Leeghwater Buitenland Rally
The last month in Delft, I together with three neighbours joined the BuitenlandRally organized by the student association of 3mE, Leeghwater. This one of the last big events and were really great.
The rally is not about speed and breaking the laws but to have fun, see beautiful landscapes and have fun. Of course it’s also a competition, but instead of completing the stages as fast as possible, the goal is to find signs placed along the suggested route and to figure out the route itself. The destination is unknown and you can only find it out by figure out the navigation part or if you open the emergency envelope. However if you open the emergency envelope that gives you a lot of penalty points. Figuring out the route can be pretty tricky; each stage is different and need a little of thinking and planning in order to not get completly lost. Sometimes planning is no point, it can say travel on the road for 9.5 km and then turn towards the house with yellow windows. The guidlines were also sometimes wrong! Most of the stages tries to avoid the highway and instead goes throw small villages, the gorgeous country side as well as the mountains. We really liked the landscapes in Belgium and Luxemburg! Due to the unknown destination and all small routes it was sometimes hard to know which country we in fact were in. The border between the Netherland and Belgium are not very strait. Zoom for example in Baarle-Nassau at Google maps. It’s a funny border line in my opinion.
What makes the Rally really great was that it was very cheap as well the great team spirit. Each team had their own niche, just like in a movie. (The classic “Gumball” ). Our team had a big dead scull on the hood, and a death flag on the roof of the Ford KA. We therefore called the team KillerKa. We consisted of 3 members, me from Sweden, Matteo and Giorgio from Italy and Marcel from Canada. In fact we were the only international so we got known as the international team. Despite some smaller problems we did okey and finished 14th out of 26 cars.
The best part of the rally was the routes, so many good memories. After a nice dinner such as a BBQ we had for example a night stage each evening. This one was quite complicated from the navigation point of view. All teams were supposed to do the same route. It was no point to try to follow the other teams because it was just a matter of time before they would get lost. The feelings of finding the signs were also a really good reward. We also had a lot of cheap beers, however of course the driver as well as the next driver were not allowed to drink. I would strongly recommend visiting Belgium as well as the rally. It will probably be organized once again the coming year.
Leeghwater Buitenland Rally: The international team's KillerKA
