Day 8 – Shimla to Shimla

You will have noticed that we have skipped a few days from the last report to catch up with the original schedule prior to the flooding disruption.

Today we had to revert to the original plan and transfer from the Oberoi hotel to the Wildflower Hall hotel both in Shimla. This is the hotel we would have stayed in on the original stopover.

So to fill the day the organisation made a plan to do a rally around the Shimla region in time to check into our new accommodation at about 3.00 pm.

Two regularity’s were scheduled and a time control along with a lunch at a Palace, in the middle of nowhere The regularities were again a dismal failure for us.

IMG_1638 (1)

28 and 32 seconds out. It’s the regularities that make or lose points. We have just not got the knack or the navigator just hasn’t a clue! It’s happened on past rally’s and it’s the telltale to success or failure.

We determined that the GPS on the Monit trumpeters were inaccurate. At 14 kms the variation was Round 400 meters.

The Monits should have been mechanical as all the other competitors have. That is the most accurate way of doing regularities. Apparently the trees and building were upsetting the impulses from the satellites.

We made a great trip with all sorts of conditions, sunshine, rain and hail. Big hail.

Fog too.

We got to our hotel in the rain at around 3.40 but the pressure was all on. At the bottom of the drive into the venue, which was very steep, Denise struggled in pouring rain, to get traction. A car in front found it steep too and stalled causing us to stop. We couldn’t continue. It was piddling down.

We had to turn back in pouring rain to the bottom and get a run up. We got there, without assistance.

So all is good. Checked onto the hotel, again dog tired. But on time without point loss.

IMG_1630 (1) — An old man who wanted to be part of the action

Went to the room to stow our gear and opened the window for some fresh air, and in a flash a couple of monkeys got in and pinched an apple and a banana. Quick as a flash! They must have been watching the windows to see which was opening. Cheeky monkeys!