As it happened....

Day 1 - Sydney to Parkes

Well,we’ve made it to the end of day 1.  We have completed three of the 33 stages that make up the Australian section of the rally.

The start was pretty chaotic.  They had room for only three cars max in the start area and they didn’t have a marshalling area.

 We left five minutes later than we should have and 5^th on the road rather than 3^rd.  Fortunately we were able to make up the time on the run to Sunny Corner (near Bathurst).

later:

Sunny Corner was massively slippery.  We were a little despondent after having had two overshoots and dropping what seemed like a lot of time but in later conversations with other crews it seems two overshoots was the norm and everyone was laughing by the start of stage 2, Mount Canobolas.

Mt Canobolas was fast, had water in some of the dips and was slippery towards the end.  And our wipers stopped working which made the last few km interesting!  This was fixed as soon as we meet the service crew.  It was a plug popped out, no doubt in one of the harder hit dips.

The 3^rd stage was Back Yamma.  40 something kms of grotty tracks mixed with high speed straights.  Rumour has it that quite a few car have got lost, missed passage controls and generally done damage. There was mud in the dips and bog holes as well as dust on the bits starting to dry out.  Little stumps on the edge of the road are near impossible to see with the sun in your eyes. 

But we have survived the day and will see what tomorrow brings.  Looking forward to seeing some results.

Day 2

Parkes to Cobar

The Z car in a mud hole on Day 2

The first surprise of the day was that we were in the lead - basically from our good run through Back Yamma yesterday.  We didn't expect that to last beyond the first section today and while I haven’t seen any results,  I suspect our lead didn’t last too long.

Today's stages were high speed blasts following fence lines on properties.  If you went off it was generally into a paddock with nothing to hit.  Our first effort in the first stage of the day had us so far into a paddock of lucerne (tall green stuff) that we couldn’t be sure which way to go to look for a road.






Stage 3 was extremely fast in places and Mark had the car on the rev limiter in 5th on a few of the straits but our Belgian friends from the London to Cape Town rally (in the Porsche)  still took nearly 2 minutes off us.  The GPS says our max speed was 187 kph and I’m inclined to believe it.

Bag Pipe player

Stage 4 was memorable for a man playing bag pipes at the start and a high speed spin in a bog hole which scattered spectators and dumped so much mud on the car we could see nothing but the patch the wipers had cleared.

Lunch at the Nymagee pub was enjoyable.

Results so far:

Day 3

Cobar to Broken Hill

The surprise of the day is we are in the lead again by about 1 minute. We started the day in second 

place but the 3rd stage of the day saw the Belgian Porsche stuck in a bog hole. 

The Porsche is driven by Joost Van Cauwenberge, a Belgian who we became friends with in the London to Cape Town rally. Their car was built by Francis Tuttle who is a world renowned car builder and he is here to support them. Joost is very quick.

Joost in action, (photo from the Classic Outback Trail website)

Joost had started 3rd on the road today but at the start of SS10, the Callinans (BDG Escort) 1st on the road and Trevor Stilling (Datsun Stanza) 2rd on the road, organised him to be first on the road as it was a 57 Km section and even with 3 minute gaps he was going to catch and have to pass them. We were 4th on the road. 

The first car we came to was the Stanza stopped in the stage (not sure why) then towards the end as we approached a fast right hander, there was the Porsche and the Escort thoroughly bogged. They pointed to take an inside line which we did and got through. So we are in the lead thanks to them really.
Geoff Olholm is now in 2nd spot. Geoff is no slouch either. He won the Australian Safari last year. Being in the lead on day 3 was never part of our plan. The stages now are getting longer and this really is early in the rally, anything could happen!!

                           Waiting for the start of Special Stage 10 near Broken Hill

The stages for the last two days have been tracks on station properties. The second stage of today was so rain affected that it was cancelled. Good fast road can turn into a skid pan quite quickly. The track is sometime very indistinct and the organisers have put in arrows at the worst spots. At one stage we headed in the direction of an arrow and Marks comment was “but there’s no road here!”.


The other laugh of the day – at the start of SS10 after putting on helmets Mark couldn’t find his glasses. In panic we looked on the roof, everywhere in the car, ran around the car, before finding them – he was wearing them all the time.

Day 4

Broken Hill to Renmark

There were three stages scheduled for today but only two were run. 

The second stage of the day was dropped due to too much water.  As you drive down the Silver City Highway, there are large pools of water sitting beside the road so I guess they have had a bit of rain.

The two remaining stages were 55 and 41km so there was still plenty of distance.  The stages were on private properties and consisted of everything from long straights along fence lines to tight tracks around paddocks to sand dunes.  

The sand seems to sap horsepower and there were times we were wishing for more power and  there were a few occasions again when Mark yelled “there’s no road here!”.

Not a lot I can say until I see some results.... but I suspect Geoff Olholm will be in the lead by now but we shouldn’t be too far behind.  The other surprise is the Czech's 240Z which has started to put in some good times.  He is probably the youngest driver (looks 25 or so) and has only previously done karting and ice racing.  The first few stages must have been a shock for him.

