Gallery Rally — Jersey to Monaco 2011

Day 4 - Avignon to Monte Carlo

Well hello everybody, and welcome to Day 4's update, coming to you from our luxury suite in Monaco, in the Five star Metropole palace. Did we mention it was recently voted the best Hotel in Monaco?

Today started off in Avignon with the "Dirty Dozen Scavenger Hunt"

The name itself filled us with fear; then we looked at the contents and what we had to collect!

1. A photograph of your team standing on a yacht - 100 points

2. A cricket Ball - 30 points

3. A pair of 3D glasses - 25 points

4. A Harrods carrier bag - 30 points

5. A carpet swatch - 25 points

6. An english language newspaper dated 30-5-11 to 3-6-11 - 20 points

7. An Avignon Bus ticket - 30 points

8. A "Baby on Board" sign - 20 points

9. A poster for a music concert - 30 points

10. A photograph of a Juke Box - 55 points

11. A piece of red licorice - 50 points

12. A peanut shell - 20 points

Well once we got over the shock of what lay ahead, the adrenalin kicked in. I was excitedly telling Mike how I've had some 3D glasses in my glove box for months - so thats 25 points in the bag. I was struggling to understand Mike's lack of enthusiasm until he pointed out we weren't in my car. Doh!

First things first then; a photograph of our team standing on a yacht. Hmm.. We read and re-read the words, and Mike had a brilliant idea. Cast your mind back to 2002. Enough said!

We decided to spend some time in Avignon trying to get as much as we could from the list before departing.

We also decided not to spend too much time worrying about a cricket ball. We were, afterall, playing a tactical game now. Yes, who'd have thought we would ever have THAT luxury - but thanks to Mike's excellent construction skills on Day 2, we'd got ourselves into a position where we had a 120 point lead. If we managed to get 280 points or less, we'd at worst draw even with the 2nd place team. And given the rarity of cricket balls in France, this seemed like a sensible approach!

And the same applied to a Harrods carrier bag.

We did keep our eyes open, just incase we spotted one whilst walking around, but we didnt have high hopes.

No. 3, A pair of 3D glasses saw us searching for a Cinema in the local vicinity, however before we'd managed to find one, we'd stumbled across an electrical store in the centre ville that had a photoprinting machine. So we snapped away and got No. 1 and No. 10 printed out on nice shiny photgraph paper.

Whilst there, Mike recalled buying a DVD that came with blue and red 3D glasses, so we went upstairs and started searching for suitably equipped DVD's. We are now the proud owners of a French version of Ice Age 3 - 3D.

We had gradually been walking down the high street to where there were a few bus stops, so one plan was to hop on the next bus along and buy the cheapest ticket we could in order to acquire a Bus ticket. Whilst Mike was waiting for the Bus, I heard myself saying to him "I'll go search some bins whilst you wait there" - to be honest, this wasn't something I ever thought I'd hear myself saying!

But it paid off; one Bus ticket in the bag. So to speak.

We started searching the local train stations' newsagent, and more by luck than judgment we found a suitably dated English language newspaper.

On the walk back to the Hotel, we spotted what looked like a suitable music concert poster stuck to a lamp-post. If you were to go back to that lamp post now, lets just say it no longer has a poster stuck to it.

A trip into a Carrefore Metro saw us searching high and low for monkey nuts and red licorice. We didn't find the latter, but a bag of Monkey nuts was now ours!

As by now it was 11:40am and we had to check out of our rooms by midday, we made our way hastily back and decided we'd look for some of the other items in motorway stations on the run to Monaco.

After packing up our things, we set the sat nav for Monaco and began the drive. The first motorway station didn't bare any fruits, however we did get to have our first Steak Frites of the trip, which is always an enjoyable occasion.

The second motorway station didn't seem to have any Baby on Board signs either, however Mike asked the question anyway, and as luck would have it, one of the employees when off, and came back with a "Enfant a Bord" sign. This made us very happy!

