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Jan 5

Strade Bianchi and the ferry from Ancona

Obviously we started early. We always do but today I was up at 4.30am to nurse an ailing Internet connection back to life. My ministrations were not in vain and a precious packet of pixels made its way to a cyber repository safe and sound within the hour. At the same time I made my way to breakfast and to the truck leaving only the computer to be packed prior to the 5.30am departure. We had around 200km to do before 8.00am.
Fog was once again the dominant feature of the dark journey and was so thick across the central highlands of Italy that one of the cars drove straight into a roundabout. No injuries but a lot of damage we’re told although the Rover is still running. As day dawned, the fog lifted and we pulled off the Tarmac onto the Strade Bianchi, the white gravel roads so common around here.
The ‘test’ was a circuit on a hillside and had it all, narrow climbs, descents, switchbacks and off camber washaways. No surprise that the smaller cars made the most of it.
Once the competition had been wrapped up we made our way to the Port of Ancona to catch the Superfast to Igoumenitsa on the other side of the Adriatic. These ships are excellent, the cabins and food on board are superb. It’s an eighteen hour crossing though so they need to be. There’s even wifi, it’s slow – painfully – but its reliable enough to send another load of pictures up to the ether. We dock around 8.00am and head straight into the Greek hills.

Jan 3

The Ligurian hills.

Pretty much a transit day to but one with a superb sting in the tail. 874km to Italy. Leaving Beaune under grey and foggy skies we made our way south on the Autoroute crossing the flooded plains of the Saone and began the long slow climb into the Alps. Through the St Jean du Maurienne valley the fog lifted and we were treated to blue sky, snow capped peaks and an empty motorway. Either side the Madeleine, the Glandon and the Croix de Fer framed the scene perfectly. A quick coffee and pastry just before the Frejus tunnel set us up for the Italian Autostrada. Once we’d adjusted to the more Latin driving on the other side of the tunnel we made good time to the next coffee stop! Further fortified it was off the motorways and into the campagna, specifically the Ligurian Hills and the maze of craggy, damp, slippy and narrow roads. Italy in the winter is sleepy and felt very remote as we wound our way through villages, past farmhouses and over a dam to our ‘checkpoint’ just below the village of Barbagelata. Once we’d seen 39 cars safely through we headed out of the World Cup section and found Peter Scott, car 20 with the left hand rear wheel missing 100m short of TC3.9 the offical end of the section. No injuries or further damage so we left him negotiating with a local – presumably to secure some assistance. Another 50km or so got us back on the Autostrada for the last 183km to Firenze, the night halt.

Jan 2

The Somme

So Kent was wet but France is wetter. Having crossed at 3.40am we arrived bleary and weary in Calais. After a regroupment at Urvilliers and a small French breakfast we left the autoroute and took to the fields. Ploughed fields. With a narrow gravel track dissecting them. More superb marshalling, an accurate road book with GPS waypoints and the mud made for some great driving. Now we’re set for Beaune

Jan 1

Wye railway crossing.

Points just changed.

Jan 1

Holiday Inn – Wrotham

After two years in the offing we’re finally off. It’s been a long day so far though. Brooklands at 9.30am. Westminster at 5.00pm then on to Wrotham for the start of the all night section Kent Cup’. We’ve been briefed, debriefed, signed on signed in downloaded, uploaded and so on. It still feels like a phoney war but we do know that there’s a battle coming.
Tonight there is a lengthy trek through the dark, wet and tight woods with ‘proper’ timing and navigation required. It’s nothing like what we’re going to so will be something nice to look back on in a couple of weeks when we’re up to our axles in sand. The Westminster start was really impressive, marshalls on the bridge, House of Lords car park and lasagne in the Red Lion. Flagging off at 7.01pm went like clockwork and we all regrouped at Wrotham. So far so good although I won’t see a bed until Beaune tomorrow evening by which time we’ll have also taken in ‘the Somme’ test.