The International Men of Mystery

Dumball - Day 7 Last Stage - Bitola to Corfu

The last stage of the Dumball Rally is Macedonia to Greece. Firstly a warning to drivers everywhere, never leave your car unattended outside a hotel full of Dumballers (The pink car wasn't pink yesterday). The journey to the border was very short and the border patrols did not delay us for too long. From there we travelled through various towns and across endless mountain ranges towards Igoumenitsa. Generally the roads were good and we made quick progress. The mountains are gradually getting motorways carved through them but there are still a lot of areas where you need to climb up one side of the mountain and down the other. Main incident was when Tom (Superman)driving in another car was being tailgated by a blue van. It was trying to get past so he offered 'the finger of friendship'. Unfortunately it turned out to be a police van and the driver (a rather large policeman carrying a gun) was a bit upset. He pulled him over and although he apologised the policeman slapped him around the face and gave him a load of abuse. This all happened just outside of the tavern where we were having lunch so we had an excellent view. It seems a bit harsh but was a lot simpler than tickets and courts etc. When we arrived at the port we had 5 minutes to buy tickets and get on the ferry before it was sailing to Corfu. Managed Ok and headed for the bar for refreshments where we proceeded to drink it dry! The crossing was 2 hours and we arrived in Corfu at 21:30 local time (19:30 UK) in the dark (Normal for us now). However thanks to Black team leader Rick and the Hearse Today team the 15 minute journey from the port to the hotel took just over 45 minutes (how hard is it to get @turn left out the port and stay on the road to the hotel'? Hotel restaurant was closed so ended up driving to a local bar and getting some traditional greek food which was really good. The Hotel is a typical all inclusive beach hotel. Rooms are in small villas spread around the large grounds. Not fantastic but it will do.

Tonight we have the final Dumball Party and prize giving (More later).

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Dumball - Day 6 - Across the border between Albania and Macedonia.

Biggest problem today was getting out of the hotel. It seemed like total chaos as everybody tried to book out and settle their bills ready for a 10:30 start. The receptionists coped remarkably well but it still took until about 11:3o before everybody had departed.

Travelled across Albania and through Tirane. The roads each side of which were quite good and we made good time, but through Tirane itself they didn't seem to have finished any. We were driving on dust and stone all the way through. We did have a conversation with a yellow van driver as we were driving through. He was very friendly and spoke good English. He was  really interested in what we were doing so I gave him an IMOM business card (So if that was you then thanks for the chat and please get in touch with us). Arrived at the border just after 17:00 and we were through as a whole squadron in less than an hour which was great. Arrived at the hotel before it got dark and ahead of all the other Dumball squadrons - Result!. The hotel is a ski lodge situated on a snow capped mountain outside of Bitola. They were really friendly and well organised. We have had a superb meal and excellent service. Definitely one to be recommended (unlike yesterday). The hotel have laid on a band for the evening so it should be a good night. We just learned that the Daisy Dukes somehow managed to run their car off the road and into a field. They were Ok and only lost part of their rear bumper. 

The bottom picture is of some 'muppet' walking across a newly painted central reservation in Dubrovnik, check out the road behind him! I just got it and had to include it.

Tomorrow we're off to CORFU only 2 cars down.

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Dumball Day 5 - Dubrovnik to Albania

After the small delays getting away from Dubrovnik (see below) we finally set out at around lunch time. Headed through the town of Dubrovnik and up the hill out of town. Had to stop at the top as the 'Hearse Today, Gone Tomorrow' car was overheating. Seems they have a problem with their fan. Decided it was Ok to continue a fix later. Drove south along the coast using some of the worst roads so far. Pot holes, no tarmac and unmarked roadwork's (including holes in the road) seem normal. Had to stop to jettison some of the Hearse today's contents. It was hitting on every bump in the road and threatening to loose its exhaust. The coffin bar complete with optics had to go. Held a 1 minute clap (instead of silence) to mourn the passing of the bar.

