A few photos of Torres del Paine.

Sorry there are not more photos. The connection is very slow.

But have a look at 

http://gerardbrown.photoshelter.com/gallery-collection/Vintage-Cape-Horn-gallery.

 Blog to follow :)

Titanic moment !

Today we have pretty much recovered from the long hard dusty drives. We are nearly talking to each other and the sun is out.
One of the reasons for coming on this amazing adventure was to visit the Perito Merino Glacier.
This is about a 70 Km drive along Lake Argentino. After the last couple of days this distance doesn't even count as a warm up. Off we go, Molly creaking and groaning (bit like her owners) we arrive at the entrance to the nature park, pay our £10 entrance fee and drive for another 27 km.
Along the way Molly has a bit of a fright, two massive Condors fly over her, they are bigger than her and they seem to think the tyre on the roof may be road kill. (It's quite amazing what Molly thinks)
Anyway we reassure her that everything is ok and continue the drive along beside the blue, blue lake and suddenly we do our first Titanic quote. 'ICEBERG, ICEBERG!!'
We then drive round the corner and the second quote comes instantly to our lips ' 
'bloody hell it's bigger than we thought'
We have come face to face with The Perito Merino Glacier.
It absolutely takes your breathe away. We spend the next 3 hours walking some 4 Km just starring at this majestic sight. It's not just the sight but the incredible sounds it makes. Just think big thunder claps and then there is the sight of huge chunks of ice falling off and causing small tidal waves. 
We are so pleased we were able to see this on a clear blue day.
We arrive back at the hotel and find that the rest of the crews have arrived all safe and sound.
Good to have a full pack again.
We give Molly another thorough check over, yep all four wheels are in the right place, we can see out of the windscreen and just for good measure we check the oil. Molly is still pinking which is slowing us down a bit. We will have a look tomorrow with the help of the expert mechanics!!
We hear that the border guard strike may now just be a go slow, so the good news is that we will continue on into Chile and hopefully the end of the earth:)
What a journey this has been.
PS
I am not a film buff and the Titanic quotes may not be 100% accurate :)
PPS sorry for the lack of photos but the Internet connection is so sloooow, they will not load

1300 Klm and a slight touch of wind !

Sorry no blog yesterday or was it the day before.
Just taking a step back to two nights ago Team Molly won their first medal of the event :) hurrah!
A medal is awarded to crews who win a race stage in their class. A team can only win a medal once on the rally. We have had our moment of glory, well done Team Molly :)

We have just had two very very long days and they sort of roll into one another.
We started day 12 with a visit to the local race track at Esquel to run 2 sets of three timed laps, huge fun and everyone including the ' we are not competitive'  got a touch of the old ' red mist' and went flat out. Molly loved it and did very well, times of 3.22 and 3.19 putting her 11th over all.
Just to put the length of these days into perspective this race meeting was from 7.00 in the morning followed by 600+ Km of hard driving.
Stunning scenery along the way but not the route the rally was meant to take. Apparently there is a strike at the Argentina / Chile border. The organisers were very keen on us not getting stuck in Chile.
The organisers have been working flat out to re arrange the route and accommodation for a 40 + group. Looks like they have done a good job.
The first part of the new route is a 600 Km drive over some pretty bad gravel roads but we arrive at a 'quaint' lake side hotel. The hotel is very clean and tidy and they have tried very hard to look after us. It's not big enough for all so some crews have ended up in not such good surroundings. The only problem is that the hotel is not of the greatest construction and as one competitor put it ' if you try hard enough you can see through the walls' ! Anyway once the guy in the room 6 along from us had stopped snoring we all got a little sleep.
Mutterings were being heard about not having an extra rest day here and instead pushing on to a much better hotel in El Calafate only 680 Km away. 
The rally crews are split on this idea. In the end 13 crews decide to go for it, without mechanic back up.
We decided to join this group and spend an extra day glacier spotting rather than staring through walls :)
This journey is where the touch of wind comes in.
Some of the roads are fantastic. Julie and I don't count goats this time we count cars and in 6 hours we see 7 cars and a bus. We know how to have fun :)
Some of the roads were terrible, may be fine in a Toyota land cruiser but poor Molly has 
been  really struggling. Just to add insult to injury while you are battling along cart tracks there is a brand new shiny tarmac road 10 feet away just dying to be used, but it's not open, how frustrating.
We are driving under clear blue skies and across the highest part of Patagonia. Fantastic scenery again. We decide to get out of the car and take some photos. I can't open the car door. Julie is very helpful by suggesting perhaps I should unlock it. But that's not the problem, the wind is so strong I am physically not strong enough to push the door against it. The wind dies down, I open door and wish I hadn't. Unbelievably cold and strong wind still blowing, I can't hold the camera still to take any shots.
It's the first time we have driven in wind of this force. Imagine a dead straight road, no traffic and the fastest Molly can go is just touch over 80 Km (50mph) flat out in 3 gear. 
This is a 680 Km day on rough roads and 130 Km (80mph) winds, a little tiring but very satisfying when you stop. The winds were so strong the airport here was closed.
The remaining rally crews have this journey to do today. The wind is still blowing. We wish them the very best of luck.
When they arrive the rally will all be back together and the organisers can stop trying to herd cats!
All the remaining cars seem to be running well.
Tomorrow we have our extra rest day and we are going to go to the glacier. This should be one of the highlights off the rally.

