2007 Donegal Delight
The choice of Donegal for the 2007 Challenge for Charity was made during the 2006 event. Having routed the teams up to Ballyshannon in 2006, all involved remarked on how good the Donegal tracks were, so the scene was set!
Twenty teams of 4x4 drivers and navigators, backed up by eight support vehicles and 14 marshalls, set out to negotiate 780kms of stunning scenery through six northwestern counties on October 6th and 7th.
Teams assembled at Lough Key Forest Park in Boyle, Co Roscommon – near enough to Donegal but far enough away to leave them guessing.
Lough Key Forest Park has a superb visitor centre and a newly opened ‘Boda Borg’ experience. Boda Borg is a Swedish idea – a Crystal Maze-style navigation challenge. A perfect start for our nervy navs.
Entrants were briefed on the concept and given 30 minutes to work out how to exit the puzzle, in order to receive their first set of instructions for the main event. There was slight concern that some of them could still be there on Saturday night.
Twenty teams had arrived at the start and were tasked with tulip diagrams to get them out of Lough Key and on towards Donegal. The trucks were positioned perfectly and with event sponsor Ordnance Survey Ireland’s tall banners fluttering in the breeze, then everyone assembled for the team photo.
By 10am, wagons rolled and the event was on. An unlucky injury meant an early exit and return ferry to Wales for a much admired Defender 90, a very disappointed David Stephens and his casualty navigator Graham Jones. We all hope they make a return for 2008!
Sheepish and The Bear
The first checkpoint at Laghy was ably manned by the dashing duo of Series 3 driving marshals, Dave ‘The Bear’ Goodman and Vince ‘Sheepish’ Knight. The Ordnance Survey Ireland flags marked the end of Stage One and a chance for crews to re-fuel both man and machine (women too but it doesn’t alliterate). In a change of routine from previous years, Robert and Jonathan had co-opted Sheepish and The Bear to assist in drawing up the routes and questions. And what a job they did!
Reports were coming in of a serious accident on the road ahead at Barnesmore. This required a small detour and some adjustment to the schedule for the day, before teams were able to begin on Stage Two, which would see them routed high into Donegal and the Loughsalt Mountain.
Spectacular views across North Donegal set the tone for the weekend and teams enjoyed the quality of the off-road sections. The tracks through Loughsalt were slightly less daunting than when first mapped by Dave and Vince in torrential rain. The rain subsided for a few weeks before the event and left the tracks in a more approachable condition.
The non Land Rover teams were by now settling into the banter and slagging that invariably comes with driving machines that weren’t built by a bloke with two spanners and a hammer in Solihull. They were however showing the Landyboys’n’girls that 4x4 nirvana doesn’t involve wearing the green oval. An agile G-Wagen was making light work of the affair and giving lessons to anyone who would watch.
One of the features of this year’s challenge was that less teams seemed to get lost and have to phone for help from the marshals. “Maybe we aren’t making it hard enough,” laughed Jonathan. “Next year will be tougher because I am spending my spare time learning navigation at sea. This has given me some interesting new ideas for 2008!”
Mad Max or the Disco Bar?
The late afternoon run from Loughsalt unusually had a time limit set for the teams to be at a rendezvous for the night by 6pm. So tracking north of Muckish on some really nice tracks brought the wanderers to a car park in Dunlewy under Erigal. There were a few furtive glances as some teams tried to figure out where the tents would be pitched for the night. But there was a treat in store. The new youth hostel opened earlier in the year and had just enough beds for the teams and marshals, so no canvas!!
Once the rooms were allocated a short trip down to the Lakeside restaurant saw the teams tucking into a well earned hot meal. The restaurant very kindly stayed open after hours to provide the meal and the staff were warmly thanked for their efforts and time on a Saturday evening.