Our service crew has been great.  We have a couple of Datsun experts in Stewart  Wilkins and Jamie Waterhouse and they are supported by Will Mitchell and Jamie's son Logan. They are also supporting Mike Cotter/David Stevens in another Z car. It's been great to be able to hand the car over at the end

of the day and while we go and have a shower, they give the car a once over including a wash.

No car problems to speak of unless you count dust leaks.

Renmark seems a nice town.  It's by the river (the Murray) and we have a top view from the balcony (right).

(later):  results out - we are still leading by 4sec!!

Day 5

Renmark to Barossa

Luxury tonight.  We are at the Novotel Tununda Resort.

Joost trying to make up time in his Porsche

Four stages today.  The first was a sandy track running down the Victoria side of the Vic/South Australia border.  It was very sandy and rough but had lots of straights where high speed was distinctly uncomfortable.   I last did this in the ‘79 Repco when it was wet and lots of cars got stuck.  The stage was shortened both ends to be 35 Km long instead of 50 and we were grateful for that.  We managed to waste 30 or more seconds trying to find a road which was supposed to be a straight on that we just couldn’t see.

Border track was followed by a 300km transport to the Barossa area where they ran three very nice   They are smooth, fast shire roads with lots of crests and causeways. stages which I remember from many ARC events in SA.

Results wise, Geoff Olholm should be in front by 30 seconds or so.  They took time off us in the first and we got some of it back on the second and lost I think it was 2 seconds to them on the 3^rd.  I haven’t seen them since, but Mark and Geoff seem to run at about the same pace.

The Czech team working on their car 

Joost in his Porsche is fastest by far but now has a lot to get back to get near the front.  The Callinans seem to be enjoying themselves enormously but have even more time to make up.  The young Czech lad in the 240 is very capable and is probably 3rd.

 I’ve just heard that Mike Cotter (who we are sharing service with) has broken his gearbox.

We are starting to settle into a daily routine now but it's still a very long way to go....

I’ll clarify some of this when I see some results ...




later: Day 5 results below

      

Day 6 Barossa to Port Augusta Had a great day’s rallying today.  The roads used here in South Australia are mainly shire roads and are wide and smooth.  Stage lengths today were 27, 9, 71 and 23km.   Turbine Row stage The 9.1km section was called Turbine Row because it’s the access road to an AGL wind farm and there are dozens of huge wind turbines along the ridge. AGL provided lunch, drinks and other goodies as a promotion at the nearby village of Mount Bryan. The stage itself climbed a ridge line then ran along the ridge line with the wind turbines, before  descending to the village of Mount Bryan.   It featured  steep ascents and descents, blind crests and many off camber corners, so everyone was being very cautious.   I didn’t actually talk to anyone who really loved it. Not so the other stages - they were a blast.  Nothing much to worry, about just “go for it” type roads. The 77km stage saw the Callinan Escort  fastest, with Joost’s Porsch second,  Geoff Olholm third and us fourth. The Escort of Keith and Mary Anne Callinan at the start  of the Turbine Row stage. (Photos by Alan Vaughan). Geoff Olholm is stretching his lead on us, while Ondrej Coufal (the Czech in the 240Z) lost time to us today.  Joost is nearly always quickest and may claw back the time he has lost when he was bogged two days ago.  The Callinans are occasionally taking fastest time but they are a long way back.  They had more trouble today on the first stage and we actually passed them in the stage. Today’s biggest problem was that one of our service vehicles, the Transit van, broke down at the start of the day. The engine stopped and wouldn’t restart.  They had it towed to a Ford dealer who diagnosed its problem as terminal.  They then set about hiring another van which had to come from Adelaide.  Hopefully Jamie and Logan will get here tonight. Mike Cotter/David Stevens had trouble with a broken gearbox last night.  They were able to get another gearbox from Gary Kirk (one of Geoff Olholms’s service crew ) who lives nearby.  Tonight, that gearbox is leaking oil from the front oil seal and the service boys will likely have a late night again. We get to stay two nights in Port Augusta.  Woo-hoo We do three stages in the Flinders Ranges tomorrow.  So that should be good.

Day 7

Flinders Ranges

Mark likes the Flinders Ranges!  He says he will come back for a visit.  You must be looking forward to that, Anne?!

Bunyeroo Gorge

Moralana Gorge

But yes, they are spectacular and the rally roads were good too. There were three stages, Bunyeroo Gorge, Moralana Gorge and then a property stage called Kanyaka.

Working on the Z car

Bunyeroo was 40km and I believe Geoff Olholm took more than a minute back from us.  He seems to have upped his pace a notch. 

I believe he is running with less fuel, only one spare and has tweaked the engine for another 500 rpm.

Moralana Gorge, the second stage, is a magic piece of road - Joost was quickest, Callinans second,^, Geoff Olholm 3^rd and he took another 4 seconds off us.  We did get a little of it back on Kanyaka where we were 30 seconds quicker.

On the transport after Moralana, we were following Keith Callinan’s Escort. We were fiddling with headsets and not being particularly vigilant when Keith slowed quickly for some emus running onto the road.  We were lucky not to run into the back of him.