Passed over the border into Montenegro without too much trouble and headed off to Albania again. Got stopped when we came across a landslide which had blocked the road and had to wait until a bull-dozer could clear it. Some of the teams used the opportunity to take a dip in the sea. We missed the road that would have taken us across to a border crossing and decided to continue as there was another crossing slightly further south. We were getting a bit concerned as the GPS didn't seem to know where we were and the scale of maps we had didn't show enough detail. The muppets discovered a tourist map of Montenegro in their car (eventually) and noticed that the road we were on seemed to end before the border and there was no crossing point! We stopped to ask a local for directions and ended up doubling back and rejoining the road that we should have been on originally. By this time it was getting dark. 

Eventually crossed the border into Albania in the dark. We had heard that the roads would be poor, they were right. In the dark we were coming across all manor of obstructions including cows, children, bicycles, tractors, goats. Dangerous stuff but luckily we didn't hit anything. Arrived in Shkodra at around 9:30. It's obviously a very poor area of the country with children piling around the cars begging as we were driving through. The guys in the escort cabriolet actually had children getting into the car (while they were moving) and trying to steal anything they could lay their hands on. The Hotel (Europa Grand Hotel) looked the business but on closer inspection wasn't. Plumbing was atrocious and the restaurant service practically none existent. We arrived in the restaurant at 10:00 and didn't get any food 'till gone midnight. When it came it was either the wrong thing or cold. Shan't be recommending this one I'm afraid.

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Its day 5 and we've covered 0 (zero) miles and the '1976 Bulgarian Yellow Snow Cone Eating Champions' are dead (or at least their car is). Their car wouldn't start and there was nothing that the mechanics could do to persuade it otherwise. It has now been towed away for scrap. See below

Bye Bye Siera!

The International Men of Mystery

We got here (including the Muppets)

What a day! apart form the problems with the Muppets the day was really good. We stopped over at Mostar to look at the bridge between the old and new parts of the town. It was bombed out during the war and got rebuilt to its original state. The mountains leading down to the coast were magnificent. Just a short blog today as we need to get on the road. We are off to Shkodra in Albania today. Just a short hop of about 150 miles so should be there before it gets dark (It will be a first for us if we do).

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Dumball Day 4 - Sarajevo to Dubrovnik - Emergency Update w

We're on the way to Dubrovnik but have stopped because the Muppets on Tour have acquired a leak in their coolant system. The Policia arrived and have escorted us to a Mechanic who is looking at the car. He thinks maybe a hose has split.

The mechanic discovered a hole in the inlet manifold. He has glued it up with some instant metal stuff and it looks like we're going to be good to go.

We're back on the road and heading for Dubrovnik - Woo Hoo!

The International Men of Mystery

Dumball Day 4 - Sarajevo to Dubrovnik - Emergency Update

We're on the way to Dubrovnik but have stopped because the Muppets on Tour have acquired a leak in their coolant system. The Policia arrived and have escorted us to a Mechanic who is looking at the car. He thinks maybe a hose has split.

The mechanic discovered a hole in the inlet manifold. He has glued it up with some instant metal stuff and it looks like we're going to be good to go.

We're back on the road and heading for Dubrovnik - Woo Hoo!

The International Men of Mystery

Dumball Day 3 - Zagreb to Sarajevo

The main thing we noticed today was the profound change of mood once we crossed the border into Croatia. Before we crossed everybody was dicking around as normal (see motorway photos) but once we went across and started to see the bombed out bullet ridden deserted houses everybody went very quiet and sensible.  I think that suddenly everybody realised just why we were doing this and why War Child need as much money as possible.

They say a picture says a thousand words, so here are a few thousand (click on them to see a bigger version).

More tomorrow - (actually today) from Dubrovnik

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Dumball Day 2 - 6 Countries in 12 Hours!

