Way back when, ‘back in the day’ as the kids’ say, Kiwi country singer John Hore (later to become better known as John Grenell) adopted a song by Australian counterpart Geoff Mack call, ‘I’ve Been Everywhere Man.’
You probably know it.
It goes something like this; ‘I’ve been everywhere man, I’ve crossed the desert bare man etc etc, etc, I’ve been to…Kaparoa, Whangaroa, Akaroa, Motueka,’ and the list goes on.
Create your own version using place names a little further afield, like ‘I’ve been to Iran, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan…etc, etc’ and you quite literally could be talking about Greg Paul.
Now 56, Paul, who describes himself simply as ‘a tour operator,’ has been boldly going where (few) men have gone before since his early 20s, when – as an adaptable young Kiwi mechanic on his OE – he started driving tour buses for the Sundowner company from London to Kathmandu and back.
Right now Paul, who up until recently has also run a successful bus company in this country, is planning his second foray to the famous Dakar Rally in South America.
The 2015 event (the 37th) starts and finishes in Buenos Aires and covers 9000kms through three countries, Argentina, Chile and Bolivia. It starts on January 03 and finishes on January 18 and one of the key attractions this year will be the return of the Peugeot team, complete with two-time former World Rally Champ and 2010 Dakar car section winner, Spaniard Carlos Sainz.
Having successfully run rally supporters tours to events across the world, as well as a number of successful trans-continental events (starting with the centenary Peking to Paris Classic in 2007) Paul says that the Dakar ‘adventure’ is a mix of both.
“What it is,” he says,” is a combination of a rally spectating tour and one of our overland 4WD tours.”
The first trip he and a small group of regular clients did to the Dakar event in 2013 was very much a suck-it-and-see exercise,’ the key to its success the fact he took his own (very well-travelled) Land Cruisers.
“One of the reasons,” he explains,” is that over there (South America) it is very hard to hire a vehicle to do the whole event. You can hire one in one country but you are not allowed to take it to another.”
Having your own experienced Kiwi driver also helps.
“Seriously,” says Paul. “They drive like idiots over there, so believe me, you want someone you know and trust behind the wheel.”
Paul’s plan is to take four vehicles from here and sell seats in them. Having seen on the 2013 trip how the event works he says the four vehicles will slot into the event with the bikes and quads on the many long transport stages (it is not uncommon for competitors to have to drive 300km to the first stage of the day, meaning that they will have to start at 3 or 4am in the morning) then peel off and find the best spectating spots before the rest of the field (cars, buggies and trucks) come through.
Obviously, there is an itinerary, but Paul says there is always enough flexibility to be able to take advantage of the locals’ hospitality and/or offers of detours.
Contacts made at the 2013 event also means those lucky enough to join him in 2014 will be able to follow the fortunes of Australian driver Geoff Olham who looks set to again drive a Toyota Hilux for the Belgium-based Overdrive Racing squad.
“He’s a hell of a nice guy and got 10th overall in 2013,” says Paul. “We’ll again get to rub shoulders with him and his team.”
By Ross MacKay
