Day 02 – Rochefort to Bergerac..

After only a few hours sleep (seemed more like minutes than hours), this morning saw us groaning at 7am when our alarm went off (I won’t mention that I’d been groaning all night with Mikes snoring!!) …and to our great surprise, we looked out of the window and somebody had parked their boat outside…

After a painful shower (why is it hotels can’t get that hot/cold water thing sorted out??), we had a brief but pleasant breakfast, continental style, and then removed just enough dead insects off the windscreen to see where we’ll be going..

…before gathering for the daily briefing…

Equipped with our clue sheet for the day, we set about working out our locations, and were soon on the road headed to our first destination of St. Jean-D’Angely, where the clue strongly suggested we should head for the loo’s at an old Abbey (“find relief at these Holy ruins”)

After successfully finding the answer in the lavatory (the things we do for Charity….!!), we proceeded to our next destination, relieved to find that our next drink was only 14km’s away..

The site of the clue in Cognac was eventually located at a shop called Twickenham and the answer to the question “what rugby information is missing” was discovered to be a missing letter “H” from the wooden sign hanging outside of the shop..

After stopping for coffee, we continued our journey to a town called Segonzac, where we quickly found out what “the average walking speed” was, so rewarded ourselves by stopping for a most pleasant lunch in a nearby restaurant..

..and then took pics of each other taking pics of each other taking pics of each other (I think you get the gist..)

We got back on the road, this time headed to Barbezieux, and then onwards to Aubeterre, where we eventually found our way to the site of this towns’ clue, a fabulous “Eglise Monolithique” – a church that was carved inside a rock… A truly fantastic site, but unfortunately, these people got bored waiting to leave…

Whilst looking for the exit, Mike looked at me for inspiration, but as you can see, it wasn’t forthcoming..

Fortunately we managed to escape a little quicker than the previous inhabitants and after stopping for yet another coffee (only the 2nd today – unless you include Breakfast.. but we didn’t.. so there..),  we headed for the final clue destination of the day, a small town called Riberac, where we were set to discover “how many times do you get rewarded for fighting in the town centre” – the answer was the amount of medals on the statue of a gentleman on the war memorial.

We then followed directions to our evenings accommodation, and were dismayed to discover that we were going to have to stay in a luxurious country manor..

(you have no idea how hard it is doing all this work for charity…!!!)

We were also pleased to discover we weren’t amongst the last to arrive at our destination, and in fact managed to get home 2nd, in front of Jenny and Peter’s Ferrari!

After a relaxing beer (or 2) we assembled for a pleasant evening meal, and then it was once again time for the current standings, where things have changed a little, although fortunately for us, for the better!!

Somehow we managed not to drop any points today, and have actually extended our lead to 19 points, although how long for remains to be seen, as Jenny and Peter have catapulted through the leader board and our now snapping at our heels!

Results after Day 2.
1. Garry Taylor/Mike Nolan                305
2. Jenny Bridge/Peter De Bourcier  286
3. Alex Ohlsson/Andrea Mursell      275
4. Peter Crespel/Chris Evans           275
5. Brian and Spencer Scholfield      273

Worryingly, Chip has intimated that he is going to spring a surprise task on everybody tomorrow, which may shake things up a little! Watch this space!

We’ll leave you with one final picture of a grotty building we spotted on todays travels, and look forward to thoroughly boring you all again tomorrow!!

Garry and Mike