That Friday night we had the adventure of Storm Arwen. The RAC often/usually/always has snow and ice which is surely part of the charm along with the five day endurance, mud, rain, sleet, dark and cold. In 2017 we had a lot of ice in Scotland. And this year we actually had snow tyres rimmed up, courtesy of Owen Turner, though they stayed in the van because the rock to snow ratio would almost certainly have left us with punctures.
It is early evening (and at this latitude dark) in Kielder and conditions are getting even less friendly. After Kielder B service and a jaunt to Kielder A for Vital Equipment fuel and a Passage Control we set out for stages 11 and 12 (both repeats, so a bit rough). On the way to 11 we drive through winds gusting 70mph with blinding amounts of snow. The stage occasionally has moments among the trees which are clear. Otherwise these are the worst conditions either Stefan or Sid have ever driven in.
We get through 11 with no further damage and find stage 12 where there is another hold up. The wind abateth not, the car is rocking and as you can tell photo opportunities are thin on the ground. Trees are falling and the Forestry Commission forbids any more cars to go into the stage. The organisers’ re-route reads: go to Carlisle by any route you can find and best of luck.
The Newcastleton road is tree-blocked. We head up the Reivers’ Road in a high speed convoy. We are behind an Irish service crew. Sometimes we come across a small tree and three lads leap out like Commandos to clear it, and the train steams on. We are relieved to join the main A7 at Hawick and head south again towards Carlisle and bed…
Just south of Langholm there is a very big tree across the main road. We turn around to find another route. The A7 north is now blocked. The car has a cage but the size of the tree makes us quiet for a moment. There is no way out of the town so at about 11pm we park outside The Crown which is just opening its doors. There are already about eight rally pairs, some service guys and a three person rescue unit. We also find Gill and John Cotton, Drexel Gillespie and muttering rotter Chris Harris.
The lovely Hastings barmaid (a true Force of Nature) asks would some food go down well? Just do chips, says Sid, and soon she has the kitchen fans on. The Crown will not have had such a busy night since the Millenium; rally crews are very sociable (the bar shuts at four in the morning and you will see in the picture it was already 01:40). More sociable than Sid who makes for the function room which has been opened as a dormitory where we sleep on duvets in our overalls and very glad to be inside. You will recall the 504 has no heater?
News from elsewhere in the forest is that Jaimie and Jonathon have got back in Dockreee’s van (many thanks) to our digs at Longtown and Dave and Andy are having to overnight in the Peugeot 607 chase car (with its heater) outside Langholm. The storm was so bad that parts of Northumberland still did not have electricity ten days later. The organisers promised an update for 8am on Saturday, then moved it to 10am.
However, with that amount of trees down and with rally and rescue crews spread out over Northumberland and Cumbria there could be no rallying on the Saturday. Play would begin again in Wales on Sunday, and even here stages were lost to storm damage. For a few crews this was very good news as they had a day to repair cars and take to super rally with very few penalties as so many stages were cancelled. This would include Sid’s old Opel.
So the 504 was serviced in Longtown high street and early on Sunday we set off for the restart in Welshpool.