Today is a monster driving day covering some 630 km from Cradock to The Golden Gate Highlands National Park. To start the day we have two time trials. The first one on quite nice loose gravel we have to cover 9km in 8 minutes and we do pretty well clearing the stage. The only slight delay being a cow trying to cross the same piece of road as us.
I think our wing mirror clipped the ring in its nose :)
The second stage was on much rougher ground with a couple of railway crossings thrown in for good measure and we have to cover 11km in 9 minutes.
Because we had done so well in the first one and Molly was going well we (well mainly me) got a bit over enthusiastic in a couple of places.
One of them was at a level crossing that Julie mentioned to me in a sort of shrill screaming type of instruction, we flew over it, having failed to brake, luckily the 09.25 from Cradock was running late and no damage was done.
Thinking our luck was in we pushed on a little harder, suddenly we are hurtling down a very rough piece of road with a sharp left hand bend, road cambering the wrong way and quite a big drop on MY side. Brakes fully applied but not having a lot of effect, only thing to do is try and take the corner. Julie is in shrill instruction mode again at this point and I am trying to remember what my rally driving instructor has told me to do when imminent disaster is about to strike.
Now did he say don’t brake or don’t accelerate. Not terribly sure what I did it all happened in slow motion, Molly going completely sideways, ditch fast approaching and me telling Julie its all her fault because we have too much luggage in the back and its making the car spin.
Next thing Molly was back on the track, going in the right direction and all was well with the world.
We carried on and cleared the stage, but strangely in complete silence.
After all this we get back onto the tarmac road and settle down to doing 400 + km.
The scenery en route is simply stunning. We are now staying in the Highlands National Park. We have a warning on the patio doors to keep them closed otherwise the room will be raided by baboons. Doors are firmly closed, you can only have so much excitement in one day.
Fast forward about 10 hours to day 5 morning at about 7.00. WTBHWT (this is me trying to do mobile phone talk) it stands for What The Bloody Hell Was That.
Our patio doors are trying to be forced open and there is someone trying to bash through the tin roof. Oh no its a Baboon attack. They are trying to get into every room swinging from balcony to balcony checking the doors in a forceful way. The thought does cross my mind as to what would have happened if he had got in.
Those who know us well will know about Julie’s ‘grumps’ in the morning. The confrontation would have been interesting.
Its now 8.00 and they are still charging around on the roof and making a terrible but exciting noise.
Now did i close the car windows ????
Last night we had the results of the stages. We did not win either of them but we did come 5 in the first stage and received no penalties for either which means we are officially in first place :) along with about 15 other crews :(
But this is not a competitive rally so we can’t publish the times but to give you a hint of how uncompetitive it is on the first stage one car was over 1.5 minutes faster than us and on the second stage another car (think it was a porsche :) ) was 2 minutes quicker than us. That’s 11 km on terrible roads in around 7.5 minutes amazing driving and congratulations to the navigator for not getting out half way.
Some information on yesterdays stunning pass
Our room, you can see the Tin bath hanging on the wall :)
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