Gallery Rally — Jersey to Monaco 2011

Day 5 - Monte Carlo to Saint Malo

Welcome to Day 5 - which tecnically is actually Day 6 now. But that's just going to get confusing, so lets just call it Day 5 - if thats ok?

You may be relieved to hear that this update will be relatively short, owing to the fact that we basically got up, we drove, we stopped and we went to sleep.

But don't worry, we'll try and make it entertaning despite that!

By the time we had finished Monday nights update, it was heading towards 4am French time, so Tuesday was already going to be hard work.

It had been a long day, so apologies if the Update on Day 4 didn't make much sense - we had been up all night drinking (OK, technically that is true, although i'm not quite sure if a Pot of Tea for Two counts as the sort of drinking you are all assuming.)

We are so hard core, its untrue! (and when you're paying €20 for Room Service to bring you said pot of tea, its just as well we're so hard core we drive a diesel)

So Tuesday started in the usual way - enjoying a top notch cooked breakfast... (you don't want to know how much that costs if you just turn up for breakfast!)

with the worlds smallest Tommy ketchup and Tabasco sauces..

I'm sure they weren't on the table when we left..... Mike???

 

So we chatted to David about the days plans.

It was quite a short converation from our end, simply "Drive!", as we'd decided that today we would challenge ourselves and the Golf to do Monte Carlo to Saint Malo in 1 day. Somehow, we never doubted the Golf - it was the people in it that worried us.

So we finished our glasses of super expensive orange juice...

 

 

Had the car and luggage bought around the front..

 

....programmed the Sat Nav for the journey...

Before long we were waving goodbye to Monaco to begin our 10am take-off to Saint Malo...

At that point, the sat nav was being rather naive by suggesting we'd get there are 9.20pm - and we were foolish to believe it..

Sometime shortly later, it had another think..

And after spending an hour or two caught up in Cannes traffic, it got even worse, but there was little we could do to influence it, so we pressed on, passing all sorts of lovely views, like this one..

...and this one...

....and this one...

We passed all manor of things on the journey.....

 

(it struck us that the caravan was actually shorter than the car towing it)

Still we continued, passing a few wrecks..

...and a few swimming pools..

 

We amused ourselves over the miles, taking in a few of the sights...

Until Mike realised no one was watching the road ahead....

But he soon calmed down once he saw the reassuring arm of the Michelin man ..

and we continued...

Past more of these..

 

And we eventually stopped for some lunch in one of these..

And Mike took over the driving so I could have a snooze.

But just to reassure me and reduce the chances of feeling car sick, Mike let me take the steering wheel with me into the passenger seat.

So whilst I snoozed, Mike drove, and well, no one took any pictures.

There was hardly a cloud in the sky..

 

Sometime later, we were seeing promising signs from the Sat Nav..

 

This made us very happy, and sometime later, (well, at about 11.15pm funnily enough) we were pulling into the familiar surroundings of Saint Malo..

And pulled up at our pre-booked Hotel beside the beach..

For those nerds amongst you (i'm specifically thinking of those with Chihuahua's at this point!), we would like to point out that as it was obviously dark when we arrived, the two previous pictures were actually taken the following morning.

But I promise you they are actual pictures of our actual hotel in Saint Malo.

Please don't hold this against us; we were rather tired on arrival, having driven 822 miles since leaving Monte Carlo at 10am that morning, so taking photo's wasnt quite up there with the same priority as sleep. This is where the likes of Top Gear have a dedicated film crew to deal with those things.

Its worth considering for next year, but none of them would do as good as job as Mike does, and they certainly wouldn't do it as cheap either!

At 7am this morning, we were checked in and ready for the Condor "a little bit quicker than before but not quick enough" Rapide..

We realised this was the first time we'd actually looked at the front of the car since leaving Monte Carlo, and were suitablly impressed with the number of bugs we'd acumulated.

Mike was going to pick them off one by one and work out the average number of bug kills per mile, but unfortunately we got called to drive on to the boat at that point, so unless he is at home doing that right now, i'm afraid the truth is we'll never know.

And so draws to the end another fantastic rally; it's been somewhat different doing it in a diesel Golf. It's quite a different driving experience from what we've been used to over the years. However, it's not been an unpleasant experience by any means (except for the strange sensation of feeling car sick even whilst driving!) - and it was very good of Mike to let me drive his car (perhaps he knew how messy it would have got if i'd been in the passenger seat around the Alps!)

Mike; thanks, you've been great, as ever, and by way of reward (and just to prove we've not gone soft in our old age), I have high hopes the Evo will be back... bigger, better and less watery than ever before, ready for the 2012 Gallery Hospice Rally. (Matt, Joe and all at TRL, i'm giving you advanced warning!!!)

On the subject of thanks, we'd like to say a MASSIVE thanks to Computer Protec for being our primary corporate sponsor this year, and for being so patient with us as the never ending twists in the tale of "will the evo be ready or won't it" unravelled in the week up to departure! There's nothing like last minute planning to focus the mind!

Ian/Andy, did you say that if we win this year, and promise to get the Evo back in action, you'd sponsor us for the 2012 Rally?! (it's always best to start begging early on I say!)

Talking of begging; Sharon, sister most dear and precious to me. I don't suppose I can borrow your car for a week (or two?!) could I? We're waiting on some more parts!! And before you ask, no, its not splipped my mind that we're on a boat to the UK in it in 3 weeks time to see the British Grand Prix!!

To Chip, Heidi, Richard and Joe (clue master/mistress extroadinaire, and Marshalls most excellent); thank you once again for putting on a great trip, in support of such a great charity. You've once again done us all proud, and we very much look forward to doing it all again next year!

And of course, lets not forget this trip is all about raising money for charity, so if anyone out there would still like to sponsor us, please let us know - either by emailing us at garryandmike@itsanevoadventure.org.je or by following the links on the website.

To those that have sponsored us already, thank you so much, we really appreciate it, as does Jersey Hospice.

Thanks to everyone who left their messages of support, encouragement and in a lot of cases, incredible wit - reading the Guest Book entries is always a highlight of our day! Please continue to do so for as long as you want!

Until next year.... all that remains is to leave you with Day 5's Route...

 

And if you want to see our complete trip route, you may do so by clicking here:

Goodbye and thanks from both of us to all of you!