This year the World Rally Championship came to Ireland for the first time. Last night we set off in a camper van to Magheralough Primary School, near Trillick, Co Tyrone. This is part of the country I'm not very familiar with, but it certainly seems to be a very scenic place. We arrived last night, parked up and had a poor nights sleep, before the alarm woke us at 7am. After a quick breakfast we ventured outside into the cold to pick out a spot to stand. The roads had been closed at 6am, and were not due to open until 6pm. We managed to get a good place, behind a fence where we could see the cars approach, then come down a small hill, cross the bridge, and then past us.
It turned out to be great, we didn't move a lot for the first stage (stage 12). The stage started at around 9:15am, and cars continued until about 11am. The drivers were clearly timid of the greasy roads, but there was plenty of quality entertainment.
After 3pm another stage (15) was run round the same course. After the first few cars we decided to take a wander up the fields a bit, and found a few other good places to watch the group 'N' and other trailing cars from. We didn't get as wet as expected, fortunately it seemed to rain it all away during lunch, when we were safely inside the motor-home.
All in all a great day.
See the stage, and school here: http://maps.live.com/?v=2&cid=EAF1783E98F25503!162&encType=1
Some more pictures here: http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/simonmcc/20071117WRCRallyIreland
Other info here : http://www.rallyireland.org
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