Syd Stelvio - London to Lisbon Day 5
Toulouse to Pamplona – 455km
Vive L’Espagne!! Adieu La France. Today, high in the Pyrenees, we said hello to timing again, and goodbye to red tape, bureaucracy and having to faff about pretending that we aren’t on a rally. Adieu to regulations, hola to regularities. This rally has crossed the border and the wonderful experience that is northern Spain can begin.
Of course, before the escape to España could happen, there was a fair chunk of French soil to get through, including a pair of route sections. Actually, sod it, what am I thinking, not route sections, regularities. They may not have been timed, as none of the one’s in La France, The France, have been, but there were still code boards that needed to be written down and penalties for anyone that missed them. This may not have been as ruthless as the timekeeper’s watch would have been for navigational errors, but it did still provide some ups and downs in the results during our time in L’Hexagone. Not that we were allowed to talk about it, mind you. ‘Maman’ was the word as far as any talk of a competition was concerned.
Yes, that’s right La France, despite your attempts to quash the event, a bit of subterfuge provided some entertainment for the crews, even if it wasn’t quite on the level of the Martel affair. But the last laugh went very much to Gaul, when the mountain pass that should have taken us over the Pyrenees and onward to Spain was shut due to a rockfall.
This meant a 30km detour, which on paper doesn’t sound like much, but in reality, took place on tiny singletrack roads and actually took the best part of two hours to complete. Any hold up with local vehicles, especially farm traffic compounded the delay, including a local farmer herding his cows down one street. Now somewhat serendipitously our own pair of farmers the Baines found themselves caught up in this Bovine boggle, the early rally leaders quite rightly pinning the hold up on Chancellor Rachel Reeves.
It was on this detour that one of the days major mechanicals would occur, as the two Pete’s, Brunton and Chudleigh, suffered a broken half shaft in the Mk1 Escort Mexico. Unfortunately, it was unable to be fixed on the side of the road and the machine is currently on route to Pamplona as I type this. Somewhat more remarkably, the replacement part is on a night boat to Spain and the pair are driving north to the coast first thing to pick it up and get the stricken Escort back into the rally.
There was also trouble for Stephan Wagner and Gianna Theofilidou, as they inexplicably ran out of fuel in the reasonably new Porsche Spyder, with its digital range estimates and modern fuel gauge. Perhaps the fuel warning light only gets included if you opt for the performance pack? Either way, they needed the Sweeps with their magic can of fuel to get them going again. Wait ‘til they see the price of a litre, the strait of Hormuz has got nothing on that.
Once any mechanicals had been averted and the detour had been mastered, the rally did, eventually, arrive in Spain. There wasn’t quite a fanfare, but there was definitely a release as we all crossed the imaginary line between the two countries and trotted across the 100km or so before the final reg of the day, but, importantly, the first on Spanish soil. The reg was definitely one for the drivers, with a constant 50km average required throughout, and all on broken and roughshod tarmac. The road was as good as abandoned, with very little if any traffic on it and very few junctions for the crews to navigate around. Still though, the switch to timed regs again may have come too soon for some, as some crews lost out.
The most prominent of these occurred near to the top of the time sheets, as Graham Platts and Neil Ripley, and Peter and Louise Myles closed the gap on the silver Porsche. In fact, the Healey of Platts and Ripley had closed the gap so much, they actually jumped into first place, but only by three seconds. Judging by the time penalties many of the crews may have been happier writing down code boards, but time will tell just how they will get on. This evening, we enjoy Pamplona, and with a non-driving day (a first for London to Lisbon) there will no doubt be frantic activity in front of the hotel to ensure the cars are ready for the second half of this adventure.
Syd.