Thank you for visiting the Team Yokel Mac4x4 Challenge Fundraising page.  This is where we ask you to sponsor us. We will be driving up to 1000 Miles, day and night, on and off-road, testing both us and our faithful steed (A 1992 Range Rover) with navigation exercises, regularity trials, special off-road stages and more.  The event is run between the 6th and 9th March 2009 - so we have a while to get sponsors, but the sooner the better as far as we are concerned, as all funds donated on this site go directly to the charity, with no delay.

For more information on the event, go to http://www.mac4x4.co.uk/

We need to raise a minimum of £600 but obviously more is better!

Please give whatever you can to help this very worthy cause.

Donating through this site is simple, fast and totally secure. It is also the most efficient way to sponsor the team: Macmillan Cancer Support will receive your money faster and, if you are a UK taxpayer, an extra 28% in tax will be added to your gift at no cost to you.

So please sponsor the Team Yokel Mac4x4 Challenge Team now!

Many thanks for your support

*** Progress Update 08/03/2009 23:45 ***

Well, that's that.  Predictably, we didn't win anything - unfortunately there wasn't an award called "Lowest scoring newcomers"  which is a pity, as we would certainly have been in with a chance.

The Spirit of the Event award was given to the mashalls, in recognition of their hard work in setting up and running the event.  As newcomers we didn't know any of the other teams, so didn't know the winners of the scatter, navigation and orienteering awards or any of the top six teams, but the good news is that, although this year's teams needed to raise £72,000 to bring the grand total for the event since it started to half a million pounds, the teams between us have raised £80,000 pounds - so the half-million has been achieved!  And there will no doubt be more money coming in over thee next few months - the last donation relating to the 2008 event didn't get received until February this year.

Once I find out the full results, I'll let you all know how well (or more likely how badly) we did.  Out of sixty six teams, I am expecting us to have a very low position.

*** Progress Update 08/03/2009 17:09 ***

We're all at the De Vere hotel.  Geoff and I arrived just as they were starting check-ins so we didn't have any waiting.  As I came back from the vehicle with my camera just now, there was a long queue as the later arrivals checked in.

Everyone is looking forward to the awards dinner tonight, and those of us with cameras are contributing our pictures for a slide show before the awards.  If I get any good ones, I'll post them online.

When I get the results, I'll post them here (the hotel has free WiFi in the bar).

*** Progress Update 08/03/2009  13:45 ***

We've finished!

There were three sections to complete this morning, through the hills and forests to the north of Dumfries, where we had questions to answer, code boards to find, and the whole of each section had to be plotted from a list of coordinates.  Thee were a couple of easy but fun off-road sections to be done against the clock, and some nice driving through the hills whee we encountered a sprinkling of snow (but no more than that - most of today thus far has been sunny)..

We finished at Gretna Green service area on the A74M at just after 1PM, handed in our route cards and time sheets, and completed a final picture recognition exercise.

We are now en-route to Warrington in Cheshire, to the hotel where everyone is staying tonight.  Geoff is driving as I type this.  There will be an awards dinner and probably a bit of a party to celebrate the end of the event.  I'll let you know how we did in the rankings - for navigation.and stage times I think we did very well - for code board discovery probably average, and for answering questions during the stages not very well - especially yesterday evening when torrential rain and fog made seeing *anything* rather difficult.

Thanks again for all the support, and I'll update again this evening.

*** Progress Update 07/03/2009 - 22:54 ***

Well, that was a disappointment.  We think that the adverse weather conditions through this afternoon and evening have forced the organisers to cancel the night section that we have all been looking forward to (with some trepidation in my case).  So we ended up all having to do a paper-based navigation exercise, then that was it for the day.

Drivers' meeting at 08:30 tomorrow morning - start at 09:00 probably, for the final day in this event.  I will of course keep you posted as and when I can, break time and connectivity permitting.

