A solid day ....

We arrived in Devonport on the Spirit of Tasmania (not sure if it was I or II ... there isn't much difference) at 7:00 this morning.

I had a crappy night's sleep - the crossing was fine, but the boat was noisy and I kept waking up to the hum of diesel engines.

A minor hiccup just after we disembarked: Scott realised he'd left the recce notes in the cabin. A call to Spirit, we found the security office and half and hour or so later and we were on our way to Launceston.

Here's a tip: service stations in little towns in Tassie tend to be closed in the morning on Anzac Day. Didn't run out, but the petrol light was on for longer than I would have liked.

A quick breakfast in Launceston, then we did the odometer calibration, found the serviced apartment (it's ok, but just), got the hire car and with a few delays we were off to do some recce by about 11 o'clock.

We managed to cover all of Day 1's competition stages and a couple from Day 2 & 3.

We've got a Hyundai Something to do recce - we're not allowed in Targa cars on the course within 3 weeks of competition starting so we've had our recce sponsored by Hertz' rally division instead.

Some interesting corners, all now marked the our pace notes, but nothing too scary - provided it stays dry.

Today was a wonderful day for a drive around northern Tasmania: sunshine but not too hot.

Until early this evening.

Now it's raining.

Maybe raining is an understatement. It's more like "Noah, is that ark finished yet?!".

2008 was a dry Targa. If I had a choice, so would '09, but unfortunately it's not up to me.