one of the many shipwrecks in Alexandria harbour

Very important people were trying to smooth our passage!

Day 8 Egypt

Lloyd,  Ben, Treacy, Jim and David while away the hours at the port, eating oranges handed out by an orange man.

Early start, Philip’s idea of 5.30 breakfast being necessary was questionable… as we can see land but no life. We floundered around in the port and waited for the pilot who arrived at 8, and then the passport men came on board at about 10 and we waited and waited. Finally unloaded boat and waited on quayside til 2.30. Our drive via the pyramids to El Sokhna South East of Cairo was therefore, not only largely in the dark, but in Cairo rush hour. The driver couldn’t have looked out the window anyway as there were so many obstacles on the road…cars with no lights, pushy cars with lights, potholes, people and just general mayhem. It was more about self preservation than getting there. We only suffered a glancing blow from a car cutting in on the left, and a horse which backed into us at the ceremony put on for our arrival. Both on the damaged corner anyway.

The luxury of a cabin each in a whole ship and fantastic staff dedicated to just us!

Day 7 On the Diagoras

Alastair Caldwell telling another story...

Hayden Burvill listening still...

Lovely long lie in as we have our first day off! The boat has been specially chartered for us and we had full staff and delicious food. Our cabins are all internal, we imagine because of the particularly rough seas, so we had no idea of the time when we did wake. Lots of people stayed below as it was a bit rough. We managed to get through lunch and supper and enjoy not having much to do. A bit of a sleep in the afternoon helped while away the hours. It is too early in the rally to have time off so we are all twitchy, and it is quite frustrating not being able to work on the cars. The captain did actually allow us one hour to go below, but in the light of the high seas and storm, we thought it might be dangerous! The GPS had not worked yesterday and Suzy found out that it had scrambled itself so she got that sorted and had a lesson from Rob Henchoz a naval navigator which was quite useful!

To Pireaus

We couldn't make use of the spa facilities at our 'wellness' hotel as we had six stages to get to. We started off a bit slowly and reached the start 2 minutes late which, as it turned out, didn't matter at all because half way up the hill we came across mayhem as cars were skidding about in a quagmire. Two Volvos were off the track saved from the cliff by trees, the Robinsons went into a hole and various others were stationary scattered about where they had ground to a halt. We got out of there when we could but couldn't get to the next stage due to no route maps being issued and the Garmin went haywire so we met up again in the middle of the day and did the next stage even though Andy Inskip advised us to hit the road to Athens... Rachel drove like a granny, however, due to a major nerve loss since the accident, but slowly coming back throughout the day. We've moved up from 42 to 40, but mainly because the Datsun was written off in a traffic accident and the Morgan broke a chassis rail in a ditch.

We are now relaxing, in a force 8 gale, on the sea from Athens to Alexandria for about 36 hours...

Greece

A rather juddery night but slept well after yesterday's adventures. It was quite relaxing to have a night off and still can't believe our luck catching the ferry. A bit surprised, though, when suddenly it was time to get off because we'd forgotten to change our watches. The car seems to be going really well, which is also a surprise. No steering or braking issues. The drive to Kamena Vourla was snowy and moutainous with some crazy rocky outcrops. We took the car down to a local workshop in KV to try to straighten the sump guard as hitting it very hard with a hammer (which broke). and driving a landrover onto it and hitting it very hard with another hammer had both failed to flatten it. Putting it into a press and lying it on the ground underneath the electric ramp with Owen's car on it didn't help much either. Unfortunately the ramp broke while Owen's car was still on it...But it is ok, Owen is still in the rally.
We had a lovely reception when we returned to the hotel, everyone cheered and clapped when we entered the dining room. It was very touching. So many people have said how pleased they are to see us back. We are pleased too. We don't give in that easily.

Snow in Greece

                                                                               Owen hitting our sump

                                                                 guard

crazy rocky outcrops

Owen's car trying to flatten our VERY bent sump guard!

And by the way, we felt a little bit better when we heard that lots of people had skidded where we did, including Owen. We were just the unlucky ones to come to grief.

Italy2

Things didn’t go so well today. The start time of  8.00 was actually 2 hours away from the hotel and as we were trying to get there on time in freezing fog we skidded and hit the wall of the centre of a roundabout.

We were basically unhurt, but the car wasn’t. Some fellow rallyists helped pull us off the middle of the road. After much waiting around the police arrived who organised a tow truck. After about another hour he towed us 500yds to a garage for E100. Orlando the mechanic was very doubtful and hadf to keep ringing his girlfriend Vanessa to speak English with Rachel. He did pull the front out enough to turn the wheel and found us a lorry to Ancona. Lorry driver got lost, had never been so far from home, and the clock was ticking as we all got more anxious, when suddenly we found the garage Orlando had found on the internet for us. The very elegant owner in his smart blue puffa and cords was dubious, but we pleaded and his mechanic kept insisting it could be done. They took it off the truck and shook their heads, they opened the bonnet and shook their heads, they took off the wheel and shook their heads. Then suddenly they were a hive of activity and in less than 2 hours they had changed the radiator, straightened the tie bar and done loads of bashing and banging and rearranging til we had a car again. Hugs, kisses and photos all round with this fantastic family and we were off in our rather wonky little car.

We decided to drop into the ferry port to check timetables etc and Minoan ferries said we could board the ferry which was about to go. Our luck was back. So here we are in a huge cabin which was all they had left, and a lie in. Plan is to catch the rally at the end of day 5.

And we still haven’t left Europe.

leaving the freezing roundabout at last. An unhappy scene.

These are all our lovely mechanics, Orlando, top

and below Papa , his son, Igor, Rachel, Mama, Big Bear

Italy

Into Italy and a long time trial in the Ligurian hills on hairpin bends which should have taken us 55 minutes and we took 6 minutes over that, so we have slipped to 10th. Bumped into the cliff face at the bottom, but no damage to the car at all! Well done Jamie for teaching us to steer a slide into the navigator's side, and the bar at the front took the impact.

Brooklands and Beaune

Never been jet-lagged travelling to France before, but here we are in the Novotel, (not)Central Beaune. Pity to miss the splendour, but we literally dragged ourselves out of the muddy little car and into our room and slept, after a tussle with the fold out bed for Rachel. Spent all yesterday at Brooklands in the pouring rain for Scrutineering (thank you Leigh Woods for coming) then left in the dark for London with great send off from our families and friends. Kent Test with two forest sections which were very slippy, claiming one victim - the not-so-triumphant Triumph - and an Ordnance survey map read which fooled the French and Dutch! But not us...We came away ninth! We are still amazed.

Then 4am ferry to Calais and long, sleep inducing autoroute drive to Beaune via one trial in the mud of the Somme. Sleeep...