Lunch time found us at the Parachilna Pub where they have 'roo, goat, emu and camel on the menu. I didn’t have any.

Wearing the fly nets

I should mention flies.  There are millions of them.  Only Mark and I had fly nets on Day 2 (see photo) but more people have then now. Joost bought all they had on sale in Renmark.

We cross the Nullabor tomorrow.  Two stages scheduled, 93km and 24km and lots of transport.





Latest results are:

Day 8

Port Augusta to Border Village

No Optus serviceeat Border Village and Telstra is dodgy.  I've invested $5 at this satellite kiosk thing and who knows, it might even work.

A long, long transport stage, on the Eyre Highway (photo from Alan Vaughan)

Lots of transport today.  Total Kms = 1002 but the special stages were 93km and 26km.

Mark absolutely loved the 93km stage, describing it as the longest and fastest  he has ever done.  Our average speed was 119.4kph and our max speed was 196kph.  On the  rev limiter for quite a while. 
(On Facebook, Mark wrote: "Scared 2 emus and 2 kangaroos plus me" )

There was another 500km of transport to the last stage on the Nullabor which was a track through the grass.  Very hard to see but running off the road didn't seem to matter much as there wasn't much to hit.

During the transport stage, we had time to stop and look at the cliffs on the Great Australian Bight.

Car is good.  Mark is driving well.  Service guys are looking after us well.

Result wise, gaps are increasing. Geoff's (Olhom) lead is increasing. We are increasing the gap to Ondrej (Coufal) .  

A pair of Zs.

Z cars are 1,2,3 at the moment.  Keith Callinan (KC) is doing some brilliant times in the Escort, as is Joost (Van Cauwenberge) in the Porsche, but they will have their work cut out for them unless the front runners have issues.

Day 9

Border Village to Kalgoorlie

 I’m typing in the car on the 377 Km transport to Kalgoorlie - plenty of time to write....

leaving Border Village at sunri

Today didn’t go so well. With a 6:30 am start, we were up early as we stayed at Border Village and had to drive down to Eucla.  We left in the dark with just 5km to the first  stage of the day.  The sun rose while we were waiting at the first control.

The stage called “Old Coach Road” was 80km long and had everything.  Some good road but also a lot of grotty tracks with sharp rocks and ruts. Somewhere in there we must have hit something hard enough to rearrange the wheel alignment and the car became more difficult to drive.

Fortunately we have a good service crew in Stewart, Jamie, Will and Logan who realigned front and rear and sent us on the way on 453km of transport. 

These guys take the car from us when we get to night stops and deliver it back to us in pristime condition (sometimes we are already asleep when this happens).

Following the transport, there was a short 14km stage which we didn’t do all that well, struggling to find a road shown in the tulip that we didn’t see.

Bottom line, we probably lost 4:30 or so today that we shouldn’t have and young Ondrej Cofal will likely threaten our current 2^nd place tomorrow. Ondrej on his first rally is getting better and better. He now sometimes takes time off Joost’s Porsche.

I’m not exactly sure how many service crew there are on the event.  Geoff Olholm has a couple of guys (Gary Kirk and Bob Duck) who seem to be everywhere.  Their service vehicle wins the prize as the best presented.  Painted in the same colors as the rally car it looks good.  Gary and Bob have helped us out in other events.  (We would not have survived Day 1 of the Red Centre to Gold Coast rally  in 2008 without their help).

Pat Cole, who is doing only the Australian leg is winning that fairly easily. He would be in 4^th spot outright if he was included.  Pat has seven people in his service crew.  He also h had an aeroplane chasing him for a few days.

Pat and Bradley Cole in their Mercedes, and the Czech crew of Ondrej Coufal (right) and Jiri Kotek  in their Datsun

(NB - the Cole photo is from the Classic Outback Rally Facebook page).

The Czech service crew are also interesting. They have no English but boundless enthusiasm and seem to always be rushing somewhere.  That said, I think they are travelling a little slower after an officer spoke to them the other day.  (Our Belgian friends Joost and Jacques were also spoken to for doing 71 in a 60 zone).

Other things I could write about are: the organisers, my experience with the HANS device, the looming difficulty of getting the car up to tarmac spec for Europe, and meeting the deadline for loading on the plane, but I’ll do that sometime in the next couple of days....

Day 10

Kalgoorlie to York

I’m typing in the car again. It’s a 572km transport from this morning’s stage near Kalgoorlie to York.

We are still holding down 2^nd place.

This morning was supposed to be 150km transport then a 105km horror stage! It was shortened to just 58km by cutting out the first part of the stage.  Sadly we had already fuelled the car for the longer distance so carried a small weight penalty.  We also let Geoff Olholm and Ondrej Cofal go in front of us as it seemed likely they would catch us on a 105km stage.

The stage was very sandy and windy through scrub land. A lot of hard work for Mark.  I thought it was a good stage but I’m not sure Mark did. Ondrej Cofal was off in the stage with a wheel sitting beside the car.  The Callinans were also off.  Not sure what their issue was. Could have been a flat or could have been beached on the sand bank at the edge of the road.  Neither car came in while we were at the service area at the end.

