing the bar and off home. this bar should have closed an hour ago, go to bed now!


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Location:Mutterstraße,Feldkirch,Austria

Pint 3

We thought we had a tough day but we were on our third drink when two teams arrived in a hire car, their cars didn't survive the autobahn, pistons, rods and oil feat!



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Location:Mutterstraße,Feldkirch,Austria

Finally made it to our hotel.

Had a relaxing evening drink with some of the other guys.

They're doing alright and have a well posh car with brakes tyres and all sorts.

Check out how they are getting on at .....

Www.3-musketeers-motorscape.blogspot.com

They are raising money for christie so please give generously ...


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Location:Mutterstraße,Feldkirch,Austria

Fireworks

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Location:Koblenz, Germany

Drive thru Workshop

Fast food, fast repairs, slow car! After spending the day looking for parts. We found a Volvo truck dealer with a nice lady who printed directions to a Volvo car dealer. Unfortunately it appears the the demand for 1994 volvo 850 rear brake pads in Germany is low. They were all out of stock. The nice guy at the car dealer then called all the dealers on our route to austria. We decided a detour to Mainz was the best plan. Much as Mainz is a home from home for all of us who have worked at IBM we had no time to go to any of the normal haunts. At this point there would have been a tension ad break in the long way round. With minimal tools and maximum effort the pit crew got to work. Job done! After mark and richard fitted the pads we had so much confidence in our workmanship we volunteered reckless Robin to drive it. To celebrate we went to McDonalds. After a few scary noises we gradually got the confidence to use the to autobahn to the max! We still 200km to go in the dark rainy night but we are more confident than the team who txt us to say they are lost up a mountain.

Drive thru Workshop

Fast food, fast repairs, slow car! After spending the day looking for parts. We found a Volvo truck dealer with a nice lady who printed directions to a Volvo car dealer. Unfortunately it appears the the demand for 1994 volvo 850 rear brake pads in Germany is low. They were all out of stock. The nice guy at the car dealer then called all the dealers on our route to austria. We decided a detour to Mainz was the best plan. Much as Mainz is a home from home for all of us who have worked at IBM we had no time to go to any of the normal haunts. At this point there would have been a tension ad break in the long way round. With minimal tools and maximum effort the pit crew got to work. Job done! After mark and richard fitted the pads we had so much confidence in our workmanship we volunteered reckless Robin to drive it. To celebrate we went to McDonalds. After a few scary noises we gradually got the confidence to use the to autobahn to the max! We still 200km to go in the dark rainy night but we are more confident than the team who txt us to say they are lost up a mountain.

Location:Mainz, Germany

Fireworks and Taxis

The evenings entertainment was a trip to a traditional German wine festival.

This was pretty much like you'd expect like your typical german Christmas market but without the stalls selling tat just stalls selling food and wine.

The band in the square were very good and took a particular shine to mark thanks to his somewhat over enthusiastic dancing with a 65 year old French guy.

Video footage is available but would be so popular that we have decided to auction after the rally.

The evening entertainment concluded with a firework display.
We can only say if carlsberg did fireworks displays it would be this one!

Getting back to the hotel was a transport challenge in it's self, having been sniped on 2 or 3 taxis we managed to hail a cab on the main road but feeling sorry for an aged local couple who had been waiting longer than us we let them take it. Little did we know that it was the last can for nearly 45 mins, Mark kept us amused with his campuses.
When a taxi finally arrived it seemed to be driven by a Ms Sabine Schmitt of Top Gear fame, ignoring speed limits and taken the racing line got us back in record time.

Day1

A brief stop in Belgium for a roadside coffee and we found ourself at the Nurburgring.

The ring was busy due to a number of incidents that day but Mark successfully set a record lap in the BTCC Volvo. Shortly after this the ring was closed prematurely for the day due to one of our teams spinning out hitting the barrier. The car was fine unil 3 miles later around the track they were stopped and removed by the officials after depositing oil all over the ring. Happily they were charged 850eur or the privilege and for the cleaning.




With he help of smoke bomb from another team we managed to convince mark the breaks were on fire to the point where he nearly doused them with the fire extinguisher.

Then we headed onto Koblenz

Normal service will resume after this brief intermission

Sorry for the absence of updates but we seem to be having issues with the brakes so have pretty much devoted the day to finding some new pads....

So far unsuccessfully.


- Posted from my iPhone

Location:Brückes,Bad Kreuznach,Germany

Quote of the cheese

Dont through that cheese it is just getting ripe I am getting quite moist


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Location:Sonnenberg,Prüm,Germany

Convoy

We got some amazing pictures of some of the other bangers. We lost the convoy as soon as the cheese started to get ripe. Be we don't need them to have fun we have each other........ And the Internet geek heaven now only 2 hours to the green hell


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Location:Belgium

Hmmmm breaks

Well we can confirm that 2/4 of the breaks are fine. However one is not functioning at all( very rusty) and the other is a little bit moody. On another positive note the brie was lovely for Robin to eat but Mark is finding it a bit stinky. Richard thinks it is just getting ripe and loving it.

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Location:Belgium

Lunchtime

Desperate for some cafine we brewed up next to our first challenge, taking a picture of a clock tower at midday. All good but we are getting a bit of brake binding...not worrying yet though...yet


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Location:Rue des Pépinières,Soumagne,Belgium

And the winner is ....

The winner of the best is a split decision this year.

It's a tie between the jeep cherokee dumb and dumber dog and the parcel wrapped Citroën xantia with the UPS guys.

Photos soon.


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Location:Avenue Charles de Gaulle,Saint-Omer,France

Morning!

An early start for the first day of real driving.

Last night we seemed to get trapped in the bars as the heavens opened.

So a quick dash was needed to get back to the hotel.

Today is Nurburgring day so let's get those bangers ready to race!




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Location:Avenue Charles de Gaulle,Saint-Omer,France

Best car at the docks

The car made it to dover with no problems just some funny noises and smells but we dont know if that was the car or not.


On arrival at the docks the ferrari 2 cars in front was getting no attention, to be honest neither was ours because of the hundred of bentleys and RRs.




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Finally off!

Lets go!




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Location:Queensway,Warwick,United Kingdom

Merely Ready....

Its 11pm and I've just left the car with Rob, having finally finshed working on it.  I'm not sure its ready but it is ready enough.

We've removed the tow bar at last, fitted the GB stickers, and done some more general tidying.

Time to start thinking about packing.... I hope I don't need to do any washing.

We leave tomorrow at 6am.

Thanks to everyone for their support so far.

Sponsorship from some of the best.....

Firstly a huge thank you to all the generous people who have sponsored us so far.

The list is looking pretty distinguished...

A particular favorite of ours is the official* sponsorship from Top Gear's very own Stig

If the Stig is behind us you should be too... Please donate to a very worthy cause.

*Probably not actually the real stig... but hey!