Race for Freedom 2014 - Charity Rally

[Silver!]

Hi, thanks for popping in.

In September 2014 I will be taking my little Lupo GTI on a big adventure.

We are a mixed group of serving and former servicemen and servicewoman and friends who are competing in a 10 car, 7 day 'rally' over France and Spain on the 1st September till the 7th September, which will take in some beautiful sights, and of course undertake some amazing and challenging driving conditions.

The main aim of the rally is to raise funds for "our" troops and families, namely the Royal Navy and Royal Marines Children's Fund and the Royal Marines Charitable Trust Fund.

http://rnrmchildrensfund.org.uk/
http://www.rmctf.org.uk/

And secondly to have fun and challenge ourselves whilst undertaking the rally.

The route will be from Dover down through France to Spain via Le Mans, Lourdes, Col du Tourmalet, Millau and the Pyrénées National Park returning to finish at Dover 7 days later.

Whilst this is the end of the adventure for most of the drivers, I have an additional 522 miles each end to travel to and from Perth.

All entrants will be paying for ALL their expenses themselves so that 100% raised will go to the chosen charities. Local companies have stepped in to support this by offering printing/logos and team sweatshirts, and it is due to this support that we can achieve our objective.

So please support me by donating what you can.

If you choose to donate, please state my name, "Ray Buster Crabb", or "Car Number 7", in your message, so the donation can be added to my total! Don't to forget to add Gift Aid! Or just choose the Car Number 7 page...

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/RaceForFreedom2014-Car7

Thank you
Ray

"Through Virgin Money Giving, you can sponsor us and donations will be quickly processed and passed to charities. Virgin Money Giving is a not for profit organisation and will claim gift aid on a charity's behalf where the donor is eligible for this. We really appreciate all your support and thank you for any donations."

[Silver!]

C'mon guys and girls! Spare the cost of a pint, glass of wine or a litre of fuel for a good cause. No donation is too small!

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundraiser-web/fundraiser/showFundraiserProfilePage.action?userUrl=RaceForFreedom2014-Car7

[Piers]

i will get on this ray

[Silver!]

Thank you honey! X

[Rich]

I too will get on this; Are you aware of how many miles you're going to put on the lupo ?

[Silver!]

Thank you dear, I'll look out for it.

Calais to Calias is about 2000miles, plus about 530 each way Perth to Dover

[Silver!]

The route is now finalised so to re-iterate the cause and let you know of the route...

The main aim of the rally is to raise funds for "our" troops and families, namely the Royal Navy and Royal Marines Children's Fund and the Royal Marines Charitable Trust Fund.

http://rnrmchildrensfund.org.uk/

http://www.rmctf.org.uk/

THE ROUTE

Monday 1st: we will be departing from Dover Castle where we will rendezvous at 0930hrs for photo shoot of all cars and participants. We will catch the mid-morning ferry to Calais before heading to St Leonard-du-Bois, just north of Le Mans, where we will be staying glamping style in the home of a former Royal Marine.

Tuesday, 2nd: we will be heading to Le Mans and to the LE MANS CIRCUIT where we will have the opportunity to visit the museum. After this we will be heading to Bordeaux.

Wednesday 3rd: is when the fun really begins, as we will be heading from Bordeaux to the Col d' Aubisque, then the Col du Soulor past Lourdes then Bagneres-de-Bigorre. This is a very arduous drive so concentration is a must.

Thursday 4th: will take us from Bagneres-de-Bigorre to Col du Tourmalet then the Belfort-sur-Rebenty then the very hairy Gorges de Galamus http://www.dangerousroads.org/france/2111-gorges-de-galamus.html followed by Collioure and then onto the coastal town of Portbou.

Friday 5th: will see us leave Portbou and head towards Quixans in Gerona, then onto the Col de Puymorans and then into the Andorra mountain range.

Saturday 6th: and we will head from Andorra to Toulouse, then onto Bordeaux for an overnight stop.

Sunday 7th: we will be heading to the COCKLESHELL HEROES MEMORIAL to do a wreath laying ceremony before heading back to Calais for the ferry home.

Whilst this is the end of the adventure for most of the drivers, I have an additional 522+ miles each end to travel to and from Perth, where I ended up living after serving 10.5 years in the Royal Marines. And back to work at 0830 on Tuedsay!

All entrants will be paying for ALL their expenses themselves so that 100% raised will go to the chosen charities. Local companies have stepped in to support this by offering printing/logos and team sweatshirts, and it is due to this support that we can achieve our objective.

So please support me by donating what you can. The price of a pint, a glass of wine, a litre of fuel or the loose change in your pocket; all will help!

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundraiser-web/fundraiser/showFundraiserPage.action?userUrl=RaceForFreedom2014-Car7&pageUrl=3

Thank you for your time and any donations you may wish to give.

Ray

[Piers]

Done captain underpants

[Silver!]

Cheers dude!

[Silver!]

I have smashed my £500 target and the entire team £5,000 target has been broken.

C'mon guys and gals; spare £1 for a good cause!

Race For Freedom2014 Car 7

[lupo1.0se]

I tell you what, as I live near the starting point. I will donate some money to you then (if that's fair). We could have mini photo shoot if you like....

[Silver!]

We're leaving from Dover Castle early on the Monday morning official send off from The Royal marines Association and I'm coming down on the Sunday evening from Edition38.

Not really sure of times yet, but I'll post them here when I know.

R

[lupo1.0se]

Thanks ray

[Silver!]

Car has stickers...

[Silver!]

Roll up! Roll up!

http://tinyurl.com/lp54b4s

[Rich]

Ray, you are so predictable.