We have been through Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, GERMANY, Slovenia and Croatia. It's been a long drive today, over 600 miles! We are still travelling with the 'Muppets on Tour' and managed to meet up with some of the other cars at some services in Switzerland (don't ask me where). Stopped at a small village in Liechtenstein which was absolutely beautiful, and then headed off to sneak over the German border. Travelled through Austria towards the most south easterly corner of Germany, slipped over the border and  scored one for Dumball.  See the photo of the border below. We needed to gather some items for 'Dumball points' so we got a German menu and a beer mat. We also get points for souvenirs collected from countries we pass through and we don't think anybody else went through Germany at all so that must push us up the leader board a bit. I'm currently doing the blog in the car. It's 8pm and we've got 2 hours to go. I thought it would be a good idea to get it done now so the night is clear for beer when we arrive.

More blogging tomorrow - Day 3 - Zagreb to Sarejevo (only 250 miles!)

Dumball - Day one - Must be Munich? Er actually No!

Well here we are at the end of day one. It didn't start too well as we learnt that Germany had decided not to let us cross their borders. As we were supposed to be staying in Munich tonight that seemed to be a problem. The route was re-planned to avoid Germany and we headed south towards Luxembourg. We started out as nicely organised 'Squadrons' of six cars but very quickly got split into 2 groups of 3 cars when half of the squadron left the motorway and half didn't. After about 4 hundred miles we arrived at Mulhouse in France. The hotel is really great seeing as they only had a few hours notice of our arrival. They opened their restaurant to us and really made us feel welcome so if you're ever looking for a hotel in Illzach, Mulhouse look up the Kyriad, we can definitely recommend it.

During the day there were a number of casualties. The Coffin dodgers hearse shuffled off it's mortal coil and was abandoned in a lay-by somewhere. The Mystery machine was first to get a puncture after only a couple of miles from the start and the Muppets car, which was painted with emulsion paint, unfortunately, got wet! (See below). Apart from that it looks like everybody made it. The next stage to Zagreb should be really difficult from here and I don't think anybody is really looking forward to it. Have a look in your atlas to see what I mean.

Bye for now and remember to tell your friends about the site. More tomorrow.

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Dumball - Tomorrow ! - The IMOM have arrived in Brussels.

Hi everybody. The International men of Mystery have arrived in Brussels. The trip from UK to Brussels went well although the Air Conditioning failed on the car before we even left the UK - not a problem at the moment but as we travel south we'll see. The ferries were running just about on time so we arrived here at around 9:15 local time (8:15 UK). We obviously made straight for the bar to sample the local brew. We haven't seen any of the other Dumballers yet although the passport control at Dover told us they had seen some pass through earlier so they're here somewhere.

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Dumball - minus 1 day - here we go, here we go, here we...

Well apparently the talking is over and now it's time to get out there and do something. We are hoping that the Ferry is running tomorrow and that we will be able to get to Brussels for the start on Saturday. It's not looking too good at the moment but let's face it we need to be optimistic - starting now.

Sponsorship has gone from £2,800 to a massive £3,500 in just 6 days! A really big thank you to everybody that has sponsored us. Please remember to tell your friends, family, colleagues, drinking partners, grannies, neighbours, milkman, postman, doctor, dentist, people you meet in the street, and,  well I guess you get the idea. Thanks again for all the support and remember it all goes directly to Leukaemia Research.

While we are away there are a couple of things to look/listen out for. The Eagle radio has interviewed Dr Evil (aka Paul) and will be broadcasting it on Saturday morning between 7 and 1 (sorry but they weren't very specific but do try to listen in). The second is an article in the Herald newspaper with some photos of the Shaguar and us. Not sure when they will publish it but keep an eye out.

Keep checking the site. With a bit of luck the next update will be from Brussels.

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Dumball - minus 7 days - Well on our way.

Since our last update a lot has been happening. The Shaguar has gained teeth and claws with a lovely 'Pussy' on the bonnet (thanks to Pitstop). Sponsorship has passed the half way point and now stands at over £2800 so another really big thank you to everybody. Thanks to the folks at the Passfield Club for their support, we now have the means to update the blog as we go (special thanks to Shaun in Menorca). We will be posting daily updates here once the Rally starts.

