Because the boys may not have internet for a few days – for those who may like to have a read of the ERA Rally report of their drive through Greece to the ferry – which they are on at present in a howling gale!
BLUE STAR DIAGORAS, MEDITERRANEAN SEA – JANUARY 6TH, 2012
Well today was a hectic. Started off from the beautiful hotel ready for an easy (yeah my ass) 400 km with 6 time trails throughout the day. The first section was meant to be about 9km up the hill on dirt roads up and over the small mountain range. We were the 39th car to start off and half way up hill we were stopped and just saw chaos in front of us, total chaos. Cars that were meant to be started at 1 minute intervals so you dont come across anyone and there was at least 15 cars either bogged, stopped because they couldnt get up the hill any further, or slid into or off the sides. After the lead cars had ripped trough at a million mile an hour and churned the road into 70mm of total slop on top of hard polished rock road base, that stage was cancelled and results were the same for everyone. Not like that really means alot to us fella’s at the back.
Which brings me to my next point, the tortoise and the hare story. 2 more cars arnt going to make the boat tonight and miss out on driving the african continent completly. Alex in his 240z that was overtaking us all yesterday and then taking the rong turn and overtaking us (happened 5 times yesterday) again, unfortunately is one of them. This morning we had a joke about how many times he would do it today, and he replied “mate, probably another few hundred by the time is out, but most importantly we make it on the boat tonight!” Well, he ate his words pretty hardcore tonight, early in the morning he flew past us, and an hour later were were coming down a huge hill (hairpin after hairpin after hairpin) and he must have come into the first one a bit too fast and understeered taking him directly into the path of an oncoming car, totallying his front end. It has been raining and miserable weather for days, and the roads (as we have seen) are like ice. The v8 Morgan also went of the end of a road very early in the day with a broken chassis rail, and is out. It’s a bit sad actualy, real nice french guys that helped me with my french a bit.
We just got on the ferry to go from Pireaus to Alexandria, Egypt. The entire boat is just fo
r us, a boat that fits probably 4 hundred people and 200 cars AT LEAST and its alllllll just for us, 44 cars. It’s fairly surreal, we have a cabin each for a bit of space. Word on the street is that the weather across the mediterrean sea is going to be rough! which sucks massively, i get sick on a tiny little tinny and i have 38 hours ahead of me in a giant boat that is going rock rock rock in gale force winds. We are the ONLY boat in the entire port of Greece that is settle sail tonight, eveyr other cargo boat has deemed it too rough to go out. Shit, not a good sign 🙁
Hello to all my friends back home! I’m having a fantastic time and penny is trooping along brilliantly. I’ll get some photo’s up as soon as i can of the mud bath from this morning. Back later my amigo’s!!!
James 🙂
Another day down, we were well rested after the 18 hour boat cruise down to Greece and disembarking saw us face first into rain, rain and a wee bit more rain, oh and more tunnels! The main highway out of Inguminesta (something like that) literraly went straight upward, up and up through the hills until about 3 and a half thousand feet amongst the snow.
Once we popped over the top of the mountains the weather cleared up and we took our roof off to enjoy the scenery a bit better, especially as we knew our route would take us to Kalambaca (something like that) to the giant rock formations with monasteries perched on the top, I think they were also featured in a James Bond movie once. And they were spectacular!
A bit more of a transit and we were leaving the valley floor and on to the top of the next set of ranges to do some time trails up in the snow somewhere. The slog from 500 feet to 3000 feet was done without getting out of second gear the entire way, round and round the hairpins that seemed like they went on forever. Every now and then going through a little town that looked like it was stuck in the 1800’s and at times was less than one lane wide and you had to breath in to fit between two opposite building corners. The timed sections were once again so much fun!
All day me and dad have been laughing, because every now and then we would be overtaken by a 240z or a peugot 504 (Alex and Nigel respectivel) and then get overtaken by them again and we say “wtf, they must have taken the wrong turn and got lost AGAIN!” My god it’s funny when it happens 4 or 5 times for the day!
You can really see how stuffed the Greek economy is, everywhere there is half finished construction zones, roadworks that looks like the workers have literally walked away at the end of the day and never come back, a bridge over a valley but with no road at either end of it.
Tomorrow we rally on some smooth graded gravel roads and make our way to the next port to get the longest ferry ride down to Egypt (I don’t handle boats at the best of time so i hope this 40hour crossing the Mediterranean sea will be hassel free)
James
