Epilogue – The voyage home

We all had mixed feelings to be leaving Ireland.
Glad as we all were to be returning to our loved ones, we could not help but feel we had all be profoundly affected by what we have achieved. We have (with your help) raised a fair amount for EAAA and have managed to get the Botch Mobile round what the organisers call the most challenging roads in Europe.
But that is not all the story think on this 3 big guys thrown together in 1 little car for 8 days all told & Grizz only lost his temper once! We met some lovely people saw some truly amazing scenery and in real terms learned a lot about each other in the process.
Anyway once Phil & John had calmed Grizz’s homicidal instincts, we decided to head in a leisurely way towards Rosslare & the ferry. The normality of the N25 just didn’t appeal though as we soon began to hanker for the freedom of the Irish R roads. We took the Scally route to the Ferry following as many of the minor roads that we could find along the West Cork coast. The geography was far more rolling than the rugged west more like South Wales or Lowland Scotland. But we loved it!
So much could be said about our journey, but it comes down to this: We set out as 3 guys who wanted to have an adventure & raise a bit of money for a cause that is important to us. We found a country that is open, warm & very friendly, that gets more beautiful the more you see of it. More importantly though we arrived home better friends than we left, having made lots more friends.
At this point we would like to thank all of you for supporting us and following our adventures. Special thanks to all of our families for letting us do this.

John, Phil & Ev

Day 4 – Tralee – Kinsale

OK so we were none of us particularly enamoured with Tralee as there didn’t seem to be much going on there. We did find a rather nice place to eat “Tequila’s” did a rather nice slap up Tex-Mex feast for us!
We holed up for the night in a friendly hostel in the town centre & all went to bed fairly early......
The following morning our task masters gave us the usual silly things to do and we set off to find a host of weird and wonderful things........
With Johnny back in the driver’s seat and with all of us feeling fairly well rested we set off back in to Mordor to take on the challenges of the South West of Ireland.......
Today we can truly say that at last we have seen the real Ireland – The rain today fell with an almost biblical intensity which strangely just added to the allure of the mountains of Kerry & Cork. The views of the mountains & valleys were shrouded by clouds and mist and just looked stunning.
John was truly back on form today having been “a bit under the weather” yesterday. Our brave little car had to virtually swim the last mile or so when we arrived at the finishing line in Kinsale.
But finish we did and after all of the scores were added up Team Botch finished in a very creditable 9th place over all. We all felt very proud of our achievement and proceeded to let our hair down with the other Scally Teams.
We all felt a real sense of pride having completed the Rally this seemed to be universal among all the teams. All of the teams were so friendly and a good night was had by all.
Special congratulations should be made to Car 55 – The Lisburn Lads who were not only very well deserved winners, but were thoroughly good guys too – if you read this thanks from all of us Botchers for making our time in Ireland so enjoyable.
All that remains is the voyage home......

Day 3 – Westport – Tralee

Today started a little greyer than the past couple of days, and progressively got wetter!
After a fantastic night enjoying local hospitality, music and beer, our fearless chairman was a touch delicate so decided to opt for the back seat for this stage!!!!
The challenges for this stage were a lot more demanding and some dubious creativity was called for (photos of various modes of transport such as skis’, a tandem, and a canoe were required of us)
The roads were again spectacular and challenging and going through the Connemara national park felt a little like driving through Mordor, high rock strewn and desolate mountains covered in mist and clouds... simply stunning.
It was a long and tiring drive, nearly a 12 hour drive all told and with a few detours for the challenges, lunch and the Shannon ferry which we missed by 5 minutes so had to wait an hour for (although we did see some dolphins following us when we finally were on the way)
Tralee was a lovely little town where not much happens though we did find a nice little restaurant which served the nicest burgers I have had in a long while!
Off to bed now, ready for the final day of the rally!
Don’t forget to sponsor us - there is still plenty of time!
Bye for now...

Stop – press

Westport proved to be a very good place for Botchers to have a night out. After sampling a Guinness or two in a few of the local bars we popped in for one last drink. One drink turned in to several as we discovered that the locals were enjoying a Celtic jam session in the back room.
True to form Phil & Ev were roped in, Phil performed an accopela version of Sweet Home Alabama. Ev after some heavy pressure did a short version of “Ar Lan Y Mor” that went down fairly well. The locals were so welcoming which will make the evening live long in the memory.........

