The run-up to The 2CV Alaska Challenge, and the main event itself, were covered by more than 60 newspapers, both in the UK and in North America, as well as TV and radio stations. This page contains a small selection from this media coverage and some background to the publicity. There's also a sound file, The Ballad of Andre the Mountie, which was the official song of the Alaska trip.
The 2CV Alaska Challenge was never conceived as a charity event. It was more a "let's drive a Citroen 2CV to the Arctic Ocean in Alaska just for the hell of it" kind of thing. However, late in 1998, with the Alaska trip already in the advanced stage of planning, my dear Mother suggested using it to raise some money for charity. Ok, why not. My younger sister, Sarah, suffers from Crohn's Disease, and Jose used to work for the Samaritans, so we thought we'd raise money for these two causes.
Postscript... the publicity did not end with the 2CV Alaska Challenge. Rob stayed on in North America and for a number of months afterwards he and the car continued receiving newspaper coverage, right up until a final photo shoot with the Winnipeg Sun at the end of November 1999. In early December 1999, Rob arrived in Paris after taking a cheap flight from Montreal. He was penniless and had only the clothes he was standing up in. Jose came to the rescue with an emergency money wire. This enabled Rob to take a ferry back to England, where he arrived in Dover in the early hours of the morning of 5th December, and where he discovered that there was a warrant out for his arrest. Click Here to see the final piece of publicity to come out of The 2CV Alaska Challenge. |