Our club is working with Overseas Project Team to bring a Fire Engine from Cornwall, England to Peja, Kosovo.
The Fire Engine is currently on its way and we have an update from the awesome guys bringing it. Please read their message below:
Morning all, Day 2 on the road to Kosovo, well it started with rain overnight but we were all tucked up in bed so no worries but the morning came with good news as we were having breakfast that Lewis Hamilton won the Japanese Grand Prix!
However in addition we have our own Lewis Hamilton who likes to get a move on too!!!! No worries there. We had received the spare parts delivered overnight by Mercedes InternationalBreakdown service, new belts for the alternator, water pump and most importantly the power steering pump, our resident and excellent mechanic Chris-Slick-Ellis fixed it and we lost only 2.5 hours and we were on the road again going south and east towards Italy coming into again a beautiful sunny and warm day.
We dropped the water and made the vehicle lighter by 2 tons as by now the vehicle was settling into a smooth running mode and all four drivers were enjoying themselves…..or so it seemed until we got to the Frejus tunnel 13 kilometres long fromFrance into Italy. The chase car with Mark and John and me in the back went through but the Police stopped the fire engine……too old to go through but they would not budge and we still cannot find the written word anywhere that quotes this!
After a few minutes of discussions with various “officials”it was a no go so the fire engine had to detour and a very scenic route and with no sat nav etc, mine had packed up, up over the mountains almost to the snow line and down again and the chase was on to meet up and continue the journey.Eventually we meet up at the turnpike/toll gates outsideTorino…so many tolls….. and then proceeded hotfoot to Piacenza where we stayed and still am as I write this as 0600hours this morning the 9th October.
We had a large round table for the Magnificent Seven in the restaurant and the beverages were consumed. The hotel staff are brilliant and I recommend a stay here if you are ever this way. The man who has made this stay most enjoyable and helped us all is Stefano on reception very good English, very grateful after a long day with two delays costing us at least four hours.
Lisa Marie (Fire Engine) and the chase car are performing very well and the fuel consumption with the good conditions and smooth roads is very good.
It is Monday so a lot more traffic and more Italians and their exciting and exuberant driving!!!!! We head off to Slovenia and Croatia and hope to end up in Vinjerac (Zadar) tonight. That’s it for now no crew misdemeanors today only lots of great banter and very high spirits and I personally am very grateful to the four truckers, Slick, Mobile, Lewis and Cool hand Luke for their sterling efforts in very trying circumstances with theFrench authorities, well done guys. Question who are the four above watch closely……. Pete.
