12th May 1970 50 years ago. Timeline: Buenos Aires 0700
Daily Mirror London-Mexico World Cup Rally.
We dried our tears and set off back to Buenos Aires…we are now out of the rally, but decide we have to go back to Buenos Aires as there is absolutely no chance of catching up with the rally through Argentina and on to Santiago.
6 hours and c 400 miles later we arrive in BA and find our British Leyland dealership. The lovely rep Mateo booked us into a hotel in the centre. We settled into the hotel and now had to decide what to do next. As Puff seemed to be running so well still, Tish and I were keen to catch up with the rally, but Tina wanted to go home as she was desperately missing her two children. She was helped and advised by some of the guys in the army and navy teams who said they could get her back on a service flight – little did we know then how circuitous that would be – but that is a story for Tina to tell.
Eh, Katrina Kerridge-Reynolds??
Now officially out of the rally, I rang England to let my family know I was safe. The newspapers were already reporting that we were missing apparently. Tina was busy getting ready to leave, but Tish and I sat down to discuss what we would do next. We did not want to go home – yet! And Puff seemed to be running so well now that the manifold issue had been sorted. After all, we already had flights home booked from Mexico City, so “ c’mon – let’s get there”
Tish and I poured over our maps, and decided we could catch up with the rally as it crossed back into the north of Argentina on its way to Bolivia, and then we could drive over the Andes to the Pan American highway with that ‘easy’ run up to Lima. Now we had a chance to follow the rally route all the way to Mexico City. Decision made, we would leave tomorrow……no time to lose if we were to catch up……
Pics x various cine films & stock pics
This post is a part of a series of posts in which Bron Burrell recalls her 1970 World Cup Rally. See all Brons posts in this series.