Day 2 – Ballybofey – Westport

Day two found our 3 adventurers holed up at Finn Farm a hostel just outside Ballybofey. In true botch style the hostel had not been booked until an hour or so before arrival and despite our earlier reservations turned out to be a fairly good thing. Our illustrious Chairman quickly grabbed the executive double en suite room by using a highly questionable forth method in rock paper scissors.....still turned out ok.
Our task for the day was to journey from Ballybofey to Westport, with a detour to Fanad Head & Mullaghmore Head.
Fanad Head is a Bluff that faces out in to the Atlantic close to Malin Head. In order to reach it we had to experience some pretty challenging roads & some magnificent scenery, a kind of cross between highland Scotland and Alpine Italy so far as we could judge. This road is used extensively as an Irish Rally Stage. John was the designated driver today and took great delight in using all of his driving skills, most gleaned from his many hours of watching The Dukes of Hazard & Starsky & Hutch. Colin McCrae would have been proud of the way in which his systematically pulverised our spleens......
The weather started out cold and very misty, but dry so we did not hold out much hope for good views, but on arrival we found the views amazing, with great views of mountains and clear blue Atlantic sea & huge white breakers.....
A task was set to get ourselves photographed dressed as four figures. An American Tourist (Ev), Arthur Guinness (Ev), Mr Tayto (John) & Michael Flatley (Phil).......see photos for details.......
There followed a pleasant drive down the N15 to the tiny fishing village of Mullaghmore Head, a lovely fishing village on the west coast of Ireland, we enjoyed a very good Fisherman’s Chowder and Guinness in a local restaurant.
And then it was onward down the N15 & R310 to Westport, once again our leader’s Stig qualities asserted themselves as he took on another Irish Rally stage. The beautiful scenery setting was turned up to 11 during this part of the day with awesome mountains giving way to rolling hills and the quiet beauty of the Lough and Pontoon.
Westport looks like a lovely town, which we will report on later......
We hope you are enjoying our adventures on the Team Botch Facebook page & on our web page www.teambotch.org.uk , because we are! - More later John, Phil & Ev.

Day 1 Belfast to Ballybofey.

Day 1 Belfast to Ballybofey.
Up early to see if our car was still in one piece, un-burnt and roughly where we’d left it.
All was well and so we set off for the starting point at the Docks... and managed to get lost.
After deciding to ignore the Sat Nav, which made no allowance for the one way system , we finally made it and were greeted with the sight of the full scally field spread out before us. A pretty impressive sight in all honesty.
Anyway 9.00 at the siren we set off. Last to cross the start line, we dropped further behind after we failed to find our way out of the docks. Ho hum.
Finally on our way properly a quick stop at maccy d’s for breakfast and a top up for the car and we were heading out of Belfast on the Larne Road. Within a few miles a bloke in an A8 was beckoning us to wind down the window...
“Where’s you lads off to?”
“Cork”
“You’re Sat Nav’s broke, this is the Larne Rd.
“We have to go through Larne”
“Oh that’s handy then”
Don’t know who you are fella, but you made us laugh.
Driving up the Antrim Coast is quite simply stunning. I could spend the rest of this blog going on about it, so let’s take it as read... the scenery from here on in; right through to Ballybofey is unbelievable. It actually gets to the point where you have to force yourself to stop taking photos.
So we stop off at Carrick-a-Rede, to go across the rope bridge, which is pretty brilliant. All the photos are up on Facebook or on our webpage so you’ll get the idea. Malin Head likewise is out of this world, but I won’t bore you with descriptions... look its all good and all on Facebook. Go look yourselves.
At this stage we are following other Scally Cars as we were pretty well clueless as to where we were. It is quite unsettling to be going along a road while the Sat Nav tells you there is no road, satellite signal or indeed sign of life for 20 miles in any direction.
At 6 we finally hit Ballybofey and went to find the Hostel, Grizz had booked en route (at this point imagine a roll eyes smilie). Remote is the word I would use to describe it. If you’re gonna push me for two words... bloody remote just about covers it. Think Deliverance, yeah, you’ve got it now.
Stopping to ask for directions we were told “Turn left at the tree” (That is not a joke).

But, to be fair, it’s a pretty good place, warm and with everything you need.
A night on the town was called for and despite some high prices, and me not drinking, it was a good night in a good bar, watching rugby and talking to some Germans. (Again no joke).
That’s it for now, 200 odd miles today (Can’t be bothered to check) and a good day.
Go and donate if you haven’t already, thanks for reading and we’ll talk some more tomorrow.

Well, we are registered and getting ready for tomorrows starting line! But more about this in a while...

On the ferry we met more new friends, very chatty and entertaining, Joel "the Tesco man" Mann and Joan were on they're way home from a cruise. They are regular users of the Larne ferry and recomended the complimentary evening dinner (among a lot of other things we talked about over the 7 3/4 hour sailing) AND IT WAS WORTH THE WAIT!!!!!!!!

