We left the hotel in Calais in time to take the 8 mile or so journey to the ferry port. Having no official passports we were shepherded into a room where, equipped with our scanned copies of our passports, we were asked to fill in forms before they would let us on the ferry. All very civil and matter of fact, we then joined the queue of Minis readying to board the ferry.
A very nice traditional English breakfast and a look around the on board shop and within no time we were in Dover.
Dover to London took no time at all, but driving through London to the assembly point before the Police escort to Kensington Park was rather interesting. The instructions which were given us were spot on, passing Buckingham Palace on the way was a treat too.
We joined the queue at the assembly point a mile before Kensington Park the finishing point, but found the engine was overheating. After we left it to cool a little and topped the radiator up we were on time for the escort.
A police escort to the finish line where we were greeted with applause by family, friends and public. It was a great finish to a brilliant journey.
That evening we went to the black tie dinner and presentation where we were staying at the Hilton Hotel Edgeware Road. Awards for 1st 2nd and 3rd places along with Oldest Car in the rally, a 1964 Cooper, and Best Dressed Mini, which we won, (voted for by fellow jobbers) were presented.
We had a brilliant time on the job, Mary says she’ll definately do it again, so keep a watch on this website!

As this leg of the journey was a mere 170 miles, we thought after yesterday’s long haul of 380 miles and 79 Euros in tolls etc, we would take the more scenic route.
This was a pleasure, seeing a kaleidoscope of autumn colours over the hills and mountains, but somewhat interrupted by VANimal developing clutch problems again. Unfortunately to save time and a possible complete breakdown we jumped back on the autoroute after adjusting the clutch as far as we dare to give Carl something of clearance, but there was still a vibration in the clutch somewhere too.
We arrived in Dijon with VANimal having little or no clutch clearance, but the service lads got to work and after replacing the clutch and finding a broken ball end on the clutch bell housing lever all was repaired to Carl’s delight and slightly empty wallet!
We stayed at the Dijon Ibis Hotel overnight, then headed off for Calais, another long haul northwards, the following morning.

We commenced at 7.30am as planned and completed a very pleasant drive to the outskirts of Florence where we left the motorway and congregated just past the toll booth.  The weather was beautiful and the scenery was lovely.  We were then taken through the ‘back roads’ by escorted convoy to attempt to avoid the mad Monday morning traffic.  We climbed high into the mountains and saw some beautiful scenery and eventually arrived at the Mugello race circuit at Scarperia.  After a special stage, we had lunch (again, the amount of food is just ridiculous!!) then we were treated to a couple of laps around the circuit (not quite as manic as the previous free-for-all!!), then after a further special stage we continued to Imola where we found our hotel and settled in.  Dinner was at the hotel, and then the evening was spent doing karaoke and dancing which everyone entered into the spirit of brilliantly.

Tuesday morning’s start was at 08hrs 34’30” and we proceeded on roadbook to a control point and then continued to a second control point in the tiny village of Castel de Rio where we stopped for an hour, sampling the local olive oils.  We then set off again over a control point to the Ferrari race track at Imola where we had lunch (more food!!), completed two special stages and then finally completed 3 laps of the race circuit, stopping on the first lap to visit the spot where Ayrton Senna lost his life in a tragic accident.  We then returned to the hotel and are preparing for this evening’s dinner (more food!!), more karaoke and our final hike back north.  Today sees the end of the navigational rally so that’s the last of the special stages (shame!!), tomorrow we’re off to Annacy which is about a 6 hours+ drive so we need to set off as early as possible – at least we can go back to SatNav (yeah!!) and, in my case, more sleep in the car!!! (poor Ian, good job his Man Flu is on the mend)

Catch you soon

Bye for now.

The 2nd, 3rd & 4th days of the Navigational Rally

Ha! Ha! That fooled you didn’t it!
You thought we’d got lost in the road book, in the bewilderment of Italy, never to be seen again! ‘Fraid Not. But apologies are due for the delay in updating the blog (or blob as I keep typing by mistake!!) recently.