There was a competitor briefing last night where we were told that cars must be at a Perth airport at 3:30pm tomorrow or they won't be on the flight to Turkey.  To help with this, the organisers are dropping the last two stages for tomorrow and competitors can then take their cars straight to the airport.  This is a problem for us, as we wanted time for the service crew to change the suspension for the European tarmac sections and to fit tarmac tyres. 

What we are contemplating is to change to tarmac setup tonight and to run the two gravel stages tomorrow with the tarmac springs and wheel alignment.  Hopefully this won't cost us too much time. 

Stop press!!!: News on arriving at York.  The organisers now plan to start an hour earlier and run all four stages tomorrow.  There will be even less time to get to the airport.  We are now faced with making arrangements to get the tarmac tyres sent somewhere we can get them.  We'll see what happens!

York has really turned out for the rally.  Hundreds of people, main street closed for rally cars and service crews.

Day 11

York to Perth

Today's action (Alan Vaughan photos):

Start of today's second stage, Boddington 1

No typing in the car today.  

Today was full on.  Started at 6am and transported 160km to Boddington. From there, there were two stages which had to be done twice.  They were stages I remembered from Rally Australias all those year ago.  The last one finished with the Bunnings jumps.

We didn’t do too well.  The car handled dreadfully using the tarmac setup on the gravel. Add to that we missed a couple of turns that cost time as well.  Talking to other people afterwards, it seems we weren’t the only ones to do this .

There was added pressure to get the cars to the airport by 4pm at latest and at the last two stages, they were booking people in at nominated times then starting them at an earlier time to gain on the schedule.

We had time to put on some tarmac tyres and replace the air cleaners and that was all. I believe the plane doesn’t go until tomorrow but customs need 24hrs for something.

How did we do today?  I don’t know.  We may have held 2^nd spot but I can't be sure until I see some results.

There is a presentation tonight for the Australian section which I believe Pat and Bradley Cole (right) will win in their Mercedes.

We are looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow, before the flight to Ankara in the evening.



(later): results posted for the end of the Australian stage:

Day 12

Perth

The presentation for the John Giddens Memorial Trophy (for those doing the Australian section only) was held last night.  Pat Cole was the winner and Trevor Stilling made it to 2nd position with a good drive on the last day.  Gary Williamson might have held him off, but having been told the previous day that there would be two sections, not four, he elected not to bother with new tyres.  A bit unlucky but…

The plan to enjoy a sleep in this morning didn’t work all that well, both Mark and I woke up around 5:45 am.

Ex-colleague Danny Willmott, me, Ally,
Ally's husband Dave Crabtree, Mark

Caught up with some friends for lunch (Ally and Dave Crabtree ex-Newcastle, as well as former colleague Danny Willmott) at a very nice restaurant.  

Had half a bottle of Chardonnay with lunch and I might get that extra bit of sleep now.  

Bus goes to the airport at 8:30 PM tonight.

*****

Getting ready to fly the cars to Istanbul .....








Some of the cars getting directed into Customs for the pre-flight checks:

The Connolly Porsche and the Z of the Czech crew

The Silling/Travis Stanza, and the Olholm/Doble Z 

Photos: Thanks to Ally Pummel Crabtree

Day 13

Flying to Ankara, Turkey

(above): loading the cars onto the 747-400 

(left):  the Emirates flight carrying the competitors' cars leaves Perth, heading for Dubai/Istanbul/Ankara.
(Photos from the event's Facebook page)

We left Perth 11:30pm and arrived at Doha at 6am.  The clock went back five hours on the way.  We then waited two hours and flew to Istanbul.  A 4.5 hour flight. Waited another two hours and flew to Ankara, a 40 min flight.  
Most people were there already, have taking a direct flight from Doha to Ankara.  

Not sure why we were given the scenic tour, perhaps the direct flight was full.

Qatar Airlines are pretty good although the food isn’t as good as some other airlines I’ve been on.

Istanbul Airport was as I remembered it from last year.  Big queues at immigration and generally chaotic.  

It's raining in Ankara, and the luckily, hotel has wi-fi.

The rally hotel - note the rally cars out the front.

We have just been told we can go and pick up the car if we want. 

Later:  Got the car and it seems OK.  Haven’t got the spares box yet. Tomorrow we can get the spares and repack the car.

Day 14

Ankara

We're linked up with the Czech team, who are servicing our car here in Ankara....
 (Photo from Sydney to London Marathon Facebook page)

A change of plans by the organisers.  All rally stages between Ankara and Istanbul have been deleted , and we're free to make our own way to Istanbul, which we'll do..

Everybody is busy getting the cars ready for Europe's tarmac special stages:

Day 15

Tourists in Istanbul

The Rally schedule has been changed, and there are no stages around Ankara and Eskisehir, so crews were given the option of following the original time and travel schedule or heading straight to Istanbul.  Mark and Dave opted for Istanbul.

 A leisurely breakfast in Ankara,  then a 500km drive to Istanbul.

