dated 29th July 2010

Finally back in 2London

The "Mechanic" couldn't fix it so we had to go to another town about 30 kms away. Once there, whilst the Range was being fixed we were harrased by the locals (the cousins of the Scottish Midges).. thousands of them....

So we decided to find the nearest shelter...luckily for us it was a bar. So after sampling some more french wine we heard a very loud rumble...The Range was fixed and purring again.

Onward to Boulogne, and then to London via Dover. Now finding work a little distracting... all we want to do is fill up the Range and head off to pastures new....

Mongolia here we come ( we can dream, can't we?)

Thanks all for your support and more importantly for your donations.

Updated Jul 27th 2010.. fro,m a very confusing French keyboard..

After a few drinks on Sunday night celebrating the completion of the rally with our fellow Crumballers we said goodbye to Shyamu who took an overnight train to Pisa (with a takeaway pizza from the night before) to continue his holiday. Monday morning came and it was time for the epic journey back. After breakfast in Venice we set off across Northern Italy (alongside several crazy/typical Italian drivers who believed they could use all three lanes of a motorway at the same time) and reached Lake Commo on the Swiss border. We hired a speedboat and had lunch while cruising around the lake, surrounded by the mountains and trying to decide which lakeside chalet we were going to buy.. After a good break we got back into the Range and got some good mileage in. A good few hours later our stomachs began rumbling as much as the Range was.. we tried to find some food but everywhere was shut.. eventually found a Maccy D's 2mins before it shut. Quality French cuisine. After scoffing that down we found some damsels in distress having mechanical issues, and being the lads that we are, sorted it out, and boy did they thank us.. Pushed for time, we got back on the motorway and were fighting to save every minute - at that point Mr Tom Tom was saying we would arrive in Boulogne Sur La Mer 2mins before our 5am ferry departed. At around 3.30am Lady Luck turned on us.. Rangey lost power, the alternator broke and we were forced to pull up on the hard shoulder 1km from the nearest service station and about 130km from Boulogne. We called the emergency services and with Nik's French being worse than his German we somehow managed to speak enough jibberish to help the recovery man locate us. He towed the Range and dropped us off at a hotel.. not really sure where.. all a little heartbroken at being so close, we checked into the hotel at around 6am and tried to get a few hours sleep to be ready for our travels the next day - be it in the Range if the mechanic could revive it or train or hired car or ... Will check back in a few hours time.. wish us luck!

 

 

Updated on Jul 25th 2010 at 8:11 AM using the JustGiving iPhone app

We were on our way to Locarno and just our luck.....met up with some other crumball participants who were going to do the bungee so we tagged along and oh myyyyyyy.....can't even finish my sentence, a 220m drop from the top of the dam! Well we're all men so we signed up and went straight to the loo to ensure no funny business on the way down. There was an hours wait as we heard person after person tell scream on their way down and then one guy didn't manage to do it...turned around at the last minute and we were shitting ourselves! Down we went with none of us looking very pretty as we jumped or should I say our knees buckled and then proud butch faces afterwards telling everyone "it was nothing....you should try" our insides may have been saying a different story but I'll just tell you that we were men amongst giants today!z Don't know how and I don't think anyone wants to know but we managed to take 4 women with is back from the bungee jump......we were thinking that the machoness paid off.....NO NO NO......all they wanted was a lift home with some nice boys! Doh!!! O think some poor individual tried a picn up line with one of the girls and it went "dont worry about the bump.....it's just my friend behind us!" not quite sire he used the right choice of words! Well we managed to get to out and back to our hotel and have just witnessed marathon fireworks display.....boy do my eyes hurt....a drink of beer is in order! Ciao till tomorrow when we head to Venice!

Updated on Jul 24th 2010 at 2:06 PM using the JustGiving iPhone app

Well we are playing our challenge to record a car for each letter of the alphabet...e.g B for fiat Bravo...but we have to only take pictures in the order of the alphabet....we've just reached W and are stuck....help please!!! Oh yeah and guess what....just had dinner and Pratik managed to break a glass....oh well I guess we can be happy it's just the one! Well the morning started well with a team member waking up at 5am and deciding in his half slumber to step outside in the cold mountain air with nothing else besides his boxers on......this individual then decided to scare away the only female on our floor by stepping out of the shower wearing.....well I'll let you figure out the rest....... We are now on our way to the dam to do a 200m bungee.....hopefully we'll see you after that....... Well never made it to the bungee due to avalanches / road closures and bad co-driver directions! We are currently having lunch and our A student at German has suddenly got amnesia and is mixing up ham for vegetables.....good luck jinesh! p.s bungee is just postponed till tomorrow ( we still have our manhood intact.....for now) Just and update on the car......air conditioning is leaking white smoke, brake pads seem almost worn out and smell of a BBQ gone bad, electric seats are overheating, locks are barely working, run out of LPG and impossible to find in switzerland buy lucky for us the passengers are doing their bit by emitting as much gas as possible!!!......we are now heading down to Locarno to do some good old fashion shopping ;-)

Updated on Jul 23rd 2010 at 6:24 PM using the JustGiving iPhone app

Made it to the swiss border...hmm everyone is thinking chocolates...yum yum. Well we are playing our challenge to record a car for each letter of the alphabet...e.g B for fiat Bravo...but we have to only take pictures in the order of the alphabet....we've just reached W and are stuck....help please!!!

Updated on Jul 23rd 2010 at 1:39 PM using the JustGiving iPhone app

Jinesh Pratik and Nik were just sitting back in French Champagne region sipping on what they thought to be France's best red wine only to read the label and realise the wine is.....Turkish! Back in the car and Nik takes the wheel....driving down the road he makes his first statement "I've never driven in Europe before"....oh my god the three of us shouted "RIGHT SIDE OF THE ROAD" just as he was about to take a left turn onto oncoming traffic! One minute through and only another 100km for him to drive.....I don't think anyone is going to fall asleep!

Updated on Jul 23rd 2010 at 6:48 AM using the JustGiving iPhone app

We made it to Boulogne....thank god....Shyam was driving and it was a bit hit and miss...day 1 going to the start line for 8am and look at us we're having breakfast at 7:55....!!!

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The 4 of us are attempting to reach Venice from London (Via Bolougne) by car. I know this sounds easy, but wait. The car (if I can call it that) had to be at least 15 years old and cost no more than £200.  This has proved to be a near impossible task since in our infinite wisdom we thought a Range Rover would be ideal as a big car could mean we could carry more advertising space and hence raise more money for Karibuni Trust.

The route is approximately 1100 miles to be covered over 3 days. We hope to be able to complete this task and in doing so raise as much money for the the good work that Karibuni Trust is doing. 

Please visit the Karibuni Trust website on www.karibuni.org.uk so find out more on the work that they do.

Once again, thank you for your support.