Apologies
We have lots of great video from days 11 right to the end of the event. However, dreadfully slow internet connectons at our hotels have prevented us from publishing these…for which we apologize. Once we can get to a fast internet connection (this may take several day still , or perhaps our return home) we will nevertheless collect and publish the videos into their respective ‘days’ so please stay turned and I will notify on this blog once new videos are uploaded.
Wake up. I am feeling awful. Been a rough night, not sure who coughed more. Last night had a little for dinner. Indian food very traditional. Hotel is lovely we eat around the pool. What a magnificent setting. People are beginning to relax a little. Wine flows. I am not really hungry but dinner and company makes you forget. Every night you sit with a different group. We have all become such friends. Questions abound? How are the tires, How is the exhaust manifold ? Did the weld hold on chassis for the other Bentley? How’s the temperature holding? The list goes no. Few are without major issues. The organizers say. This has been brutal. Most feel way worse roads , especially the roads of Nepal and way worse than anywhere in the Peking to Paris.
Onward- Our last start is 9:07am , and of course there are some major amendments. We have to drive about 370km not bad but this is India. We are to pay 585 Rupees to drive on the newest HWY in India to Agra. Most participant feel like us. there will certainly be gas stations along the way. We are all low on Petrol.
Off we go.
Through Lucknow, which looks quite lovely and civilized in morning light. Some crazy usual congestion on the roads. Horns never stop. It is a way of life here.
Onto highway, we have less than 3 gallons of petrol. Should get is maybe 50 miles. We enter highway and immediately realize this is new. OMG there won’t be petrol.
Lee Inspecting..something?
Finish line within reach. I cut the engine some 50-100 yards out and we coast to the line…...
On we drive. We can’t go faster than 107km or the car starts to fall apart. Your brain shakes the car shakes. So just below 105kmph (60miles an hour) on we go, watching the tank level slowly drop. 35 miles 40 miles and finally there it is a roadside stop. Can’t believe it.
Others weren’t so lucky. Some had to flag down drivers to borrow fuel.
On we trundle.
The Ladies Team !!!
Well through the toll. By the way it was a great hwy. not a soul but the competitors or the rare big car. Too expensive for the average Indian I am guessing.
At the toll end we have less than 22km to go. Coasting along at 107kmph. All of a sudden the oil pressure drops to 0. Yes 0
Tony rolls to the side of road and turns car off immediately.
Help, can’t do this so close to the end.
An Indian gentleman immediately pulls over. Time is of the essence. We haven’t seen first place Nigel Lee acr 12 in some time but they would need to be quite late for us to take over their place.
Tony opens bonnet. There is oil on rocker panels, oil is leaking from somewhere.
No real time to search it out.
Shall I call for a tow?
Tony has a few gallons of oil in the trunk/boot, we decide to put it in, see if she will start and move ever so slowly towards the finish.
She starts the oil pressure jumps up, we push on.
5 km maybe and the oil drops again. Tony slows and oil pressure holds around 10 lbs per square inch. Not great but we drive slow.
Now down to 2 km to go, dare not push. We know she is loosing oil.
Finally we see a car one of the drivers attempting to make a right across traffic. We scoot in a head and see the finish. The ruby red car of number 12 has slipped passed. We arrive at finish, or should I say 20 feet before oil pressure falls to 0, so we turn her off and coast across finish.
Boy was that close.
We did it we crossed the finish line. It’s over....
We heard later, a few cars ran out of gas, one burst a tire and spun out and a few others had minor issues.
Well it’s done - now its Party time
Celebration hugs- get the car back to Cars the shipper, check in and then off to the tour of Taj Mahal. In between more hugs and beer and champagne and photos
First we need to figure out how to tow it to Cars parking lot, second we need to get message off saying -don’t start it till we find out what’s wrong !
Tony talks to ERA guys, Tony with ERA tells us, they have oil. Let’s fill it up and drive it less than two Kilometres to the shipper We put in two litres of oil fire her up and drive ever so slowly to CARS Cars has people out watching for us and prepared to help, should the pressure drop
Happy couple…got it done!
It wasn’t great oil pressure but it held close to 15, sort of.
