Day 7 - Oleron Island to Jersey

Fri, 03/07/2009 - 02:25 — Garry Taylor

Well here we are, the second update of today technically, as its still Day 7! Or is it now Day 8 as its gone midnight now?

By  the time we left Oleron Island, it was 2.30pm; thinking it was only 2 and a half hours to St Malo, we hadn’t rushed, thinking we had plenty of time for a meandering trip back, maybe a long lunch, some shopping in the hypermarkets, all that stuff, plenty of time for a 7.50pm check in.

Unfortunately, my calculations were wrong and it turned out it’s actually more like 5 hours to St Malo; suddenly we were under a bit of pressure..

Still, we thrive on that kind of thing, and soon, after driving to the nearest garage on fumes for a much needed fill up (we’d gone bing bing long before even getting to the island yesterday), we were heading back over the bridge to mainland France..

Where we followed the road over more bridges..

...dodging a low flying aircraft..

and passing a strange man looking into the distance, presumably trying to see who had just graffiti’d his arse..

At one point we thought that we were nearly home..

..but we were going to fast to make the turn, so carried on to the next junction, by which time our hopes had been dashed..

So we carried on, passing some right munters...

...took a right at Planet earth..

...and were soon back doing our favourite thing.. (well, car washing...)

(come on, no matter how late we were running, you didn’t think i’d bring a dirty car back to Jersey do you? I have sponsors to honour!)

After that, all that remained was a 5 minute drive down to the Ferry Terminal..

And we were soon being welcomed by Condor Ferries.

Mike had a quick check to see how the family business was getting on..

...and before long, we were boarding the latest Condor high-speed ferry fleet back to Jersey.

Once on board, you’ll never guess who we ran into...

Yup, that’s right, Tom and Andrea. Again!!

On the trip back, the sun valiantly tried to burn its way through the fog.

Eventually, it managed, and with France now far behind us..

..we started to see familiar territory.

We were called to our cars...

and soon heading up the ramp to join the queue to go through customs.

So there we are, now back safe and sound on the rock, after another wonderful trip, where we’ve covered quite a few miles in the last 7days..(the top number obviously!)

..and burnt our way through over 350 litres of fuel (unfortunately only 43 litres of that was at Andorra prices, which is about 30% cheaper than anywhere else we filled up this trip!)

Before the tearful goodbyes and thankyou’s, here is today’s complete route:

So we’d just like to say a big thank you to all our sponsors, who we hope we will be able to welcome back next year for the 2010 Rally, where ever it may go...

...and also to all the individuals that have sponsored so generously once again.

A special mention to Jason Godwin, who for the second year running has been first to get to a computer and sponsor us online! Pressure is on for next year now Jason!

And on that subject, let’s not forget that this trip is all about raising money for Jersey Hospice, so if anyone would still like to sponsor us that hasn’t already, we would be very grateful if you did so by clicking here: https://www.jerseyhospicecare.com/site/tools/donate.aspx?amount=sponsor

(just select “Gallery Rally Barcelona” from the Select event section, and “Garry Taylor / Mike Nolan” from the Select participant section to donate towards our team’s total)

A big thanks to Chip and Heidi for once again putting our brains to work with your excellent and somewhat obscure clues, as well as for all the stress that you have endured over the past few days...

And to our Marshalls, Jennifer and Richard, for keeping an eye on everyone and following up at the rear (as it were!)..

There are of course lots of other people involved who deserve thanks, such as Ben at Gallery Magazine and Louise at Jersey Hospice, and if I can find a pic of them amongst our many, I shall post it up here later!!

Finally, thank you for all reading, and a big thanks to everyone who has put entries on our guest book.

On the subject of guest book entries, it looks like Matt is now the winner of Day 4’s “guess what it is” item.

Well done mate, looks like your prize will be dinner with me - Unlucky! But if I ever find out you cheated....

And Yogurt and team, what’s wrong with my super doper “all the way from Silverstone” 2009 edition orange Lewis Hamilton T-shirt ?! J (P.S.  i’m still trying to work out who the Wizard and the Milky-bar kid is ?!)

And Christa , don’t worry, no sheep were harmed in the making of this blog! Or golden riders bits for that matter!