Gallery Rally — Jersey to Biarritz 2013

Day 4 - Mont-de-Marsan to Biarritz

We come to you tonight from our Hotel in Biarritz, with a stunning view out to sea from the Balcony of our room

Of course, our day started in our hotel at Mont-de-Marsan, where we were greeted by a similarly spectacular view out of our bedroom window..

We had a bit of a rude awakening, namely my phone alarm waking us up at 6am because I had forgotten to unset my weekday alarm! DOH!

No problem, we went back to sleep for another couple of hours, although felt even more tired than normal when we did finally arise.

After a quick breakfast, we packed the car and gathered in the lobby for the usual briefing.

Today was going to be a different route to the originally planned one, due to our route over the Pyrenees being largely blocked by snow (what else would you expect in mid-June?)

Instead, we only had two clues to solve today, but 20 items to search out on a scavenger hunt!

At least there was nothing tricky to find on the list....!

We teamed up with James and Adam, and all decided that the first thing to do was to head for a Hypermarket just around the corner from the hotel and see what we could get there, before hitting the road properly.

We wondered around the shops for a while, finding a few odds and ends, bumping into many other people also having the same idea.

Mike valiantly asked in the local Pharmacy for some suppositories, but we were greeted with blank faces, so we decided to save his blushes that and come back to that one at the next stop.

Once we had retrieved all we could (about 4 items at this point), we headed for the first clue site of the day - a town called Eugenie Les Bains (Princess of the baths?)

But not before we had found a disabled carparking area, so we took the oppurtunity to randomly take a picture of one of the items we needed...

..and not before we took the oppurtunity of taking a picture of ourselves in 'someones kitchen'...

(technically, it would be someones kitchen - when they eventually bought it from the shop we were stood in at the time!)

On arrival in Eugenie Les Bains, we started to search for the answer to How many stoned swimmers are there?

We found what we thought might contain theanswer, which was a large meandering water feature with various stone effect animals, some of which were capable of swimming...

But it was one of those Chip clues that we thought had many possibilites.

As by this time it was 11.45am, we decided an early lunch was in order (to make up for the small breakfast), and return to clue hunting later. You'll never guess what we had...

Fed and now back in a clue hunting frame of mind, we looked around the town a bit more, also bumping into Ian and Pam, who very kindly shared their pack of suppositories with us that they'd managed to purchase at a local Pharmacy. After all, you can only use so many of the pesky things, and we were very greatful for them saving us the embarrasment of asking!

Still not entirely happy with our answer for the first clue, but in the knowledge that today we had deadlines, we decided to move on.

Whilst travelling to our next Clue site, we kept our eyes peeled for Cows. Live ones.

For most of the trip so far, we had seen nothing BUT cows, but just now when we needed them most, it was really slim pickings - not a cow for as far as the eye could see!

Eventually we did discover a herd of them in a field about 50 metres off the side of the main road in a very muddy field, so we pulled over, legged it towards them (dodging the confused looking traffic wondering why we had abandoned our cars on the side of the road and going in the pursuit of cows) and tried to get our pictures.

Unfortunately, the cows were running away quicker than we were gaining on them through the muddy field, so by the time we were in a position to take a picture, they were merely distant specks.

Not to be deterred, we reasoned that there were probably plenty more cows in the field. Another field though, as this one was more of a bog and we felt it prudent to return to the vehicles that we had abandoned on the main road before we were arrested for stalking and dangerous driving.

Before long we arrived at the second (and final) Clue site of the day. The clue we had solve to locate this place was Start with almost a navy then sounds like an angry female sailor - which we deciphered as Navarrenx, where we began our search for How many cows got shot on the ramparts?

After walking up and down the town for a while, (whilst also looking for shops that would sell some of the other required items), we eventually found a fitting answer for the clue.

On the canon barrel itself was this:

We weren't able to pick anything else from our list however, so we headed for the hills (well, we tried, but did take a while to get out of the incredibly confusing one-way system in Navarrenx.)

After failing to get any help from our superhero friends...

....we reverted to manual systems, (Mikes natural intelligence and locational senses), and eventually managed to escape the ramparts and return to the roads.

A few miles into our journey, we found ourselves travelling down a road parallel to a cow field. This time the cows were a lot closer (and looked a lot more friendly)

We braked hard, and took an initial shot (to the surprise of the cow who was evidentally not expecting a white Evo to come tearing up beside her and come to a halt with a Renault Megane nearly up its rear end)

As we by this time had the element of surprise, we very carefully and slowly stepped out of the car, threw the camera at Adam, and lined up for our money shot.

Pleased with this, James and Adam then took their place on the side of the road (whilst a large truck over took us, looking almost as confused as the cow), and we took their pic. By this time the cow had evidently got bored as mostly it was just its rear-end in their pic!

