![\"bbbmw\"](\"http:\/\/www.visitgalicia.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/bbbmw.jpg\")
<\/a>Chris and I have history. He was my colleague and co-director for close on twenty years and this won\u2019t be the first time that we\u2019ve driven to Spain together, although this time will be somewhat different to the first.<\/p>\nBack in 2009 we took part in Barcelona Bangers, a charity \u2018race\u2019 from Calais to Barcelona<\/a> in a car that had to have cost less than \u00a3200.<\/p>\n We managed to acquire a clapped out four cylinder BMW for the princely sum of \u00a3195, spend a few hundred pounds making it roadworthy, and then covered it in paper maps and sponsors logos on the way to making over \u00a34,500 for our chosen charity, MapAction<\/a>.<\/p>\n The car made it to Barcelona with just the smallest of glitches and then decided to \u2018turn up its toes\u2019 in an underground car park at our hotel. Had I not been able to convince a bell-boy, in very poor Spanish, that we were prepared to give him the car in exchange for his signature in the \u2018Permanent Export\u2019 box on the V5 certificate, we\u2019d have missed our flight home.<\/p>\n It was a terrific adventure as we travelled in convoy with a Jeep dressed as a bull, a Fiat Pope-Mobile covered in condom advertising which drew hatred from the populous of the deeply Catholic heartlands of western France, and sixty or so other garishly decorated old bangers.<\/p>\n Chris has made some sacrifices to join me, and I\u2019d specifically like to thank his long-suffering wife and daughters for giving their blessing for him to come on my Galician odyssey.<\/p>\n Our 2,060 kilometre (1,290 miles) journey starts on Saturday lunchtime and we hope to be at the Barn in Galicia sometime on Sunday evening having travelled all\u00a0weekend and\u00a0avoided the majority of the road tolls, traffic jams, road works and the various traffic enforcement\u00a0authorities.<\/p>\n Tomorrow is all about\u00a0packing, weighing, and then unpacking enough things to make the journey at a legal weight. Fortunately my brother Ian is coming to lend his muscles for the afternoon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Since purchasing the big red van I\u2019ve been on a quest to find the perfect co-driver for my trip to Galicia, to ensure the safe passage of all our valuable possessions (and Amanda\u2019s shoes and handbags). \u00a0The choice of an … Continue reading