[KartikeyaL]

Day 19
October 9, 2018

Kathmandu to Chitwan report by Syd Stelvio

Back to the jungle

Sadly, today we said tatasidelek to Kathmandu, left the Himalayas behind us, and set a course for home. On the way though we enjoyed a spectacular last hurrah and finished up in another safari park surrounded by rhino and elephants.

Mindu, a Sherpa friend of Dr Delle Grimsmo, had made the journey to the capital to bestow a Buddhist scarf on each of us before we left, and to wish us well for our onward travel.

From the tranquility of the hotel the journey out of Kathmandu was much less fraught than the journey in had been and pretty soon we were all safely round the infamous ring road and down ‘the staircase’ that led us pretty quickly to the first Time Control in the small town of Naubise where the sweep crew of Jamie Turner and Tony Jones had made themselves comfortable next to a roadside chai stall.

Naturally, the big red ERA Toyota Hilux and the unfamiliar cars that were passing by attracted a crowd but it was very good natured and all the crews were more than happy to pose for selfies and answer whatever questions were asked.

The clock was ticking though and at minute intervals each car was sent in its way to the start of the Regularity at Sopyang. This was the last one of the rally and was therefore the last chance for anyone else to break Mike Velasco’s stranglehold on this event.

It was a testing Regularity as well, with multiple speed changes and multiple timing points adding to the difficult terrain. There are few straight and level roads in the Himalayas and maintaining any speed / distance equilibrium requires a rare skill. Upon finishing their run, Ludovic Bois and Julia Coleman we’re obviously delighted - punching the air and whooping with delight, “we got a zero”.

Once the crews reached the end of this section they were free to enjoy the views. And, there were plenty of them, including some tantalising glimpses of jagged snow covered mountains before they disappeared again behind the clouds.

The road itself was almost traffic free but it was rough, and the drivers had to carefully pick their line to keep themselves on schedule and to preserve their car for the final two days.

Keith Ashworth lost his exhaust through this section and along with David and Jo Roberts and the sweeps he was busily tying it all back together with wire.

On reaching the Time Control at Simbhjyang, at an altitude of 2,448m, the rally was rewarded with a cup of hot soup courtesy of Sarah Ormerod and Guy Woodcock's impromptu roadside Bistro.

Roy Stephenson had more rear suspension issues to sort out on his Datsun however, before he could enjoy his lunch.

The Passage Control at Bhaise was another SV (sans vehicule) affair, where the navigators were required to exit their cars and then run across a cable stayed suspension bridge towards John Spiller and Rikki Proffit, to get their time card stamped.

The day's final section into the night halt was straightforward, and within a few hours we were all safely ensconced in the Barahi Jungle Lodge Resort in the Chitwan National Park.

Tomorrow we cross the border back into India and there’s another early start to negotiate.

Day 20
October 10, 2018

Chitwan to Lucknow report by Syd Stelvio

Plains sailing

Another early start, another border day and another incredible drive through rural India. We left the hills behind once and for all and we also got to savour the final hairpin of the Himalayan Challenge.

Despite the hot and dusty reputation of the Indian Plains it was heavy fog that greeted us as we opened the curtains this morning and by mid morning the dampness had turned into another downpour but at least the rain kept dust down.

The first Passage Control was at at Bardaghat after 100km and saw Tony Jones and Jamie Turner stationed outside the Tara Hotel, a very agreeable chai house which was also dishing out that popular breakfast staple of masala dosas to the hungry local drivers. As we arrived boxes of live chickens were being traded and as we left, boxes of dead chickens were being strapped to the back of the buyers motorcycles.

The road surface was quite rough in places and once or twice we imagined ourselves back on the road to Rishikesh but with the right line and some careful use of the throttle good progress was made.

Just before the border, John Spiller sat with his check sheet and kettle prepping the crews for what to expect in the border area.

The Sonauli frontier is the main crossing point between Nepal and India and with the former being a landlocked country that relies heavily on road transport the area is often very congested and so it was today.

So, exactly as the Clerk of the Course had promised, the border experience was typically ‘authentic’. Busy, noisy and dusty although this time the challenge was actually getting out of Nepal. Passports were checked, and double checked, and the carnets scrutinised to the ’nth degree. Given this therefore, there was plenty of time for the crews to fully take in the unique ambiance of our surroundings.

Sadly, Jonathan and Freddie Turner’s Bentley arrived in the midst of this madness on the end of a row rope courtesy of Drs Delle Grimsmo and Bushan Lal. The likely problem was a blown clutch so the crew settled in to wait for some mechanical assistance.

