Day two of the rally was a special one as we travelled from Canberra to Tumut via the Brindabella ranges. It was a shorter day with less than 380km covered.
At the morning briefing, we were told that there was a 50/50 change the day would be cancelled due to the significant amount of rain that had fallen in the last 12 hours and the condition of the dirt roads. To make this decision, a rally official heads out at 6am in a 4WD and assess the conditions of the road, this is known as the “zero car”. The organisers liaise with all local authorities and get approval for the rally to pass through. Hence, they do want to destroy the roads and damage the reputation of the rally.
To everyone’s relief, we got the green light from the zero car and the rally went ahead. After a short drive out of Canberra, we climbed through the state forests (mainly pine) and headed across the Brindabella range. Around 30 minutes in, the rain turned to snow and we found ourselves driving through a winter wonder land. Driving through trails used by rural fire trucks and logging trucks, with snow hitting the windscreen was magical. It was my first time doing approx. 50 km/h on snow and sliding around a corner… luckily it worked out well….when it doubt, you power out.
We then enjoyed a lovely lunch at Tumut put on by the Country Women’s Association before heading back out for another two stages. The rain finally caught up with us and the 4th (last) stage for the day was called off halfway through the stage as a river crossing was impassable. As a consolation prize, we did get a great picture of a rainbow going across the road we were on near Wee Jasper where we had to turn around.
We then headed back to Canberra for a wonderful evening at the Slovenian club in Canberra with a beautiful meal and live entertainment.
We have 40 cars and 110 people involved in this year’s rally. They come from all walks of life and there are some very funny people present.
There is a very cool old Volvo that identifies as a Llamaghini (Llama farmers I think) and it even has the custom badge below proudly sitting on the front grill.
On Tuesday, we head towards Batemans Bay, so will be very different conditions to what we experienced today.
