Lejog 2023 trip report – part 3 of 3

LEG 3

After a bit more than 3 hours sleep, we received the maps and instructions for the day. It was just a few miles from the start to the first test nicknamed “hootin and tootin” on a kart track. It was quite icy, but we felt like we did a good job – just to discover later that day that Kevin and Bart on the Mini Cooper S with start number 5 blew our time by 22seconds !!!

Regularity 3/1 – Black Jane was preplotted tulips. Difficulty here was that a) not all intersections were shown and b) most of the time the arrows where missing but instructions given. For me this regularity was actually eye-opening. Up to this point I focussed on the map first – and instructions second. From this point onwards – I tried to catch every hint route instructions to verify our location on the map. Our timing was really bad here. Snow on the road, the lack of a working speedo as well as some traffic were factors – but slowly we felt that we were improving. Regularity 3/2 “The Cragg” offered absolutely amazing roads through the Forest of Bowland – many actually just suitable for offroad vehicles.

During the lunch break in High Bentham we took the opportunity asked the Hero mechanics to swap two brand new winter tires we had on the roof – with the two somewhat used ones on the front. This was a good decision as weather conditions resulted in a cancallation for Regulatriy 3/3 and a detour – all the way up to the North Pennies. On the last regularity we battled with ice again and after a Roman signal post had to take a “rocky path” through the woods and over a field – which still makes me wonder how we got through. A last connection section to our hotel north of Newcastle Upon Tyne and 370km in just over 8:30h were completed.

LEG 4

After a good sleep for almost 7 hours the by far longest day would lie ahead of us. As the day before the first regularity had ready to use instructions – and we clearly improved when it comes to timing. Test 4/4 was a spectecular gravel road just north of a small village called Wooler. Martin really let the Mini fly and our time was good – but we touched a cone and got a few seconds penality. Especially the morning felt like one test and regualrity is following the other and I was already somewhat exhausted when we had a late lunch break at about 3pm in the afternoon – just at Fife Leisure Park north of Edinburgh. Another road closure south of Loch Tay made use take a detour via the A827 to a nice hotel in Killin – but this was just a short stop. From this point onwards I had to fight my tiredness – which caused me instructing Martin to turn left in Trinafour – close to Loch Errochty – a bit too early. The instructions in our book unfortunately almost matched – but we ended up in a driveway. We decided that timing in regularities is not important to us anymore – our goal was the Blue Riband – which means to find all controls correctly and get to the important Main Time Controls points within the allowed 30min timeframe. The very nice Colyumbridge Hotel in Aviemore was the end of Leg 4 and we arrived at 10:45pm.

Leg 5

After an excellent late night dinner buffet – I found a couch in the lobby to sleep on. Earplugs and a blanket are items I would recommend as essentials when doing the LeJog. They helped me getting about an hour of sleep – much needed for what would come up next. Regularity 5/1 – the Loch Ness Monster would have been a 106km long section – which is intended to be finished in 2:17h. Ice and light snowfall were the again the reasons why it was shortened by almost 42km. The event team did an amazing job with this last minute change -handing out corrected instructions just after midnight on Tuesday morning. We correctly found the secret control close to road A9 and followed as instructed via B851 to the start. It was incredibly hard to drive on the ice for most teams.

If you take a look at the results book – you will see that some teams still did ok. These were clearly more experienced and skilled – like team 29 (Andy Lane and Iain Tullie on a BMW 2002 Tii) as well as team 34 (Thomas and Rolf on a BMW 320/4).

When I look at the maps now – I only have faint memories on how we made it to Golspie – were test 5/1 on a Kart Track awaited us. At this point I also noticed how tired Martin was – we drove really slow – just focussed to avoid mistakes and just go with 6second to the max allowed time. Regualarity 5/4 was extreme again. Snow on small road through Dunrobin Glen let us drive very carefully. I noticed a possible “Long-way-round” in the instructions but instead of turning right – Martin kept straigt-on. Suddenly we saw some headlights flashing about our right – just when we drove onto a small stone bridge.

We knew we had to turn and Martin somehow managed to do this on the bridge – which was hardly wider than the length of the Mini. We drove back and sure enough – a well hidden timing point awaited us. The 31km long test should have been done in 19 min – but it took us almost 40min to complete. We knew that this could cost us the Blue Riband. We either would need to drive much quicker on the next regularity – or we would not make it to the next MTC within the allowed 30min timeframe.

To our luck we were informed at the next Passage Control that this regularity was cancelled. Martin did his best to get to Lybster where we still got a 15min break before taking the final section. What followed was an endless connection towards the last regularity via a pretty much straight-on approx 20km single track road. It was impossible to walk in the road – a thick layer of ice covered it. We found ourselves behind a salt-spreading truck and got to the start of the last test with a 22min delay. Again – ice on the road made it difficult but we somehow managed to get the finish in John O’Groats on the last minute.

Results

We finished second in class – but to be honest – mostly because the other teams did not make it to the end. As it was my first LeJog I know now that I need to practise timing in Regularities better – plotting and navigation still can be improved. But this did not stop us from winning the Blue-Riband – just as were were hoping for. And I was surprised and happy when I was called on stage ot the “Highest ranking newcomer navigator” award.
It is a crazy endurance event in a classic car – many rational reasons speak against something like this – but it is best event I have ever done and will sign up again if a chance arises.