Well, they’re off!!!! The HFT boys left Hyde Park in London on Sunday 16th July….next stop Mongolia….well almost!!! Follow their adventures on their websites (see News and Events), and better still give them a donation to make all their suffering seem worthwhile!!!
Top. David Mortimer and Chris Allen wave goodbye as they set off from Hyde Park in Jacky (see no plate!!).
Bottom. The Mini boys pose in front of their mounts all polished up and ready for the off – the cars that is, not the pilots!!!
Two of the Mongol Rally minis made it as far as the Scottish Borders for the week-end the other day as Ben came North with Steve his co-driver, John (who is piloting one of the other cars which is still in dry dock being prepared) and Fran for a rag-raid on Edinburgh to raise funds for the Trust.
Left. Steve ponders the inner workings of a misbehaving windscreen wiper – it’s alright, it won’t rain on you again once you leave the UK!!! and Right. The boys show off their trusty steeds to Dave Scott Aiton,
This was not only good practise for the actual rally…..they managed not to fall out with each other for that length of trip anyway!!!!!…..but also managed to raise £530 from their stands on Princes Street.
The beginning of June saw a very busy weekend of fund raising for HFT with two events on the one weekend. On Sat 3rd June Gordon and Claire Dennett from Spotteswoode, near Lauder hosted a magnificent Garden Opening which, on a lovely sunny day, attracted over 500 visitors.
Clockwise from TL:- The pond area, Gordon and Claire showing off the Laburnum Walk, Time out for a cup of tea and home baking, and view up towards the house from the rhodedendron patch.
They came to see how they have transformed 20 acres of sitka spruce and willow herb into a beautiful and restored woodland garden with banks of rhodendrons, newly formed ponds and a walled garden with a 50 metre laburnum arched walk. All very inpressive, particularily when you consider that Gordon and Claire have done all this since they retired!!!! As well as the walk around the garden there were several stalls including stick dressing, cake and produce (Claire had made 85lbs of marmalade through the winter!!!), a HFT stand selling the Journal etc and a plant stall with lots of roddies for sale along with other plants.
After such a successful day we were staggered to find that Gordon and Claire had raised £4,330 for the Trust …..and they are still getting people turning up to view the garden, which they can do if they give a donation!!!! Well done all at Eagle Hall, Spotteswoode and the icing on the cake for them was that BBC Scotland heard about it and came and took a film of the garden, which was broadcast the following Thursday on their Beechgrove Garden programme. This was a fine tribute to all the hard work their helpers have put in not only recently, but over the past few years and to all those who gave of their time so freely on the day.
The following day was all hands on deck for the annual HFT Pony Show Fun Day at Legerwood and with a bumper entry of 154 an early start of 9 o’clock was required to fit it all in before the judges suffered from stress-out, although we plyed them manfully with both solid and liquid refreshment throughout the day.
The kids all had a fun time with the minimum of unscheduled departures from the back of their mounts and of course a huge thank you must go to the Buccleuch and Lauderdale Pony Clubs for the loan of their jumps, the stewards, judges and helpers who gave up a nice peaceful Sunday at home for the sake of the Trust and to all those who sponsored a class.
The result was a very welcome almost £2,000 for the Trust coffers which made a very productive week end all round for the Trust even if it did leave a few people rather dazed by Monday morning!!!