Ok, brace yourselves, here we go...:boiled egg, tuna mayo, potato salad, green salad, spicy wings...chili, pork chops, fried fish, lamb chops, sauteed potatoes, pilau rice, chips, runner beans, sweetcorn...rhubarb crumble, bannoffee pie, bread and butter pudding, custard tart and cheese and crackers! COME ON!!! Stenna Line, we salute you!

We eventually found our hotel after a slightly stressful 25 minutes going round Belfasts' one way/road work system! The staff at the reception were helpful in guiding us to the Crown Pub for scally registration by giving us useful landmarks such as the town hall, the Europa Hotel and Anne Summers!

We registered and the first people we bumped into and introduced orselves to happen to be Team 86 that John had been chatting to for ages on the Scally forum! Propper Botch!!!

anyway, we have met more people than we can remember and a great time was had by all :-)

right 7am start so night night and spread the word

Ev, Figs and Phil

greetings from the middle of the Irish sea!

An 0600 wake up call is not to everyones' taste, but todays' schedule was the most crucial- as we had to get to Fleetwood by 0930 to catch the ferry to Larne in Northern Ireland.

We arrived with time to spare and met some very friendly people (stand upRoger, Dave, Margaret and Glennys) pointing laughing chatting and taking photos of the Botch Mobille! OH and there was free coffee, bonus!!!

After checking in we went through the security checks and in typical fashion, John was the only one of the team to get frisked- we recon its the shifty eyes (or the security guard fancied him!)

The ferry left at about 1100 by which time we were nicely settling into complimentary large coffees' and possibly the finest full English breakfast I have ever had (fried egg, 2 or 3 rashers of Irish bacon, 2 sausages, 2 black puddings, fried bread, baked beans, tomatoes, toast and croissants...phew!!!) all of which is included in the price of the ticket. I am told there is a free dinner nearer the end of the sailing, which, if breakfast was anything to go by is going to be fantastic :-)

Now settling into a quiet 6 or 7 hours sail so... feet up, book out, chat to more friendly people and geneerally chill out until we dock, then down to Belfast and registation!

Untill the next blog,
stay groovy and don't work too hard ;-)
Phil, Ev and Figs

3 hours of trying to log in, and here we are ready to blog.
(mental note... never let Nogbad choose your password.)


We are now in Burtonwood, home of the brewery...



...Oh and Ev's brother. Sorry Ceri.

Journey was pretty straightforward other than a slight detour to see my mum (I'll never get those 5 minutes back) and Ev's ongoing argument with the Sat Nav.
Anyway, for those of you following the stats (I'm sure someone is) we've covered 237 miles today at an average speed of slow.
The car performed pretty well... by which I mean it was making the same noise and had the same number of wheels, gears and people in it, as it did at the start of the journey.

Other drivers did seem to take an interest, particularly one tractor driver who seemed to want to make us a drink... well he gave us the coffee bean shake anyway. (You drive a tractor in Lincolnshire mate and you think we're the w*****s??)

Wildlife seen today includes an emu, cows, sheep, horses and a flat fox. As well as the inhabitants of Mansfield.
Traffic was pretty awful going through Mansfield which is probably the worst place it could have been slow, but other than that it was not too bad.
We've not fallen out with each other yet, though I guess there's still time.

Finally we've been treated to a superb home made Lasagne (with green rocket salad) by Ceri and are now kicking back and relaxing before we make the ferry run tomorrow morning.
As far as we can work out, this leg of the journey is probably the most time dependant...

... so if anything is going to go wrong I guess tomorrow will be the day it does.
Good night all, go and make a donation if you haven't already and we'll speak tomorrow.
John, Phil, Ev

"Tomorrow". It's an odd word, is it not? Sometimes it can be an excuse ("I'll do it tomorrow"), sometimes the occasion of hope, sometimes a cause of apprehension and sometimes - just sometimes - a harbinger of dread ("I have a maths exam tomorrow").

Tomorrow (Wednesday October 14th at the time of writing), Team Botch embark on their opus around Ireland. I'm not sure which of the meanings it has for them - maybe a bit of a mix of all of them. The insurance has been bought (with tears of blood from the sounds of John's complaints), the Internet access has been sorted by undoubtedly the least technical man in the team (no, not me) and the car is ready to go and covered with decals (that's a posh word for "stickers" - take a look at the flickr page if you don't believe me).

There's still time to donate at their just giving page (http://www.justgiving.co.uk/teambotch/) and don't forget you can follow their updates from the Rally on Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/teambotch/) assuming that they actually remember to do any.

So, good luck guys from all of us - have some fun, do some good (that's what this is all about after all) and remember to bring me some guinness home or I may never speak to you again.