Before the rally started, on the night of 11th April 2008, most of the rally participants had arrived in Coalville ready for the start on Saturday morning. This was to be the beginning of an epic undertaking by the most hardy members of the 2CVGB community. A totally new British event of mega proportions was about to be embarked upon. (Photo: Pink Dylan, Rally Referee & Team A to Z under the lights at The Victoria car park in Coalville, Leicestershire.

As an easy warm-up to the Eight Ball clues, the first Eight ball was fairly straightforward and involved a little bit of plane-spotting. The good side was that the planes were stationary. Here is where some of the participants realised early in the competition that the suggestion of binoculars was a sensible one. Without the need to pay and enter the museum, you could, with forethought, identify the required aircraft from the car park through the chainlinked fence. Other teams took the easy option & bought a guidebook from the gift shop, whereas others just asked at the counter. (Photo: The Rally Referee with Gloster Meteor & Avro Vulcan tail in the background during rally preparation).

One of the Quick Clues was the WWII museum north of Malton, N.Yorkshire. On this occasions the question was again a tail number, but of the Hawker Hurricane seen on simulated flying display to the right of the photo. By this point it had become evident that most of the teams had decided on the competitive approach and were doing the cryptic clues. Only team "Plodders" were content to just plod along for the fun of it. (Photo: Rally Referee by the entrance to Eden Camp during rally preparation).

After a day of waking in Coalville to freezing cold wind, occasional light drizzle along the road, T-Shirt sunshine at other times, interdispersed with hail storms and generally every weather variety the British weather could throw at us, we all arrived safely at Pickering for the first full night's camping. (Photo: Camping at Upper Carr Campsite, Pickering, N.Yorkshire).

Brian & Hazel of team "Plodders" opted for Acadiane camping rather than pitching tents. (Photo: Acadiane of team "Plodders").	Conversely, Ian & Rachel of team "Dollywobbles" were on the ball and pre-booked the Camping Pod at the campsite, much to the disappointment of a couple of other teams who weren't as quick off the mark. (Photo: Camping Pod at Upper Carr Campsite).

After the first day being a gentle warm up across the flat lands of mainly Lincolnshire, the route suddenly got a little more hilly. Leaving Pickering, the route traversed the first of 15 National Parks by taking a direct line across the North York Moors National Park. Here the route took in at least two fords on the shortest route between task points. Fortunately for the teams the spring rains hadn't swollen the fords to any marked degree. (Photo: Team "Pink Dylan" traversing the ford north of Westerdale).

Very few cities were incorporated into the rally planning, but one exception was the beauty of Durham Cathedral. The little cobblestoned streets leading up to the cathedral square were driveable on a Sunday without incurring a Congestion Charge. Being technically drivable was one thing, but finding the correct narrow cobblestoned street was another. (Photo: The Rally Referee entering the cathedral area ready to welcome those who made it to the top).

Apart from the Rally Referee, only one other team managed to find all the twisty roads and drive to the top by the cathedral. All the other teams chose to park elsewhere and walked up the hill or across the footbridge. Some thought the area would be pedestrian only, others just failed to find the correct turns. Pink Dylan had not just one, but two, SatNavs onboard their technically enhanced 2cv. Graham says they used the map to find the cathedral though, because the SatNavs kept arguing with each other about which way to go. (Photo: Graham with the "Pink Dylan" car and Durham Cathedral in the background).

Continuing north along the suggested route and before long, on only day two, the teams had crossed a national border. Passing through the second National Park in a day, they were soon entering Scotland at "Carter Bar" and heading downhill again towards Jedburgh. (Photo: Team "Dollywobbles" crossing into Scotland in Northumbria National Park).

Wereas maps can be very helpful, sometimes they fail you miserably. Team "Dollywobbles" weren't the only team to try a shortcut to the Eight Ball at Doon Hill Homestead and end up in the middle of a quarry. Team Mad-A-Gasket went for the farm tracks before turning back. Going around the main road and the signs off the A1 to "Doon Hill Homestead" were a metre high. (Photo: Team "Dollywobbles" at the quarry on a wrong turn west of Doon Hill Homestead).

Another day, another Eight Ball. Once again the teams got lucky and the rain held off. With a quarter mile of uphill dirt road to Doon Hill Homestead, the rain could have made the going very slick. A beautiful location though, and all managed to find it eventually. (Photo: Mark Sherriff of "Team Shed" driving up the dirt road towards Doon Hill Homestead).

In the whole of this rally, the rally organiser never expected anyone to do anything she wasn't willing to do herself. When planning this Eight Ball the dirt road was very slick, with flowing mud on some parts. Here is a photo of the road (technically) in close-up to show the marginality of it. (Photo: The Rally Referee and the road down again from Doon Hill Homestead, Nr Dunbar).

A few of the rally participants had expected the Eight Ball to be located on the island of Lindisfarne. The warning of tidal causeways in the rally write-up was very much in their minds, and the most well known of these was the road to Holy Island. They were mistaken and with Lindisfarne behind them, they put the idea of time sensitive & tidal causeway Eight Balls out of their mind, relaxing back into a false sense of security. (Photo: The Rally Referee at the Lindisfarne tidal causeway during rally preparation of potential tasks).

