At 7pm on New Year’s Day 44 cars set off from the Houses of Parliament on an epic journey to Cape Town.

I am part of the support team for this event, it is what is known as a ‘press on’ rally, so no matter what happens, you have to keep moving ever South.

The day started early at Brooklands Motor Museum with signing on and Scrutineering.

It’s quite a feat of organisation to process over 40 vehicles and 100 people in one go, but The Endurance Rally Association does it very well. Below are a few pictures of some of the cars.

As part of the briefing session I did a presentation about ‘managing the competitors expectations’ of travelling in Africa….

 

 

I did a quick video and when I posted it on-line a mate said I sounded like Brian Hanrahan giving his famous ‘ I counted them all out..’ Falklands speech!

The Paddock

 

The first stages were in the woods in Kent, on the way to Dover, I was manning a Time Control, it amazes me how over 80 volunteers all gave up their time to come and standing the freezing cold, dark woods for hours at a time on New Year’s Day.

After Kent it was onto the ferry at Dover and a 600km drive through the night to reach Beaune, which myself and Kim Bannister (Asst. Clerk of the Course) achieved by 9am this morning. Kim and I are the advanced party and I am charged with making sure all hotel, mobile HQ, Ferries, Border arrangements are in place.

It seems most of the cars have made it this far relatively unscathed, although sadly one car is already out of the Rally due to an accident on a timed section in Kent. They didn’t even make it out of the UK, they must be gutted.

Tomorrow is another long day 800kms, so I will stop now to get some sleep…

 

 

 

 

 

So, here is my first attempt at updating the blog by email. This is going to prove very useful on the London to Cape Town rally, as there will be very little time to get on-line during the long days on the road. Hopefully, I can write an email whilst rolling through the African savannah and then fire it off when I find a connection. So, if you’re reading this, then I know it’s worked!