Check out some of the other Dumball teams at the Dumball Rally Justgiving event site

So all that is left is to pack the car full of everything, fill it with enough fuel and get the sun-tan lotion ready. Then we're off.

Please tell everybody you know about our site, we still need to raise loads more money for Leukaemia Research. Thanks for your continuing support.

The International Men of Mystery.           (Sponsor us now)

Dumball - minus 18 days - Quarter of the way there!

Only 18 days to go and still loads of sponsorship needed. Thanks to all of the wonderful people who have sponsored us so far, we have raised a quarter of our target amount.

Now it's time to get serious. We will be driving the car around to as many places as possible trying to get more people to sponsor us. We will be emailing more people begging for help and generally making a nuisance of ourselves wherever and whenever we can.

Why not go straight to our Justgiving page and sponsor us now. You know it makes sense! After all. if we can dress up like this and be seen in public we're sure you can spare a few pounds for an excellent cause.

The preparations for the Dumball Rally are going really well and lots of the teams are raising plenty of money for charity. Everybody is getting really excited knowing that we will soon be meeting in Brussels to start the journey.

Please keep visiting our blog and tell all of your friends and families about it.

Thanks for your continuing support.

The International Men of Mystery.

Dumball - minus 20 days - Above and beyond.

Last week the staff from the RBS offices in Alton took the time to raise some money for our charity. They all got into the spirit of the day and managed to raise almost £400 for Leukaemia Research by washing cars and having a sponsored dress down day. We would like to say a really big thank you to everybody that took part and to all those who donated their money. A special thanks to Rebecca for helping to organise things and to Luke who agreed to have his hair and beard shaved off to raise even more money.

Thanks again to everybody at RBS Alton.

The International Men of Mystery.

Dumball - minus 27 days - The Shaguar is born.

With 4 weeks to go we have got "Lil" back from her "beautification". A real big thank you to all the guys and girls at Hawes Signs who worked so hard to get her ready for us. As you will see from the photos below she is transformed. Please pay special attention to the Shaguar rebranding exercise done on the back of the car!

Please Please Please use the Donate button to sponsor us.

The International Men of Mystery.

Well our car, nicknamed by Graham as ‘Fag Ash Lil’ due to the high levels of nicotine ingrained in every crevice, has now gone off for her transformation from Ugly Duckling to Beautiful Swan. She made the epic journey from Passfield to Milton Keynes effortlessly and this certainly bodes well for the trip. Graham conveniently felt a trip to the US was in order to avoid the risk of being called out to a breakdown!

Lil (as we like to call her) is being sponsored by ECCE International, who have kindly agreed to transform her with the Union Jack, target etc. We’re hoping to have her back in the next week and will post some photos as soon as we can.

Here's a couple of "before" pictures (Nice isn't it!).

Keep visiting us for more updates

Paul and The International Men of Mystery

The blog is live!

Hi everybody and welcome the the International Men of Mystery Dumball Blog.

First - A big thank you to Tim, Russ and Sammie for getting us up and running with this.

What a brilliant job they have done. "Groovy Baby" Thanks.

Plans for the rally are going well. We have a Toyota Camry (SHAGUAR) which we bought for just £350. It's done over 140,000 miles but seems to be a good runner and we have no doubts that it will get us there. It has a 3 litre petrol engine so if anybody has a fuel tanker heading that way let us know. Next job for the car is to get it painted with a Union Jack. We also have some sponsors that have volunteered to put their names on the car (must be mad!) so after painting we will be applying their logo stickers. Once the car is painted and stickerised we will be taking it to various places to show it off and hopefully get loads more sponsorship.

Please remember to visit the Justgiving site and sponsor us. All of your money will go directly to Leukaemia Research and is not used to fund our trip in any way.  Thanks for your support.

The International Men of Mystery.