Greece to Grease

Click for larger images

Grease to Greece

These Features may also be of interest :

Notes on Jaguar and TATA	more...
Vauxhall Insignia	more...

or you could check out these News Items :

New Directions for Auto Suppliers: A Radical Industry Reconfiguration?	more...
An A-Z report of the debuts and premieres at the Geneva Motor Show	more...
PORTRAIT OF A STRUGGLING INDUSTRY	more...

Andy Pag, the brains behind the 'on grease to Greece' rally is not only planning to stage the same event next year but he also hopes to organise a 'round the world' expedition on land, sea and air for 2010. Exactly when this far more ambitious project takes place does of course depend on what interest there is in such an event and what sponsorship is offered.

A graduate in engineering, Andy now describes himself as a writer. That he certainly is - with a good sense of humour, as can be seen by anyone who looks at the roadbook he prepared for this year's event, and the notes he made to advise members of the teams taking part, how overnight halts were planned and the painstaking discussions with officials in all the countries on the 2,500-mile route from London to Athens, to try and iron out any problems before they even happened.

In fact, even the best laid plans can go wrong - as they did for Mike Terry and me. Before the off I made sure - and paid mega bucks to be sure - that Mike and I were properly insured for any possible contingency - ill health, car breakdown, whatever. Mike's name was added to my overseas travel cover, and also for breakdown cover as well, arranged by the Automobile Association. Not surprising really considering that I am the widow of Marcus Jacobson, for 17 years the AA's chief engineer, and editor of the Reader's Digest/AA Book of the Car.

Even so within three days of arriving in Athens, we were turned back. The reason? I did not have any papers to prove that I owned my Peugeot 406 and had done so for years - well, since 2001. What was needed was what we all still call a car's 'log book'. The fact that the car was fully insured - comprehensive cover - in my name with Mike Terry added as a named driver of the car, was insufficient. I had the insurance papers but not that log book.... Frustration, distress, huge disappointment and great anger followed - and a determination to take part, if possible, next year, health permitting.

But there was no one to blame but myself. I simply forgot that I might need validation that the V-registration Peugeot 406 was my own property and has been since 2001 when I purchased it locally from a headmistress who lived in Reading but worked in London and used the car to commute there and back. Then it had done around 35,000 miles, now it has completed 134,292 miles. Best of all, during the 4,600 miles in Europe - on the run towards Greece and on the drive back, it didn't miss a beat - and that was the case even though we had two fill-ups with strained former chip oil, which I'd been advised not to use.

Maybe there could be problems 'round the corner'. Maybe my engine will play up, but hopefully not. But up to now there really have been no problems through using that old oil!

And wherever I have gone since our return the stickers have caused raised eyebrows, quizzical looks and questions posed by complete strangers in car parks, outside our local newsagents and so on.

Am now looking at the log I kept during the event: Before the off, Andy gave each team half-a-lion 'grease marks' each - event-currency so that we could swap event currency for green fuel from fellow competitors.

On the E l7 motorway between Antwerp and Ghent I logged: 'We're now suffering from "global cooling",'' and Mike commented: 'Shocking weather for August. I love to expose myself - to the sun,' he added. 'Nothing wrong with that, is there?' So I asked if he'd had convictions for indecent exposure. He smirked and said laughing: 'Of course not.'

We'd been on the go for a number of days, when at a campsite at Biomi in Italy, at 2.10 a.m. - yes in the night - we had our first rain. Mike in his tent was 'as snug as a bug in a rug' while I - in the car, with passenger seat almost flat, was reasonably comfortable, but woken by rain splattering on the car's roof - and it was cold. We were in the Italian Alps. I found, in the mountains, that my ears often were 'pinking', an expression which my son, Kenneth, used when his ears popped as a child when we were driving,...... On the E70/A4 motorway, on the last leg before the Venice stop-over with two nights there - and a day 'at rest' - we were apparently at the half way mark between London and Athens.

I see I've written: We have speed limits to observe. By the time we break camp most days its mid-morning or later. But we've got into a routine....I have written: Andy is 34...he's proved a dab hand at organising a fantastic event and suggesting a varied route; he's a wonderful organiser.

It was 6.03 p.m. when we reached the campsite near Venice - and the temperature was 32 deg. C.

I added in the log: After a hard day's drive, we've just booked into a camp site at Mestre - and our trip shows 2,300+ miles, nearly 4,000 km. The scenery in the Alps north of here was magnificent - near the snow line and below the tree line. Tomorrow is a rest day. Last night (Tuesday night) it rained and was really cold. We are all looking forward to warmer weather as we go east and then south.

Had hoped to file copy every day, but quite impossible... If staying in fancy hotels, there'd have been no problem emailing material back. The problem was that we were staying in campsites with no such luxuries as internet connection or even a phone for transfer charge calls to the UK.