Hi Folks,
Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.
Firstly, many thanks to all of you who have made a donation to 'Unique'. So far the team looks to have raised in excess of £1000. Final amount yet to be established.
You'll be pleased to hear that our trusty Jeep made it there and back without too many issues, covering over 3000 miles in the process. Luckily though it wasn't completely trouble free, because that would have been a bit boring!!
On the way out of Devon we suffered a seized brake calliper and a leaking radiator hose, but we managed to overcome these problems and make our ferry at Dover.
Day one saw an early start with us meeting our fellow Ramshacklers in Calais to see an amazing array of car decoration themes and fancy dress, before setting off on a 530 mile bash across France to Bern in Switzerland. Following a rain soaked run to Dijon, we headed east towards Switzerland, crossing the boarder on a rural road before reaching Bern in early evening. Eventually we found our way around the cities one way system to the beautiful old town and our stop for the night.
Another early start on day two saw us head via Interlaken and the Sustenpass towards the Stelvio pass in Italy. The most direct route we could find, meant we would have a motorway free day. The first climbs were taken tentatively, with us all expecting a frail water hose to burst under the strain. The descents saw us nursing our troublesome brakes. This was the most secenic day of the trip, spent entirely in the Alps. In early evening we hooked up with some other teams and climbed the Stelvio pass using an unexpected semi-gravel route, before crossing the Italian border and dropping into Bormio in the dark after covering 255 miles.
We had a more leisurely start on day three, due to a late night and one too many beers. We also needed to try and improve the situation with our brakes. So after a bit of spanner work we set off out of the Italian Alps, first tackling the Gavia pass. The most extreme pass we drove during the rally, being mostly single track road climbing to approx 2600 metres. The descent was made very interesting not only by the need to look after our brakes, but also by the hoards of Sunday bikers and drivers we had to avoid on the way down. Once out of the mountains it was a long drive across northern Italy towards Trieste, before heading northeast to the Slovenian border and Ljubljana. With the Italian Alps soaking up a lot of time in the morning, it was another evening finish after covering 355 miles.
On the final day we headed from Ljubljana towards Zagreb, before cutting through rural Slovenia from Novo Mesto to the Croatian border. After picking up the pristine motorway at Karlovac it was a trouble free run down Croatia to our finish point in Split, where we meet up with all the other teams for a final get together having covered 310 miles. The ethos of the rally is not really competative, the main challenge being getting a worn out car to a distant destination. There are daily challenges with which to gain points. Not having completed all the challenges we did not win any prizes, however, we did win the raffle for the Ramshackle flag signed by all the teams. A great momento from an amazing trip...
Thanks again..
Ben
