Day 2 - Mayday! They won’t let us into Andorra!

“Mayday! Team 013, the organisers...typical! Refused access to Andorra. On mountain between Bourg-Madame and Andorra. Need adjustable spanner to remove light!”

Within minutes we had help. Texts flooded in from teams 118 118, Midlife Crisis, Busman’s Holiday, Dumb, Dumb & Dumber and Striptease III ¼. But it was Team 119 Aberdeen Angus, the lads from Scotland, who pulled in with the tools we needed, followed closely by Team 102 Smack my Beach Up in the Union flagged BMW. Ten minutes of climbing on the car and the light-box was off and safely hidden in the boot.


A quick convoy back up the mountain and we were all waved through without a problem. Why do I get the impression we’ve just been used to relieve the boredom of the border staff? Anyway, we soon forgave Andorra when we stopped at the tax free shopping paradise and bought a litre bottle of Absinthe for just 3 Euros!

Up through the final pass over the mountain, where snow was probably 10-15 ft deep in parts, and down into the city. Our hotel was right in the centre which allowed us to have more fun with the puzzled Andorrans before having our car put to bed under the hotel by the friendly owner Christophe.

We set-up our scoring station in the bar (of course) and waited for the teams to submit their photos. The SMS challenge had been to locate a butcher and have a picture of the team with a butcher holding a piece of meat. Bonus points for multiple butchers and bigger carcasses. Some of these photos were hilarious, with many teams getting access to cold-stores with loads of hanging animals including a real cracker from Team 110 Randy Diva Wonted. Team 111 Midlife Crisis were as competitive as ever visiting an abattoir!

It was now becoming obvious which teams were doing the challenges for fun, and those that were in it to win it.

Day 2 – Leaderboard

1 – Midlife Crisis – 1500 pts
2 – Smack my Beech Up – 1450 pts
3 – Dumb, Dumb & Dumber – 1400 pts
4 – A+ Team – 1360 pts
5 – Three Amigos – 1350 pts
6 – Striptease III ¼ – 1310 pts
7 – Dodgy Driver – 1270 pts
8 – Randy Diva Wonted – 1260 pts
9 – The Doggers – 1210 pts
10 – Busman’s Holiday – 1150 pts

Note: Team 117 That’s how we roll suffered an engine blow-out and haven’t yet submitted points

Car Troubles

Team 117 – Engine blow-out! Towed to garage, left car and caught taxi to Andorra
Team 119 – Aberdeen Angus – Buckled wheel (replaced), failing CV joint
Team 111 – Midlife Crisis – “Cuddles” leaking oil by the gallon
Team 013 – Bangers & Trash (organisers) – fuses blowing, small diesel leak, feeling naked without our light-bar!

At around 11pm the Rally got one team larger when Team 114 Team Trevs finally arrived and were greeted by applause and a free beer from the teams gathered in the bar. It will be good to see them on the next leg tomorrow.

With the hotel’s stock of beer exhausted, and people moving on to extra large measures of spirits at very cheap prices it looked like it was going to be a late one....

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