The past few days have been hectic, extremely traumatic and stressful, and finally relaxing and enjoyable, in that order. Wednesday was a very hectic day, we left at stupid early time (7.30am) from Turin (before it was daylight) and travelled north to Monza Race Circuit which is just past Milan where we’d come from a few days ago! This was a journey of 102 miles and our strict instructions were that we had to be there by 10.30am AT THE VERY LATEST. However, traffic at that time of day is just as bad in Italy as it is in central London, and we spent as much time square-wheeled as we did on the move. We eventually arrived at around 10.45am thinking we’d have missed everything to find we were actually the 3rd car to arrive (there’s 59 cars in total taking part!). So we were panicking for nothing, but had a bit of time to relax before the next special stage which involved three timed laps around cones, one at 10 seconds, one at 9 seconds, and the third at 10 seconds again (all to 1/100th of a second). We did a little better on this one than the previous days on the roof-top which we obviously didn’t quite get right somewhere as we were well down the rankings after the first one, not to worry. We were then treated to lunch in the main stadium area, and then after lunch, we were escorted on two laps of the famous ancient Monza Race Circuit, one on the large circuit, and the second on the old banked circuit which is no longer in use and very moss-covered and slippy. At the end of the 2nd circuit whilst taking pictures of Collie-Flower on the Monza Circuit, that very naughty Bill Bell (or William as he became then), snook up behind me and stole our mascot! How dare he! Collie-Flower was Pup-knapped! They drove off with her hanging out of the window, and after chasing around after William when they eventually pulled-up, thankfully Collie-Flower was safely rescued and returned to the safety of our car! After that, it was time for the off again for a 199 miles journey to Florence. This took us until the early evening, but we all arrived at the Hilton Florence Metropole hotel without problem. After settling in our rooms, we went to an American-style diner just around the corner and had some proper food!! (ie burgers and filled potato skins!!). The Italian food is OK, but it’s a bit of a lottery to guess what you’re actually eating a lot of the time! The garaging at the Hilton was excellent under the hotel secure parking. Carl had been having problems with his clutch on Vanimal so, after we’d eaten, we proceeded to pull carl’s clutch to pieces to find the clutch mastercylinder was shot and Carl didn’t have a spare, and neither did we. The service crew possibly had one but wouldn’t be able to let Carl know until the morning, so we joined up with a couple of other teams of Jobbers who were drinking their wine purchases by their cars in the garage as the cost of drinks in the hotel was outrageous.

Thursday morning (22nd October) we rose fairly early and went down to the garage to see how Carl and Bill were getting on with Vanimal. There were still a few issues but they were making progress. We then went to breakfast, and it was as we were finishing breakfast that I picked up my rucksack to find my handbag that had been inside it was missing. Ian went to the room to see if I had left it there, (which I was sure I hadn’t but doubts do pop in to your head), when I caught up with Ian he had checked the room and the car, we re-checked the room and the car and re-traced our steps as the realisation dawned on us that I’d been robbed! There had been a couple of ‘odd’ looking guys in the breakfast room, dressed in suits, but they had at one stage sat down at the table behind us for a brief while before moving away again, and in that brief time, the guy sat immediately behind me had obviously reached into my rucksack which was on the floor by the side of my feet, and lifted my handbag! The contents included both of our passports, my driving licence, credit cards, cash, and the all-important road book and instructions for the navigational rally! Freddy, the main host of the IJ, told us we were for the high jump if we lost our road books! It’s easy to joke about it now almost two days on, but at the time, I was devastated. There were also some sentimental personal items in there that I take EVERYWHERE with me, and pictures of my beloved dogs. Of course, everything is cancellable and replaceable, which is what we spent the next 6 hours doing, but I was so furious. After reporting it to the hotel, we went to the Police and the British Consulate. Fortunately, superstar Ian took the brilliant advice of superstar Mike Caine who had suggested prior to us leaving that we scan our important documents and put them on a website called ‘Drop Box’ which means if you loose them or they are stolen whilst you are away, you can immediately retrieve and print-off copies – how cool is that! OK, it’s not the originals, but as we are not flying and we are by car and ferry, with the Police Report, we are assured we shouldn’t have a problem getting back into the UK with the copies. We also have the support and back-up of the entire Italian Job organising crew and participants, who have all been fantastic about it all, and they will be with us right up to the Grand Finale back in London so we should be fine. So many people of the Italian Job crews have been so kind and have offered to sub us money and help in any way they can, a massive thank you to them all – from the broke and passport-less Team 21! Fortunately, Ian had his driving licence and credit cards with him, and also some cash, so we are fine really, it just rather upset the whole day, but it could’ve happened anywhere. Thursday morning was SUPPOSED to be an ‘at leisure’ morning to roam Florence on our own (Ha! Ha!), but we still had a 186 miles journey to cover from Florence to Rome in the afternoon. After all the faffing around with police, British Consulate, etc, and with Carl’s Vanimal mended (of a fashion), we set off at 3.30pm for Rome. The journey was reasonably uneventful, we stopped off at services where the Service Crew for the IJ had a queue of Minis waiting for repairs. We offered a hand where possible, and then set off on our way again, reaching Rome at just after 7.00pm. By the time we’d checked in and got organised and told numerous people of our eventful morning, we rushed into dinner that was being served at 7.30pm. After talking to people it transpired I was not the only person to be robbed at breakfast in Florence, another lady at a different table had also had her bag stolen whilst she got up to get some food, and accused a couple of Jobbers who were sitting on the table with her of moving her bag. Another Jobber actually realised what had happened when the lady started to create and this lady had actually seen the two men snaffle the lady’s bag away (although she hadn’t realised at the time what was actually happening), but by then they had gone. We managed to obtain another road book and hand book from Freddy, and then it certainly wasn’t a late night for us as we were glad to see the back of a day that we don’t want to repeat in a hurry!

