Last month two farmers from the Helston area swapped tractors for a rally car when they drove from St Austell to Vegas in Spain in just four days.

Geoffrey Williams from St Martin and David Hain from Four Lanes, both members of Helston and St Keverne Young Farmers Club, took part in the Vegas or Bust Banger Rally Challenge, raising £1,000 for Children’s Hospice South West, the Merlin MS Project, Turn to Starboard, Cornwall Hospice Care, Cornwall Air Ambulance and Marie Curie Cancer Care.

Here Geoffrey shares their experiences in his own words - including missed turnings, car malfunctions and how a room "upgrade" does not always go to plan.

Day 1

We got to the St Day depot of our fuel sponsors, Consol Oils, just a few hours before departure. Consol kindly donated a full tank of fuel for our journey, which lasted well past Bordeaux.

Making our way to the Cornwall Hotel, St Austell for the start of the rally many visions of breakdowns, punctures and running out of fuel in remotest Spain dominated the conversation, but we both knew we wanted to get the drive underway.

At around 6.30pm we were instructed to take to our cars and get ready for the start. Crowds of people lined the entrance road of the hotel as we left, stewards stopping the traffic through St Austell.

We arrived at Plymouth with little time to spare, but everyone made it and the line up of cars on the ferry was as impressive as it was bizarre - everything from a car decorated as a dragon to a Mad Max vehicle, to a leopard-print Rover convertible.

Day 2

Friday started with us all disembarking from the ferry in France. We were greeted with a beautiful pink sunrise - not that we had time to savour it, we had a big day of driving ahead, covering some 530 miles.

One of the most impressive and interesting sights was the stop made at Dune Du Pilat, a huge 115-metre high, 2.7km long sand dune on the Atlantic coast - the tallest in Europe.

Day 3

We set off at 9am ready to enter Spain’s north east corner and on to San Sebastian, but first we made our way down through the French coastal city of Biarritz.

We rose up the mountains of the Pyrenees and enjoyed the wonderful views along the way. We found San Sebastian an easy city to enter but much harder to leave. A beautiful, but very busy, city to drive through, especially when your SatNav throws a wobbly.

After many U-turns we found our way out and headed for Pamplona. We travelled deep into the Spanish countryside and the green, coastal views changed to wide open, brown, arid countryside within a matter of 150 miles. It was quite a surprise and a realisation as to how much we rely on water.

Our campsite for that night was around 90 minutes’ drive past Pamplona, in true rural Spain. It was a little tricky to find but one thing we learnt was that when on a rally, if you wait long enough you will see a fellow rally car drive past sooner or later. Sure enough not five minutes had passed and a car covered in leopard print drove slowly by - we pulled out and followed expectantly, and this time luck was on our side.

The food was typically Spanish, but whether or not the "lamb knuckle" was lamb or goat is still up for debate.

Day 4

We found ourselves leading around four rally cars down the gently twisting road; frankly we didn’t have a clue if we were supposed to be turning right or left out the campsite, let alone our route for the day, but neither did anyone else.

After around ten miles, one by one the following cars peeled off, leaving us alone and wondering if we were on our way to getting lost. We were.

One turn, by an industrial estate, led us onto a gravel single track road that got so rough we were in fear of our car falling apart, and once we reached a railway line we knew we were on the wrong track.

We finally found ourselves on some decent rural roads, well finished but undulating baldly. So badly in fact that on more than one occasion the passenger door "popped open" a bit. Needless to say that David seated next to said door let me know very clearly his surprise, distress and the possible state of his underwear!

Once calmed down and a change of driver, we found ourselves entering much more wooded areas.

Without a car to be seen, suddenly and seemingly in the middle of nowhere, there were huge amounts of road improvements: a new bridge and miles of dual carriageway being laid - it put the paltry improvements at Bodmin and Temple to shame.

That afternoon we covered many miles down to the Mediterranean coast to our penultimate campsite.

Day 5

The final day of the rally. On the route we noticed that we were passing Benidorm and having never been there we thought we'd better go and see what all the fuss is about. To be fair I thought it was going to be far worse than the reality, not that I feel compelled to return.

Shortly afterwards we passed by Alicante and onward to Vegas. As we triumphantly approached our campsite we decided that we would "upgrade" and the leave the tent in the car. It turned to be a garden shed - literally. But we unloaded our stuff, padlocked the bolt on the door - no normal door lock here - and made our way down to the beach alongside the lagoon.

We enjoyed the evening with its award ceremony, cash prizes - not that we won any - and medals were handed out.

Day 6

Waking up in our garden shed was a little like waking up in a sauna, or at least that’s what I imagine.

Late afternoon we returned to the campsite and made ourselves ready to start the drive back to Roscoff, France, for return ferry in two days' time.

Day 7

An early start was required as we wanted to reach as far north into France as possible to minimise our journey on the day of the sailing. Confidence was growing in the car but you never know.

We travelled all day, only stopping every couple of hour to swap drives. Its surprising how the countryside changes when you cross two countries in a day.

Day 8

The pressure was off, we were only two or three hours from Roscoff and the ferry. We both took a sigh of relief once we had boarded.

Arriving into Plymouth it was very dark and such a contrast with France we left, but still we were glad to be back on English soil - even if it wasn’t Cornish, yet.

Getting home we looked at the car's trip computer: 2,507 miles, driving 49.5 miles per gallon; amazingly we’d only used 3.5 tanks of fuel over the week. With 358 miles driven per day on average, that’s almost exactly the same as driving from Lands End to Manchester, every day for a week.

It was an incredible drive and one we will remember for ever. Not only do we have the memories but with many generous sponsors, we have managed to raise £1,000, which is to be split amongst the six charities.

Thank you to everyone who sponsored us, as it made the drive so much more meaningful.