Jiri Kojac, who navigates and manages the Czech team we've linked up with, decided we should stay in Istanbul at Taksin rather than spend big dollars at the Novotel where we stay tomorrow night.

The drive was relatively quick. The 120kph speed limit is pretty much completely ignored by the locals.  Traffic was much thicker as we reached Istanbul but it was manageable.

not sure what this procession at Taksim Square was about

We then explored Taksim Square (scene of last year's anti-government riots), took the funicular railway and tram into the Old Town to see the spice market and the Grand Bazaar, before catching Judy and Phillip Morley at the Blue Mosque. (Judy and Philip are touring around over here).

We ate at a local restaurant where P&J had eaten the night before, then it was tine for the tram home again.

Day

Mark and I with Judy Morley at dinner in Istanbul, and catching the tram back to our hotel

Day 16

Still Tourists

We moved hotels from the one in the city to the Novotel Istanbul, the official rally hotel half way between the city and Ataturk airport. 

I was a little worried about traffic as we had struggled with fouled up spark plugs after the slow going into Istanbul yesterday but we had no problems today.

Took the hotel shuttle bus into town this afternoon and did a bit more sightseeing.  We are continually amazed at the number of people about on the streets. There are thousands of people everywhere.  Istanbul does have a population of some 14 million so I suppose you should expect to see a lot.

Mark at Taksim Square, and outside the Blue Mosque

A taxi ride back was a bit hair-raising as well.  We found ourselves travelling amongst the rally crews who had stayed at Eskisehir last night and I think that may have been inspiring the taxi driver.  He passed everything at warp speed and had several near misses.  It provided some entertainment for the rally crews.

There is to be a meeting at 8:00am tomorrow to give us an update on what stages they will be running in Europe.  We are expecting transport again tomorrow to get to Sliven in Bulgaria.  We are hopeful of some stages in Bulgaria.

Day 17

Istanbul to Sliven, Bulgaria

A big day really:

• ·       First a briefing telling us nothing new.
• ·       Someone has tried to get into my side of the car and broke the mechanism.
• ·       Lost glasses and keys by driving off with them on the roof.
• ·       Incredibly treacherous road conditions.
• ·       Hassles at the border crossing.
• ·       Stopped by police. 

There will be at least 2 stages tomorrow (29^th) and they will run the last one again if they can. 
30^th No stages. 
1^st May, two stages. 
2^nd May will be a rest day in Rijeka (ie no stages). 
3^rd May will have two stages run twice.
Beyond that, possibly nothing until the UK

So, after the briefing, down to the car and my door doesn’t open! Seems someone has yanked on it and broken the mechanism.  I put my glasses and the car keys on the roof while trying to sort out the door.  They probably lasted there until we accelerated into the not insignificant Istanbul traffic.

The border crossing seemed to have four parts to it.  We sailed through the first.  At the 2^nd one it turned out that when the car was checked in at Ankara they had entered the number plate incorrectly.  There was a 2^nd ‘H’ on the end.  This seemed to be an enormous problem for the guy and he eventually had to call his manager.  
We then moved to the next spot and he had the same issue but his solution was to send us back to the other point.
Eventually they sorted this out and we moved to the Bulgarian side.  These guys wouldn’t accept that our rego was legitimate.  They wanted the original copy (we had a photocopy only) and they wanted proof that it has insurance.  They spent a lot of time discussing it and making phone calls.  But eventually we were through. 

Another one with paperwork issues at the border
 - an official parked and waiting while it's sorted out.

At a town down the road we were stopped by a policeman at what looked like a RBT but after he pointed at the headlights and looked happier when Mark turned them on, we worked out that he wanted them on.  Looking at other traffic it may be the law here that you have to have them on. He then spoke one word loudly GO!.

We decided to drive the route of the stages today to see the conditions and maybe fiddle with shock absorber settings.  Roads were wet as it had been raining fairly heavily.  The roads must be above the snow line in winter as there are signs for snow chains being required. The road had many black patches which seem to have no grip at all. If you open the throttle you get either wheel spin or the car snaps sideways, understeer is endemic, and braking is only slightly better than we had imagined. 

 We are really wishing we had the softer rally springs to put back in.  We have backed the shocks off several clicks but that’s not making a huge difference.  But, it’s not only us who struggled.  We have since learned that Joost in his Porsch and Ondrej in the Z have panel and suspension damage from offs.  And the section was being run as transport!!

LATE NEWS:  Joost spun and hit a post.

The Chris Palmer Mustang wasn’t allowed across the border because it didn’t have proof of its rego so they loaded it onto a trailer and took it across.

Francis Tuttle, the Porsche maestro,  is looking for a tyre groover to improve the Porsche's grip in the wet.

Day summary: I have a new stamp in my passport.  I’m in Bulgaria.  I wonder if they have red wine.

Day 18

Silven (Bulgaria) to Nis (Serbia)

Last night’s red wine was pretty bad. In fact, the service at dinner last night was non-existent. After waiting 90 minutes, we were prepared to take anything that was offered at the table and share it between us. It wasn’t necessarily what we ordered, but we were prepared to take anything.

