Into Greece - the Ups and Downs

Landed in Greece this morning of Day 5 on the west side of Greece. And off we set into the hills past heaps of snow for a tarmac World Cup section. These are special timed sections and we've had a few already. Generally, they are split into sections. You are given a time to be at each control and if you are late at the first, you carry that lateness to the second etc - so it all adds up. 

This means you have to drive hard. Some are tarmac sections and some gravel. Today we had 2 tarmac and one gravel totalling 35km and timed to the second: in the sense that very few will match the target time so it is a question of how many seconds you lose. 

The tarmac sections were through snow and slush - up in them thar hills again. Most of it was piled 2 feet high at each side with about a 10 foot channel down the centre and slush thrown onto the road - strangely sometimes near sharp bends. On one side of the road was a drop and on the other a rock face. Our van tyres worked OK now I've worked out how to drive on them on semi-dry tarmac. On gravel, is a different story. The third section was just that. 

This was an 11km hilly track - rutted and muddy in places. Half way along was a fork left but 50m before just before was another junction not mentioned in the book. Bob spotted the discrepancy as he follows the junctions coming up in the book and compares them to the special rally tripmeter he uses. 

As we approached the first junction he hesitated but said ignore left 'its not right' which duly came up round the next corner. Unfortunately (for them) half the field went up the first left and rally cars were flying about everywhere trying to find the right road. Some went for miles up the wrong track. Bob felt very smug having called it correctly and we picked up a chunk of time. 

This made up though for a timing error earlier in the day which cost us a couple of minutes but everyone can make a mistake and it tends to even out. 

So, still 3rd but 4th has dropped 10 minutes back - still nothing in Africa where hours are dropped rather than minutes. But watch out for that Belgian 911 - up to 10th and no expense spared to catch us minnows after they messed up on the first day in Kent. 

Off to Athens tomorrow after 6 World Cup sections, some from the  Acropolis rally. Suspect most will be careful to make sure they catch the ferry tomorrow night.

Steve Blunt