ACHILLES CAR RALLY JUNE 2008.

Achilles Car Rally. Barbara was in Cape Town and Ally & I were in two minds as to do the Biathle or the Car Rally. After church that Sunday morning the Rally won the day and we headed for Old Grey. Graham, Gail and Tarryn were first there and we joined them to wait for Geoff. Peter, Lise and family; Bruce & Paulette; Bob, Jean, Malcom and family; Gerald and Lyn; Tom and Percy all turned up to take part. Geoff gave us this list of clues and questions and Ally, Tarryn & I joined Gerald and headed off to the Edward Hotel.

We found others wandering around looking quite puzzled. We walked into the hotel to ask the receptionist for some information. She was quite obliging and we soon had the first few answers. Next we jogged across to the Donkin Memorial and Lighthouse where the next set of clues took us. The White Lamp Post had us totally confused and we abandoned this question. Then on to the Drill Hall where we had to count Lions. We though that we were quite smart as we found a second Lion almost hidden on a badge on the door. Little did we know that there were 6 more Lions scattered around the door.

From here we headed down Military Road and back up to the Fort where we had to count lamp posts, cannons and do some History Lessons. Peter’s family were quite helpful as they showed us Mr. Pillay’s Removals business at the bottom of the valley. On to Park Drive where we saw no Sea Battle and so wrote Waterloo instead of Jutland. Round Park Drive and down How Avenue to Settlers Park. Here we found out that there are 125 species of Aloes in South Africa. I had forgotten about the Trenches which I had explored once before. I only remembered too late at Old Grey.

Back up in to Hallack Road and past Brian Close into Dickens (Charles) and back into Park Drive. Here we had to compete for parking with all of the Art in the Park people. At the War memorial in Park Drive we had to again count the Lions. I saw 4 at the top but realised that this was going to be a trick question as there were another four lion heads around the sides. We put down 8 as our answer but were told later that there were 38 of there pesky creatures lurking around the memorial. Less haste and more speed may have been the answer here.

Then we headed around to the Art Gallery where we had to decipher MCMXXV11. I was clueless but I think it was Ally who managed to work this out: M = 1000; CM = 1000 less 100; XX = 20 and V11 = 7. And so MCMXXV11 is the long version of 1927. Fascinating! We also had to count the number of families who had suffered the most in the wars. This was a tricky question as we were looking for one family and there turned out to be a number of family names with three fatalities.

From there we drove up Rink Street past the Barmy Army and the Spar and then decided to go back to the Edward Hotel to find that “White Lamp Post”. Success at last: it was the lamp post above the sign indicating the Historical Walk. Back to Old Grey where we were given another set of really nasty questions; the answers to which we had absolutely no idea. Geoff marked our papers. I saw that there was quite a bit of chirp going on around the marking and I may even have seen more than one team trying to slip him a bribe. I don’t think that our team came last but it was close. Unfortunately the fire and braai was not ready and Ally & I decided to head home. Well done to all the organisers. This morning had been a really fun day for those who were there.