A confusing day, and over half way

A very confusing day and a very exciting day. We woke up to clear blue sky with a light dusting of frost, the sun bouncing off the crystal clear lake, eagles soaring above and snow capped mountains as the back drop ( used to be an estate agent, this sort of gush is easy:) )

We headed out of the car park with some very strange banging and crashing going on at the back end of Molly. I got out and checked all four wheels, kicked the exhaust pipes and decided all was well.

Surprisingly my expert opinion was correct and Molly performed well all day.

From the hotel car park, we had a leisurely drive to a go kart track. Here we had 3 timed laps, we tried our best and we await the results. Then a timed section on open roads, great twisting empty roads, Molly clocks her fastest time of 131 kph and we arrive early at the time control.

We have to drive through a river to start the next timed stage, the water did not quite come up to the door handles, but I am sure it was close :)

This next time section is 8.7 Klm in 7 min on roads best tackled in a range rover. We do finish it and again await results, anywhere in the top 32 will be good.

The NEXT stage is again over goat like passes travelling some 17 km in 25 min.

The last one is 14 km in 12 min all on the same gravel ( that's what they call it) roads.

After all that we have a little drive of 265 km to the hotel. This drive is on the main road and is just fab.

The confusing bit is that one minute you are in desert like plains with the odd wild horse charging about and then you drive into a town with a snow man in the middle of it.

Molly is the smallest car ( I know you know that) but she is also the lowest. Some of the rocks we are going over at about 80 kph are nearly as tall as she is. This makes the journey a little noisy. But the rattles in the car are getting quieter as all the bits drop off.

Tonight's hotel is a million miles away from the luxury of last nights.  

If Carlsberg did hotels and views last nighwould have been it. This one is closer to Watneys Red Barrel 

I thought Patagonia was a clothing shop :)

We have arrived in a smashing place called the Llao Llao Hotel, Spa Patagonia AND wait for it, Golf resort. This has got to be one of the most stunning golf courses I have seen.
If the weather is good tomorrow we might get nine holes in, think the clubs are in the back of the car somewhere :)
We started the day in bright sunshine but had to battle through some pretty heavy rain and very strong winds. According to our local helpers the wind will only get stronger as we head south.
A lot of the driving today was on various grades of gravel roads. Some were perfect for Molly and we belted along, others were better for a JCB and not so pleasant, but we arrived on time and in one piece.

Couple of rallying tips we have picked up and are proving very useful are
Always smell the petrol spout the attendant is about to fill your car with. Two vintage cars have ended up with tanks full of diesel!!! Luckily no harm done to either car.
The other is don't let your bag with your passport in it, out of your sight. One poor crew had theirs pinched and that was the end of the rally.

The above part of the blog was written yesterday afternoon, when we were tired, hungry, covered in dust and a bit scratchy.
Last night the true rally fraternity came out to play.
We were introduced to a new game called 'pudding pouters' the rules are quite simple, you line up a creme brûlée  on the table, bend your head over it, suck like hell and eat the pudding in one go.
The undisputed champion was Hugo or 'Hoover' to his mates. Hugo's piece de resistance was to Hoover up his opponents puddings while they were still warming up. I am not sure the head chef was impressed but we all were. Should be on UTube :)
From this we went along for a little sing song with Andy the mechanic leading the way on guitar.  We 

all got the words on our phones or iPads and were in perfect harmony, bit like X factor does 

Patagonia. Highlight of the evening a rendition of a well known ballad, written in 1972 called 'Living next door to Alice' performed by Andy on guitar, Sadie on head gaskets and everyone singing with mighty gusto. Probably the funniest rude version of any song I have ever heard.

