The 2CV Alaska Challenge
Bulletin No.21 UP INTO
THE ARCTIC (WITH AN INFLATABLE SEX DOLL). It was another one of those strange farewells, late at night at an airport on the other side of the world. Jose and I had done some hard travelling together: Savannah to Fairbanks in 31days and 7000 miles, in an old, beat-up Citroen 2CV... it had been a slice (of life). But onwards and upwards, literally, to the Arctic Ocean. The 2CV Alaska Challenge had to be seen through until the end; and so on Saturday 28th August, at 12 minutes past miday, Rob Godfrey left Fairbanks and headed north, armed only with emergency rations: two packets of crisps, 1 bar of chocolate, a carton of cigarettes and 4 crates of beer. At his side was Jamie the Love Doll, his faithful companion. The Dalton Highway begins at Livengood, 90 or so miles north of Fairbanks. Here the road became rock, gravel and mud, and would stay like that for 440 miles all the way to Prudhoe Bay. Rob Godfrey gritted his not so pearly teeth and fought to keep the 2CV on the road. Mile after mile the car bounced and shook and rattled with such violence that it seemed impossible that it could remain in one piece. But in one piece it was and at 5.30pm on Saturday 29th August Rob Godfrey reached latitude 66,33 north, and in so doing became the first man ever to cross the Arctic Circle with a fully inflated sex doll. He had joined that band of intrepid Englishman who battle against and overcome adversity - such as the chap who cycled from Peru to Prudhoe Bay and got caught in a blizzard at the top of the Atigun Pass, in the Brooks Range. At 7.02pm on Saturday 29th August Rob Godfrey reached Coldfoot, way above the Arctic Circle, in the foothills of the Brooks Mountain Range, and without a single punctured tyre. Over a cup of tea with Jamie, Rob Godfrey studied his Daily Telegraph map of the world: the infamous Atigun Pass would have to be faced in the morning. Jamie was very silent that evening. END.
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