The Z car on the Sliven stage

Today we had our first competition in Europe. It was 33.8km of relatively smooth tar. It was very twisty with lots of hairpins.  It started and ended near Sliven and had a service park in the town square. The stage was run three times.  On the first run, the Sandy Dalgarno Escort burst an oil pump line and lost all its sump oil over the last 15km of the stage.  This made it more interesting on the second and third runs, having to take lines to avoid crossing the usually visible trail of oil.  He was towed back to the service by the Shane Attwell Falcon. A few cars reported spins and offs after hitting the oil.

A pair of Porsches at Sliven

(The above photos are from albums posted on https://www.facebook.com/SydneytoLondon2014, by Plamen Petrov and Todor Kirchev.  See those albums for many more action photos from that stage).

Looking at today’s results: We were faster each time we did the stage. But so were most people. Joost was 42 seconds quicker than us each time. We did get 8 seconds back off Geoff Olholm but he should be in conserve mode now - he has an 11 minute lead.  Joost took 42 seconds off us every 34km. He is now just 6:37 behind us. There are six stages to run in Europe and five in the UK for a total of 260km. He will get close and that’s assuming no one has any problems along the way.

After three runs of the stage, we transported 500km to Nis in Serbia. We were first to reach the border, and as expected, got parked off to the side while the officials made phone calls and had loud discussions with each other. I think we paved the way for everyone else.

Bulgaria and Serbia seem to consist of green rolling plains and hills. 
Bulgaria had a very nice motor way for several hundred kilometres. The speed limit is 140 KPH. Quite a lot of cars travel above that speed. Plus, there's heaps of trucks. Not good on the non-motorway bits.

Tomorrow is another ‘free transit’ day.  We drive to Belgrade, the Serbian capital…

Day 19

Nis to Belgrade (Serbia)

Informal transit again today.  A quick trip, its less than 300km and it’s a motorway with a 120kph speed limit. After that, we became tourists again.

The Metropole Palace Hotel, where we're staying, is pretty good. We took a tram downtown, had lunch, saw parliament and various government buildings, the Belgrade Fortress (left) and the ‘Bohemian area’ (below). 

Mark getting a new key cut, and outside the Serbian Parliament.

While we were out, we found an optometrist and had Marks glasses adjusted, and we happened upon a key man who did us a new car key to replace the one I lost a few days ago.

When the rain started to pour down, we cut short being tourists and were lucky to get a taxi home.  

Servicing the rally cars in the hotel carpark in the rain.

Competition resumes tomorrow - two stages are scheduled.

Day 20

Belgrade to Rijeka (Croatia)

(Photo from John and Jeff  Sydney London  blog)

The day started at 7:02 (we are 2^nd on the road) with a 400km transport to Zagreb (left) in Croatia.  Zagreb seems a quite friendly place.  We had almost two hours to spare there as the transport time was generous.

Out of Zagreb, things changed a bit.  A 3km transport to the start of the stage and rain was imminent.  We were OK until about 4km from the end ,when it started to pour down. We were less disadvantaged than the cars who had started behind us.

The transport from the end of that stage to the next stage was tight and that had to be the one we took a wrong turn on.  Geoff Olholm followed us in and then went in front of us as we stopped with doubts about whether we were on the right road.  We all recovered and lost no time.

The next stage ‘1000 bends’ was a great stage. 30km of good, tight twisting tarmac passing through a couple of villages.  Joost took 55 seconds off us.

Differing attitudes in a corner through a Croatian village (photos shared by Autoškola Remetinec)

The real excitement/angst of the day was after the end of the stage.  We were hot and jumped out to take off helmets etc.  I put my glasses on the roof while getting the helmet off.  Half a K down the road, I had Mark turn back.  I was sure they would be on the road. And they were. But Joost had run over them. 

Now the problem was that I had no spare glasses in the car and couldn’t read the road book.  We were soon very lost.  To cut a long story short, I used Mark’s glasses (making him drive without them) to try and work out where we were.  They were barely adequate but better than nothing. 

We did find the motorway but couldn’t work out where exactly we were on it. We had the GPS set for the hotel but satellite reception in the narrow streets of Rejeka is problematic.  The GPS couldn’t make up its mind and sent us in a few circles for a while.  We eventually found the hotel but the control was the opposite side of a square filled with restaurant tables.  We back tracked and went around the block to enter from the right direction. 

We later saw others drive between the restaurant tables and cross the road at a pedestrian crossing to get to the control.

At the end of the day....

Eggfried Depoorter (who we know from the London to Cape Town event 18 months ago) who is here servicing for Joost, gave me a pair of ‘chemist glasses’. They cost $2.50 apparently and he has 4 pairs of them.  Joost tried to repossess them.

We are tired but laughing about it all.

Tomorrow is a rest day in Rijeka.

Day 21

Rijeka Rest Day

OK, it's been a rest day.  

Firstly, let me finish off on glasses:  Thank you to everyone for advice, understanding and sympathy on eyesight and management of glasses issues. I do feel better knowing that lots of people leave phones, wallets, glasses and all sorts of things on the roof of cars.  

