how?

if it goes wrong, blame reality

First, let's get one thing straight: THE DUMBALL IS NOT A HOLIDAY. It's a challenge, just like any other that's undertaken for charity. We can't promise you won't breakdown everyday, sit for hours waiting for help, encounter werid locals or dodgy cops - but we can guarantee a collection of anecdotes you'll be telling the grandkids.

It's all about taking a step back and taking great pleasure in the madness you have immersed yourself in. Always bear in mind that if nothing goes wrong, something has gone wrong. Be ready for failure - and rejoice in it when it inevitably happens. The fun really starts when you breakdown, get lost, or suffer amazingly tedious set backs.

Can you have a good time even after 19 hours sat at a Russian border crossing? We held the biggest "car park party" the Ruskis had ever seen. If this sounds like your bag - then the dumball is for you. If you dig extremities, and prove you can be heroic under duress, you never know, you might even end up with the prize everyone is vying for: 'The Spirit of Dumball Award' - a monkey carved out of a coconut.

There is no support network whatsoever covering the dumball. You are on a crazy mad-cap adventure not a school holiday: which means there are no support vehicles, no medical arrangements and no arranged back-up to get you to our destination. The three-per-car rule means you are likely to be able to get into another participant's car if you break down, but you must be aware that there is no guarantee of this.

Having said that, there is such a thing as 'dumball spirit' - would you leave a fellow dumballer stranded on the hard shoulder? If so, don't bother reading on...

what makes the dumball different to all those other banger rallys?

There are always immatators - naturally. Be we are the original pan european banger rally - and leagues ahead of the others. Unlike every other banger rally out there, we help you out as much as we can. You get accomodation arranged and included, as well as slap up meals, ceremonies and parties. On the road, instead of going off on our own, we stick together - an un breakble team of show-off morons. And the best bit - we don't make a profit - so it's a cheap as is humanly possible!

You may have gathered by now that the dumball is all about driving in convoy and posing in places we have no right to do so. So we can stick together, we split the cars into groups which we quite grandly call ‘squadrons’ - who communicate via shortwave radio. Oh yes Bosshog! Each squadron weaves their way to our daily destination, spreading magic, madness and mayhem as they go.

Your fee includes all ferries, accomodation group parties, an awards ceremony and when you arrive at the dumball meeting point, you’ll be given a bag full of stuff. Dogtags (so we can identify you) a driver's manual, cool t-shirts to wear and most importantly your short wave radio which will be tuned to speak to other members of your squadron. The Radios are great fun, and chatting away to the other members of your squadron will keep you sane as we hot-foot it across Europe (well almost). Great games to play over the radios include ‘name that tune’ (best if you have an iPod) and the hours will fly by with a game of ‘guess what number I’m thinking of’...