London to Sydney
Paul's Diary !
Day 13, India Cochin.
Today was a rest day. We started the day with a good sleep in followed by a couple of hours in the car park sorting out spares, tyres, etc.. The first thing I must mention is the hotel we are in is OK called ABAD Hotel, doesn't have a liquor license! Can you believe that! The nearest beer is about 10 minutes in a taxi, so of course there has been a stream of taxi's to there. We went over for a couple of beers last night but by the time we arrived there (8pm) they were already out of Kingfisher and only had a few Fosters left, so as you can imagine there were a lot of ozzies and kiwis not very impressed.
We had to load all of our spares and tyres into the Astra to head over and we are getting it picked up in Cochin by another crew to transport if for us, so that is what today is about a lot of teams are doing the same. I mentioned its monsoon season here, so it's like a flood! Still raining outside as well, so some teams are putting extra grooving in their tyres getting ready for the next few days.
Day 14, India Cochin, Perumbavour, Munnar.
Today was a 130km tour up into the Tata Tea plantations of Kerala. We climbed 7000 feet into the sky, and as you can imagine on Indian roads in a poor state of repair but before I get to that the start! Well, anyone would think nothing else has ever happened in Cochin before.
I think half of India was there lining the roads to see us off. They had bands and even 3 big elephants in full dress doing dances at the start line. We also had some lovely Indian ladies bless us as we passed through the start line and give us flowers and a nice yellow dot on the forehead. The total for the day was only 230km was it was all tough going. The first part of the day was a 137km tour .. on single lane broken bitumen roads climbing through the mountains. At about the 100km mark one of the competitors .. George Sheppard/ in a very well prepared yellow Monaro crashed. They were going around a bend and on-coming traffic was a bit wide, they clipped a cement piller and tumbled over the edge.
Their car rolled down about 50ft before it ended on its roof right on the edge of a waterfall with water rushing through their windows! Fortunately they both managed to get out OK .. George has a bad cut on his hand and will be returning to Australia to have it properly looked at.
Unbelievably however they craned the Monaro up out of the water, put it back on its feet, and with a few tweaks here and there it started and all seemed to be OK .. apart for panel damage. Pretty amazing really, and I think they were both very lucky! We were following them up until about 5 minutes before when they pulled over for a quick pee. Another competitor in a little white Corolla also had a rush of blood and got pretty bad rear quarter panel damage when he tried to pass when he was caught out by oncoming traffic. We managed to get through OK I was driving today.
We finally arrived at the first stage 7000ft higher. The temperature had dropped from 35 to about 12 outside, and of course it was cloudy and raining, but what an amazing place. I would never have thought you could farm in this sort of countryside, but there they were, 1000's of Indians out there picking tea, and the plantations were all just so well kept and nicely pruned. It almost looked like a place where hobits should live.
Anyway, back to the rally, we had made the choice of road tyres based on advice from some of the local Indian rally teams that joined us the night before. What a mistake!!! The first stage was called Tetley running for 20km. It was called bitumen, but it was only a little wider than the Astra, full of broken bitumen if you could call it that, mud slides, potholes, rocks, etc . so we decided the best thing to do was to get through without a puncture.
Did I mention how twisty the road was, about 5 cars had to do a couple of 3 point turns to get around some of the bends! Lots of uphill and downhill. I spent all my time looking at the road in front dodging the rocks and holes, with a little skidding around in the mud I think Steve was quite nervous on this stage! Vidar in his Peugot on road tyres tried to give it a go and of course the inevitable happened 2 flat tyres half way through, luckily he was carrying 2 spares, but then another 200meters and another puncture.
That was it for him, he had no choice but to drive the rest of the day on a flat! We managed to bounce our way around about half the field had gravel tyres and they did quite well, the rest of us not so well! Finishing the stage was a good thing the entire field took it quite easy on this one! From here a 20km tour through the plantation to another similar stage called Avacuppa! We waited here for about 30 minutes before they decided to cancel the stage because the local Indian organizers didn't manage to get the ambulance and tow vehicles to the start on time, and of course they had the mid way team in the wrong place as well. They just called it a typical Indian Rally stuffup!
Anyway, I think everyone was pretty happy about not punishing their cars like that again for another 20km or at least until we could get our gravel tyres on! From here we had another 20km tour to our hotel called the Mahindra Resort Hotel. We checked in then had to park and service the cars about 2km away on a local school field which meant lots of MUD! We drove down and hunted out our gravel tyres. It took us a couple of hours to change these over and do a spanner check on the car.
Then off to the hotel in the minibus. Check in then find we have to walk up about 200 stairs to get to our room! (maybe only 100, but I think the oxygen is a lot thinner at 7000ft)! I don't think the hotel was used to so many guests. The put on a great BBQ and dinner for us, and they had a constant supply of beer, but most people were pretty worn out by 9pm and wandered off to their rooms. The poor Hotel staff had also planned a disco and dancers for us I don't think anyone attended!!! I slept on the couch that night well a plank on the couch anyway, and at 6am they started. Banging on the door telling us breakfast is ready.
