Went to have a sandwich before reaching the checkpoint as we were not allowed to proceed until the 'control' came through.
Tiradentes Control, Wendy 'signing in'.
Wasted an awful lot of time - finally got on to 4x4 section.
The road was red and very muddy. Colin drove well. Lovely houses, white lilies growing wild, then, suddenly, we hit an extremely muddy section and got stuck! We slid off the road towards a deep drop and fortunately were prevented from going over the edge by a post with barbed wire on it!
We tried and tried to get out but to no avail. We spent about an hour trying to winch, pull and push, all in thick red mud. Finally, the Irish team arrived on the scene and pulled us out with 2 cars! We arrived at the Hotel Mont Blanc at Campos do Jordao in a filthy state, caked in mud, and attracted strange looks from the hotel management.
The Hotel Mont Blanc.
We later found out that Chris and Linda, another English couple, had abandoned their car in similar circumstances and had left all their luggage and personal items with the car. We realised we were lucky to have been rescued by the Irish.
We drove a total of 319 miles.
