THE INCA TRAIL
the big South American adventure rally
Day 48: Free day in Buenos Aires
Most crews took the opportunity to fit in at least a morning's sightseeing in the beautiful capital city of Argentina. But the highlight of our stay was the evening's reception held in the gardens of the British Ambassador's residence, in an area of the city with buildings strongly reminiscent of the Regent's Park area of London, with its white stucco mansions, and even down to the ever-present London plane trees.
The evening was kindly sponsored by Bank Leu, and after our Leg 3 awards ceremony a short cabaret of tango dancing and music brought the evening to its close. Sir Robin Christopher, HM Ambassador to Argentina, was our genial host. A superb evening: our thanks go to him, his staff and of course to Bank Leu for so kindly making it possible.
Rick Dyke-Price, meanwhile, had another engagement in the capital, with the President of the Austin Healey Club of Argentina 'and he's havimg some great jazz', said Rick. Great stuff: that's the kind of thing that international classic motoring is all about.
Leg 3 Awards: Marbella - Buenos Aires
Just one of the sticky situations the Camel crews dug themselves into - and out of! |
Trevor Green and Barbara Smith for their week spent in the Land Rover Discovery away from the rally until finally catching us up at Bariloche.
Wilhelm and Barbara Lambertz for so gamely deciding to continue to the end of the event after doing major damage to their Land Cruiser en route to Ushuaia.
The Nelan family and Alan Crisp for driving about 3,000km to Buenos Aires using just 2nd gear until the automatic transmission could be repaired here in Buenos Aires. They had to leave at 5.30am some mornings to be sure of making the distance, though Jim Taylor reckons he must have towed them around 2,000 of those kilometres to help them make a bit more speed.
Howard Seymour and Ann Bennett for their amazing 22 days away from the rally, travelling the route behind us as they tried hard to catch up despite continuing cylinder head problems on their Range Rover. They broke down again on the run to Buenos Aires, with a broken rocker screw: they found someone who managed to make them a replacement part on a lathe, which got them to the capital. They've now fitted the real thing - borrowed from fellow rocker sufferers the Borns.
Angus Stamper and Ian Rhodes received an award for ploughing into the cancelled 4x4 Explorer Section yesterday - and managing to complete it - regardless of the difficulties of the flooded, muddy terrain. Their action was light-heartedly referred to by Don as 'seriously silly' - they arrived at the end of the day with their Land Cruiser covered from roof to wheels in mud. Appropriately agricultural, seeing that Angus is a farmer.
Both Camel Specification Land Rover Discovery crews received awards for going where no-one else dares. They did in the shingle the other day, and they had a go again in the mud yesterday. 'But at least they had the sense this time to turn around,' said Don.
Finally Leo Schildkamp and Cees Wilhemse. They have been running in a bog-standard, completely unprepared Daihatsu Rocky 4x4 since the demise of their Volvo Amazon en route to Potosi. They had a go at yesterday's cancelled section, too, and got through - much to everyone's sheer amazement
Classic Reliability Trial Awards
Awards were presented to Class and Age Category winners and runners up for their performance on Leg Three: these will be summarised separately in full on the HERO website: www.hero.org.uk
Class winners were:
Class A
Robert O'Hara/Richard Newman
Class B
Ms Alexa Scott Plummer/Tony Humphreys
Class C1
Paul Kane/Ms Mary Kane
Class C2
David Reville/Jane Ranson
Class C3
Malcolm Pickering/Derek McConnell
Class C4
Allart Constandse/Cees Bruin/Jaap Kroon/Richard de Nerée tot Babberich
Class C5
Renger Guliker/Ms Gerda Guliker
Class C6
Paul Wignall/Mrs Jayne Wignall
Class D1
John Aspinall/Philip Jenkins
Class D2
David Garrett/Sarah Born
Class D3
John Bateson/Colin Francis