The ‘India in’ part of the border actually flowed quite easily, despite our worst fears, and once we were out of the border area, the character of the road changed completely. For mile after mile, through town after town, the amazing sights of small town India revealed itself to us in a succession of noisy, colourful and enthusiastic scenes.

Today, Hindus are celebrating the festival of Chandra Darshan when statues of the Goddess Durga are driven around the locality in open trailers, and devotees follow behind chanting and singing her praises.

The final passage control in Basti then sent the rally on its way down the fast and smooth expressway for the final 200km into the very cosmopolitan Lucknow and the night halt at the ever so luxurious Vivanta by Taj, hotel.

Waiting for us when we arrived, were members of the Lucknow based Oudh Heritage Car Club and they generously presented each of the crews with a commemorative gift.

With no timing today, Mike Velasco and Peter St George might just have started dreaming that this could be the moment for their long awaited maiden win, but other crews have lost it all on the last day before, so it’s possible that they’ll be sleeping with their fingers well and truly crossed.

Tomorrow we have the triumphant arrival into Agra where the Times of India is waiting for interviews and photographs. We’re sure they’ll get quite a story.

Gerard brown images of Day 19 & 20

[KartikeyaL]

The rally ended yesterday and here is the report from day 21

October 11, 2018

Lucknow to Agra - Finish : report by Syd Stelvio

Taj Mahal

Upon pulling under the finish arch, within touching distance of the Taj Mahal, Mike Velasco and Peter St George were one very happy rally crew. This, their maiden victory in fact, follows in a long line of first time wins this year.

Back in March Graham and Marina Goodwin along with Marco Halter and Claudia Englehardt took the overall honours on The Road to Saigon. In June it was the turn of David and Jo Roberts who reigned supreme on the Trans America Challenge. And, in September, Jim Gately and Tony Brooks finally got their just deserts with victory on the Alpine Trial having also won the Vintage category on the Trans America Challenge.

The Himalayan Challenge has been one of the toughest rallies that the ERA has ever run and, getting to the finish was quite an achievement in itself.

For Mike and Peter, and the rest of the rally therefore, today was only ever going to be about getting into Agra and celebrating the end of this incredible adventure. With this in mind, a late start was planned followed by an easy 300km down the brand new expressway, without so much as a single hairpin bend, unguarded drop or stray cow.

From the hotel, the route took an easy run out of central Lucknow, where we enjoyed modern three lane highways. Here everyone kept to their own side of the road and waited, or at least paused, for red traffic lights. This reintroduction to the rules of the road though was short lived and once we’d cleared the ring road the Indian version Highway Code was reapplied, with gusto.

The expressway itself was a revelation. Traffic free, billiard board smooth and straight as an arrow. “Surreal” was how one of the crews summed it up, “after all we’ve been through it was like a runway”. Indeed there was one section which appeared to be exactly that.

There was one Passage Control for the day, situated in a rest area after a mere 220km shortly before we crossed our old friend, the Yamuna River which we’d last seen at Paonta Sahib on day 10. And, getting into Agra was easy. The local police, along with the ERA marshals had a section of road cordoned off just before the entrance to the Taj Mahal, along which the cars could triumphantly process.

It took the builders of the Taj Mahal 22 years to finish their job, but luckily Jim Smith and his team of finish line arch inflators fared a little better and once it was full of air, the cars had the honour of being flagged over the finish line by Mohd Mohsin Khan, the chief of the Taj Police force.

There were plenty of family and friends who’d flown in to Agra for the finish and after parking the cars, there was then just time for a quick refreshing drink and a wash and brush up before they were able to nip next door and take a leisurely wander around the Taj Mahal itself, surely one the wonders of the world.

The gala prize giving dinner in the Oberoi Amarvilas was, as usual, a glittering affair, most of the crews arrived dressed in turbans and various types of local dress. A full Indian buffet was on offer after which the speeches were made and the prizes were handed out. A full list can be found over on the results page.

As well as the overall and class awards there were, as usual, some discretionary awards. The Spirit of the Rally went to Bob Harrod and Dana Hradecka. Jan, Dana’s husband, died almost a year ago in Namibia and this was a fitting tribute to a well liked and much missed competitor. The Against All Odds trophy then went to Jo and David Roberts who returned to the rally twice after two serious mechanical issues.

Summing the event up, the Clerk of the Course John Spiller, a man now very much in need of a short holiday, sighed with relief and said that “this was always planned as a challenging event, we knew that the landscape and terrain would be the things to beat but, as we saw in Manali we were thrown a curve ball with the most testing set of circumstances on an ERA event since 1997. I’ve been impressed with the way the crews have risen to this challenge and taken everything in their stride with unfailing good humour and common sense”.

