THE INCA TRAIL

the big South American adventure rally

Day 53: Florianopolis - Paranagua (370km)

David Liddell and Mark I'Anson kick up dust on one of the day's two Medal Sections

'It ain' t over till it's over,' someone said while we were all relaxing at the lovely Florianopolis resort yesterday. How right they were. Today's mileage was through sub tropical hilly landscapes - dotted with Bavarian style settlements. This area was subject to German colonisation - and it shows. Neat little villages with flower gardens; superb baroque churches in the Bavarian style. Only the palm and banana trees give the game away.

For both classics and 4x4s the road through and between these places was a sandy gravel track, twisting and turning, up and down - and made treacherous by recent rain. With just two days of serious rallying left before the grand finale in Rio, this proved to be John Brown's 'sting in the tail'. After very nearly 25,000 miles, and with just two competitive days' rallying left, things began to fall apart again for the classics on a seemingly straightforward Medal Section.

David Garrett had a coming together with a local car - which was to cost him four hours on the road. Paul and Jayne Wignall broke a Panhard rod and went off as a result. But drama of the day was with Alexa Scott Plummer and Tony Humphries, still in charge in Sue Shoosmith's absence of her Austin A90 (aka Wallace).

Though Sue was unable to stay for family reasons for the full length of the Inca Trail, she's handed a good head start on to Alexa Scott-Plummer and Tony Humphries. At times it's seemed they might have things sewn up, though they haven't always matched Sue's determined driving style. But on this tricky damp sandy Medal Section, Tony lost control of 'Wallace' and the right hand front wing ploughed into a bank. Alexa and Tony rapidly got the support of the Inca Trail film crew, pulling and pushing at the front wing to free it from the front wheel. But though they made it out of that Medal Section, and eventually through the next after repairing a holed radiator, a long wait for the ferry crossing put them OTL at the day's final control. They've lost their chance of Gold at the eleventh hour. Because all other competitors in their Age Category have gone OTL at some time or other, it means there are no heirs apparent to that lost Gold: so now once again we're down to just four:

Robert O'Hara / Richard Newman - Chrysler Model 75

Paul Kane / Mary Kane - Ford Mustang Shelby

Bart Rietbergn / Jolijn Rietbergen - Volvo PV 544

John Bateson / Colin Francis - Ford Escort RS2000

So tomorrow it's on to Guaruja, with just a short Regularity section: what can happen next?

<<back