Imagine a sedate journey in the early summer sun from Northern France, through Nantes and Toulouse, past Montserrat mountain and the on to the Catalonian capital of Barcelona. Sounds idyllic, doesn’t it?

Now imagine that same journey but in a car which has cost less than £200! The rule of the race is that entrants may not spend more than £200 on buying a vehicle, so this team are using a 15 year old BMW they got on E-Bay decorated by a range of maps supplied by Global Mapping and its partners.

On the 21st May 2009, along with 59 other vehicles, two consultants from Salford GIS Limited, Paul Coward and Chris Nelson, are due to set off on the 1,200 mile journey in their Barcelona Banger, keeping everything crossed that the car will limp over the finish line and that they will have raised their target of £3,000 for MapAction.

As Geographic Information Systems consultants, the Salford pair have chosen a charity that assists in the coordination of relief efforts worldwide through delivering vital situation information in the form of maps, created and distributed in the field. MapAction is unique. They are the only non-governmental organisation (NGO) with a substantial track record in mapping for disaster emergencies. From their bases in the UK, Germany and the Caribbean region, they can deploy a fully trained and equipped mapping team anywhere in the world. They can be on their way in hours.

Global Mapping, People’s Map and XYZ Digital Map Company have helped sponsor this worthy cause and as a result the car has been given a makeover and is now resplendent in Global Mapping’s wall maps along with Peoples Map and XYZ data. Salford GIS are an existing People’s Map user having adopted the data as the standard data sets to use for all their GIS training courses

Follow Paul and Chris on their blog http://barcainabeamer.blogspot.com This will be regularly updated both before and during the run.
More information about MapAction can be found at http://www.mapaction.org
Donations can be made at http://www.justgiving.com/salfordgisbangerrun

You can even follow their progress if you wish on http://146.87.6.70/SalfordGIS/trackapp.php