As with all family's at the beginning of the year my wife and I were thinking where to go on holiday. I said to her what about this tour to Monte Carlo, then after much thought she finally said yes.

At first I was intending to take my classic MK11 Cooper 's!, but this was under repair with the engine being rebuilt etc. Luckly I had the luxury of a brand new Mini Cooper. The organiser's opened it up for the new mini so the discussion was made to take this one.

The day arrived for us to go, so we made our way from home calling in at Wickford in Essex to see my wife Sandra's cousin. We had arranged to stop the night on Saturday at a hotel in Dover because we had to be at the docks at approximately 08:30 hours on the Sunday morning. We arrived at the hotel booked in and settled down for the night until morning.

Sunday morning duly arrived and made our way to the docks to meet up with the other entrants to catch the 10 o'clock ferry, before the board I was interested to talk to people about where they had come from, about their cars and how they were going home when the tour had finished at Monte Carlo. We were stopping more than one night catching the motor rail service from Nice to Paris or travelling all the way via other parts of Europe.

The time to board came soon, so we drove on the ferry. Once on board we made our way to the restaurant to have a meal while we had the chance. This was a very nice, well presented and served and the crossing over the channel was ok.

We arrived at Calais no sooner had we got in the car we were off, I don?t think I have come off a ferry so quickly. We made our way to a car park at Calais to where the tour was starting from and started to take photo's. Being number 55 we expected to be about last, but we were told we could go when we liked. So off we went and made our way to the first stop at Reins. This is the old Grand Prix circuit which is made up of public roads. The grand stand and pits are still there. I was full of excitement at seeing this peace in the flesh. I had already seen it on video and TV and being a motor racing enthusiast from just about day one of my life this was a fantastic motor shrine.

Once we had finished here we made our way to the Nova hotel at Reins which was only a shoot drive away for the welcome meal.

The next morning we had breakfast and made our way to the next stop which was Mulhouse where we visited a very nice motor museum. In here there was some very interesting vehicles going back to when motoring first started, two cars in particular interested me in a Ferrari 156B which was a development car from the 1961world championship winning formula one 156 starkhouse.

We made our way from here to the second of the Nova hotels to settle down for the night. Morning came, this was Tuesday and the next place was Aix Les Bain travelling along some more very interesting roads. We were due to park up at the lake side at Aix Les Bain which we do not like along this route. Basil and Valerie Wales had there accident when we arrived at the seen. The police were already there along with the tour back up vehicle and a new Loader.

Sandra and I could see that Valerie was in some discomfort saying that she injured her neck, so we mentioned this to the police and would it be alright if we took her to the hospital. This was ok with them, so we made our way to Aix Les Bain hospital with after so much planning on the map 'Supplied' we found quite easily a few points here about the hospital, we did not have to pay to park the car and Valerie was checked over almost at once. The service was received was excellent and the place was clean.

Once done here we had to find a chemist for Valerie's medication which was found alright with the help of the map. Finding the hotel was a different matter. Eventually we found it and the injured lady re united with her husband Basil who has been with the French Police, telling me later on that BMW were most obliging and were providing a car with him to complete the tour.

Sandra and I were only to pleased to help out at this difficult time. By the time all this had settled down and we had booked into our hotel. It was getting late, we hurried booking into hotel and went for a well earned meal. After a good night's sleep we made our way to gap, travelling over some more very interesting roads or lanes or tracks in some cases. The scenery was just wonderful, before I continue just a few words about the cars on the tour:

There were 58 minis ranging from 1962 to present day among these were three works cars Paul Robert?s took 569FMO which was a sister car to 33EJB driven by Rauno Aaltonen on the 64 Monte. This car on the tour had a full race cam shaft in it not the sort of spec to travel around country lanes and towns. Elgin Green was in ORX707F the Tony Fall took to fourth place on the 68 Monte. Donald Far was in D555GRX which was the course car.

The last part of the tour was gap to Monte Carlo this was the longest part of the tour 244.34 miles with more challenging hills, hairpin bends, cliff faces, and shear drops some with barriers and some not. Then there was the famous Col de Turini, which was the last stage of the Mote Carlo rally.

I was having problems with my ears over all these colds, similar to what you can experience on a place. At last Monte Carlo had arrived, we was then directed on to the Grand Prix circuit by the excellent road book Once on the circuit we made our way to the hotel Columbus which is partly owned by Formula One racing driver David Coulthard, nice place DC.

The hotel could not accommodate us all for the final meal on Thursday, so we all went to a restaurant called the water front at the side of one of the bays in Monte Carlo. I sat with John Wilkins who was one of the organisers of the tour and who was mainly responsible putting the road book together. Apart from talking about the tour with him we had a very interesting chat about railway steam engines of which I?m also interested in.

After I most enjoyable stay in Monte Carlo and taking Brian and Elizabeth Purves who we had made friends with on the tour in Nice airport to go home. Sandra and I then made our own way home on the Saturday taking advantage of the motor rail service from Nice to Paris, arriving in Paris at approximately 09:00 hours Sunday Morning, then picking our car up and making our way to Calais, then Calais to Dover, then home stopping an extra night at Harrow.

?BMC Victorious In Monte? This was the headline in motoring news on January 30th 1964 after one of the most sensational giant killing exercises in motoring history now 40 years later 58 minis celebrate the great achievement and Sandra and I were part of it tracing the wheel tracks of 33EJB and Paddy Hopkirk, Henry Liddon all the way to Monte Carlo. We both enjoyed the event meeting other people and making friends. The route was exciting and interesting and we considered ourselves very fortunate to of been on it.

Finally I must congratulate the organisers for putting this tour together.