London to Namur – and so it begins

The meeting time had been set for Team kbbreview, 5:30am at Taylist Towers, Harrow, Thursday 7th June.

The destination Namur, Belgium. 

6am and we were on the road. 10 minutes in and we heard a strange rattling noise so we pulled over. Sounding like it was coming from the back left wheel, Henesh took a look. The wheel nuts had become lose. Easily fixed, back on the road and heading for Dover. Phew!

We made our way to Samphire Hoe where we were meeting all the other teams taking part in the rally. Arriving just after 8:30 we were met by Tiffany, Steven and Rich from Vado, completed registration and were given our challenges for Day 1 – find 5 stereotypically French items  (bonus points for using our imagination) and bring them to check in later that evening…

So, quick roll call of all the teams and where they are from:

Brick-Innit from Phoenix Build and Developments

Piston Broke from Newcastle Plumbing

UK Construction Neg Team from Pavestone

BMF1 from Builders Merchant Federation

Deconstruct from Pauley Creative

Cembrit Chandlers 10cc from Cembrit/Chandlers Building Supplies

The Four Bobs from Centurion Group 

Bathroom and Plumbing from Bathroom & Plumbing Superstore

PCS Bogfathers  from Premier Contract Supplies

The D***tators from Doug Cleghorn Bathrooms

Team Beneath Heat from Beneath Heat

Rainy Day in Copenhagen from The Rainy Day Trust

Dastardly and Mutley from PHS Gateshead

Carkeys and Clutch from Bathroom Solutions

HPS from HPS

Avantadors from Avant Homes

The Last Minuters from Towns Plumbing & Heating

Artex from Artex

James and the Giant Pete from Stonemarket

Everyone had gone to so much effort with customising their cars including some familiar sirens and car horns and not to mention some great entrances (The D***tators, dressed as the secret service escorting Donald Trump, we’re talking about you here guys).

With a total of 77 cops and robbers (day one’s fancy dress theme) gathered, bacon butties digested and fuelled up on coffee, it was time to get in our convoy and head to the ferry.

Safely through border control and on the ferry, it was safe to say that the other passengers knew we had arrived.

After a quick one hour and 30 minute crossing we arrived in Calais 2pm local time. The aim of the day was to get to Namur and check in with the Vado team between 8-10pm and complete our challenge. The journey to Namur should take no more than two hours so we decided we stop off in Dunkirk and Lille along the way. Henesh took the wheel and armed with a list of challenges to complete that day, off we went…

Arriving in Dunkirk, the place was pretty quiet, so we were hard pushed to find any stereotypical French items – challenge number one being to find five. Not wanting to leave empty handed Lindsay decided she’d grab her robbers swag bag and fill it with sand in the hope that it would earn us some imagination bonus points – the sand of the beach being seeped in history, of course.

Next in the drivers seat was Tara as the team headed towards Lille which was about an hour away.  We wanted to take in some of the sights, so decided we’d stick Lille Grand Palais in the Sat Nav. Arriving just before rush hour we went around in circles trying to find the palace, in the end we decided to ditch Daisy and try and find it on foot. Time was ticking on and we were still yet to collect another 4 items for the challenge, so we gave up on the palace and headed to the closest supermarket to see what we could find. 

A bottle of cheap Champagne, the smelliest Camembert ever, a French flag (which the shop keeper kindly donated to us), garlic and some shoe laces (Tara’s idea to make a garlic garland) and we were back on the road heading to Namur. Oh, and we managed to get behind a bar and pull our own pint of Belgian beer for challenge number two.

Made it to the hotel for 9pm, quick change and freshen up, hopped in a cab and made it to our meeting point Boulevard De Rhum with minutes to spare…

Head over to our Instagram page for highlights from day 1 – @kbbreview

We’d like to thank our partners who have been very generous in donating to such worthy causes, HPPThe 1810 CompanyUformNobillia and Blum.

If you would like to donate, please click here

 

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