Charity Total

As of October 29th the team total stands at £2610 raised for charity. A brilliant total and thanks to everyone who has donated.

On the boat!

The Hamster and the Daimler are on the boat ready for the 12 hour crossing to Hull from Rotterdam.

They think it's all over!

Well it is now. :-(
Team Hamstersham made it to Amsterdam...cruised in, in fact, with a bit of squealing!
We've had a blast all of us and thanks for all the support from back home and for all your donations.
Special thanks though to the members of team Hamstersham - Dan Archer, Gary Bagnall & Colin Laffin and to the wonderful Team We're not with them (who won best team!) Nick Joyce, Nikki Joyce & Haydn Marshall!
Feel emotional it's all over..and proud of the Hamster car who has spread love, joy and smiles all over Europe this last weekend.

The fastest hamster in the world

Achieved on the autobahn! Fast Hamster!!

The best hamster fan

We've attracted many admirers so far but this one is by far the best and compliments the hamster best!

We made the papers

Well the travel industry press anyway. You know what they say..there's no such thing as bad publicity!
http://www.aspiretravelclub.co.uk/Articles/41634/The-Hamster

Greetings from Switzerland

We made it up and down the alps with much hamster like squealing it has to be said and now passing through tinkle tonkle land en route to Friberg.

Mountains!

Well isn't that a beautiful sight. The hamster and friends at the foot of Mont Blanc.
What goes up must come down...hopefully in one piece

And they're off

8 am this morning (7am British time) and the teams set off in gale force winds.
A whopping 529 miles to do today and at the time of posting we've still 339 to do.
One teams car broke down in Reigate yesterday on the way to the ferry but undaunted they bought another one and made it to the start this morning!
True banger rally spirit!

We made it to Dover!

The Hamster and our posh comrades in the gleaming union jag car made it too and now we're on the ferry! We lost a few eyelashes and had a squealy wheel bearing (we think) but other than that unscathed.
We even had a strip search on customs at Dover! Ooer!

Oops

60 miles in and we've lost 6 eyelashes :-(

And so it begins

The day of days has arrived! The Grand Depart for the Hamster and its four compatriots towards Europe. Motorists beware – there is a Hamster on the roads of Britain. The packing is complete; CDs, cameras, satnavs and cooler boxes are all at the ready. We might not have air-con or sound structural integrity but our car is covered in fur and packed with humour! But the best part is – the unknown! 1400 miles around Europe here we come. 

We know who we are

Just to make sure we don't forget who we are or where we're going!

We have supplies

The lovely kind Paula Kelsey of Cloud 9 Event Management sent us supplies for the Hamster! :-)

Mechanical challenges

Good old (young) Mark from Per Fit  has hardly been away from the Hamster since trying to fix the A/C.
Today the old girl has had a new steering suspension mount fitted after the old one clonked into failure and tomorrow he returns to try and sort out why the washer jets don't work.
We have to get them fixed or we wont be able to see where we're going!

The Hamster is finished!!

Ta Da!! We proudly present the finished, final, grand design of the Hamstersham wheels!!

Its been extensively road tested (cough) and so far the fur has stayed on. Its been subject to some heavy rain and so far..the fur has stayed on.

Lets hope it stays on!!

Rain? Come on do your worst!

Couple of cans of this and we hope the hamster's fur is as waterproof as it can be!
We're waiting for a rain shower now...gulp!

No comprendo

Just too good to not put on the blog. The instructions for the eyelashes. All translations welcome.

Ear Ear

We couldn't have done it without her. If you're looking for ears and a tail for a fur covered car there's only 1 person you can call!
Give me a C.Y.N.T.H.I.A.
Cynthia also made us a prototype hamster costume but unfortunately we looked too much like Bungle out of Rainbow so production was abandoned. :o)

Thanks for the Ears and the tail Cynthia..

A/C?? Fingers crossed

Well Mark and Mark and Carl from Per-Fit fitted condenser number 4 so with a bit of luck and a regas at Kwik Fit on Saturday we might be cool...

http://www.per-fit.co.uk/

Thanks guys...

Mark and Mark from Per-Fit

12 days to go!!

Only 12 days til we start our journey south!! The road trip of the year is nearly here!!

Almost a full hamster

There's just the ears, nose, whiskers and tail to attach and we will have a complete mobile Hamster!
St Dan and Sarah completed the fur transformation today, dodging the rain. We're a bit concerned that the glue is water soluble and therefore there is a possibility that by the time we get to Calais we might not have any fur unless the weather picks up!
Still too late now!

We have costumes!

The costumes arrived today but no pictures yet of the real thing..because they're a surprise! Some members of the team are happier about them than others but they've got time to adjust.
Plans for the team mascot are underway too....more on that later!

Half a Hamster

Well after about 4 hours and 1 litre of glue (so far) we have half a hamster!

Hmmmm

Not sure what use this might be to 4 non mechanics but you never know!

We have A/C

A hole in the air conditioning condenser threatened to make it a long hot sweaty ride in the Hamster but thanks to Lee at Home Start Mechanic and his speedy fitting of a 2nd hand condenser we're going to have a cooler and altogether more fragrant journey!

http://www.homestartmobilemechanicaccrington.co.uk/

Thanks Lee..we owe you one!

The Hamster does Teeside

The Hamstersham wheels took a nice long drive to Teeside and back where they had a full medical from Andy & Gary at AWAutoworks.

Apart from a hole in the Air Conditioning condenser the Hamstersham team are quietly confident that we might actually make it to the finish!

Glue!

Well team Hamstersham have nearly completed an intensive research programme on contact adhesives, fur is ordered and we're nearly good to go.
The wheels are going for a check over by professionals tomorrow...gulp!

A little test from the iPhone

Just checking that we can update you all while we're on the move!

58 days to go!

Well in 58 days time we'll be off on the Random Rally - Nutters to the Netherlands. 1400 miles or so through Europe and ending up in Amsterdam for a massive party!

Here's our intrepid teams..

Hamstersham - Sarah, Dan, Gary & Colin


We're not with them - Nick, Nikki & Haydn




Its going to be unknown, fun, scenic, drunken and a test of man over mechanical engineering!

WE CAN'T WAIT!