Sunday 21 September
Aprica (It) - Viterbo (It)
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Yes, you guessed it......what a day again ! Today involved a seemingly innocuous rip down the Autostrada of 411m, to add spice to the mix we also had a challenge of photographing the teams in front of petrol pump #1, at every petrol station along the way ! Now let me tell you, there are a lot of petrol stations between Aprica and Viterbo.....a lot as in one every 5 miles or so......and then there'd be a random one immediately after the one you've just done ! This challenge was an absolute belter, in case you are unaware of the challenge system, each day we have had a photographic challenge to complete with the overall winner getting £1000.
Day 1 was a simple one that merely involved photographing different brands of Geman car...easy. Day 2 got rather tougher with two pages of photos, you then had to find the photo en route that day....sounds simple? Well, the twist is only part of the photo was on the sheet, a shutter on a house, a blade of grass (almost!) etc You then had to find the shutter for example and take a picture of the wider surroundings to prove you got it...bear in mind we were looking for these over a 30mile route and you may get some idea of the challenge involved !
Back to today and we started at 9am in a fog-bound Aprica town square for a 'water-pistol' fight, this was all approved by the Town authorities and a large number of locals turned out to watch the ' crazy engleesh' ! When we say water-pistol, we actually mean water cannon, water bomb....you get the picture. It was also fancy dress day (yes we don't always dress up this way....some of us....) and the theme was the 70's cops from the 'Beastie Boys' Sabotage video. Team Spitfire were duly armed with the smallest water dispensers known to man and bravely ventured forth into possibly the most one-sided contest since the "Botswanan sharpened Mango-halves rebellion" of 1876 was quashed by Sir Hugh Farquarhson-Smythe's 101st Lancers. To say utter chaos reigned is something of an understatement and it was a very wet, but happy convoy that set off to Viterbo. One of the photos above is of a very poorly decorated, but special, silver car. The team in this car had broken down the previous day and their car had already gone to the big junkyard in the sky. This photo is of a hire car, thats commitment for you !
Back to the challenge and the largely boring Autostrada was broken up (did I say every 5miles or so) by the need to stop and get a photo of all the Team in front of pump #1. At first this was really funny, as we chatted to all and sundry about what we were doing and the petrol stations became a social hub as the various teams turned up for the photos. But having to stop so often (every 5miles or so....yes I know its annoying, try a full days worth of it!!) became unbelievably frustrating, especially when the Satnav was showing nearly 300miles to go, we were lost and it was 2pm...doh.
Just when we were reaching a real low in the afternoon, something would happen that would lift the spirits and put the smile back on your face....for example, the notoriously fickle Italian Carabinieri (Police) cruising around your car like a Shark circling its victim, before grinning and getting out their cameras ! The Italians lived upto their reputation as a passionate race by being overwhelmingly positive and extremely friendly everywhere we went, in one services we were quite literally overran by a football team who jumped onto our car and insisted on a huge number of photos......you just would not get that reaction anywhere else.
Finally an apology for yesterday, we had no Internet access so I've had to upload Sat/Sun together. Thank you for all your sponsorship, support and assistance.....please continue to support our worthy cause.