After arriving at the Musselburgh campsite, a few participants took the opportunity for general maintainance. Team "Dollywobbles" were frequently the first to arrive at this point and had their tents pitched while the rest were miles behind. (Photo: Ian of team "Dollywobbles" doing a little work on Elly while they wait for the other teams to catch up).	Heading north across the Forth Bridge some of the clues were nationally significant, some simple, some just for fun. On this occasion the Quick Clues took the teams to the oldest and tallest hedge in Britain. (Photo: Rally Referee at the Meiklour Beech Hedge during rally preparation).

Some of the rally followers expectated of an easy drive up the A9 to Aviemore, but this was not to be. Why go the boring easy way when two mountain passes full of beautiful snow was the other option. A nice coffee stop at the Cairnwell Ski Area cafe was a welcome break, as well as the location of a Cryptic Clue. (Photo: Tim & Dave of team "AtoZ" at the Cairwell Ski Area).	While at the ski area, a few of the teams took the opportunity to go and play in the snow. A few even got stuck deliberatly. (Photo: Team "Dollywobbles" playing in the fresh snow).

After negotiating the pass at Glenshee, and finding John Brown's grave at Crathie kirk, the suggested route then took a left and climbed over The Lecht, before dropping back down the other side of The Cairngorms towards Aviemore. (Photo: Team "Le Carnard Ivre" starting the climb of The Lecht, while team "Pink Dylan" contemplate the climb at the bottom of the hill).	As previously explained, The Lecht was full of snow, and even full of skiiers when you reached the lodge at the top. It was long and slow, but well worth the drive to see the beautiful scenery of The Cairngorms. (Photo: Matt & Graham of team "Pink Dylan", ready to climb The Lecht).

With the expectation of time sensitive Eight Balls out of some competitors' minds, a few were caught out with the Glenfiddich Distillery opening hours. The Eight Ball questions related to what part of the process certain items pertained too. Some teams realised too late that the distillery would close at 5:30pm, others went too technical, and instead of relating an item to a specific part of the process, found all the detail of what was happening and missed the simple answer. All were given a second chance to specify the simple answer. A few succeeded, a few couldn't find the answer in the many notes they'd made, a few got lucky and guessed right. (Photo: Scan of Glenfiddich leaflet available at the visitor's centre, showing the answers to the Eight Ball clue).

The third night was spent camping at the Glenmore campsite, situated in the Cairngorm National Park. A beautiful location with snow capped mountains in the background. Upon waking the next morning we found the snow falling all around us as well. At this point we'd been joined by a trio of cars from the Dundee area. Bert, Robbie & Ian had joined in for a couple of days. Bert (the hardy Scot) was even in his open top Lomax seen in the photo above. (Photo: Vehicle line-up in the falling snow at the Cairngorm campsite, Nr Aviemore).

North of Aviemore we had great support from the local 2cv affectionardos. The rally referee's Charlie had lost indicators in Yorkshire, Bert's lomax had a few hiccups & Pink Dylan had used their only spare tyre on the cobblestoned streets of Durham and were running without a spare. Callum in Inverness came through with flying colours, had a spare flasher unit for the Charlie, fixed the lomax and supplied Pink Dylan with a new spare wheel. A great big thanks to Callum for all the help and support he gave us. (Photo: Callum's beautiful Burton on his driveway in Inverness).

After a phone call from Bill, a local member living in Brora, he was clued in on the rally route and waited to say Hi to all the participants as they passed through his home town. (Photo: Team Shed, Rally Referee & Bill's red/black Charleston in Brora).

While chatting with Bill, a phone call came in explaining that "Le Carnard Ivre" had broken down on Struie Hill, north of Inverness. The AA had been called and were expected within the hour. Photo: Christine of "Le Canard Ivre" with the AA on Struie Hill).

After a 25 mile backtrack from Brora to Struie Hill, the AA had arrived a short time prior to my turning up. After a short chat with Ralph of "Le Canard Ivre" to comfirm he had points and not electronic ignition, a suggestion was made to the "Very Nice Man" that it might be points/condenser as no spark was present on his testing of the spark plugs against an earthing point. A light bulb flashed in his eyes and the usual modern mechanic's response of "Ohhh, it has points, doesn't it?" was elicited. Many 2CVers will easily predict the next sentence. Yes, you've guessed it. "I have no idea where the points on a 2cv are", says Mr AA. There was no getting out of it that easily though, as he was instructed on the location, removal (Inc trick to get fan off) & resetting of a 2cv's points. In a short while "Le Canard Ivre" were mobile again and heading toward John O'Groats. (Photo: AA (Very Nice Man) replacing the points & condenser on Le Canard Ivre's 2cv).

After four days on the road we'd finally reached the northeastern most point on the British mainland and an iconic landmark. Greeting us at John O'Groats was local club member Geoff, who's wife supplied the teams with homemade shortbread & cake. Many thanks for all the delicious munchies and great meeting everybody. (Photo: Geoff's beautiful yellow van).

Before heading off along the northern coast of Scotland, the obligatory line-up at the last house was a must. Ian of team "Dollywobbles" will remember this photo well. He set the timer, ran to join the line-up, tripped on a cable in the tarmac and took a nosedive onto the ground. After brushing himself down, stopping everyone laughing, he reset the timer on the camera and succeeded on the second attempt. (Photo: Eleven car line-up at John O'Groats).

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