The Legendary Moll's Gap. Almost.

We were in the pub on Friday night (the one that serves Smithwick's bitter, which narrows it down to every single pub in Killarney) and there were a bunch of guys who'd just driven down from Northern Ireland.  Moll's Gap normally runs early on Saturday and Sunday mornings.  However, due to the nuisance factor of those that chose to settle themselves up there overnight and the behaviour they exhibited (I have no experience of this, but all the locals talk of drunk driving, noise, other excess etc.) means that the organisers have had to re-arrange the stage for late on day 1 and only run it once.

Those of you out there who think that abusing the roads, locals and the environment (by dumping all your rubbish about the countryside) take note.  Abuse the event and the hospitality of the locals and you're in serious danger of losing it.  Don't shoot the sport in the foot.

So back to the pub (sounds like a familiar phrase) - the boys from NI were all up for their regular trip up to Moll's Gap the next morning. They'd just arrived and hadn't had a chance to pick up the programme and didn't know about the changes.  So a few red faces saved there.  John had a long and involved conversation with the laaards.  John "pardon?", NI laaard "nnnneeeoooww, gggrrrnnnn, waaahh, waahhh, pppp, screeeech, waahahhappppp", John "pardon?!?!, "NI laaard "nnnneeeoooww, gggrrrnnnn, waaahh, waahhh, pppp, screeeech, waahahhappppp", John "yes, I'm sure". Etc.

So back to "THE GAP".  We drove up the stage well in advance of road closure (having just whizzed over the hills by Loch Guitane) and joined the queue for parking about 1 mile from the top.  All was going well and we kept inching forward, then, about half a mile from the top the Scoob's clutch pedal dropped to the floor and never came back up again.  This is not a good thing.  Swift investigations reveal that there is a problem with the clutch release hydraulics. 

A bit of tinkering later (and lots of sympathy from passers by) and it soon transpired that more work was necessary.  Next thing we're on the back of a tow strap being hauled up the hill by a Toyota LandCruiser.  We can't express our gratitude enough to these guys who put themselves out to haul the Scoob to the parking area. More empathy was expressed as we progressed to somewhere to park, but much of the healthy banter isn't repeatable here!

Once parked up on the road from Moll's Gap down to the Black Valley, more investigation established a fluid leak some where between the master and slave clutch cylinders.  Being extremely helpful, I went off to watch the rally and left John to see if there was a possible fix (although to be fair, I did offer to hang around and help, but John was keen that I did some more watching).  So off up the mile or so of road back to Moll's Gap to find a good spot to watch.

Location

View Larger Map

Turns out that there are about 5-6,000 good places to watch, distributed around the safer roadside areas right up around the rocks of this natural arena.  Pretty cold in the wind for those right up on the top of the rocks though.  The cars are visible (well, those that have survived the extremely bumpy, narrow, rock-surrounded earlier parts of the stage) for about 3/4 of a mile as they run through some wide sweeping bends that are taken at some speed.  They then turn left at an up-hill T-junction which has a nasty kick part way through which causes the back end of all cars (front or rear wheel drive) to step out viciously.  Those with the talent catch the slide and look very impressive.  Those that aren't so talented have 2 options - slow down or spin.  The crowd encourages the sideways approach of course.

The demo of famous rally cars is running on this stage again.  The Scooby Legacy was excellent to watch and raised a huge cheer. 

The TR7 was hounding the Mazda all the way and the little Innocenti Mini was being thrashed within an inch of its life.  Excellent.  Of the main field, Paul Bird in the WRC Focus was again best to watch with Craig Breen in the S2000 Fiesta also on fine form.

                                          Paul Bird

 
A good number of the Mk2 Escorts were in sideways action too.  So all-in it's a great place to watch.  Can't help thinking that it would be just that bit better with a wet road though.  Some good efforts from the historics too - amazing that to think of driving a 40+ year old Mini flat out up that road - very brave.  The Fubaru, which is Subaru (Impreza or Legacy, not sure) engine and drive train in a Mk2 Escort shell, comes through with a fire in the front offside wheelarch - they appear on the day's results, but we don't see them again on Sunday.  I watched from a cliff perch high up above the back of the cafe and had a spectacular view down on the corner way below.  It seems that even with huge numbers of spectators, there's a good view from where you stand as John made it up to the stage just as the second car came through and he still got a good view from fairly low down.

Dolan

Howlett

MacIver

Patersons Report at end of Stage 7

Oh, and those of you in the UK pushing hard for closed road rallying (and those already lucky enough to be running events), your cause could be significantly helped by running at 30 second intervals rather than 60 seconds.  The roads are closed for a much shorter time (so more acceptable to the locals) and the event's much better to watch with virtually no break in the action.  Good luck with those efforts.

So John and I hooked up again (apparently my coat, "mannerisms"- whatever they may be, and the frantic photographing of the Sunbeams gave me away, even amongst a few thousand spectators) as the historics were running through.  There was hopeful news about the Scoob's clutch.  I recommend, if you're in a car that's broken down, make sure you have someone with you that maintains and engine testing facility.  Clearly the need to mend and make do to get the operation up and running at a moment's notice pays off.  So, by scavenging some silicon tubing from elsewhere under the bonnet, a measure of freshly let blood and a small jubilee clip from the radiator overflow, a bandage was applied to the split hydraulic hose.  Fingers were crossed as we waited for the traffic to clear as much as possible before we headed off back to Killarney.

It was tense in the car - would we make it, would the repair hold, as we took the road down to Black Valley and Kate Kearney's cottage for the longer way back, hoping to avoid the traffic, and hence reducing gear changes.

There's definitely a sliver lining to this cloud though.  Without car trouble, I suspect we would've headed back down the main Moll's Gap road and missed one of the most spectacular valleys either of us have seen anywhere.  The car behaved itsself nicely, and even when we did catch some other cars, everything went well.  We made some friends in a wide bodied 306 who checked we were OK at the end of the road, before they set off into town.  Thanks for your concern.

So what about the view?  Well, no photos I'm afraid as we concentrated on getting back and didn't stop for anything as trivial as photography.  However, the Gap of Dunloe valley is something very special and very different indeed.  The road itsself is incredible in its twist, turns, humps, bumps and extremely narrow little bridges.  But the rock formations are stunning - its really difficult to describe, so here are some links to photos that others have posted up on t'Internet:

From http://www.venividi.ie/ the site of Jedrzej Niezgoda, with thanks.

Another element of the scenery was the heath fires - rings of flame and smoke progressing their way across the heather and brush added to what had become a bit of a surreal experience. We made it back to the Rivermere with no further incidents and a quick check revealled that the clutch fluid hadn't dropped at all and the patched pipe was completely dry.  So a very successful patch, but it would keep us wondering for the next couple of days.