News Report

This is the TV report, the link below is the whole interview

Arctic 4x4 - Linus on the TV

Here is another of the teams in the race.

Swedish TV appearance

http://svtplay.se/v/2332540/hela_intervjun_med_rallyvinnarna_otextat

Arctic 4x4 Rally - Up and Under Foundation

If you want to supportthe Up and Under Foundation you can on www.justgiving.com/upandunderfoundation

Day 8 and 9

Day 8

The end of the rally is drawing near and today we have a short day with some difficult navigation to get through the woods so that we can get to the ferry.  After a nice hotel stop we set of at the luxurious hour of 9 o'clock. 

Some of the drivers at the start with Martin as race director

Tina (Rally Lady) was having a fun time with only two gears due to a mysterious clutch problem.  The rest of the remaining cars set off with much fun and team spirit in the air as we now all wanted to get to the finish.

Peter and Thomas - have laughed and
smiled the whole race through - great people

As we had collected all the points with several hours to go before the ferry we had some time for playing and this gave me a chance to get the skis out.

Later when we arrived in Turku we walked up the river to the town from the docks - no really up the river!

Then it was off to the ferry.  This was uneventful, but was noteworthy because the ferry pushed through ice the whole way and the noise on the car deck was incredible.
Day 9

We were woken on the ferry at 5.30am and made our way to the car ready for a short navigation section through Stockholm.  We were constantly promised warmer weather but it was still -22C when we set off.  10 locations later and we were handed the location of the finish point.  As we drove the final kilometers we reflected on what a fantastic event this had been, the people who had made it special, the beautiful scenery, the animals, the cars and especially how much effort Torbjorn and Hanna had put into the organisation.  The reason I rally is to enjoy adventures with other people as crazy as me, this has been one of the best!

Torbjorn and Hanna - the reason we were all able to do it!

The reason we wanted to do it!

Oh and BTW we won ;o)

Arctic 4x4 Rally - Day 7



Today as we move further south the weather gets warmer, starting in Kajaani at -35C we travelled to Tampere (near Nokia) where the evening temperature was a mere -20C.  The theme ofthe day was not to lose at this late stage and all ofthe main protagonists stayed close together.  After finding 17 geo-points, five of the remaining teams found themselves trying to find a control point.  As this point was worth 4 points it was inportant not to miss it.  I suggested that if we all agreed to skip it we would be no worse off, but Peter was having none of it and said he would stay until he found it.  Being just as stubborn it looked like we might end up searching all night when a call to the organiser revealed a slight error in location and an hour and a half of wading around in waist deep snow came to an end, otherwise Peter and I would still be there.



Negotiations taking place



End of the search

With no cut off time there was time for fun and games and photography, we had missed many opportunities to record the beauty ofthe environment in our competitive dash through these fantastic countries so a few minutes were well spent with the camera.






With only two days to go I have no idea what the result will be at the end, in fact no one does because the race diector will only reveal the result in Stockholm on Sunday, suffice to say I think we are in a good position for a high placing with the main competition coming from Peter and Thomas from Sweden in the Toyota with far too many lights ;o)

Lorna's office

The trusty Volvo

What to bring on a rally - a sandwich toaster!

We are on Redshift radio again tonight at 7.30 uk time at www.redshiftradio.co.uk or listen again to the late late breakfast show.  ther is still time to donate at www.justgiving.com/upandunderfoundation 

Arctic day 5 and 6

Day 5
Today we drove from Kemijarvi to Kajaani, however our secret weapon was taken from us when we were told we could not walk more than 500m. I was a little upset but considering that one participant already has frostbite it was reasonable ;o)

Day 6

We awoke to a true Arctic Morning, clear and very cold, -36C according to the ever reliable Volvo. This temperature was going to cause some problems. Martin’s Toyota was very unhappy, the engine could not be coaxed into life even with 4 batteries. Hitched up to , you got it, the Volvo, it was towed to a nearby indoor, heated garage and brought back to life.

The really tough points were eliminated today because of the remote location and the extreme cold, how cold? -40 was the coldest and believe me that is cold!

We had another treat in store when we arrived in Oulu, a 5 mile drive across the sea, on ice to a checkpoint on an island. It was real ice road trucker stuff with cracks and everything.

Spot your snowball

Llater on we saw two Elk as we drove through the forest finishing the day with all checkpoints visited. A short walk to a nearby garage rounded of the day with a filling meal of pasta. It is a real rock and roll lifestyle, I might even get chance for a shower.