After weeks of bad weather it was great to see the sun peeking through the early morning mist as we set out from the start hotel south west of Reading.

The bulk of this year's route took place in the Chiltern Hills, so the first task was to get to the opposite side of Reading using the straightforward and easy to follow tulip road book that took crews via mostly wide open roads around the south of the city and then via the Land's End ford near Twyford where a small crowd had gathered to watch the cars go through. Most managed well with just a couple of crews having to remove their shoes and socks and to push their cars to dry land. Then after crossing the Thames in the beautiful Sonning village, the first leg came to end at the Herb Farm in Sonning Common where crews took a break to enjoy some delicious pastries.

The second leg started with crews being presented with the first of seven navigational challenges. These are just for fun, but they do give navigators some sense of the sorts of navigation they could be confronted with if they took part in a navigational road rally. On the Harvest Tour it makes no difference whether navigators tackle the handouts or not since they only show the correct route through complex junctions and make no difference to the overall route taken.

Lunch was taken in the picturesque village of Hambleden, which is a genuinely beautiful spot. With its brick and flint cottages nestling against a backdrop of the Chiltern Hills and the extensive woodlands of the Hambleden estate it is in every film location scout's address book, listed under quintessential English countryside. 101 Dalmatians and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang were filmed here, as were television productions such as The Village Affair, Midsomer Murders and Daniel Deronda.

Many people took lunch in the village pub whilst the remainder ate their picnics in the parking field, which was kindly loaned to the event by the Hambleden estate.

Unfortunately the lunch break was soon over and crews set off on a long loop around the whole area already explored, including visiting some of the higher hills, where spectacular views over Oxfordshire were to be found. Here the wooded areas of leg two were left behind in favour of the open rolling countryside east of Wallingford. But this made no difference to the lanes which continued to be narrow and twisty.

A trip over the toll bridge at Pangbourne finished the event, and weary crews started arriving back at the hotel just after four o-clock for a welcome cup of tea and a snack. All crews that finished were presented with finishers awards and by six o-clock, were off on what for some was a long trip home.

For us another Classic Harvest Tour had come to an end, and all of the hard work to put the event on seems to have been worthwhile, as a number of entrants were kind enough to compliment us. But of course it takes a lot of people to make the event a success, so I would like to thank everyone involved and hope they enjoyed the day enough to want to come back again next year.

Terry Schraider

The 5th Harvest Tour on 21st September, built on the success of the previous tours providing an excellent days motoring for the 45 entrants.

A stunning array of cars were present from Sunbeam Rapiers, MGs through to Mini Coppers and Healeys with the most successful crew of Matthew Ollman & Peter Gal in the Sunbeam Alpine who attempted all of the optional rallying features and gained only 1 penalty, whilst the crew of Ken Edwards and Paul Richardson in the ex works Rover 3500s. had only 2 penalties

As my navigator and I had taken part in the previous tours we decided to change seats which gave me the opportunity to navigate for the first time, and Janet the chance to drive, a number of crews had decided to do this with some very interesting results.

Starting from The Comfort Hotel just south of Theale in Berkshire the route was through some wonderful Berkshire countryside, the choice of going through a ford was taken by most crews, with an alternative route if required, the coffee halt at Richard Scott's Herb Farm at Sonning Common was a welcome break on a lovely sunny day.

The next section took us through the lanes of the Chilton valley and a lunch halt in the picturesque village of Hambleden, famous for featuring in such films such as Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and 101 Dalmatians. The Stag and Hounds pub where lunch was arranged had been pre booked via the organisers for those who wanted a meal.

The final section was more woodland lanes dappled with sun, soaring Red Kites in the distance and quiet Chiltern villages, thence back to the Comfort Hotel where tea and sandwiches were laid on while the crews chatted about their day and the results were calculated.

The road book was easy to follow, with navigational hints and concise descriptions, the organisers had introduced an optional personal challenge that took the form of hand outs at various controls that gave alternative routes and the use of false code boards, even some of the experienced crews found this difficult to say the least.

This is a great event for novices and experienced crews alike, next year we shall be back, we would not miss it, Terry and his Team should be congratulated on the smooth running of this friendly, value for money day out.

Terry and Janet Powell

The 2008 Harvest Tour marked our third time on the event, unlike the two previous tours in which we just followed the route on the road book and not attempting any personal challenge handouts.

This time we decided to give them a go and see what happens. Much to our surprise we completed the event with only 6 penalty points. To date our best result.

We put this down to taking a more steady pace and attempting the personnel challenges, as not doing them soon mounts up unwanted penalty points.

Once again as on previous tours a great route was found by the very professional and friendly organizing team.

Colin Woodage
Mark Church

Car 6