After dinner it was time for the Night Navigation to begin. Fog had descended around the lake and mountains making conditions very difficult. So difficult that Robert, Jonathan and the marshals had problems finding the route to place the marker boards out. It all came to a head when the fog got so thick that the event had to be suspended for the night. Robert and Jonathan had driven up to the edge of a lake where the track turns sharp right and continues along the very edge of the lake. At times the track is actually in the lake so for safety reasons, teams were stopped and sent back to the hostel for the night. Some of the more experienced teams would have coped but on an event which is designed to be inclusive of all abilities, the tasks have to be equal. Now you would be forgiven for thinking that this put a dampener on things. Not a bit of it. Just like the Miller ad, a bar appeared on the bonnet of the Feely 109 – Mad Max – and a Discovery serving strange brews and snacks!!
A Scorpion’s Tail lies beyond Mamore Gap
Sunday morning dawned clear and fresh so it was time to finish the Night Navigation in daylight! As things turned out this worked well for the rest of the day as it pushed the last event of the day back into the envelope and meant that the Quarry became the finale. But that was later. First the entrants were given instructions to proceed to Inishmore and some of the best tracks yet. Up through the Mamore Gap and around a loop that was to become known as………THE SCORPIONS TAIL………
An interesting twister with the added ‘sting’ of hairpins with a steep drop on one side – but a great view of the Atlantic! The longer trucks had to shunt their way around some of the corners and even the battle hardened said is was tough. Strange thing here though, the women drivers seemed to just get on with it smiling all the way to the top. Some of the most experienced of the male drivers were looking a tad nervy!!! Too much knowledge perhaps?
Vince Knight will be remembered for his absolutely diabolically devious placement of marker boards on the next section which was a long run of tracks heading back south. He placed three boards at the end of a 15 mile run. That was it. Some teams were so caught out by this sneaky trick that they even missed these three.
A Muddy Brilliant time at the Quarry
They were more than rewarded at the Quarry however where local off road experts Ivan and Ray Black had laid out a punch hunt. Time for photos in the water splash then. That was good. And again. This gave everybody a laugh and the chance for some to open the back of their truck and produce food and tea to sustain the troops through to dinner.
Tristan felt that punches were better collected without the vehicle and decided to do the log bridge on foot. We thought he was too scared to drive over it until he got back in and promptly launched the Discovery up the rock climb. He finally made it to the top on the third attempt to a big round of applause. (Note to self: Don’t buy his Discovery in the future.) Initially it was thought that no-one had the courage – or the sheer wildness – to attempt it coming down. An indignant Gerry Brennan was later to cite photographic evidence to the contrary.
The Quarry was a perfect finale to a great event and from there, good-humoured teams hammered south to reach the comfort of the Slieve Russell Hotel in Ballyconnell, County Cavan. Once again, without the bat of an eyelid the staff of this upmarket hotel welcomed a bunch of mud-spattered and exhausted folk in big dirty trucks. After hot showers the company assembled for dinner in the Cranaghan Suite, where they were treated to a showing of the long-awaited ‘movie’ of the 2006 event. This had been painstakingly pieced together mainly from still shots against its own soundtrack – the work of event snapper, David Tothill.
Welcome to the 2007 4x4 Oscars
And then it was time for Robert and Jonathan to reveal the results.
Liam Smyth and Eric McNally, who styled themselves as ‘The Blues Brothers’, won the Spirit of the Event award. They were grateful to Ray Black of Burnside Automotive in Leterkenny for keeping them on the road! (Did we mention that they were sponsored for the second year by Saintfield Land Rover specialist, BLRC, who we want to thank for their support?!!!) Several other notable performances were awarded with pieces of Cavan Crystal – and all the winners are listed below.
This year saw the inauguration of a new award to recognise the top fund-raising team. The Sophie Trophy was presented to Mike Purtell of Team 9, with his navigator Graeme Archibald. The team’s sponsorship totalled €10,200 for Temple Street Children’s Hospital – Mike was also the top fund-raiser in last year’s event. In both years, he said that his team’s success was largely down to the support of officers and staff in his workplace, the Irish Prison Service.
