Day 01 – St Malo to Rochefort…
Welcome to another exciting year of the Tour de Liberation… your opportunity to follow us on our merry trip around Europe!
Today saw us arriving at the harbour bright and early (well early) at 7am, to claim a bonus ten points for being amongst the first five cars at the Harbour. We were actually number two – Brian and Spencer in the Mustang snuck in front of us in Trinity and firmly closed the door; there was just no way past!
After a quick breakfast we prepared to board our vessel and head off to St Malo – although we thought our problems were just beginning as we boarded the ferry for Folkestone… not to mention still failing to get in front of that Mustang!
After a hectic hour and a bit of trying to solve the all important “boat leg” questions - and yes Hazel... there WAS two sides to that piece of paper!! (for example, one question was: What comes next? Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, Saturday, Wednesday, Monday, Sunday…..???) we all too soon found ourselves congregated at the harbour in St Malo (fortunately for us) awaiting to hear of our days challenges…
In no time at all, “God” (aka Chip.. aka warped minded clue-setter) was rubbing his hands with glee, laying down the laws of the land and reminding us that this isn’t a race (yeah right!!)
Our first clue of the day saw us arrive in Nozay (Map clue: Take the red and white between ILLE and VI. You would have to be a bit of a Parker to go here)..
After wondering around looking bewildered we eventually asked a local for help, but all we got was a wooden expression..
The next two towns we passed through were Carquefou, Montaigu, and then onto Chantonnay, where the question was“Stop for a drink. What do you drink with your pizza and hotdog at the ball game”
And then on to the final town of the day - Marans. Sort of. We tried to go to Marans. Honestly. We realized something was up when instead of a “Pleasant Port” we found nothing more than a Public Toilet.
In fact we had gone somewhere that Autoroute thought was Marans (thanks Bill) and was in fact 15 miles in the wrong direction! But expert Navigator Mike soon made up for software glitches and got us back on the green line headed to the correct stop.
No one seemed to notice the drivers small “technical hitch” during this period – well, driving 200 yards on the wrong side of the road is nothing compared with finding faults in our primary navigational systems after all!!
All mistakes now corrected, we successfully found the clue and headed straight to our Hotel in Rochefort – arriving 8.15pm localtime – a little late for our 8pm dinner booking, but hey ho!
After a pleasant and relaxing dinner, we were told of our success and failures for the days, and discovered that we are miraculously heading up the leader board..just…
Results after Day 1.
1. Garry/Mike 155
2. Mark/Robert 152
3. Paul/Ian 152
The gap between the first 10 teams is only 12 points, so you can see things are tight at the top…. and, to paraphrase Murray Walker… anything can happen.. and probably will!
Tune in tomorrow for another exciting instalment… we’re off to bed!! Au Revoir…
Garry and Mike
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