by Nick Drew | Tue 29 Apr 2014
Follow that Merlo Manne!
Long serving Merlo service manager, Leo Tergujeff, who is retiring from Finnish importers Rotator Oy, has set off on his record breaking cross country drive of a Merlo P25.6 telehandler from Italy to Finland.
On the morning of the 28th April 2014 (yesterday), Leo aka (Merlo Manne), climbed into the cab of his Merlo telehandler, which will be his daily office for the next 40-50 days. This epic journey will take him through European countries before finally arriving back home in Finland. As reported previously on the Digger Man Blog, Leo will be covering some 4000 kilometres and looks likely to find himself a spot in the world famous Guinness Book of Records for the longest journey ever undertaken by a telehandler.
Leo received a warm send off from the Merlo factory in Cuneo, Northern Italy, where he was waved off by workers and senior management. On departure he was escorted by a group of local veteran cyclists, before heading off solo, with the beautiful Alps mountain range as a backdrop during the first few kilometres from the factory.
Here, from our friend Olli Paivio at Finnish plant and machinery magazine Koneporssi, we have a video compilation of photos from the first day.
[youtube width="725" height="344"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEacBSyfAEs[/youtube]
The Digger Man Blog wishes Leo all the very best on this amazing journey.