Ching wah

I stumbled back in from the Wales Rally last night, which was great, here's why:
The epic journey began at 5am on Friday, not long after hitting the roads Paul admitted that it was his first time on the motorway, fortunately I have no sense of self preservation so wasn't as scared as I should have been at the thought of how far we were about to travel.
At the first service stop I bought the latest issue of Redline and the newly discovered Banzai, the latter seeming to consist almost entirely of featured Japanese cars and import events, while it doesn't seem to be enough to stand on its own I think it will nicely supplement Redline and keep me more than occupied during my breaks at work.
The first sign of the rally was at a service stop just past Cardiff, what looked like some sort of display car sitting on the back of a trailer with its little convoy all decaled up got me pretty pumped. Not long later on the road a pickup truck sped past baring the full livery of my favorite team, the BP Ford Focuses, and that got me extremely excited and ready to roll.
The first destination was the shakedown, not far outside of Swansea, where the drivers will be speeding around and warming up for the real racing over the next three days. Fortunately the brilliant blue skies we had been experiencing on the way over decided to stick around, and things were very comfortable as we clambered through the woods along the side of the track and got our first taste of rally cars up close.
The machines are indeed amazing, you get an idea of how loud and powerful they are on TV, but only when you're standing as close as a meter away from the track and feel the rumble of the engine and the firework pops and bangs of the misfiring system shoot through you can you truly appreciate it. Not to say that you need to be that close, as you can hear the echo of the cars over the valleys and through the forest long before they actually reach you.
After that we head off to the service park down on the docks in Swansea, during this drive we get our first taste of how the south of Wales has pretty much turned into a giant Subaru showroom as every line of traffic and stretch of road had at least one scooby tearing it up, and if it wasn't an Impreza it was an Evo.
Once we reached the service park we jumped in to get our first proper look at the leading drivers machines, took a load of pictures, bought team caps (Ford Hirvonen for me, Subaru Solberg for Paul) and bounced back out.
We then made our way to one of the tracks were were planning on attending the next day, just to see how the travel time would be. Things took much longer than expected as we made our way up far into the Welsh mountains on smaller and smaller roads until we were actually driving on the same muddy routes that the rally takes place on, albeit much slower. Awesome views though.
It was then about time we headed over to Cardiff for the ceremonial opening, so yet more driving was made and after some inner city trawling we finally found the car park and rally area. We walked around taking pictures of some of the display cars and drivers for a while before we passed behind the stage to a long road where all the competitors had their cars parked in preparation for the ceremony.
I stood at a barrier that was so close to the cars I could literally lean over it and touch them, and as time moved on the drivers started getting in their cars. As my favorite driver Mikko Hirvonen walks over to get in his car I call him over to shake his hand, and even get a picture of me doing so with a massive grin on my face, which is a picture I will most definitely print out for epic memories. Not long later Jari-Matti Latvala arrives to get ready, not many people pay much attention to him as most of the people were watching the stage, and the people that were around me were mostly waiting for either Marcus Gronholm or Petter Solberg. I shout out to get Latvala's attention before telling him exactly how much of a legend he is, and how I'm totally supporting him, he had a massive smile at this and tried to reply, but I was too busy telling him that if he joined the BP Ford team next year that he could go all the way and that I was behind him every step. He genuinely seemed to appreciate this and not long later before driving away he waves to me and gives me a thumbs up, total win. The last person we watched get in their car before moving to the front of the stage was Solberg, and the crowd all leaned back like a shockwave when his Impreza started, rally cars are beasts as it is but those things are absurd.
We then watched the opening, which began with Colin McRae's car passing through the gate on the stage driven by his Dad, which was was cool, and then after watching some of the main drivers get interviewed and drive off we walked into the main high street to get some food. Returning at least 20 minutes later with a meatball sub in hand we saw the drivers were still passing through the gate, they then drive down the very long road in which all the spectator cars are parked and join the main road to head back to the service park in Swansea. Our car was parked right at the end next to the junction, and after turning it around to face the road we had the perfect seats to sit and watch the cars pass and stop at the junction as we chowed down, which was excellent.
We then rolled out to find somewhere to sleep, and not long down the M4 we found a delightful service stop and promptly threw the chairs back and went to sleep. I couldn't be bothered to do too much, so despite having a ridiculous amount of covers and sleeping equipment I was still cold, but as an Impreza estate driver at the same service stop said "Who needs Travelodge when you can sleep in the car?"

Day 2 had us wake to an ominous cloud cover, we pushed on and headed out to the first track, but our arrival was diverted by a police officer informing us that the car park was full and suggested heading to the next course. Determined not to have our progress halted by the po-po we ditched the wheels nearby and headed out on foot, but not far up the road a returning driver tells us the rally is miles up the road and that people are getting turned away at the end anyway.
Police 1 - Civvies 0
We return to the car to find a couple of other vehicles parked next to us and a bunch of lads gearing up to make the same expedition, we started chatting with them and told them what we knew and what we thought we should all do, they seemed to think we knew what we were talking about enough to follow our advice so they all jumped back in their cars and sped off to the third stage, honking and waving as they went.
We made after them and eventually arrived at the third stage with what seemed like perfect time to spare, it was so high up in the mountains that we were actually in the clouds and visibility dropped quite drastically for a while, but things cleared up enough for us to see the rally cars perfectly and it turned out to be the best part of the trip. The spectator area stretched around a simply excellent selection of bends with plenty of different angles to view them from, with the final one having the cars crash very spectacularly through a big puddle on one side. We got loads of videos and pictures before heading back off to the car to depart to the fifth stage of the day (the stage we visited the day before), with the second three all being repeats of the first three of the day.
Things took a turn for the worse and started raining quite heavily, we persevered and pushed on to the spectator area, as we waited for the stage to start the rain worsened and winds picked up to such ferocity that my umbrella imploded and had to be discarded. We only stayed long enough to watch the first few cars before heading back to the sanctuary of our own wheels, absolutely soaked through puddles began forming in the car.
Arriving back in Swansea I quickly got changed, and after removing my wallet from my no longer waterproof coat I had to actually peel apart the money inside and dry it over the fans.
At the service park we walked around for a while and watched the crews tear apart the cars with astonishing professionalism and efficiency. I managed to shake Marcus Gronholm's hand in passing in classic grumpy Gronholm fashion with him not sparing the crowd a second glance, such a clear cut businessman is he. Unfortunately I turned on the Stobart Ford team to see Latvala's car with a massive dent in the side and his name not even in the top seventeen positions, tragedy.
We busted outta there and pulled over at what just so happened to be the same service stop we saw the first rally car parked at, not long later we fell asleep to be only moderately warmer than the night before.
The next morning we headed back into Cardiff to get something good to eat and do some shopping. I stopped off in River Island and Burton and got a couple of shirts, and as a gift for someone got a very nice handmade necklace in a rather arty marketplace. We then wandered around for a while longer before heading back home, which proved a much wetter and more dismal journey than the one in the opposite direction two days prior.
Overall it was a fantastic trip in which even the worst parts contained nothing but laughs. I'm very much looking forward to next year, in which I will be driving in the Focus.

Speaking of the Focus, I have finally been insured and received my first driving lesson today, in which I think I did rather well, no tofu drifting yet though. Unfortunately my Dad is only available on two days over the next two weeks, but after that he's absolutely free over the Christmas period, and I will most definitely be on the road at every available opportunity.