Unfortunately I took very few pictures during the final off road stages – when you are on sand you push your speed, and despite the fantastic ‘Watts link’ cool spring rear suspension and terrain management system things get a bit… bouncy!
Anyway, sometimes it’s just better to enjoy the ride, which is so much FUN.
Why not pause here and check out the video footage from Florian and Filip?
I’ll see you when you get back…
I’ve been taking part in a really special @fordeu event this week, sharing all the excitement with you on Social Media. Be social with me using the icons below #RangerRaptor More…
I’ll make no apologies for the image-heavy post. THIS is why I wanted the blue one…
I’ve been taking part in a really special @fordeu event this week, sharing all the excitement with you on Social Media. Be Social with me using the icons below #RangerRaptor More…
I might not need it so much in Southend on Sea, but out here in Essaouira it came into its own…
Those windmills? It was windy. My skin has never looked so good before the sandblasting I got that day.
I told you it also came in grey (although blue holds my heart)…
As the light softened, the sun set, and camels and Raptors made their way home…
I’ve been taking part in a really special @fordeu event this week, sharing all the excitement with you on Social Media. Be Social with me using the icons below #RangerRaptor More…
It’s has been a looooong time since I’ve flown anywhere on my own.
I recommend it.
After our welcome from hosts Chris Muers, Product Marketing Manager, Chris Rushton, Fiesta Marketing Manager and Oliver Rowe, Public Affairs Manager, and a getting-to-know-you bacon roll for the Fellowship in the lounge, we boarded our private charter plane and were off…
As I listened to the shop-talk from the journalists around me (including the story of the fibreglass cow which I wish I’d heard more than the end of…), I settled back.
This is the first time, to my knowledge, that the Company has sent ‘tame’ employees on a product launch and having represented the Marketing & Sales team in my HR role for a number of years I can see why the opportunity was something people often wistfully mentioned.
Lunch was served, chicken with quails egg and peppers, gorgeous goats cheese and French bread, a light brownie.
None of it shared, bargained or swapped, no need to cast around to check that everyone has something they want and won’t cry because it’s on their plate.
No need to upend everything for an urgent toilet visit with a child who swore blind they didn’t need a wee five minutes ago.
A seat for my bag.
Above the clouds.
Bliss.
Before I came out, I watched a couple of YouTube videos describing what going on a trip like this is like. I’m struck by one of the journalists very honestly saying that while the trips can (sometimes!) be pretty luxurious, it’s not about the company trying to curry favour or ‘buy’ a good review, more putting the journalists in a healthy state of mind and body to do a review justice. I think that sounds fair, don’t you?
While on the plane, plenty of journalists beavered away at their press packs and laptops on the plane, working through the specifications, preparing a structure.
I wonder how many pre-prepared paragraphs will be blown away when we get to the cars..?
I sincerely hope we do a good enough job while we are here to ensure the Company offers this again (and I already hope I can be part of the team again one day too!).
Now our descent… the adventure begins in earnest…
I’m taking part in a really special @forduk event this week, sharing all the excitement with you on Social Media. Be Social with me using the icons below #newfiesta #FordFiesta
It’s been a little while since I’ve been to Spain; being of Mediterranean (Maltese) blood I am a little ‘Moana’ in that the line where the sky meets the sea calls my soul, and so I’ve travelled most of the coastal southern half of the country, from beautiful Cadiz, through half-hidden Sevillano rosemary-scented alleyways, down the crisp Atlantic Costa de la Luz, snaking through the Pueblos Blancos, contemplating the gorge at Ronda, to Algeciras and the apes in Gib…
Then east through Malaga and the Costas (of course!), the bougainvillea-bowed white walls of Marbella old town, the reverential stillness of the Alhambra, La Mezquita…
Around to the Valencia region picking fresh sweet oranges from the trees in my parents’ orchard and then on, as everybody seems to, up to Catalunya, scaling Montserrat, Girona and then Barcelona for some gaudiness and Gaudi.
And of course I’ve dipped into Madrid’s xocolaterias and a few of the more central cities… but not yet the north of the country, though I have a hankering to visit Marqués de Riscal, and not just for the wine…
Deplaning to Spanish soil and taking that first breath of sun and dust, I’m transported each time back to my days of studying Spanish in Malaga. Mornings filled with study and laughter while sunlight spilled into cool school halls, learning the most beautiful language from scratch (trying not to mix up my French and Italian) and feeling my confidence in myself grow; freshly baked loaves of bread and hunks of cheese taken in the coolest shady corners before heading to bake on the beach for the rest of the day… bliss!
So Spain is my favourite place in all the world, and to be one of the first to drive the All-New Fiesta… quite frankly this looks like two days full of WIN.
I’m taking part in a really special @forduk event this week, sharing all the excitement with you on Social Media. Be Social with me using the icons below #newfiesta #FordFiesta
Drive 