Eons ago we were driving down from Buenos Aires in 40 degrees across desert like terrain.
As we enter the final leg of our epic journey we are hit by snow storms and ferocious winds, the like of which we have never experienced before. We are one of the lucky ones, we are in a hard top car, it must have been incredibly difficult to drive one of the vintage open top cars in those conditions. They all made it to the final check point. Thanks must go to the snow plough drivers who kept the road open.
The last day of the rally began at the Rio Grande race track as the day before. This time the
organisers had included a very twisty bit of track. Just to add a bit more fun it was
snowing and blowing a gale.
After a lap we realise we are going pretty well in fact we are catching one of the Chevys, we pass him on one of the long bends, next lap we are catching another Chevy, we enter the hairpin section, 3 very sharp hairpin bends one after the other. We really don't want to get stuck behind the Chevy, try a dive down the inside of the first bend, decide he is bigger than us. Very short straight to next hairpin, he pulls over to take the correct line and Molly has
other ideas, dives down the inside. Scaring the life out the Chevy driver ( he had not seen us due to no mirrors) and scaring the life out of me and Julie. Molly knows what she can do and passes him. We have got arms legs and feet working overtime to stay on the grey stuff.
We finish our session with huge smiles on our faces and clock the 6th fastest time of the day.
Job done.
From there we go to a gravel road race section, this is the shortest section of the rally it is 4 Kms in 2 minutes, those of you with a mathematical mind will know that this means an AVERAGE speed of 140 kph over gravel.
Molly is still on a high from the race track and really goes for the last test of the rally. I have
no idea how fast we went but I do know we missed the penalty cut by 1 second. Molly is a truly amazing little car, if the driver had been wearing heavier shoes or Julie had less luggage we would have made the required time.
The rest of the drive was on gravel interspersed with heavy mud from the snow. A Paul Simon songs comes to mind ' slip sliding away' , fantastic.
Going back another day two days and our last post we check into a hotel called Hotel of Dreams in a 'quaint' town of Punta Arenas ( Sandy Point in English). We were given a very nice room in fact a suite. Only problem it was right next to the lift and above the air conditioning for the pool and looked out over the building site. We were lucky our Argentinian guide Alex was happy to swap rooms with us. Great up on the 10th floor, nice views and lovely and quiet. Until 10.30 when the Sky Bar on the 11th floor kicked off, the wind got up and the windows sounded like they were held in by low grade blue tack. Those of you who have traveled with Julie and I will no doubt find this set of circumstances familiar and hilariously funny.
Another quote springs to mind ' to sleep per chance to dream etc' no way Jose. We are thinking of suing the hotel for misrepresentation.
At the evening meal we were delighted to be awarded our second medal of the rally, this was based on 3 laps of a very bumpy circuit mentioned before. We did not think we had done that well but the organisers knew different. Couple more medals and we will equal Sir Chris Hoy.
From the so called Hotel of Dreams we take the early morning ferry across the Magellan Strait. This is a particularly choppy stretch of water and probably the bit of the rally which worries me the most.
Off we go onto a rather fragile looking ferry. It's just big enough to hold all our cars.
Sea is quite calm, what was I worrying about. Ah yes, I remember as the images of the sunami warnings by the roads side flash before my eyes. The sea can get a little rough and just to prove the point we get chucked around for the next few hours or days.
The old sea legs kick in and we survive the crossing breakfast intact, which is more than can be said for some of the other poor souls.
The roads and scenery on this rally are on a different scale to anything we have ever experienced. It's quite difficult to take any meaningful photos. The landscape is so vast our cameras just don't do it justice. The farms here are measures in 10,000 hectares + some have signs showing the drive to the farm house to be 12 Km plus. All the land appears to be fenced, boy would that have been a contract to win.
Most of the houses we pass look like they are made of timber frame with corrugated iron roofs. They don't look very substantial but they must be to stand up the harsh weather conditions.
Having all arrived through the said snow storm of the last day we all get ready for the grand finishing dinner.
There is a hat competition duly won by Pippa in a rather fetching funnel and flags ensemble and various other unofficial but very funny awards.
The big award of the night goes to Chuck and Pam Lyford in their amazing Fangio Chevrolet. They are the overall winners and team Bardel from the USA win the team prize.
However the real winners were all the competitors who took part in this amazing epic journey.
Thank you ERA team, to those of you back in the UK and those on the rally with us. Great bunch of professionals. ( that's what they told me to say)
Thank you Gantspeed for preparing Molly and all the advice. We think Molly was one of the few cars not to suffer any mechanical problems on the whole trip. We did have to alter the timing due to rubbish petrol but that was it. Fantastic little car.
Most of all I would like to thank the navigator who has now taken Molly and I through South East Asia and South America with no wrong turns. Thank you my darling wife X
That's about all for this post, we will do another with a few facts and figures which we hope you find interesting.
Cheers
David, Julie and Molly.
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