Back to the Future Day

Just back from Cornwall, in time for Back to the Future Day, the day which Marty McFly travelled to in 2015.

In the spirit of the day, thought you'd like to see my mini with a Delorean, when we took part in the Dash o' the Oirish rally along the Causeway Coast a couple of months ago.

Here we are at the Bushmills car park at the start of the rally.

Is that a flux capacitor?

Off we go!  It was my 16th rally, so I was familiar with the scenic route.  No need for a map!

On the road from Bushmills towards Portrush.

Coming down towards Dunluce Castle.  Portrush is in the distance.

White Rocks Beach from the road, with the sun setting over Ireland.

They insisted on driving the route with the doors open, even round corners.

But had to close them for going through the tunnel onto the racetrack....

Difficult to take a photo when you're kissing the apex.  The Delorean was a bit faster than I was.

Luckily, we survived.

Now, we then went on the second half of the rally.  

But we had a bit of an incident going two and a half times round a roundabout, almost crashed into another mini, and then two minis went off in different directions, leaving a dilemma for the other minis behind.  I panicked and took a group to Portstewart, via a church car park, because that's the usual route.  After all futilely driving round the car park, we headed for Portstewart main street, and confidently paraded along.  I thought it was odd that the usual crowds weren't lining the route to cheer us.  

Then, we met another group parading in the opposite direction down the street.  Ho w did that happen...?  So we did a U-turn.  So did some of the others following me.  

Some of the group on the opposite side of the road also did a U-turn, thinking it was them that were wrong.  

Portstewart main street was thus brought to a halt by hoards of U-turning minis.  People stood and stared.

At this point during the chaos, I saw another mini leaving Portstewart, and as I thought it looked as though it knew where it was going, I made an executive decision to follow it, and ran away from the U-turning carnage.

Randomly, we eventually bumped into someone we knew in a housing estate, and they directed out out on the Coleraine road to a remote church hall.

Meanwhile, in the church hall, sat a lonely Paddy Hopkirk, legendary rally driver and winner of the Monte Carlo rally, patiently waiting for his audience of triumphant mini drivers who had completed the course.  He had a celebratory cake to cut and everything.  Paddy Hopkirk once nearly reversed over me in a field in Birmingham, so we go way back.

Unfortunately, the rest of the rally were still careering round the Causeway Coast, looking vainly for the finish.

Sorry everyone....