Day 4 of the Navigational Rally
Hotel - Forli - Santarcangelo - San Morino - Cattolica
The last day of rallying, and we'd finally got the stopwatch
sorted! The first checkpoint was in a pretty boring car park with another
special stage thrown in for good measure. This was a six second and cross
the next line effort, continuing straight on to Santartarcangelo. There we
parked in a big square where there were lots of locals trying their best to get
run over. The timings on the last day seemed tighter than those of the
previous days, so we were soon on our way again.
The next stop was San Marino, the oldest
republic in Europe. It is tiny, way up in the hills, and has some
pretty impressive views from the top. We learnt quite a lot about
the town as we were given information packs with loads of brochures, and
had to complete a quiz with lots of questions about the place. I can
remember it has three fortresses, its own currency and stamps but not a
lot else.
However we did discover something else that it
has - its own number plates for cars, which we discovered on this
little friend we met tucked away at the top of the hill.
We actually got to do some touristy things in San Marino, as there were
lots of souvenir shops. We also had lunch there, although we had to
rush ours and leave without finishing it to get back in time for the
checkpoint.
The next stop was Cattolica, in a square which
wasn't a square but a circle - not sure what you'd call it really!
However it looked pretty impressive once all the cars were lined up (or
circled up). I was lucky to get this pic as Karen managed to get up
to the top of a building opposite, and I made her take my camera with
her. It took an awful long time to get the cars in the right order,
over the checkpoint and then in their right places for the pics.
We were lucky to have some very friendly Italian policemen
patrolling the event, and Rob and Andy in Team 70 eventually got a chance
to do some acting!
After that we crossed our very last time control and drove back
to the hotel - the Rally stage was over! It was our last night in the
Hotel Molino Rosso, and the next day we would be heading off homewards.
But we still had a lot more fun to come!
That night was party night, and we all had to put our posh
clothes on - made a change after the jeans and tee shirts, but its quite
difficult when you're travelling in a Mini. There were quite a few
creased up shirts I noticed, but nobody really cared by the time
they'd had a few drinks. There was a good band playing (not a jazz
band as advertised thankfully) and some of the Jobbers made impromptu
appearances on the guitar and drums.
One team had been promised £5 in sponsorship money for
every girl photographed with their car during the run, I think they're
probably regretting it now! A few of the Scottish Jobbers were
wearing kilts for the evening, and if anyone was in doubt about what they
wear under them, they knew a few minutes after this picture was
taken. I began to think I was at Southern Mini Days rather than on
the Italian Job! Unfortunately I didn't manage to get a pic.
I can't remember what time we eventually got to bed that night, most people had
the luxury of being able to lay in, but we had a special assignment the next
morning which would mean an early start...
