Rally of Great Britain

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My 3rd weekend on the trot out of London, and I was supposed to be staying there now. But this event was pre planned a long time ago. Beth and I caught a coach to Cardiff on Thursday evening and were staying with our gracious host from home Laurence.

We started our first rally day nice and early only to hit our first road block - the hire car place we had booked with wouldn't let us take a car without proof of address. Despite pleading and explaining we were from NZ they wouldn't have a bar of it so we walked to the nearest other places and managed to find a car at the 4th one! So it had begun.

It was a long drive out to the stages from Cardiff but having not driven in so long I quite enjoyed being back behind the wheel myself. The two stages we saw today were not that spectacular, I didn't have high hopes since this rally is renouned for its poor viewer access. We chilled with Laurence after he finished work and had an easy night ready for an extra early start the next day. Jim and Craig hired a car in London and came down after work on Friday as well so Saturday would be a full crew.

Despite the tired cries from a few of the team we managed to get a fairly early start, stocked up on drinks and snacks and we were away. Today we would not have time to change stages but since they are run twice we got to see the second run through. This meant a long time in between runs killing time, drinking, tussling, eating other people's BLT's and taking photos were the order of the day. The journey home disappeared in a series of sing-along power ballads and dance-along Tanuk sessions before we went to the Super Special Stage at Millenium stadium Cardiff. The stage was a bit average but there was also some other entertainment to keep us occupied before we headed out to hit the town large. A few drinks, dances and delicious shish rounded out the night for a few hours sleep before another early start for our final day.

It was a lot harder to get people out of bed today but with Craig behind the wheel we made up for lost time and still got to the first stage on time. This mornings corner proved to be the highlight of the rally with two cars in succession getting caught in deep mud on the inside of the corner, spinning out and getting stuck, followed by a slew of near misses. Beth was lucky enough to capture these on video!

I was feeling a little worse for wear today and it wasn't until we were on the home straight back to London with a few power ballads under my belt that things really started to get going. Beth doesnt really know where she lives but demanded a drop off so we drove around London town for a few hours yelling at each other with no map and no clue. We did eventually find it, then made our way to drop the rental off but missed the last tube at midnight making for a sour end to an already long and punishing weekend. Would I do it all again? You bet! Rally weekends cant be beat.

Extra special thanks to Laurence (and his Mum!) for letting us all stay at his place, was great to have you out on the rally again.

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