On the road again
This time to Mussoorie, Barlow Ganj in the Himalayas. We changed altitude by over 4500metres. The drive was 10.5 hours long. A very long exhausting day indeed. Started out cool at 5:00am reached unbearable heat in the valley along the Yassura river and then back up climbing to much cooler temperatures to our final destination. Thankfully no rain but at the start we were informed that a big slide had brought down a massive boulder on the route and so once again we were diverted off one route to another. It added about 60km to our drive. We had to follow the route south of Shimla and we stayed fairly high until close to noon when we dropped down to the valley. The roads were extremely narrow with tons of switch backs and hairpin turns. Horns are a necessity and a normal part of life in India. The roads require constant honking. Trucks plaster signs all across their rear ends HONK. It is a life saver. Hairpin turns up the sides of mountains require a sharp and focussed head. Tony stayed alert and so do I. Tony installed a horn on my side which I use to save him from having to change his hand position. For most of the climbs he is in first or second gear. Rarely third. The roads are wild but fun, potholes are our enemy. You get smooth patches but then just when you relax the road has given way or a river flows over it. Speeds change dramatically.
We ended up with four Passage controls but no timed regularities. Finishing the day is a Challenge and you can the attrition. Today one serious accident. Car 9 two guys from Poland. It was a head on collision typically around the many blind corners on very narrow roads. Neither was injured but car 8 also was involved. They couldn’t stop in time. They sustained absolutely minimal damage. Car 9 wasn’t so lucky so for now they are out. We never saw the Saab today and I know one of the Volvo’s is out. Holding onto the status of completing every challenge is becoming rarer. We moved up in the start list by two spots only because two cars ahead of us are completely out of the Challenge . Behind us are even more. We will see if car 9 can start tomorrow.
What are our issues, tires. Tony drives hard and fast. He was complimented by a couple of the drivers today for his skill especially on switchbacks. However we pay the price, the rear tires are now bald. So off Tony went to rotate from to back. If these switchbacks continue we will have no tires. We have decided we will have to slow down a bit to preserve the tires. Especially if we wish to make it through Nepal.
Arrived in Mussoorie to some Indian music. The town took 35 minutes to drive through. We stopped the car and got out at one point. It was 3km across
It was a very long and hard day on the road and to keep pace we had to move the Bentley at a fast clip. That meant throwing it about through corners and pushing hard in the twisting roads. When I inspected the tires midday, I was surprised to see that we had scrubbed through almost all of the rear tread…!!! The Michelins have been faultless and have great grip, but the rubber compound is very soft and that has led to our destroying the tires in 7 days on the Indian roads…!!! The next plan of action was to rotate the worn rear tires to the front and try and get another 1 or 2 full days before mounting our two spare Michelin carcasses. We have 7 straight days on the raod ahead of us. There will a lot of climbing switchback roads as well as fast descents and poor surface conditions, all of which punish tires. I would have to be very careful in driving to preserve the tires as best I could.
Once we reached Mussoorie we decided that the pace of tire deterioration was such that we needed to get new tires to be able to finish the rally. We called Patrick at the Priory and we reached out to Carl our previous mechanic. Both were very helpful and immediatily got to work on sourcing tires and having them drop shipped to Kathmandu. We hope to meet the tires there and mount a fresh set for our final push to Agra.
