We set off from the F1 in Coquelles with glee in our hearts and a rather odd breakfast in our bellies. The rally started from right outside the Holiday Inn in the centre of Calais, which if we had known, we may have booked something nearer (and better), but such is life.
It was great to see the 75 cars all lined up nose to tail. We were almost last in, parked in between a Volvo and another Volvo (see a theme developing?). The one behind had some lovely Ghostbusters livery, and the rallyers were dressed up in the gear, too.
To paraphrase a warning from our Rally Handbook: "Sarnen is a long, long way from Calais". Not half. As such, it probably wasn't advisable to stop somewhere outside Brussels and pick up a couple of hitchhikers. Sandra and Suzanna were a couple of Dutch girls on a challenge of their own - to get to a new destination every day as quickly as possible. We showed them to our spare two seats in the Dutchess and took them in style, to Luxembourg.
Who knew Luxembourg was both so nice, and had so many buildings that look like Cathedrals?? Either way, once the lovely ladies were dropped off at their destination, we pointed our collective noses towards Strasbourg. Of course, the beauty of Strasbourg is that at that point you have two choices of route to get down to the Swiss border: The French way, or an unrestricted section of pristine German Autobahn. Guess which one we picked?
At this point, the keys were handed to 'The Rookie' Ben, who had much fun (and much swearing when some very slow vans pulled out in front of him). Let's just leave the photo to tell the story.
So today, we've crossed the border more times than the Large Hadron Collider and taken in five countries: France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, France again and, finally, Switzerland. 775 miles down and only Italy to go. Just the small matter of a few mountains in our way...
-Ian.
Current Stats:
Ave. Speed: 53.8 MPH
Ave. Fuel Consumption: 25.2 MPG
Total Fuel Used: 30.5 Gallons
Total Distance: 775 Miles
Photos Uploaded Here.
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2 comments:
How does that work then? That photo is taken from behind and yet I can DEFINITELY see you grinning there Mr Oates!
Cat x
And the Dutch girls are very greatful. Thanks to you guys and your speedy car we finished the race and won first place! We didn't win just that day, but we won the whole competition! Good luck to you guys and look us up on facebook!
Suus and San
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