THE INCA TRAIL
the big South American adventure rally
Day 40: Rio Grande - Rio Gallegos (361km)
Rio Grande was the Argentine base for the Falklands War. |
Sheep a regularity hazard en route to the local shearing station |
Borderline stuff
Today the rally took leave of Tierra del Fuego, returning the way we had come, via the ferry across the Straits of Magellan. The part of Argentina that lies in Tierra del Fuego is completely isolated from the rest of country: to reach Argentina beyond Tierra del Fuego, the traveller must pass through Chile.
So farewell too to Chile, and to the Andes and their snow-clad peaks. Our northbound journey - the final leg to Rio de Janeiro - has begun in earnest.
And our meanderings out of Argentina, into Chile and back again into Argentina come to an end. We've made a total of nine Argentina/Chile border crossings, and feel like old hands at the routine checks for fruit, meat and dairy products that protect Chile from neighbouring Argentina's agricultural ills.
As they arrived at our last Chilean exit post, just 70km away from the day's final Time Control, John Bateson and Colin Francis discovered that their Escort's all-important carnet was missing, presumed left behind at the previous border. The crew were still on Gold medal standing, one of just four left at this stage. Could they be about to gain unwanted penalties by having to drive 216km back to Argentine Tierra del Fuego in the hope of finding it? Not only that, but there was the half-hour Straits of Magellan ferry crossing to make each way as well.
They gambled that - as ever - no-one on the barrier would ask to check any paperwork after they emerged from the customs post. John would take the car through to the Rio Gallegos finish control and clock in on time. Sportingly, Pauline Harris agreed to drive back in her Porsche with Colin Francis in an effort to retrieve the carnet - then back again, while Ann Locks took over as navigator in the Escort.
It takes a long time to drive a round trip of some 430km on gravel roads when there are two waits for ferries involved, and the Pauline Harris Porsche finally made it to Rio Gallegos around 10.00pm. John Bateson's gamble paid off: the Escort was let into Argentina, no questions asked, and he reached Rio Gallegos to check in on time, with no damage to his Gold medal aspirations. But rumour has it that the Porsche's trip back down the road was in vain, and that next morning, very early, Colin and John resorted to making a thorough search of the car. They now have their carnet. All they have to do next is explain away the lack of an entry stamp the next time we leave Argentina ...
Dead reckoning
Results from yesterday's circuit lap consistency test make interesting reading. John Bateson deserved to crow: he set an initial target lap time for himself in the Escort of 2 minutes and one second, then matched that perfectly on laps two and four, and drove just one second too fast on lap one and lap three, earning a penalty of just two seconds in all. But his score was topped by three other crews. Bill Secrest in the Ford Custom Convertible returned times giving him just a one second penalty, as did David Liddell in the RS1600 Escort. But they were all topped by Paul Wignall (PV544), who came out with five laps all on two minutes dead. Spectacular stuff.
Flat out
Spare a thought for the Sunbeam Alpine pair of Malcolm Pickering and Derek McConnell. They were doing well : they'd got three laps of 2 minutes and seven seconds in the bag. Then another car joined the circuit. Avoiding them and their dust from the dirt track, Malcolm hit a brick lying on the edge of the circuit - and punctured his tyre. Of course they had to stop - with a resulting maximum penalty at the end of what should have been a good run.