Cones, slaloms and bouncy whites!

The Edradour Saltire Classic rally came up very fast after the Snowman rally and I was really looking forward to it!

We loaded the car and set off from Aberdeen on Saturday, arriving at Dunkeld in time for scrutineering and signing on. Sailing through these we headed off to peruse the maps and get our heads into rally mode.

Sunday morning dawned, a bit overcast but not as bad as predicted. We had a hearty full Scottish breakfast and went to get the car fuelled. Unfortunately the local garage didn't open until 9am, our leaving time for the first test! Luckily the organiser, Colin Wallace, assured me we'd manage the mileage to Pitlochry and six tests on the fuel we had. He was right!

What can I say about the tests? Well, test 1 was hilarious. Anyone who's driven a rally car before will know that lock to lock on the steering consists of about one turn. So a test involving manoeuvring round cones in small spaces would mean many, many shunts. Cue a clever comment from my future husband "wouldn't it be funny if I hadn't installed power steering?"…No Barry, it would be downright annoying! And heavy! Never the less, test 1 was brilliant, I loved every single shunt of it.

Test 2 was more like a special stage/hill climb. A steep ascent followed by a descent with cones either side of the road where you have to stop astride, or in my case pull a skiddy and stop with the cone at shoulder level… then giggle, thumbs up to the marshal, giggle again then set off. O-kaaaaay!

Test 3 was a muddy blast around a woodyard, unfortunately the event photographer came a cropper in there and broke his ankle quite badly in a fall. Hopefully he'll be on the mend soon!

Tests 4,5 and 6 happened in quick succession and were equally brilliant. Wiping the grin off my face was going to take some doing! I'd done many, many WD's (wrong directions) by this point, including adding in a reverse manoeuvre in our own interpretation of the test diagram. But we were having the best fun in a long time.

The next test followed a regularity section, of course we weren't sticking to that one so we could get to test 7 via the fuel station. The roads used for the regularity would have made a pretty cool stage themselves!

I made a hash of test 7 at the Edradour Distillery, being obsessed with a barrel I wasn't allowed to go around until lap 2. But we got round and I learnt a new direction... slalom. I like slalom. It means a quick wiggle on the steering wheel and managing to avoid whatever we're slaloming through. I didn't realise the Edradour Distillery was the smallest in Scotland, so not only did I learn how to slalom the car, I learnt that too!

After test 7 we headed towards Tummel Bridge and test 8. This was brilliant, a blast down a grassy lane, a handbrake turn round a cone and a blast back. I didn't even have to steer as the track pulled the car round on its own! A fact I shared with Mags and I don't think she was impressed.

The lunch halt followed test 9 which was in the running for my favourite. A blast around a caravan site. As we were first in we got to watch everyone else around the test once we’d finished. The only problem was that everyone then got to watch us being the first out on test 10 which used the same roads. I got a bit more confident and used the handbrake. Thankfully it didn't go wrong and we entertained the other competitors. Test 11 was a fun blast down a hill with two hairpins and then back up to the Loch Tummel road

Test 12, Dunalastair, was probably my second favourite of the day, it was a mini special stage and included a pretty cool old ruin to drive round. I really had fun on that one!!! Test 13 was a nice run up a farm track and it preceded a road section with the whitest white roads I had ever seen which I thoroughly enjoyed bouncing along. Luckily we had someone behind us to close the gates!

Test 14 was my out and out favourite. And I think it was many others too! It involved being flat out around a quarry and pulling handbrake turns around cones. Now, I swear down, and Mags will back me up, I pulled off one of the four perfectly. Of course there was no one there to see our Ken Block style triumph (Mag's words, not mine) so it will be forever consigned to my perfect turn memory banks.

Another trip to the Edradour Distillery followed and we aced it that time, then a regularity over yet more scenic roads. The last test was another visit to the wood yard then a short road section to the finish. I could easily have gone round again. It was definitely the most fun I've had on a rally for a long time.

A massive thank you has to go to Colin Wallace and all the officials of the rally, all marshals and of course everyone who donated to Rally2Raise. At last count we were told over £400 was raised, absolutely amazing!

I highly recommend this event to everyone and would love to return next year if they'll have us.