Slartibartfast Rally Day 1 – Bespoke Rallies

Participants of the second Slartibartfast Rally arriving from all parts of the world, the Dutch weather chose to greet them all with true summer weather – torrential rain.

Reg ohey jetted in from Perth – the one in Australia – while John and Mimi  Delane flew in from California. Meanwhile Manuel Enes and Alexandra Pombo and their friends Antero Brochado and Bety Carvalho drove their respective Jaguar E-Types all the way from Portugal in driving rain. Others came in from Switzerland and the UK.

Collecting in Apeldoorn the group of Slartibartfast Rally Day 1 watched the rain on Saturday and checked the forecast to see if it would clear in time for the off, the following morning. It is true that it had abated but it was still raining lightly on Sunday morning. Some friends of John Delane had made the trip in their Citroen Ami 6 to see them off. The cars lined up in a light drizzle and were flagged off by Finella Kilner. Husband Toby was to be mechanic for the event. He was appearing on TV’s Scrapyard Supercar that evening on the UK’s Dave Channel. We were hoping to be able to watch it but it’s not a local channel to German TV.

By starting in Apeldoorn, the rally was soon into the great Dutch countryside and away on the first leg of their two week event. It wasn’t long before the rally came to the first ferry of the event – the smallest one across the Ijsell River at Olst. The drip, drip, continued but gradually died away as the rally crossed into Germany through one of the smaller borders with a gap barely wide enough for the cars.

An incident free run saw all cars arrive in Nordenham where there were the dying embers of a fair in the town centre. The weather had also taken a turn for the better and sunshine was promised for the following days!!Refreshed with a beer or two the group were entertained with a four minute video created by Reg, of the highlights of the day.