ATHENS (Reuters) - Fuelled only by used cooking fat, eight teams completed a 2,500-mile car rally from London to Athens on Wednesday in a bid to promote awareness of cheap and environmentally-friendly bio-fuels. The "Grease to Greece" race, the brainchild of 34-year-old Londoner Andy Pag, took the teams on a 10-day mission across Europe in which they begged oil to fuel their cars from restaurants, motorway cafes and fast-food joints along the way.

The race ended on Wednesday with a ceremony at the British Embassy in Athens where Ambassador Simon Gass presented a Golden Lard award to the team which had earned the most "Grease Marks" for collecting fuel.

Unlike expensive conventional rallies such as the Paris-Dakar, Pag paid only 500 British pounds for his second-hand Peugeot 405 and spent nothing on fuel since leaving London -- saving the equivalent of what he paid for the car. An experienced eco-traveller, Pag drove to the desert town of Timbuktu in Mali last year using a truck powered by waste chocolate. His next scheme is a round-the-world trip next year using aviation fuel made from recycled plastic bags.

Pag's red Peugeot was converted to run on cooking oil using an kit produced by Britain's Regenatec.

It has remained dry today and it has been quite warm but still no sign of the sun, but despite that I have still been enjoying my holiday, out and about every day, have just arrived back home after a lovely lunch in the town and nice walk down the seafront. Tomorrow we are off to Leigh on Sea to visit the cockle sheds and sample the delights of what they have to offer, I am definitely looking forward to that, just the type of diet like ‘sea food and eat it’, lol.

I have cause been busy around the house and been out on bike everyday. It been a great break to far and I am not due back to work until the 8-Sep, but I won’t be returning to the office straight away, in fact I won’t be back in the office until the 10-Sep, which just happens to be my birthday (I’ll be 50), not good planning but what the heck!

Good morning once again, well I did go back to bed and I did manage to get back to sleep for a couple of hours. I then dragged this ageing carcass out of bed and set off on my bike once again. Another good session which has taken me six minutes short of hour. At the end of this week I will lengthen my route once again, I can add on another two miles quite easier without having to leave the seafront.

I be will out again tomorrow morning and the added bonus on Friday of swimming again in the evening, but I am definitely feeling the benefit now, I do feel at lot fitter and stronger and I do enjoy it. So it must be good for me.

The swimming was good last night, I managed to do a 1000m, now I haven’t done so much for, well I can’t remember when, but it’s a long time ago. But I did enjoy it, the swimming pool is only about a 5 minute walk from the house and I felt really good walking home, like I had achieved some thing. Caz is planning on going again this morning, but I won’t be joining her I am planning on going out on my bike again. My next swimming session is planned for Friday night.

My god, its twenty past four in the morning and I have just woken up, I don’t know why, but here I am taping away on the computer. I give it another twenty minutes and see if I can’t drop off again. It’s not really important I don’t have work tomorrow so if I feel tired during the day, I’ll just have a little nap.