The Sophie Trophy is named in honour of event marshall Vince Knight’s daughter, who was born just before last year’s Challenge, a little earlier than her parents had expected. Vince had been due to enter the 2006 Challenge but had to abandon his plans when his wife, Claudine, gave birth to Sophie.
The 4x4 Challenge is all about fund-raising for Temple Street and having plenty of craic in doing so. But when little Sophie was born, it drove home to Robert and Jonathan the real reason why hospitals like Temple Street need our support. The care she received when she was born and throughout the difficult first weeks has enabled Sophie to flourish into a happy, healthy child. After what Vincent and Claudine went through, Rob and Jonathan decided to name the top fund-raisers’ award in her honour. A stunned Vince later confessed to a lump in the throat and a tear in the eye when Jonathan called him up to present the Sophie Trophy. Mike’s fund-raising work is an example of what can be achieved for Temple Street – massive congratulations to Team 9, a hard act to follow!
The run-up to the final announcement was tense and naturally, Jonathan span it out for all it was worth. New teams had shown some serious navigational and driving skills, there were creditable performances which gained recognition in the awards. A wee red Defender 90 had taken second place – another red Defender 90 had won the previous event. But this year, Team 1, defending champions, the dashing Slag Brothers took on the competition in a big, Japanese, brute of a thing. (Or if you want the technical spec, it’s a 1996 Nissan Patrol 4.2 petrol with LPG conversion, 2 inch lift and big knobbly tyres.) So finally, Jonathan put them out of their misery: Andy Spence and Glenn Myles really had taken the Cavan Crystal winners’ trophy for the second year running – Team 1 had once again earned the right to their Team Won moniker. Fuelled by Grey Goose (is this a new alcopop?), Glenn and Andy celebrated later with two prancing bronze lions just outside the Cranaghan Suite. It’s rumoured that Glenn thought he was taking a taxi ride but no-one’s sure where he thought he was heading.
We just want Money
All tension dispelled, the revelling began, with Jonathan running a high pressure auction for various generously donated items. Ron Charles ended up with a fine piece of Cavan Crystal to take home, although he’d won it as highest bidder in the auction. Ger Dooner and Laoise Macken won a raffled lamb donated by Stephen Gerrard – but they donated the lamb to the auction, so it raised even more cash for Temple Street. Dave Goodman and David Tothill managed to co-ordinate their technology in order to burn CDs of a selection of David’s shots from the weekend, which brought in further donations from the entrants.
In the 2007 4x4 Challenge for Charity, we raised €32,000 for Temple Street Children’s Hospital, making a total of over €70,000 in three years. As usual there was trickery, deviousness, hilarity and cheek, cable ties in places they shouldn’t be, rain, fog, confusion and certainty about the route, highs and lows, not just on the terrain. But there were no clowns, just a sound bunch of people who came together for a good cause and the craic was ninety. We hope to see you all again in 2008.
Results of the 2007 4x4 Challenge for Charity:
Overall Winner: Andy Spence and Glenn Myles, from Co Antrim and Co Down
Overall Second Place: Kieran Coyle and Damien Lohan, Co Roscommon
Winner – Day One: Shane Foran and Denise Hannigan, Co Dublin
Second Place – Day One: Gerard Dooner and Laoise Macken, Co Longford
Winner – Day Two: Michael McGreal and Eanna O’Connell from Co Louth
Second Place – Day Two: Michael McGrath and Pamela McGrath, Co Clare
Winner – The 2007 OSI Night Navigation Challenge: Pete Wallace and John Haines, Co Limerick
Second Place: Night Navigation: Gerry Brennan and Ciaran Murray, County Sligo
Spirit of the Event: Liam Smyth and Eric McNally, from Co Down and Co Cork
The Sophie Trophy: Mick Purtell and Graeme Archibald, Dublin and Co Meath