But a cow is a cow, and happy with our team work, we returned to the car and headed onwards to Biarritz.

Arrival at Biarritz saw us heading straight for Centre Ville as we still had many items to find as well as get printed off in a local camera shop (that still sold real camera film!)

We managed to locate some wigs (the staff did give us some funny looks but at least they didnt make us buy them)...

....and then scoured the streets for heart shaped sunglasses and children under the age of 18months that we could try and persuade back to the car for a picture (this doesn't sound at all dodgy).

We decided we needed a back-up plan for the 18month old child pic, given the time of day, so a plan was hatched, and Mike started snapping pictures of children in a somewhat alarming way.. (getting dodgier)

Mike said "If they can walk and talk they're too old...", (now this was getting beyond dodgy)... but we persevered anyway...

As we weren't actually very close to the car, and as it was now almost 5.10pm, there simply wasn't time to engage in a complicated converation with the parents that could result in Police action, so we used our initiative:

One picture of a French Baby (under 18 months) in our car! Ok, so it was technically correct, but we weren't surprised when Chip only allowed half points for our attempt. A lot better than the potential Police intervention had we whisked them away though!

And it meant we had managed to save giving away our secret weapon..

Unfortuantely there appeared to be a world shortage of heart shaped sunglasses in Biarritz, and as it was nearly 5.15pm and we needed to get to the hotel by 5.30pm or we would start losing points by the minute, we headed back to the carpark we had parked in and began our exit from the underground carpark. It was a bit like a scene from the Italian job (except in an Evo and a Megane) - around and around, going lower and lower, faster and faster, desperately searching for the exit.

Eventually we popped out at sea level, and followed a mixture of sat nav and gut instinct to the Hotel we were in for the night. Fortuantely, we didnt get lost or take any wrong turns, and arrived at the hotel at 5.20pm, where we immediately showed ourselves to Chip.

Fortunately, whilst we had been hunting down cows and other random things, Beverly (James Kents better half, who was meeting him in Biarritz for the final night before they began their own little tour) had been busy on our behalves, collecting (or is that rescuing) a pair of snails that Mike became quite attached too...

There are actually two of them, but we couldn't persuade the second one out of the bottle (that Beverly had gently ushered them into) for a photograph.

So, having checked in all of our days work with the Chipster..

We checked into our room..

and after a short time to relax, headed down to the evening meal.

A most fantastic meal it was too, with great company..

And enjoyed a little bit of this...

and a couple of these...

And then it was time for the scores on the doors, and we honestly couldn't be more thrilled that David Hall and Nigel Hurst were shortly afterwards declared winners of the 2013 Gallery Rally. This is their 6th year of entering, and it's excellent to see them deservedly at the top of the leaderboard.

Chris Blackstone also won a special Gallery Rally lifetime acheivement award for his many years service and massive amount of sponsorship raised over those years...

 

Here are the final scores:

After our day of getting one of the clues wrong (we made the classic mistake of trying to over-engineer one of Chips answers!) we were actually surprised not to be slightly further down the field, and are very pleased and proud of our 3rd Position.

As everyone who does this trip knows, its not the winning, its the taking part, and on that note, we must just say a big thank you to Jersey Hospice care, and remind everyone what this event is all about - raising money for Jersey Hospice...

Kirsty at Jersey Hospice had asked some of the people being looked after there to tell her what this sort of event means to them, and here is what a few of them wrote:

So a big thankyou to everyone who has been kind enough to sponsor us so far, and anyone who still wishes to do so, please click the link below and follow the instructions. All your money will go to Jersey Hospice Care, who do such a superb job.

Please click >>here<< or go to: http://www.jerseyhospicecare.com/fundraising/sponsor-someone/

We must also say a massive thankyou once again to Chip and Heidi for organizing such a fantastic event - keep up the good work, our years just wouldn't be the same without you guys!

So that is nearly the end of Day 4. After a few more drinks and laughs in the bar, we headed back to the room to begin this update, and were delighted that Mike's other friend had come out to play!

Sadly, this is probably the last we will see of them, as shortly afterwards they were launched off the balcony into the nearby safety of a hedge (Mike wanted to give them the best chance of survival. Assuming they survived the 2 storey drop)

But at least they had something to try and guide them out of the shrubbery...

Well, thats it from us for tonight - we will be continuing the 'after tour' in the world famous 'Gallery Rally and Beyond' over the next few days, so please feel free to continue to follow our inane drivel, and keep leaving those comments on our guest books - it helps fuel us around Europe (along with petrol of course)..

Please click here to leave a comment on our Guest Book

And finally, here is our days route:

All that leaves is for us to say goodnight.

So its goodnight from him...

and goodnight from me...