If you're into desert rallies then what on earth do you do for a holiday? That's easy; do the Gumball 3000! 2005 saw an entry into the rally from Paul Round and Martin Coulson.

Despite the fact that we did not have a high performance sports cars we still entered, basically to the amazement of all the other entrants.

The rally lasts seven days and starts in London, goes to Acoz just outside Brussels, on to Prague then Vienna at the Hofburg Imperial Palace, then The Hungaroring near Budapest.

Next stop - Croatia and Dubrovnik, over into Italy and Taormina for the day. Then on to the Piazze della Republica in Roma, followed by Firenza, and finally onto Monaco's Casino Square just in time for the Monaco F1 GP.

So we managed to complete all this, along with a large number of the world's supercars, and amazingly we were in the middle of the field and not at the back! People at the back just could not navigate - even with a Gumball sat nav system people were still getting lost. Not so sure what they would have done in a desert... People in front were just plain quick - We can cruise all day at 120mph but it's all a bit noisy much better to cruise at 100mph.

Our secret weapon? A 300-plus litre fuel tank. Only one stop for gas on the entire rally meant we got to drive past all the Porsches and Ferraris as they filled up every 100 miles.

Did I enjoy it? Yeah, it was a fun week out for a nippy Sunday afternoon drive around some really cool parts of Europe, but the desert is a lot more tempting and demanding than any 5-star hotel can be.

For another cool view on the whole activity check out Alexander Roy's web site, a man with an obsession about technology, police and the Gumball.