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3rd Sep 2006
Day 3 - Bormio to Salzburg
This is where things started to go wrong for us... We had a later start today and were due to meet in the town square for 10am where the Mayor would be seeing us off, giving us our challenges and then we would all drive around the town in a procession lead by the Police through the narrow streets where it seemed like the whole town came out to see us all. A local Italian news channel were also there! We wondered whether they were expecting actual rally cars not rusty lumps of metal, some with only hours of life left in them! The Stelvio Pass starts on the edge of Bormio and winds its way up and over 3000m. On the way down there are 43 hair-pin bends. We naturally overheated on the way up (as did many other cars) so we stopped at a vantage point, took some photos and waited for the car to cool down. At the summit, most of the other cars had also stopped to take a look around, get some photos and again, do some work under the bonnet. Andy was driving down the Stelvio pass (Matt drove up) and as we approached the second hair-pin bend Damian mentioned that he might not have remembered to pick up his passport from the hotel as we left. We pulled over so he could check and right enough, he had forgotten it so after much deliberating we agreed that due to our concerns we had with the car, we would continue our drive to the bottom of the pass and then make a phone call to see how we could get the passport back. We were on the brakes all the way down but that was not too bad, they were heating up and smelling a bit but the hotter brakes get, the better they work. We heard over the Walkie Talkie that one car had hit a motorbike coming up the pass and they had damaged a wheel and a tyre but apart from that, everyone seemed to make it down ok.... until hair-pin 41. This was where smoke started billowing up from either side of our bonnet so Andy pulled over (luckily even though we were still driving down the mountain, the hairpins has stopped) and we found that the heat and caused all the grease in the front wheels to heat up and leak out. Before we realised what was happening we though that this was the end of the rally for us so whilst Damian was making phone calls and trying to sort his passport, we waited and waited for the wheels to cool down sufficiently for us to carry on. One hour later we decided that we had to continue so with Damian having no luck with a taxi, DHL, UPS etc we continued in a low gear and only dabbing the brakes when absolutely necessary. The drive from the end of Stelvio to flat ground is a long one (around 70kms) so we nursed the car where necessary and to our surpirse overtook quite a few teams who had stopped for lunch along the way. Before we got to Landeck we had to descend another pass but this time it only had about 8 hair-pins to contend with. At the Austrian border, the friendly guard asked uus to open the boot for him but all he really wanted to do is ask us why he had seen so many rubbish British cars going through his check-piont in the previous couple of hours! As we reached the Inn Valley at Landeck we could put our foot down and try to make up some time that we had lost whilst waiting for the wheels to cool down at Stelvio. It seems some other teams has the same idea and before we got to Innsbruck, we saw quite a few of the other teams by the side of the road receiving the fines from the local Boys in Blue. After Innsbruck we continued on into Germany for a short while and then back into Austria where we immediately found our hotel without really trying! Our challenge for the day was to take as many photos of car registrations from different countries - we managed 8 which was pretty good considering our main priority was to make it to the end of the day with the car intact. In the eveving we walked around Salzburg which we are all agreed on is the classiest city we have ever seen! Shame then that we spent it in an Irish Pub and then a small nightclub drinking Kaiser or Magners! We got home, not sober, at 3:30am and decided that rather than going to sleep we would simply slap each other as hard as possible to see who could get the biggest red hand mark. Odd.
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Diary Photos
| 3rd Sep 2006 |
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| Us in Salzburg |
| By the Horse Fountain |
| 3rd Sep 2006 |
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| We made the Italian news |
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| 3rd Sep 2006 |
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| Day 3 morning |
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| 3rd Sep 2006 |
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| "Procession" through Bormio |
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| 3rd Sep 2006 |
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| "Procession" through Bormio |
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| 3rd Sep 2006 |
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| Going up the Stelvio |
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| 3rd Sep 2006 |
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| We made it to the top |
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| 3rd Sep 2006 |
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| View down the Stelvio |
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| 3rd Sep 2006 |
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| Coming down the Stelvio Pass |
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| 3rd Sep 2006 |
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| Slight trouble on the Stelvio |
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| 3rd Sep 2006 |
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| Boozey night in Salzburg |
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