Rallying against the petrol heads

Courier Column for 21 February

Rallying against the petrol heads

There was a fashion a few years back for holding treasure hunts through country lanes.  Motorists with clipboards of clues would screech to a halt outside rural buildings and interrogate locals for a missing answer.

Some years earlier my grandfather had constructed a rather fine sundial which he placed prominently on the front of a converted oast house. He inscribed it with the legend: “nunc id fac.”

In case your Latin isn’t up to scratch (or you can’t immediately access your online translator) this means “do it now”.  Advice the then resident of the oast rather took to heart as we shall see.

I have some sympathy with him.  It was a sunny afternoon.  His windows were wide open. The first car pulled up and the driver shouted up enquiring about a Latin tag. Our friend pointed to the sundial. The driver noted it on his schedule, and drove off.

But seconds later another car pulled up.  Then another.  And another. Some spotted the inscription without having to ask.  But after half an hour and 20 or so ‘treasure hunters’, he’d had enough.  Leaning precariously out of the window, he threw a sheet over the whole dial, and retired to the back garden.

If anything this exacerbated matters. Now cars were pulling up and puzzled people pursuing the missing words milled around moaning in loud voices about killjoys spoiling their day out.

Ultimately it was deemed prudent to remove the sheet and let nature (or at least the treasure hunt) take its course. But copious complaints were later made to the organisers.

I was put in mind of this story when I noticed the number of rallies being planned for the spring.  Classic cars, motorbikes, even veteran tractors, all take to the lanes, chundering through the countryside around me. They may not be noting classical inscriptions, but nonetheless I do find the activity curious. 

Call me a grouch, but should we really be burning fossil fuels and pumping carbon monoxide into the atmosphere merely to follow other drivers round on ‘rallies’? One advertises itself as a charity tour through picturesque villages.  But they’ll pretty quickly cease to be picturesque if inundated with vehicles. Anyway surely there are better ways to raise money?

And have not the days of  ‘motoring’ for its own sake long gone?  If you want to see unfolding countryside, perhaps you might do it by bicycle?