Gallery Rally 2015 — Jersey to Paris

Jersey to Saint-Briac-sur-Mer

Good evening all, and welcome to Day 1 of the Gallery Rally 2015!

There was actually some argument amongst some that this is technically Day 0, but as we've created all the links already, it shall remain Day 1 (and in fairness, it was only Adam arguing in favour of Day 0, so he's overuled!)

As has become customary in recent years, upon signing on for the rally yesterday evening, we all set about looking for the secret hidden clue somewhere in our starters pack that has historically given the discoverers bonus points!

This year, Chip was even more fiendish than before; some period of searching later, it transpires he had placed a small stick-on QR code on the back of the supplied Michelin Map, which looked to all intents and purposes like it had come from the shop like that. For those lucky enough to have a smart phone and a QR Reader app, (as well as noticing it, of course!) ,when scanning the code, it took us to a web site which displayed the message "10 points for every team member arriving at the start wearing a red hat".

Red hats are our speciality it turns out (we seems to have a small collection for one reason or another!) so that was 20 points in the bag!

We all met at the Le Hocq Suite to greet our fellow competitors..

On entering the start line and passing through the launch tunnel (big thanks to Ben and the JMC&LCC for their time and loan of said tunnel!), we were handed our 'boat leg' sheets..

....and then began the short journey from the Raddison to the Condor Check-in (where i managed to take a wrong turning and go down the freight lane) (But as nobody actually saw that, there's no need to mention it)

Check in finally located, we were soon boarding the Condor Rapide and sailing away (ten minutues early in fact!), - St Malo bound.

Now it was time to set about the 'boat leg' ; a sheet of 20 well known sayings that needed to be deciphered from just the first letter of each word, as well as a word search containing 50 medical terms.

Usually, boarding the boat to France involves hoping time will pass as quick as possible, but when you have tasks to do, it suddenly seems like a very short trip!

On arrival in St Malo, all that remained was to hand in our clue sheets to Chip and Pin, and hope they hadn't spotted how many new medical terms we'd made up.

10 miles / 20 minutes later, we arrived at our accomodation for the night; a charming private residence in St Brieuc. First job, check that there is WiFi access. Once assured that we would be able to update you in the usual manner, we agreed to stay, and sat down to eat a delicious 4 course meal.

 

(Thats clearly just two of the four courses, the rest we ate before remembering to photograph them! In fact the first picture wasnt even our meal, we just managed to find someone who hadn't eaten their's yet and snuck a photograph in (thanks Chris!)

And no first day is complete without a pic of these two....

Whilst WiFi does work in the lobby, the signal in our bedroom was so weak that we had to break out the big boy aerial - the good news is, it seems to be doing a fine job so far. (Assuming no one moves the towel!)

 

As the boat leg hasnt yet been scored, and there has been no actual clues this evening, there is no leaderboard yet, so that's something to look forward to tomorrow!

So thats it for now - short and sweet (i'm not sure i'd say quality over quantity); tomorrow is a full day of driving and clue solving, so expect a bit more content tomorrow!

Until tomorrow, goodnight from us both!

Here is Day 1's Route - not much driving, unless you are the Captain of the Condor Rapide, whom we thank for getting us to the road bit safely!