Friday morning (23rd October) has been a quite early start again, as we had to be ready on the start-line for this morning’s first time controlled section with the first car leaving at 8.15am, so our start time was 08h 19′ 30″. We set off no problem, the first special stage was as you crossed the start line, and you had to do the next few yards in exactly 4 seconds. My time keeping left a little to be desired on this, I think we actually crossed the 2nd line at around 5 seconds, so I mucked that one up I’m afraid! We then continued on the timed control-section for 25.5 miles that we had to complete in exactly 1hr 10mins, that we managed no problem at all and arrived about 15 minutes early, so sat before the control point along with all the other cars waiting for our specific time-slot. We then had a 40 minute re-group and then we were off again and the next control timed section, again with a special stage at the end of this control, after having to arrive at precisely 15 minutes at the control point for a 4.31 miles journey – all very technical stuff! I think we managed all of that bit OK, but we will see what the results show! We then spent exactly an hour at a wine producing place who provided us with refreshments and we were able to purchase their produce, which is the wine being supplied to the Italian Job whilst we are in Rome. The final leg for the morning was the last timed section, for 15.85 miles that we had to complete in exactly 40 minutes which took us to a beautiful restaurant on the side of a huge lake called Lago di Bracciano where we were provided with lunch. After that, we were at leisure to follow the road book (untimed) which took us right round the lake and eventually back to the hotel, or whatever else we wished to do. We opted for the drive around the lake and we are now back at the hotel, the Mini is as I right getting some adjustments to the suspension as it is a bit front-end light, even with no luggage in, so some adjustments are currently underway, as well as a bit of a wash. We’ve given our presents in for the children as there was a trip to the children’s hospital at 5pm for those who wished to go to give the gifts brought by the Jobbers to the children but unfortunately with the Mini on ramps, we can’t go. It is also the IJ Auction this evening at dinner where Jobbers auction items they have brought with them to raise more money for the children’s charities (and also Rebecca House in our case). Bill and Carl forgot to bring anything with them, and I’m getting increasingly concerned that I’m losing the plot as Collie-Flower doesn’t seem to be in the car where I left her, have I mis-placed her, or, heaven forbid, has she been pup-knapped again!! Wait and see! Although today has been all road-book, by comparison it has been very enjoyable and relaxed and we’re at the stage where we are enjoying ourselves and not fretting about the roadbook, although it is getting easier as we get the hang of it – if we cock-up on the timings, SO WHAT!!!

Just to finish on the most important subject of all, Baby Joshua is now doing great, he returned to the normal ward today to his Mum and they are going home tomorrow – hurrah!!! We’ve been hearing reports from Aunty Nicki how utterly adorable he is, and we can’t wait to get home to meet him – what a fantastic reason to rush home for! Can’t wait.

Speak soon

Ciao!

We had a disturbed, but very welcome, sleep last night, our son Chris and his wife Ewelina brought our first grandchild into the World at 2.30am GMT. A beautiful healthy 6lb 15oz boy who is to be named Joshua, we are so happy for them and really looking forward to seeing them all on our return home.