In a final tongue in cheek aside John also announced that this event would almost certainly be running again ….. “in twenty years time”. Competition Director, and assistant potager, Guy Woodcock, here on his first ERA long distance event, echoed this and added that “ it’s the people who make a great event and, we’ve got some great people here”, he also went on to thank the entire ERA team here on the ground for their hard work and fortitude.

For Mike Velasco, ending up as top banana, was a plum result. After years of trying and many rallies “this almost makes up for not winning in Morocco” said Mike, referencing his loss on the Sahara Challenge in 2015. “This has been a great event, despite the appalling weather early on and all of the subsequent problems. Not getting to the high mountains was naturally a disappointment but we made the best of it and the Organisers rose to the challenge with some clever re routing”. He signed off by saying “Just driving these roads is a challenge, never mind competing on them”.

Artur Lukasiewicz and Adam Tuszynski, winners of the Vintage category and second place overall were also delighted. This is their first ERA event and they’re using it as a shakedown for Peking to Paris. “We like a challenge so we’ve really enjoyed pitting ourselves against the rest of the rally. We also like a hard drive and we’re not afraid to say so. This was a preparation for next year's Peking to Paris and, now that we’ve seen this, we’ve learned a lot. We’ve beaten a lot more modern cars so second overall isn’t such a bad place to be.”

The party then went on late into the night and may have even slipped into the next morning.

Some Gerard brown images







The final results can be found here





I had written to Gerard brown and taken his permission before using his images, hope to get some more pictures to share soon.

cheers
Kartik

[KartikeyaL]

Pictures of all the participating cars

Picture Credit: Gerard Brown

[KartikeyaL]

Another set

Picture Credit: Gerard Brown

[KartikeyaL]

Some more pictures

Picture Credit: Gerard Brown

More pictures can be found here

[ringoism]

Going back a couple months, I met up with this bunch after stumbling across the silver Bentley parked, rather shockingly, on Manali's main chowk. It was the first time I'd been to town in many days on account of all the rain/flooding that had just taken place, and it was quite a surprise to see it there. Someone told me there were more cars in the schoolyard opposite the hospital I used to volunteer at, so I headed over - that was the mechanical workshop and it turned out pretty interesting to see what both owners and mechanics were involved in there - a magneto for the Bentley, a carb rebuild for the SAAB, head gasket on a Volvo, some FI tweaking on a Porsche... Most of these owners knew a considerable bit about their cars mechanically, many were themselves under the hoods or even under the cars. Later took my boys to see the rest of the cars and meet some more owners at their hotel near Prini. A great time.

I liked the whole vibe of this thing. The majority of classics out there are hugely pampered, many sit in museums, others hardly ever run except maybe in a local parade once or twice a year, at 25kmph... But here these guys are taking them over any/all kinds of terrain, not really worried about denting them, getting them filthy and breaking things, nor about having local kids touch them, lean on them, pose with them, etc (where I come from you just do NOT touch anyone else's car/bike...). All this to say the cars are actually being used, and used hard, pressed to some limits, truly pitted against others to see what may come of it. Got talking to the son of one of the Bentley owners there... said his dad had done a world-tour in it some years back, and lots of other long-distance events since, he just never stops driving it basically, and not bothered that his nice alloy rear mudguard got badly dented, he thought of keeping the damage there as a souvenir. And this car is really worth a fortune. So an event like this reminds us that at the end of the day, these are "just" cars... designed to be driven, to get people from one place to another in one way or another. That was the same in the late 1920's when a couple of these Bentleys were made, as it is was in the time of the 911's, and even now.

The results were interesting, with three Datsun Z's all near the top (I owned a few of these earlier), along with (in the under 10min. penalty space), three 911's and two Mercedes. I was very surprised the Volvos were mostly further down, they were great rally cars in their day and they were well-represented here. The bad weather was in one way merciful - I just can't imagine these lower-slung cars getting to Kaza unscathed, and I suspect the results would've come out quite different if they'd actually had the opportunity to try, the 1930's cars would've likely done the best out there for all their ground-clearance. I mean, it was kind of an insane route to try and plan for, ill-advised I'd say.

Anyway, a ton of photos of very professional sheen have already been posted, but thought I'd go ahead and add some of mine; Many of those earlier posted were focused on capturing rallying moments... whereas I had a great interest in the cars themselves. These were all taken with my mobile(s), which is all I had with me that day. Just will add the images without captions for the sake of time... Some great machinery here with some interesting design / technical details:

[ringoism]

A few more here...

Hope you enjoyed seeing some of these as much as I did.