Diary: 26th-27th February Suolahti-Helsinki

02/28/2004

A trip of six days, during which he will have to drive 40 km/h to cover three thousand kilometres that divide Suolahti from the agricultural exhibition Fieragricola in Verona, finish set for this odd raid.
By his side Giancarlo Moret, the dealer that sold the tractor to Luca, but above all, a same aged friend since they both were children, the person which for a long time Luca has divided aspirations, dreams and adventures with, and the same one he has now organised with this crazy adventure on the road.
Two young guys, one tractor and Europe in front of their eyes, and the eyes of the audience that will follow their trials through Internet.
After a troublefree start, Luca and Giancarlo direct themselves toward Jyväskylä , first stop.
Only 45 kilometres divide Suolahti from Jyväskylä, but it was decided by the two drivers that this short trip had to be a sort of test for the functional answers of the tractor and its behaviour on snow covered roads, before facing up to the real trip, starting at 7 p.m. in such a snowstorm as only Finland knows.
Darkness, wind, snow and ice, therefore, the first companions of our two guys. However Luca has never had problems to hold the tractor and Giancarlo instead has had a hell of a time to keep the caravan that acts as service mobile assistance.
At the end however everything went well. In a bit more than ten hours the two men have reached Helsinki where, at 7 a.m. of Friday 27th they have finally been able to relax under the domes of the Lutheran Cathedral. 120 liters of fuel consumed by the Valtra M120E, i.e. approx ten litres per hour and one litre of coffee, drunk by our guys not to fall asleep. At 5 p.m. departure to Stockholm by a ferry and then, it will finally start the real non stop trip which will end only in Italy. The weather forecasts give snow for the whole journey, but Luca and Giancarlo don´t seem worried at all: they will hardly find worse conditions of those faced up to now.

Furio Oldani

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