It was great to see everyone thoroughly enjoying themselves after such a long day.

Today is a rest day. We have cleaned Molly's windows, shovelled the sand out and cleaned the air filters. Andy has had to re set the points again, but the little girl is still flying along.

We have unfortunately lost 4 crews with terminal car problems. Such a shame and really heart breaking for them.

The hotel we're staying in is stunning surrounded by awesome scenery, the food is great and the sun is shining.  Do we enjoy rallying??? You bet :)

Tomorrow is an interesting day, we get to race around a go kart track. Now let me think, who has got the smallest car? May do OK.

Final bit of news is that Team Tigre is still in the number one spot, bloody amazing (sorry again mum). If we win this team competition I may have to go and stand in the naughty corner for swearing too strongly.

Cheers

David, Julie and Molly.

Points failure at Charing Cross !!

Points failure at Charing Cross!
Well it was points failure at Villarrica, Chile. We had just had the most amazing driving day. Driving through a forest of Monkey Puzzle trees, which then led onto a lava field all of which was round the base of an active ( not today though) volcano.
We think Molly is the first Porsche 356 to drive flat out across a lava field, the dust trail was incredibly. Sorry anyone behind us:)
But all this excitement was too much for the little girl, she was getting slower and slower as we approached the hotel. I thought it was due to all the dust and muck in the carbs and engine bits.
Get to our fantastic hotel situated right on a lake. Do my usual mechanical overhaul of cleaning the windows, spading out the dust in the car, wash the air filters and dust around the engine bay.
For some reason I thought lets just see if she starts. 
Oh no!!! Molly has gone on strike and will not start.
Quick dive to the bar for a beer and scratch of the head ( I have seen other highly trained mechanics do this, so must be right) back out to Molly and still no joy. Enter Andy, one of the mechanic team. He sets to changing this and changing that. I am even allowed to hold the screw driver. Luckily the guys at Gantspeed had put a spares package together for us. We changed the rotor arm, condenser, and reset the points fired her up. Molly backfired, broke two hotel windows and deafened one of our Team America friends ( law suit pending). We fiddled again and then after about an hour Molly kicked into life and we are back in business. 
Thanks Andy and all our mechanics.
The Internet connection is very limited here. We have taken hundreds of photos of some of the most stunning scenery we have ever seen, all down  to the route Kim and his team have found for us, brilliant  thanks. We will try and post some of these photos tomorrow on our rest day in Bariloche.
Today we drive from our lakeside residence at Villarrica back across the border into Argentina and on to Bariloche only 420 km away.
The big news is Team Tigre that's us and two other crews from our last rally (Jan and Jan from Norway and Jan and Marion from Holland) are winning, yes winning the big team competition. May not last long but that's where we are today.
If you take the overall times of all the crews then Julie and I are 9th which is bloody amazing (sorry mum). 
It's now 7 in the morning and the start of another exciting day in team Molly.
To achieve this Molly and I are lucky to have the rallies bets navigator, well done Julie. X

Desert to ski resort in one day

Very quick post, it's 5.30 in the morning and we are just about to leave on a long drive around some volcanoes.:)
Yesterday was a very long but exciting day. On previous tests we have raced flat out around race tracks, and  amazing roads but today Molly was in her elimiment. Two flat out forest stages. She absolutely flew, beat the first set time, and the got stuck behind a logging lorry on the second but was still only just out of time.
Only one small scream from Julie but we were at 90 degrees to the way were supposed to be going and about 60 mph. Now hooked on forest stage driving :)
A lot of cars are in a bad way. One crew even rolled theirs. Gives you an idea of how hard we are all trying. I think by last night they were all sort of back together, lets hope so.
We are currently staying in a Chile type ski result. Very nice but not quite up to Meribel :)
Off now, will try and post some pictures and gossip later today.
Main thing all is well in Molly world and loving it :)
Sorry for the lack of photos but the Internet connection is not so hot.