Unfortunately, whilst they had lots of licorice, none of it looked red to us, however, as a backup plan, we bought a bag of licorice that looked slighty redder than the rest, and returned to the car to carry on the drive.

We carried on cruise-controlling down the motorway (did I mention how much I love cruise control?!) - and what we saw next filled with joy and happiness. Well, we at least thought this was a good sign..

Even better is when you go through the first tunnel - you know you're really getting close then.

Traditionally, at this point we would usually slow down, create a gap to the vehicle in front, open the windows and nail it. And keep it nailed until pinging off the rev limiter bruv. That last bit is very important. However, in keeping with our new eco-friendly image, this didn't seem like the right thing to do, and we suspect bouncing of the rev limiter at 4500rpm in a diesel wouldn't really have the desired affect anyway. So we just kept the cruise-control crusing. (have I already mentioned how much I love cruise-control?)

Before long, we were mixing it with other suitably cool motorcars...

And drove down the ramp to the now familar drive way into Hotel Metropole.

It felt like we were coming home if we're honest. And the Golf fitted in perfectly with the other cars in the car park...

We checked in and were taken to our "suite" - where Mike set about taking pictures for your enjoyment...

(The bed is actually two singles.!)

 

And I set about doing todays update, also for your enjoyment....

Hmmm, maybe the day has taken its toll on me, lets do it later!

After a brief snooze, we gathered together our days findings, and went in search of Chip, to nervously hand in our answers.

Whilst we had convinced ourselves that our licorice was bordering on red, it was what Chip thought that really counted. After careful inspection under bright light and further chemical tests had been performed, it was given the all clear! Hurrah!

Amongst our other treasures, we were particularly proud of our two photographs:

Other than the Harrods carrier bag, the carpet swatch and the cricket ball, we'd managed to get all of the rest, which we hoped would be enough to keep us at or near the top, but it totally depended on how the teams below us had got on.

Talking of cricket balls, it turned out that one team had actually managed to find a real bonifide cricket ball!

Nigel and David had managed to track down a Cricket club, get hold of someone from the club who actually lived in Nice, who agreed to meet them at the train station armed with said cricket ball. One can only imagine how dodgy it looked when a man got out of a BMW with tinted windows, handed them a suspicious package and drove off. But what a result and fantastic effort from them! It really helped in the final standings too.

Talking of final standings! Here they are:

So worryingly, after not winning the rally since 2008, it appears we've finally managed to do it again whilst using a diesel powered Golf, which if nothing else, proves that it honestly really isn't a race! Maybe next year we'll do it in an electric car.

Or maybe we won't.

Our prize for coming 1st is actually a weekend for two in the Inn on the Park hotel in Cheltenham, including flights, hire car, and a days use of a Morgan sports car which was donated by Peritus Investment Consultants, however we don't enter the competition to win anything (well except our wonderful Samsonite luggage from 2009, which both Mike and myself still swear is the best thing we've ever won!) and we both felt it could probably be put to better use if auctioned off on Channel 103 in aid of Jersey Hospice, so we have suggested that to Chris Halford.

When we say 'suggested' to him, we really just dumped that bombshell on him seconds after it had been presented to us - sorry Chris. hope you don't mind!

We do get to have the new Gallery Rally Trophy for the coming year though, which has now been engraved with all the previous winners since it bacame the Gallery Hospice Rally back in 2008.

A huge thanks once again to Chip and Heidi for putting on such an excellent and suitably challenging Rally - we enjoy them just as much now as we did at the beginning! Don't stop anytime soon will you guys!

So as its now 3.15am and we've a very long drive ahead of us tomorrow, its time to proof read (probably pointless given how tired we both are, but we do strive for quality) and publish.... so without futher ado, here is Day 4's complete route.

 

And finally, us proudly displaying our trophy!

Of course, no days update would be complete without one of these...

James, we have to thank you for being such a great sport. And many congratulations to you and Adam for such an excellent 5th place finish, you have made ISD proud!

Untill the next update, goodnight from both of us