Amboise – Mont Dore
Clue location: Valencay, Crozant, Ahun, Crocq, La Bourboule
The driving today was absolutely fantastic, from straight long roads to tight windy roads. The Clues however equally challenging as day 1! Perfect roads for a Lamborghini! The first clue took us to Valencay once we had worked out that the signs for the gardens had differing numbers, we re-fueled (much needed) and headed off on a long drive to Crozant, we were travelling behind Simon and Graham in the Audi R8 Spider (I am assuming they were using a Sat Nav because the roads we went on weren’t on my map! We even went through a residential housing estate! If you are an estate agent it may have been interesting!
However, eventually it took us to the next location Crosant, Alan and I came up with a great answer to the Clue (but obviously for another rally entirely!) We had a tremendous lunch and carried on to clue number 3, which was in another garden in Ahun, I wandered around the garden, looking at old stones, not sure what to find, however my driver Alan found the clue on the back of a padlock! (because we all go around looking on padlocks don’t we! Brilliant!) Quick Coffee and moved ‘swiftly’ onto Crocq which took us to a tower at the top of the hill. Finally we reached La Bourbelle quite a touristy ski resort near Mont Dore, There was a very excited tourist who was kitted out in a bright orange base ball cap and matching orange fleece, he nearly passed out to find an orange Lamborghini arrive! To our delight the clue in Bourbelle was really straightforward so that meant we could stop for a quick well deserved beer before heading to the hotel for our next task.
The evening task to gain extra points for the teams– from past experience it is a well known fact that I was not great at Art or Science at School, tonight confirmed this. Our aim was to make an I’effel Tower from Straws, Plastercine, tooth picks, blue tac and a pack of the biggest playing cards I have ever seen. We made a prototype for ours, with the theory maybe ‘less is more’ Alan was the Project Manager I just threaded cocktail sticks through straws! ‘Interesting’ needless to say we didn’t score extra points in this challenge. The effort each team put in was incredible. The top 3 awarded extra points to the final score, Sarah and Phil – (The HP’s) were in third place, Geoff and Chris Blackstone – (Equipe Pierre Noire) came a very well deserved Second, the competition was won by Gary Taylor and Mike Nolan – (It’s an Evo Adventure) who must have gone to Art College because they seem to have come up trumps on all the creative events!
Another day comes to an end and the scoresheets are handed out to once again a bit more huffing and puffing! But tomorrow a new day and a new challenge Mont Gore to Avignon