Blimey! What a day! I had been looking forward to it for yonks and finally, there I was. At the start and chomping on the bit, ready to repeat our 'win' at the Christmas event. However, mistakes in the kilometre marking system on our sheet and clues that made those in The Da Vinci Code seem as simple as a Sun crossword, Sharen and I struggled to reach double figures!
Talk about stressful! At one time in our car I reached across to turn down the air-con because it was so cold my teeth were chattering only to realise the car didn't have air-con! It was icy cold from one of those cold silences that follow an argument between spouses. I mean, there I am, driving along on what are reputed to be the most dangerous roads in Europe being expected by my lovely wife to not only drive on the wrong side of the road, change gear with the wrong hand, keep an eye open for cars coming towards me from all known compass points; and at the same time look out for, "Where might you meet friends?"
Friends? I don't care about meeting bloody friends! I'm more concerned about the guy up my backside - tailgating so close I could feel his hot, sardine, breath on my neck! And this was the first clue! Only another two or three hundred to go!
We made it to Foia after backtracking a few times, convinced we'd missed a turning or clue, and racked our brains over the clues. G.E? Horny? No idea! A phone call from Roy4eyes came - telling us that the distance markers were wrong on our leg of the hunt. Yeah, Roy, we gathered that ourselves after reading that the first instruction was at 85.6k from the start! Roy's amendments, though welcome, proved ineffectual since we strayed off the route so many times our reading and therefore our locations never actually coincided with many of the clues. It was like driving with Mark Thathcher!
Less than half way around I was losing the will to live . . . and a wife! She snapped at me . . I snapped at her . . . We snapped together. But, we plodded on and, although we missed a few (a BIG few) out we did get back to Fatacil in time for dinner. And what a dinner it was! Great portions, great food and plenty to drink. During the meal we had the 'prizegivings'. As I mentioned above, we didn't come first but we didn't come last either. Even so, (and this next bit will upset F.O.) we managed to win two prizes! One for being the first to enter and the other for Sharen's creative answers to the clues we were clueless about - which was many!
So, was it all a success? Well, apart from one driver having to take handfuls of paracetamol to combat the headaches caused by his crew - one driver being seen going in the wrong direction . . . twice! - one driver giving up totally having been sent out with three beautiful young ladies (sensible man!) - one driver going off on her own route and having to return to the start to restart on the official route - one driver ending up in Portimao, well off target! - some drivers being to told to 'turn left' when it should have been 'turn right' - it was a resounding success! We raised €500 for the orphans; and that's all the success we needed.
Roy, Thunderbolt and Gambo worked their socks off to make it work . . . and for the most part, it did. However, one lesson they have learned should they decide to repeat the format is this: Never, ever use as clues animals or people that are prone to wander and not be where you expect them to be
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