Day 15, India - Munnar, Ailsa Craig, Maduputty and Coimbatore.
Total distance today of 300km with 2 stages the same as yesterday but in reverse! Did I mention the 6am breakfast calls? We weren't scheduled to start until 9.15am and were looking forward to a sleep-in to 8am today but 6am, and every 15 minutes after they came and banged on our door, rang the bells, etc . Anyway, up for a quick omelet and off we go on a 20km tour to the first stage called Anuthacuppa.
They shortened it a bit as the last 5km would have been downhill and far too dangerous . And I think everyone was glad of that! Off we went, Steve driving today and what a difference gravel tyres make! Firstly you have traction so you can actually turn in the corners.
Secondly they have a tough sidewall so you don't have to worry about dodging the rocks and potholes, and thirdly they are a much higher profile and give a much softer ride over the rough. Seemed like we flew compared to yesterday .. .and I am sure we did. Everyone seemed to get through that stage OK, and I think people might have been getting a little over confident. A quick 15km tour to the next stage in the Tata plantation. Different story I think there might have been a little more uphill, it certainly seemed like we went around here a LOT quicker than the day before, but that's not what the times show just goes to show how different a stage can be in reverse.
Well, there were lots of tracks into bushes, etc so it was obvious people were giving it more of a go. About half way around a couple from Qld in a fantastic yellow Capri Perana were standing on the side of the road with their OK sign up they looked a little white I must say, apparently they had a launch and severe downhill ride over the edge for about 200meters. They were OK but I couldn't wee their car, I am told it will need to be craned out? Another 5km down the road there there was Steve Blunt in his Team Castrol Corolla, sitting nicely grounded on top of the tea tress balancing on the edge of the drop. They were also OK.
We managed to get through OK with another long tour down the mountains through some busy little villages to Coimbatore. I caught up with Steve and he told me about 30 Indians came rushing over and basically lifted his car out of the plantation and back on the road no real damage, that's what I call lucky! Anyway a nice cruise in to the hotel and this time it all seems quite nice. Parked in the undercover park we pulled the wheels off and did another spanner check ready for my drive in a couple of dirt stages tomorrow. Off for dinner and another early night for a 7.30 start tomorrow.
Day 16, India Coimbatore, Mettuppalalyam, Annur, Nanjangud and Mysore.
Well, a reasonable start time today out at 8.15am and on to our 56km tour for the fist of 2 dirt stages in a windmill farm. The drive there was pretty un adventurous, but when we arrived it was just a flat table land with what seemed like hundreds of wind power generators.
I have never seen so many! And I think you can figure it's pretty windy here as well! This is a good thing as the fist stage called Textool is 14km long. It had many junctions and was very technical with lots of loose gravel, rocky in places, and of course lots of turns. It was very easy to get confused so concentration was at a max. It was pretty much a 2 nd gear run sometimes venturing into third in the faster spots, so it was just lots of sliding and sideways with the poor little Astra flat out as much as possible.
It would have been sooooo much fun in a big V8, but I must say the little Astra front wheel drive still managed to have a LOT of rear sideways action. This was the best stage of the event! It was hard going with lots of action, no moments and we got through quite cleanly. I think Steve was pretty happy we were through, a few times he told me to slow down. From here we had a short 1km tour, pretty much straight in to the next stage of 12km called Premier. This was just more of the same! Perhaps a little more rocky and open, but just as much fun. No moments, just lots of slipping and sliding through corners and weaving along the gravel on the fast stretches. From here we had a 240km tour to Mysore that took us through a lot of fantastic little villages, most were pretty busy but being Sunday I think the could be a lot worse. The roads weren't that busy either which made for good touring.
We had a 10km steep climb just out of Annul with 27 hairpin bends then entered into what they referred to as an animal area .. I guess we saw a few monkeys, other than that all the way there were cows, goats, pigs and the odd donkey. We had a convoy of about 10 cars cruising nicely for the last 150km and I am sure all the local villagers were amazed at what they saw. Some of the roads were a bit ordinary of course, dodging the potholes and mad India motorcyclists and drivers.
Once we entered Kanataka State it was pretty easy going into Mysore . But from what we could see it should have been called Eyesore! Anyway, I am sure there is some beauty out there somewhere! The control was at the amazing Lalitha Mathal Palace, a former Maharajahs Palace where time has stood still.
Everything is old but still in good working order probably because of the 1000's of Indians they have working there! Once we arrived and clocked in we had to change back to our road tyres for tomorrows sections on the way back to Munnar.
We did this in the Palace grounds and there were hundreds of inquisitive locals turning up to have a good look at what we were about! Once we finished and did a spanner check we headed off to our hotel on the other side of town Quality Inn Not too bad I guess, hot showers and reasonable facilities. Another early night I think as we have an extra long day tomorrow. We originally were to have 2 more days before we arrived back at Munnar with a night in Ooty, but we now have to get back to Cochin a day early to cleanse' our cars for customs inspection before they get loaded on the plane for Australia. 2 days of cleansing', sounds like lots of fun in a place where I am sure 80 cars will have to share the 1 hose with a few drips of water!
