Well the Road Director promised us 'sand, sand and more sand' and he was not kidding! Once again they had recovery vehicles spread throughout the various stages today in case anyone needed help. We started with a 102k Class 4 and as promised lots of sand and dunes, all of which our trusty little Subie zoomed through without any problem at all. We think we finished maybe a minute early on this stage... Next was a 67k Class 3 - not too much drama there - a few humps, some tourist traffic, nothing we couldn't handle. We finished this one on time we think.
We had lunch at the tiny Underbool Primary School. Only 25 kids and they were super excited to see all the rally Kars and a special guest appearance from Billy the Kidney. Once again, the kids lined up for hugs from Billy, just as they had done in Alice Springs. The judging panel of kids voted our Kar the best! Our long awaited pumpkin soup went down a treat (normally a staple at many of our lunch stops in the rally, we had only enjoyed it once so far!) but the rolls and delicious cakes were scrum my as well.
After lunch we headed out on a 97k Class 1 which didn't start well when an instruction in the road book was misinterpreted and we travelled about 4k up the wrong road before we came upon another rally Kar heading towards us. Many of us had made the same mistake! So began a flurry of U-turns to get us all back on track! Amazingly we still managed to make up the lost time and finished that stage about even. The final stage for the day was a Class 3 of 74k that was to take us into Ouyen. Once again, lots of sand, recovery vehicles at the ready and a whole new experience - wire gates! What a nightmare they were to open and close! Still we came in maybe a minute early. Then into Ouyen - the home town of our highest fundraisers for the year Team Roboat (Kar 77) - and weren't we all given a warm welcome! Dinner was at the Ouyen Club and the locals certainly fed us well and entertained us with a bicycle driven clothesline (our Road Director was the cyclist nominated) containing underpants (of various colours, sizes and gender) with numbers inside them that determined the prize you won in the raffle!!! All very reminiscent of the old days of pluck-a-duck!
No results are posted for the last two days of the rally, so that the winners are unknown until announced on Friday night. So really, while we are always hopeful, we have no idea how we lined up against the averages for the day!