On we went pulled in and immediately turned engine off.
Wrapped her up figuratively, but, in a hurry we forgot suitcase and didn’t really clean her out
Boy we were so proud of her. The car did very well considering the abuse she took
We found out later that the organizers figured we would be out by day two
John Spiller ERA head honcho organizer was amazed he later said he watched for us each day.
Story on that later
Off to tour the Taj Mahal, as it closes Friday and we are in the midst of a major holiday, event in India, so all sorts of things are closed or not available
trip to the Taj Mahal in the afternoon.. race decompression
view of the river from the Taj Mahal
Taj continues to attract big crowds
On our way back to the hotel Tony spied this coat. Photo added
Seems a lot of guys decided to buy jackets. When we arrived at dinner turban artisans were there to prepare the men The significance of the turban design was explained later
The orange means challenged and the design represented Agra
Getting ready for our award dinner and final goodbye’ to the fellow competators
View for our hotel room terrace with the Taj in the background
An artisan did our henna hands All in fun
Dinner was traditional Indian with a twist, delicious ribs, pork of course. Great fall off the bone ribs. Meat at last.
Finally it came to awards. We knew we were out of the running for the Gold category or number 1 so awaited the second status. Best in class went to car 12, Nigel and Richard, big congrats. We were second in our class. Yippee car 11. Car 10 was third..
THAT One day cost us so much, our travels into Pokhara where the times set by organizers were so difficult to make and our suspension took such a beating and then finally no head lights down a mountain in the rain.
Final awards given we made that one error so fortunately we stayed silver level for the completion. There were about a dozen who made Gold. Bill and Jacquie were one. No other Bentley made it. 7 Bentley’s three completed, two as silver and one as gold.
Then spirit of the Rally was announced and a adversityr awards for those that had had experiences that were unique. 250 Triumph who tried to get back into rally so many times, others went home they stayed.
John Spiller then announced the Ganesh award. Then our names .As John Spiller said. We of all teams were not expected to make it. Each day he waited with baited breath to see if we were in. He hadn’t expected us to make it past day two.
Thank you Bentley you proved him and others wrong. We persevered and were here to receive the Ganesh award. From what I understand it means we overcame adversity almost everyday and we prevailed. It is a symbol of GOOD LUCK. Never give up, Never surrender.
After the awards we all chatted and moved around offering to share unique photos with others.
Christian handed out SMILE rewritten by Christian, he and Len were in the mercedes. Len is the only other Canadian, we all sang it ‘SMILE’
40 teams a handful missing, some recovering, we all wished Lars a special recovery. He and Annette were missed at the dinner. Surgery I hear went well
Johns final words about our experience on the Himalayan Challenge . Here I Quote ERA quoting JOHN Spiller etc.
In a final tongue in cheek aside John also announced that this event would almost certainly be running again ….. “in twenty years time”. Competition Director, and assistant potager, Guy Woodcock, here on his first ERA long distance event, echoed this and added that “ it’s the people who make a great event and, we’ve got some great people here”, he also went on to thank the entire ERA team here on the ground for their hard work and fortitude
Silver medal finishers
Nuts and Bolts:
The wheel shimmy becomes a real problem as we enter the newly constructed Lucknow to Agra motorway. Smooth new surface and almost completely empty of other vehicles it would seem an easy dash to Agra. However, the wheels start a violent shaking at any speeds over 55 miles per hour…! I try to keep a pace that keeps us just below the ‘shimmy zone’. Maddening, as we need another 5-10 miles an hour to make our pace time!!
At the morning check I replenish another 2 litres of oil to the sump comsumed the preious day. I had he fluctuationg needle has me pull over and check the oil level…..almost empty!!!!!!! I have the last 4 liters of oil stashed away in the boot and I dump it all in to the sump. we dash to the finsh line and as we get to the last kilomters the needle begin to waver and droop. Do we stop or continue…I have no more oil on board…I decide to press on being careful to reduce engine loading when the pressure woudl suddenly dip and lean on the accelerator as the pressure would pick up temporarily. We limped to the finish line… and I shut off the engine within the last 50 meters of the finish line and we coasted over!!!!!.