[Silver!]

What? ...the grey box?

[Rich]

What? ...the grey box?

No, that's TSO.

Pete knows what I'm on about.

[Silver!]

Just about ready for the off. Just need to throw a few things in the back and plug in the iPod!

And it's off via Edition38!

http://tinyurl.com/lp54b4s or find my car a Edition and relieve yourself of some loose change!

[Silver!]

Well sorry for a late update, but we returned on the 8th September and everything went to plan!

After a 500 mile first leg southwards I arrived to pick up my navigator, Veronica an ex Wren, on the outskirts of London on the Sunday evening. First time we have met since working together at Royal Marines Condor 1984.

So 30 years later we find ourselves in a VW Lupo GTI with no aircon, no sunroof and very little in the way of suspension; heading for Dover and the ferry to France.

On the Monday morning 7 cars were waved off from Dover Castle by the Mayor for the 10 am ferry to Calais.

The weather was fantastic, maybe too so; seeing as my car, as mentioned, is without aircon or a sunroof, so with temperatures constantly in the mid to high 20s it was windows open; even at motorway speeds.

We headed down to the Pyrenees with overnight stops in Saint-Léonard-des-Bois and Bordeaux; trying to stay off the toll roads where possible, which made interesting navigating and driving, but great coffee and lunch stops we picked up four more cars just outside Bordeaux which included two MK1 Jaguars.

At Pau we entered the Pyrenees and the fun began. I found my little Lupo paired with much bigger beasts in the form of a Mercedes SL 500 (4.2 Litres of V8!), an Audi TTS and a Range Rover Vogue 3Litre. As you can imagine the little Lupo was stretching it’s legs to keep up on speed on the “motorways”, but once into the mountains, with her good power to weight ratio, upgraded suspension and G60+ brake upgrade she was doing a great job of agility and keeping the pace with the big boys! The Audi TTS cheated with it’s 4x4 traction!

So on the first day proper, we passed over the Col d’Aubisque, Col du Soulor and Col du Tourmalet. Fantastic roads, scenery, “wild” cows, horses and sheep and many cyclists following the Tour de France route. Staying overnight in Bagnères-de-Bigorre.

An early start saw us on the road to Col d’Aspin, Col de Portet d’Aspet and Col de Port where there were even more cyclists and animals and headed to Lavelanet and onto, or into, the Gorges du Galamus. Picked up a bit of rain and a few hairy moments on very narrow roads with camper vans coming in the opposite direction.

So it was after dark when we crossed the French \Spanish border and headed to Portbou in Spain for the night. The D914 coastal road was an unexpected driving pleasure as it wound it’s way along the coast. A freshly surfaced road hugging the coast from the bays to the top of the cliffs was a great way to finish a long day behind the wheel.

Followed by a swim in the Mediterranean, food and a few bottles of wine; not necessarily in that order!

Another early start for a long day saw us heading towards Andorra through Spain via Banyoles and into the Parc Natural Zona Volcànica de la Garrotxa. Again fantastic driving roads and the roadside services were serving great food and coffee. Through the towns of Olot and on the N-260a into Ripoll before a blast up the N260, where we encountered some heay rain and hail, and over the Pass Fornells de la Muntanya and through the ski centre of Estación de Esquí la Molina before dropping down to Alp and a more steady pace into Andorra.

Andorra, whilst a fanastic setting is a bit of a weird one. Being a tax haven as soon as you cross the border from Spain, there were miles of petrol stations, followed by miles of duty free shops and then hotels. We had a lovely evening up in the gods eating pizza and drinking local beer and sangria.

The following day there was a choice of two routes out of Andorra; through the 3km long Túnel d'Envalira, or over the high pass of Port d'Envalira, one of the highest paved roads in the Pyrenees and one of the highest roads in Europe and the watershed of the Pyrenees.

Being a mountain and fresh air type of person I went for the high ground, whereas my partner in the petrol eating V8 decided to play in the tunnel. So we left on our own to head over the pass and we are so glad we did. New roads twisting up to the top of the mountains and over the top to El Pas de la Casa where we stopped for breakfast and duty free. Through border control and it was a long dash back to Bordeaux, once again trying to miss tolls made for some interesting navigating and driving, whilst the temperature decided to top 32 deg c on the car thermometer.

Bordeaux was the end of the, let’s say, spirited driving and we lost the 4 cars back to France and Spain so all we needed to do now was rise early and head for Calais, some 8hours away. With warnings about the port closure we stopped on The Somme at Abbeville to regroup have lunch and head for Calais. We managed to get an earlier ferry (at a cost of course) so headed back to the UK at 1755.

We hit the outskirts of London 2 hours later where I dropped off Veronica who had indeed kept me going in the correct direction. After a Chinese meal and a celebratory beer I stayed over and headed homewards at 0600 on Monday 8th. The M25 at 0600 is like the M8 at rush hours, so I was glad I made the effort to get up early and was crossing the Scottish border around lunchtime and home by 1430 with an empty wallet and an additional 3,242.6 miles on my milometer!

We had a blast! It was great fun, I made new friends, it was tiring, but most of all we have made in excess of £15,500 for the charities; The royal Marines Charitable Trust Fund and The Royal Navy and Royal Marines Children’s Fund.

http://www.rmctf.org.uk/

http://rnrmchildrensfund.org.uk/

So Veronica and I would personally like to thank everyone who has donated to the cause.

[Piers]

Well done Ray... I was watching the updates on the book of facebook as you know... along with your constant love messages via whatsap.

What a great cause and a great way to raise a bit of money!