2008 Photo Gallery

With the Northern Half Rally completed and teams "Pink Dylan" & "Le Canard Ivre" heading home, the remaining five Full Rally teams are joined by team "Rolls Canardly" for the Southern Half Rally and teams "The Hedgehogs" & "2cvHound" for the daily stage to South Essex. Team "Plodders" had left prior to the photo line-up in order to drop Hazel off at Leicester train station. (Photo: Teams left to right. Rally Referee, 2cvHound, The Hedgehogs, Team Shed, Dollywobbles, Mad-A-Gasket, AtoZ, Le Canard Ivre (Heading home after the photo) and finally Roll Canardly).

With a few changes to the teams, the second half of the Full Rally & the Southern Half Rally began. With the Northern Half Rally Trophy awarded to "Pink Dylan" there were still two trophies up for grabs. Team "Plodders" lost Hazel, who headed home in order to go back to work, leaving just Brian with cute little Mutt. Team "AtoZ" lost Dave, but Tim gained his wife for the first stage of the southern half of the rally. Additionally, without Dave to repeatedly push the 1950s ripple up every long hill they encountered, it was with relief to all of us that Tim switched from the Ripple to his red/black Charleston. (Photo: Team "AtoZ" switches from the Ripple to the powerful (by comparison) Charleston).

After many days of hills, mountains and challenging tasks, it was a relief for the teams to return to the relatively flatter countryside of East Anglia. Disaster hadn't left team "AtoZ" though, as Tim received a phone call from the Coalville hotel to inform him that he'd left his wallet in the room. By this time he'd nearly reached Norfolk before having to return to Coalville and collect it. (Photo: Teams "Dollywobbles" & "2cvHound" heading south through Norfolk).

After leaving Billaricay in South Essex heading for Wareham, the urban sprall of the south became evident. Cutting diagonally across Kent, Surrey & Sussex the teams made for the south coast of England. The next major breakdown of the rally befell team "Mad-A-Gasket" near Coolham. With the clutch cable mounting on their Mehari broken at the welded joint, plastic cable ties lasted for 10miles at best. Joolz & Mandy then found themselves on the side of the road in Billingshurst making additional improvised repairs. (Photo: Joolz & Mandy of team "Mad-A-Gasket" making running repairs to their Mehari in Billingshurst).

With the cableties not strong enough to hold the clutch cable mount in place, a hastily improvised alternative was fashioned. After an hour or more on the side of the road, a harness of twisted gardening wire from a nearby florist enabled the team to continue along on that day's challenges. Unfortunately the time lost meant hitting Bournemouth & Poole at the worst possible time for rush hour and arriving at the campsite late enough to incur four penalty points. (Photo: The improvised running repair to team Mad-A-Gasket's clutch cable support).

With a new car and no passenger, Tim from team "AtoZ" decided to sleep in the car to save pitching a tent. After a few variations on the theme, and backache from holes in the original plan, he finally had a comfortable night. (Photo: Tim makes a solo camper out of his Charleston).

From Wareham Forest the suggested route took the rally teams allong the south coast, mup the steep streets of Beer (Nr Seaton), along to Exeter and then across the next National Park of the rally. From one end of Dartmoor to the other, the tasks rolled on and on. Team "Dollywobbles" were having running difficulties during this stage though, and had to stop off to get assistance with repairs. Eventually the fault was traced to the electronic ignition and the unit was replaced with good ole fashioned points. (Photo: Team "Dollywobbles" get Elly fixed on the way towards Land's End).

What most teams had failed to realise was that the Eight Ball for this stage was again time sensitive. The previous false sense of security, when Lindisfarne was passed without a task, had lulled the teams into believing there were no tidal causeways on the rally. Team Shed & Plodders were the only two who made it to Marazion in time to make the trip to St Michael's Mount and complete the Eight Ball before the causeway flooded and the ferry service finished. (Photo: St Micheal's Mount with the flooded causeway which caught out most of the teams).

With the sun out and dry skies, the teams readied themselves for the return journey to Leicestershire, via the Somerset hills and Welsh mountains. (Photo: Brian & Mutt of team "Plodders" check the map ready for the next day's tasks).