I will get a sticker made to go on the roof that says ‘ Do not place item here – by order of the Management’.

Mary tried to get glasses made in Newcastle to bring over when she flies to London for the finish, but they need a week to fill the prescription in Australia.  Not so in Croatia. They apologised that it would take two hours, and a bigger surprise, it cost about $190 as opposed to $900 odd in Oz.  Hope Mary likes the new frames. I now have two good pairs and two cheapie backup pairs. (NB: I must remember to take spares in the car.)

Service Crews: The car park was a hive of activity today. Service guys seem to be happiest when they have a car to play with.  They're not even fussy about which car they work on.  Lots of them spent all day with cars jacked up and bits pulled off. 

left: Chris Palmer/Phillip Marshall Mustang; right: Richard Bennet/Matt Wallace  (Photos by Plamen Petrov)

There are two Mustangs in the event. The Chris Palmer Mustang seems to always be in strife.  It’s a 427 cubic inch motor but has had to run on seven cylinders after a piston failure. It’s also had bearing problems and they rebuilt the engine again today. They put it off the road again yesterday but no serious damage.  Nothing seems to faze them too much.

The Richard Bennet Mustang is the old Peter Cochrane Mustang (we became friends during the Silver Fern rally a few years ago) which set second fastest time on the ‘1000 Bends’ section yesterday.  An amazing effort!  (NB:  see in-car footage of the Mustang action at : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vM34PvtBLA4&sns=em)

After lunch, we went down to explore the town and take pictures but we were waylaid by the Belgians (Rene and Eric) who were having a drink in the service area. 

Their Hilux ute running in the Challenge category is fitted with a large refrigerator and is referred to as the food and beverage wagon.  

After a few gin and tonics, it began to rain and we took refuge in a restaurant. After the Chardonnay, pork medallions etc, I noticed the rain had stopped but the light was fading too fast for picture taking.  So it’s been a hard day here in Rijeka.

Note the sugar sachets for Mark's Cappuccino!  (it was in the Ferrari cafe)

Got the washing done!  That’s not entirely true yet - They haven’t returned it as I write this.

We are still 5 minutes 30 seconds ahead of the 3^rd placed Porsche.  We’ll see how much he gets off us tomorrow. They have added an extra stage tomorrow so there will be 70km of stages before a 408 km transport to Brescia in Italy.

After Brescia, there are no stages until the UK.  Some competitors, certainly the Belgians and the Czechs, are planning to go home for a few days before fronting up for a restart in Wales.  We will follow the route and act like the good tourists that we are.

Day 22

Rijeka (Croatia) to Brescia (Italy)

Today was scheduled to have 2 stages run twice, but the organisers decided to start us half an hour earlier and run the second stage a third time – so five stages for the day.

View through our windscreen,
Car 1 ahead of us about to start the stage

The bad news was that it rained very heavily all the way.

The first (which was also the third) stage would have been very nice in the dry but it wasn’t all that nice on our tyres.  Crews that had wet weather tyres would have made up a lot of time.  There was a section of tarmac with a different surface from 3.8 to 6.00 Km and this was the slipperiest piece of road I have ever been on. The car would break into wheel spin in any gear as soon as the throttle was opened and pretty much refused to respond to any steering input. On our second time through, we went one second quicker.

The other stage which we did three times saw us get quicker with each run.  In the first run we had a spin which probably added 35 or more seconds to our time. The exhaust pipe and the towing hook which sticks out from the bumper bar show signs of contact with a tree, so we did go close. 

It felt like we were losing heaps of time. I doubt the Joost Porsch is ahead of us yet but he must be getting very close.

There are to be no stages in Italy or France so the European mainland part of the event is over. We now have informal transit to the UK where the rally will recommence on the 10^th for a half dozen stages. 

We will roughly follow the route and stay at the designated hotels and take the booked ferry to get to the UK. We make good tourists. Most of the Europeans are going home for a few days and Mark is looking forward to Nice tomorrow as Anne will be there.

Waiting at a control

I’m writing this as we transport 391 Km from the last stage to Brescia.  It hailed heavily for several minutes and we took shelter in a garage. The heated windscreen just copes with fogging and water drips from the air vent in the front centre of the cab.  

I feel sorry for today’s control officials and the people manning road blocks out in the rain.  

Service crews as always deserve a medal.

Day 23

Brescia (Italy) to Nice (France)

I wasn’t going to do a blog today as there’s no rally to talk about but there are a few things I can report on.

Mark in a relaxed mood in Nice

Last night was like it was the end of the rally.  It’s a week until the rally recommences in the UK, so it's like another rally that will start in Wales in a week's time.  

The Belgians were shouting gin and tonics last night.  The hotel ran out of gin but the Belgians went and brought their own supply in from a service van. They insisted on big glasses and kept topping them up.  I staggered to bed and slept until 6 am.  Dead to the world as they say.

