Gallery Rally—Jersey to Geneva 2010
Day 3 with Garry and James
Good evening and welcome to Day 3, coming to you from the Hotel La Tete Noire, in Autun
This morning started in the usual bleary eyed way—predictably less sleep than the previous night due to being up till silly o'clock writing and uploading what some may say is meaningless waffle onto the internet for your enjoyment—but I do these things for you, and you alone! (that's the "royal" you)
Anyway, a quick look out the window reminded us that we had stayed at a suitably pleasant hotel in Orleans..
Whilst some people start the day by giving their cars a quick spruce up....
For those that know RJ, I'm sure you will also share my surprise at seeing him with a cloth in his hand.
In fact, I was so surprised, I let him keep it!
However, not everyone has as much get up and go in the morning as RJ.
Except for Heidi perhaps..
After breakfast, we assembled around the bar area to be given a Quiz...
The subject of this mornings quiz was Flags and their countries. We did better than some, worse than others, but ultimately it has to be said James was the only one in our team who had the knowledge to get any at all, and indeed did very well.
I also want to be clear that as well as it being all his own work, its also all his own handwriting!
Ok, I may have got Finland, but I'd not actually heard of some of the other countries, let alone know what flags they have!
Just in case anyone is about to write in and complain about inaccuracies, I must point out its only the 7 flags with hand written numbers below them that are actually correct.
And so, all to soon, it was time to wave goodbye once more to our Chipset (all credit to James for his input on that one!) and start cracking clues and pitting our wits once more against the best of the best. The cream of the crop. The elite.
After stopping briefly to make sure RJ new a) we were in a competition and b) that the objective was to find locations and solve clues (notice how he parked right under a pine tree which decided to deposit its contents on and around his newly roofed boxster!).....
....we headed to location clue 1.
"Jam container ends in water" saw us heading for Jargeau, where we arrived at a reasonable time.
After much wondering around and head scratching, and examining anything that looked out of place...
...I decided that I'd answer the call of nature and see if that would help me think clearer
As I often maintain, an empty bladder really does open doors, as inside the toilettes, I found that in order to open the door to begin the relieving process, I had to pull this door handle
It seemed to fit the clue to me, so after washing my hands, I exited the toilets in search of James, to tell him the exciting news!
It was about now that the heavens opened. Fortunately the brolley was in the car. Unfortunetely, we were nowhere near either.
After a dash back to the car under the shelter of a clipboard, we set course for Clue site no. 2—Briare—A type of pipe with drug attached.
On arrival, Le Rover led us up some random steps
Bravely, we followed, and fortunately for us, he led us somewhere that seemed relevant to the question, which was "At the canal bridge, what type of moon awaits those who cross".
This was one of those clue sites I recognized from a previous years visit, although it made no difference whatsoever in the ability to find the answer. We wondered around, along, up and down for an hour, before deciding to stop for lunch. The pouring rain, thunder and lightening may also have contributed to that decision, and a fine steak frites was soon had by all, and most delicious it was too!
Even Rob and Matt's pet orang-utan was suffering from damp problems.
After lunch, as is often the case, the clue was found with in just a few minutes, typically, back where we had started about 2 hours previous. Hey ho, the answer was obvious really. We found these at every corner of the bridge and indeed had both looked at them and completely missed the blindingly obvious word "CRESCENT" until now!
Still, better late than never. We headed back to the car, this time destined for Vezelay (A very easy lay?)
The roads en-route were mighty fun, with plenty of twisties, and also miles of perfectly straight but very undulating roads like these....
Arrival at Vezelay saw us looking to solve "At the tables what's the difference between Saint Pere and Pierre Perthius?
Naturally, we headed for high ground in search of a Table D'orientation, and eventually after a tiring and steep walk, we found something that seemed to fit the bill. Two different heights of locations were marked on the table.
The difference was 31 in our opinion, so we headed back to the car and on the way out, passed what seemed to be some kind of old car meet-up....
I'm not sure if the orange Xr3 in the top pick classifies in the same old relics category—it did look somewhat out of place there, it has to be said!
Anyway, onwards to the 4th and final clue site of the day and "A big house with a facial feature on" led us to believe that Chateau-Chinon was the likely candidate.
Arrival there saw us looking for the answer to "In the US State what was the weather like in the UK on January 3rd 1996.
A fairly easy to locate Bar called La Montana contained the answer, which James can be seen here modelling...
If you look at this picture in the right way, it actually looks like James is levitating!
A close up of a part of the newsprint covered table showed that the weather was Misty.
Happy with our answer, it was now time to pull a lead on the competition (probably the only lead we're likely to see today unless others have had a bad points scoring day!) and head to our Hotel for the night in Autun.
Arrival at the hotel around 6pm gave us a bit of time to relax before dinner, and we even left the premises of the hotel to grab a drink round the corner.
Back to the hotel for dinner at 8pm and after a very tasty meal, it was time for the all important results sheet of the days hard work, which as you can see below, hasn't changed enormously from a positions point of view at the top, but there is now just 15 points separating positions 1 to 6, after a relatively successful day for us!
With a scavenger hunt awarding the successful with up to 250 points tomorrow, along with points for the usual clues, there's everything to play for and plenty to be gained for trying!
So as I started this at 10.30pm, and its now just gone half midnight, I think i'm going to quit whilst i'm ahead and head to bed. Although this may not be possible until I have rescued James from the bar, so i'll go in search of him first and wish you all a goodnight from us!
Here is the route from today....
