Decadence and Luxury at Launch Party

[Fanum]

NOT!!! :D :D

Slimbo and I rode down to Devon this weekend to attend the Plymouth Dakar (now Banjul but that's a different story ;) ) launch party.

Being rufty tufty GS'ers we opted for the luxury accomodation........a nice big barn :D

In actual fact it was a top billet....didn't smell of cowshit (much) and only saw a couple of rats...

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We made ourselves at home. looting a pile of tyres and a couple of sheets of ply.......Dunno if it was the actual comfort or the dozen bottles of Old PEculiar and bottle of Jack Daniels, but it was very comfy ;)


There was another chap turned up on some triumph tupperware tiger or something, but he camped........the ADV's got lots of attention and we spent a good few hours explaining to everyone exactly who Bakerman is and just why he's such a tosser
:D

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After Graham and I fixed the electrics by putting a 40 amp bolt into the single plug powering the sound system, lights and everything else (:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: ) we wandered around and met a load of fellow competitors........and a jolly nice bunch they are too......

(apart from one chappy who instantly made our hackles rise......a blade rider and a tit of the first order......'twas funny exchanging glances with Slimbo though and as soon as we got rid of him we both laughed at what a w*****r he was )

It seems to be a very mixed bunch doing the '05 challenge with us......there are 4 groups of 50 vehicles going, with start dates ranging from dec 17th to the end of january.......our start date is the 29th December and there are some cracking guys in our group......
Including a Paramedic....so guess whose vehicle we'll be staying close to driving across the minefields in Mauritania :D :D

The biggest problem for the other teams seems to be acquiring a left hooker vehicle (obviously they're being sold or donated to the charities in the Gambia at the end of the rally so they have to be LHD)

Fortunately, Graham has already sorted out or series 3 llwb landy......and it was an army one originally so had already been converted from left to right.....it's now half way back to LHD :D

There are several other landies going, including a converted army ambulance, and there's a skoda or two, a lada cossack, saab, couple of mercs, a vauxhall Nova and many other types of vehicle.

After the beer got flowing properly, a few of the cars got raced around the main field and of course the inevitable happened.......a lada riva estate collided with a very large old merc......(standing ovation and much cheering from all around the field :D)

The lada came off without much damage at all, but it took several rolls of duct tape and panel kicking for the merc to be able to continue looning around.

Julian (the organisor) gave a speech and Q&A session.......some serious stuff and a lot of funny bits, but it certainly started feelong a lot more real to us......jeez, we're actually going to drive this thing in convoys across the sahara and deep into the Gambia......in hundred quid vehicles accompanied by a load of bloody crackpots and nutters!!!



:thumb :thumb :thumb :thumb :thumb :thumb :thumb :thumb :thumb :thumb :thumb :thumb :grin :grin

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After the speech, we restocked our beer supplies (having finished the JD during the speech lol) from our luxury bedroom and headed round to the opulant ballroom for a party.......



A good old fire was started in the yard and they projected up a dvd of some of the more hairy bits of last year's rally up opn the barn wall.....:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

Our new paramedic friend had a bit of out-of-hours work to do when a cornish chappy (who ironically was a tree surgeon :rolleyes: :D ) started climbing one of the small poplar trees at the side of the yard....he fell off onto the wire fence and brick wall inder the tree three times, rolled around a bit, popped up again and climbed back up.....until the fourth time when he fell into the fire.

'Yep', said the paramedic, 'That's a broken collar bone.......have some more beer to kill it tonight then tommorrow you can get yerself to a hospital :D '

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So...it's real........we have our start numbvers and official stickers, a start day, a vehicle, bugger me, we're actually going to do this thing!!!!!

I had a fair comment made to meat the Hog Roast about this trip; Why should people put their hands in their pockets for pledges to fund a couple of tossers going off on a fantastic adventure across the sahara?

Well, here's the answer........

We intend to get the costs of the actual trip fully covered by corporate sponsorship.......all money you ladies and gents donate will go to the charities we're supporting.....yes, it will be a fantastic trip and we're looking forwards to it, but we're determined to raise as much as we can for our chosen recipient charities .

So if you haven't pledged yet, please do........we're aiming to make as much as possible, and have a figure of around 5k in mind.........we have a long way to go to get to that, but with your help and support we can do it!!!

Cheers

Bill

[slimbo]

now then folks this event went off with plenty of booze suitably fuelled up we were first given a sermon by the mad disorganiser,

fanum had a tin of pilchards and i brung a french stick.

[slimbo]

the meeting and greeting was very interesting and during the night video footage of last years event was shown.

by this time fanum the lush! (as he shall from this time be known ?)
has inbibed several beers and large quantitys of jack daniels, then spent the next half hour trying to focus as he thought we were watchin a rerun of the italian job.!!

he's the one on the left with the dodgy glasses?(shoulda gone to specsavers)

[slimbo]

the music and jollity continued the jack daniels was dissapearing at an alarming rate , tis now 11 ish? (sorry couldnt focus on me watch)
wheres bill?
he jus dissapeared!!!
several hours later and all booze gone off to bed and what do i find???
pissed and out of it!!?

[slimbo]

but all joviality aside this is wot its all about
and this says it all really...

[slimbo]

when its on the landy it says were on our way!!
so please realise as bill said this is real not a jolly, a lot of hard work is happening.
buissness sponsorship is hard work but rewarding and we do want our charitys to recieve big cheques
so as some of you have already done please give generously and we will help to make a difference..