*** Progress Update 07/03/2009 - 20:20 ***

Hi all our supporters!  We are in Lockerbie in Scotland.  The organisers have kept us reall busy all day with navigation exercises if increasing difficulty during the day, in conjunction with more treasure hunt style question lists, and two sections around Northumbria and the Kielder Forest involving finding hidden plaques with code letter on, in the correct order.

The weather, which started mixxed and cold, has got cloudier and windier during the day and since arunfd linchtime has been raining.

We finished the last section this evening in torrential rain, up in the hills North and East of Lockerbie - Geoff navigating, me driving, and both of us trying to find the answers to the questions while driving in the dark and the rain.

We got here slightly ahead of schedule, and were told that tonight's special section, due to start at 21:00 has been postponed.  There is a drivers' meeting at 21:30, so I guess we'll find out what will be happening then.  With the bad weather coming in, they may have decided that their original plan is now too dangerous.  We'll have to wait and see.

Now we have about an hour's rest (we've only had about twenty minutes of breaks all day so far) before te meeting, and a potential three to four hour night section, before the final two-thirds of a day tomorrow.

I'll report agsin in the morning.

*** Progress Update 07/03/2009 - 07:20 ***

Brrr!  It is really cold here this morning.  We are in the foothills of the moors still, just West of Darlington, in a campsite called Doe Park.  As you can imagine, with 66 two-person teams plus the caravan holidayers, the amenities block (with two toilets and two showers per side) is very busy this morning.

As we had no idea about the overnight stop before we got here, we had no camping gear, and so spent a chilly night wrapped up in multiple coats in the Range Rover's cab.  Thank heavens for thermals!

We will be leaving later this morning (our vehicle is scheduled to leave at 09:31) but aas of the time of writing we have no idea where we will be going.

I'll try and update this page again later today.

Thanks to everyone that sponsored us and for getting the total this high.

*** Progress Update 06/03/2009 ***

We made it to the first overnight stop!

Apologies for the lack of updates during the day - the organisers have kept us busy with a navigation exercise, and two sets of treasure-hunt style questions that had to be answered during the drives.  And unfortunately we had no connection while waiting for the start this morning in Shropshire - since which we have driven through Shropshire via Shrewsbury, up into Lancashire, across to the North Yorkshire Moors and White Scar Caves - then on through the evening over the hills, via the Tan Hill Inn (The highest Inn in England), down in to County Durham as it got dark and the last hour driving through the evening to finish the day here in the village of Cotherstone.

We will be camping here (in our case sleeping in the vehicle) and starting off the morning with the drivers' briefing at 08:30 and the first vehicle away at 09:00 - we will be leaving at 09:31 for we know not where.

'll  try and update this again tomorrow - assuming we have some time at a place where we can get a signal.

*** Progress Update 05/03/2009 ***

We set off to the start line early tomorrow morning.

Geoff is due here some time in the next few hours.  He's bringing the food, a pair of PMR radios and some safety equipment (the event regulations have a long list of equipment that participants *must* carry in their vehicles).

I've acquired a pair of vacuum flasks and a 12V travel kettle - as we are expecting cold weather for most of this trip - especially at night.  We've been advised by the organisers to make sure we have thermals...

The countdown has begun.

If we can get a signal, it is my intention to update this page from time to time during the event - so check back here to keep an eye on our progress.

*** Progress Update 02/03/2009 ***

Wow - we are nearly ready to start!  Over the past few months Geoff and I have done a lot of work on the Range Rover, (Welding, painting, new bumpers, servicing work on the engine, suspension work and so on),  Last weekend I was down at Geoff's place in Wales and we did what is really the final preparation - including loading several boxes of tools, spares and recovery equipment.  Not just in case we have a problem, but also in case some other team has a problem and needs assistance.

Thanks to everyone for the donations that they have made thus far - is there anyone out there that can help us to get from £930 to £1000 in the next few days?

Geoff is coming up to my place on Thursday evening, and we will be setting off for the start line to go through registration and scrutineering early on Friday morning.

Hopefully we'll make it through to Sunday evening in one piece!