Brescia to Nice is only 417km of motorway so we left the motorway to take a shortcut which looked like a major road on the map.  It turned out to be very slow and twisty, but looking at old waypoints on the GPS, I noticed we had been there before in the London to Cape Town rally (2012). 

The GPS let us down a bit getting through Genova (known to us as Genoa - without the 'v').  A key turn we had to take was immediately after a tunnel, and it takes the GPS a little while to get satellites again after a tunnel. 
Having missed a turn, we were then faced with leaving the motorway at the next exit, (12km further on), pay the toll, make U turn, (ie get to motorway on ramp on the other side), rejoin the motorway, take another ticket, drive 12km back, leave motorway, pay another toll.

This happened nearing Genova.  

The beach at Nice, near our hotel. 
I suspect there are better beaches elsewhere

Then later as we approached Nice we ran out of Euros to pay tolls and the toll machines were refusing all our credit cards.  We stopped before the next toll gates and I went to find someone to negotiate with.  While I was doing, that the service truck arrived and gave us €20 to get us through. 

After that we missed another exit and again went through the exercise described previously.

In general, navigation didn’t go smoothly today, but it was a day that didn’t matter. 

Credit cards were also problem at petrol stations in Croatia.  None of our cards would work except for my Amex card which required a signature.  At toll booths, none of our cards work.

Here's how things look at the end of the stages so far:

Staying at Nice again tomorrow so I am yet to work out what I’ll do to fill in the time. St Tropez and Monte Carlo are close.

Day 24

Tourists in Nice (France)

What did we do today? ::

Day 25

Lyon (France)

Nothing to report today really. 

470 Km drive from Nice to Lyon.

Lyon is bigger than expected.

Organisers have advised there will be just 5 stages on one day in the UK.

Day 26

Lyon to Orleans

Informal Transit again ...

 Leaving the first set of toll gates this morning, we got a round of applause from some of the rally guys who were comparing notes on how hard it can be to get through the toll gates sometimes.  Credit cards seem to nearly always get rejected, which was not my experience in previous years.  If you pick a lane that doesn’t have provision for cash you have to call for help and wait for some one to come and take cash from you and open the boom gate.  And we’ve all been caught out!!

We then went in convoy to see the Saint-Etienne Cathedral in Bourges (below). 

Day 27

Le Mans, Normandy & a ferry ride

Waiting at Caen for the ferry to Portsmouth.  The boat doesn't load for 3+hours. 

Another tourist day - so we went to the Le Mans circuit and the beaches of Normandy, where the D Day landings occurred...

Crews and cars lined up outside the museum at Le Mans

Updating this blog will be a bit uncertain for the next day or so.  My internet assistant (wife Mary) who uploads this stuff in web format for me, is also on her way to London, and so probably won't get a chance to add to the blog..

Normal service will probably resume when she gets to the UK.

Day 28

Ferry en route to Vale (Wales)

Loading cars on board the ferry to Portsmouth

Sleeping on a ferry is pretty easy for me especially with after a few glasses of red wine.  

The weather is now decidedly cold.  We reached the hotel here in Vale in Wales, after driving from Portsmouth before lunch and now have the rest of the day to fill and not much to do.  The hotel is a golf resort but neither Mark nor I do that!

It’s blowing a gale but not raining at the moment.  I’m told by the locals it could rain anytime and yes, they believe it will rain tomorrow. 

It felt strange at first driving on the left of the road again after so many days of driving on the right.  Roundabouts need to be thought about and at the first toll booth I got ready to pay before realising that paying is now done on Mark's side of the car.

I continue to get ribbed/paid off/ridiculed about losing glasses.  Yesterday I discovered a pair had been cable tied to the bulbar.

Only five stages of rally to do tomorrow.  There is to be another crew briefing tonight but we already have a bulletin saying five stages tomorrow and none on Sunday. 

Day 29

Vale (Wales)

Today, the final six competitive stages, held on a Military Training area in Wales about 100km north of Cardiff.

Check out the strength of the wind..

The most notable feature of this place is the weather.

Bleak, raining, windy, cold and  miserable. 

The wind was so strong that when it was raining (70% of the time), the rain is driven horizontally by the wind.
At one control, when Mark wanted to get out he wasn’t strong enough to push the door open into the wind.  He actually did a seven point turn to turn the car around so he could get out. 

The stage itself was just one piece of road that got used twice in one direction and 4 times in the other.
It was wet to very wet tarmac, very bumpy with unpredictable crests.  Chicanes were used at strategic spots to slow cars down.

As expected, the Porsch in 3^rd spot soon ran us down and took 2^nd spot from us, with Geoff Olholm and John Dobie first, having led for most of the way....

There is only the drive into Windsor left to do and that is tomorrow.

Looking forward to seeing Mary and Anne there. 

Day 30

Old Windsor (England)

Finish at Old Windsor:

At the finish at Old Windsor

The Outright winners, Geoff Oldholm and John Doble

The finish function and presentation dinner was held last night in the former Chapel of Beaumont Estate, an historic property which features, among other things, a glorious chapel, now used as a function centre.


Now, on with the next part of the holiday. (Mary will take up the story from there, on her website, www.boddylines.com.au)