One day's journey actually started several months ago when Matt Turner of Creative Pod and Lee-Ann Connor got together to come up with a fundraising plan for Gatwick Diamond Business (gdb).

 

In previous years we have carried out fundraising activities that involved a number of fit & healthy business people climbing or walking in unforgiving conditions and up steep hills!

 

The idea was to get a number of cars, driven by gdb members, to drive from Manor Royal to Monaco and for me to travel by public transport in the same day. In this country we do like to suffer pain or humiliation in order to raise money for charity and this trip was designed to create that humiliation and so raise more money for charities in the membership.

 

The challenge was laid down that I would carry out his journey dressed as Kermit; yes, a frog in France. To their full credit a number of teams chose to complete their drive also in fancy dress including superheroes, characters from Austin Powers or the Top Gear team.

 

The 11 driving teams and the 'train team' (me with the gdb Chairman & Treasurer, Steve Pullen and David Montgomery, with their wives - who subsequently donned "I'm with Kermit" T-shirts) all met at Basepoint, in Manor Royal, at 4am on the 11th May 2013. With channel tunnel crossings and train tickets booked, everyone had a tight schedule and the journey started at 4.30am, cheered on by any number of supporters.

 

The 'train team' walked to their first bus stop, took the bus to Gatwick Airport train station to connect through to St Pancras for the Eurostar to Paris. By 11am we'd arrived in Paris and used the RER to cross the French capital for Gare du Nord. We'd found a direct train to Monaco, but this would be a 6-hour leg arriving at 7pm. As the cars had made French soil at 8am with an 11-hour drive ahead (keeping within speed limits) of them, it was going to be tight.

 

The 'train team' enjoyed a relatively easy journey, even finding time to enjoy a glass or two of Champagne at the Gare du Lyon while waiting for the connecting train.

 

The problems only started once we arrived in Monaco and struggled to find the right bus to get us to the hotel and the finishing line! This was not helped by an outstandingly helpful French lady who insisted on 'helping' us purchase bus tickets, before trying to put us on the wrong bus.

 

So we arrived at 7.50pm, coming 10th out of all the teams! But we didn't get any speeding fines ...

 

So, what was the day like? To cross France dressed as Kermit, in full public gaze, was entertaining, to say the least. Reactions varied wildly: many didn't notice a bright green, 6-foot Frog walking by them; many looked away in the hope that if they couldn't see me then I couldn't see them; but many joined in the fun of it, engaging with us and having pictures taken.

 

The total raised so far is astonishing and I am very grateful to all the teams who took part, along with those who gave their time and support to making the event run so well.

 

We received great support from;

Basepoint - seeing us off with coffee & breakfast and providing snack bags

The Arora Hotel - providing pastries first thing that morning

PVL UK - creating graphics and wrapping 11 cars in less than a day

Coulsdon Audi - supporting us in finding the cars to be driven across France