Great Arc - May 2008
Introducing the Great Arc of India Classic Car Rally 2009
This year I ran the Great Arc from Kanyakumari to Hyderabad. It was for jeeps and bikes. It was an event I created as an eccentric journey across the heart of India, not tied to hotels; a small group of like minded adventurers. I was unnecessarily nervous about the camping. I need not have feared, the camping has revolutionised India for me.It was an extraordinary and quite out of this world
experience. We could have been in the era of William Lampton and George Everest when they explored and surveyed India along the Great Arc of the 1820s.
The roads were some of the most interesting I have ever driven. Quiet country roads between Indian villages unvisited by foreigners with villagers intrigued by our journey. The quality of the roads was mostly reasonable, some quite outstandingly good, (some poor!), many dusty tracks, but very quiet with stunning scenery. But no trucks, just the occasional village bus, many bullock carts, out of the ordinary roaming guru and the odd, very odd, car. We only visited towns to cross rivers (and we did not always use bridges!)
The reason I did not originally run this rally for classic cars was due to the lack of good hotels in central India, and my concerns about camping. But without exception everyone enjoyed the camping, and it has opened up a very different India to me. I can now find great drives and not be restricted by the need to travel long (or too short) distances between hotels, often on main roads.
To make this possible, each night we built fantastic .luxury. camps along the route. All the camps were built ready by our late afternoon arrival. Our Indian team outnumbered us by 2:1. All the tents were twin bed tents full height with proper beds, sheets and blankets. Each tent had a veranda. with chairs and there were a number of shower and toilet tents.
The professional chef came with a full catering team and mobile kitchen and he created great food which may seem improbable, but was good as any restaurant, bizarrely served by waiters in black tie. The Great Arc camp sites, without exception, were in stunning locations. Set in coconut groves, the side of rivers or lakes, in pleasant villages or hill locations. As I say next year the 2nd Great Arc of India will be for Classic Cars. The event will run from Cochin driving to the start in KanyaKumari and then South to North along the 77.41 Meridian.
The camping will allow us to keep to the open countryside and village India and avoid main roads. Where possible hotels will be used (every second or third night), as I have found a few places worthy of a detour.bIt will be challenging and demanding but quite an exceptional event, unlike any other classic car rally ROARR has run to date.
At this stage I am only inviting a limited number of people who I feel want first and foremost want great driving, do not require 5* hotels and will love their driving and the eccentricity of this event.
The cost is £20,000 per car excluding flights. Dates to be confirmed but provisionally 21 days in late January and early February 2009.
The Great Arc 2009 has now taken place. Find out more about the next Great Arc event in 2011.
