1000 miles short

This blog follows on from the previous one. Well, they all do, but this one is particularly closely coupled as I am sat typing it right after finishing the "We're off" post... So, here goes.

In Birmingham after eating out dinner with my parents

We drove away from the house at about 3pm and made our way towards the M6. Harrison was going really well and I was up to our 50mph cruising speed with ease; he was pulling much better than when I moved Cjc and this made us feel more confident; obviously I had put more weight into him with all those books than I realised. We chose to go via the toll to avoid all the traffic on the normal M6/M5 junction and this was a good idea as we arrived at my parents at 5pm which was a little ahead of schedule. They had prepared a wonderful Spanish chicken casserole type thing which was very tasty and chased by some lovely baked apples with custard; all in all it was a very quick stop but really welcomed and it was so good to see my parents one final time before the off. They came out to Harrison where we had parked him and took a picture of the two of us stood in front of him. So far, so good....

Harrison only just fitting onto the boat!

.... until my phone rang about ten minutes later and it was my parents as A had left her phone at their house! My dad said that my mum was on her way out of the door with it and which services should she meet us in. What a star! We got to Warwick services and parked up and I had time to go to the toilet and buy a coffee for A and then she pulled up and got a few huge hugs for her efforts and we were off down the M40 towards the ferry. We arrived in Dover about 11pm which would give us, we thought, time to have a bit of a doze before getting on the boat. We were in the back, just starting to doze off, when a port employee banged on the side and roused us and we were up and on the earlier ferry, pretty much the last vehicle to go on! What a bonus, a two hour head start to the continental crossing. I wasn't hungry but A was so she got herself some food and then when she sat down I was hungry so went and bought some as well. After that I put my head down and I must have slept as before I knew it we were near Dunkirk and I had to try and wake myself as I was doing the first bit of the drive over here.

Sunrise in Belgium

Super duper driver

It did not take long to get unloaded and then we were following the loooong trail of trucks from the boat out through the feeder roads and onto the motorway and away. A put her head down for a bit and I set myself the task of driving until the sun came up; it was about 3am local time by this time. Harrison was making a slightly louder noise from his drive train than he had, and on the drive down we had realised there was a clonking coming from somewhere which, after investigation, we realised was the FRONT left suspension; it looked like the arm had come loose and was banging a bit as we went over bumps so we had to be really careful when we drove and try to avoid any and all potholes, and slow down for bridges when we went over the expansion joints. I worked out a speed that stopped it from making the bad noise and settled down, but I couldn't avoid everything unfortunately. Slowly the sky lightened and then just as I was getting tired A woke up and we were able to stop and swap drivers.

A making up wraps

I had made it to Belgium by this time, having crossed France with no problems, and so A was told the little tips I had worked out while she slept and then we were off again. I stayed awake for a little bit but then put my head down and against the odds, with the sounds of Harrison wailing when he was at a slightly wrong speed and clunking when the inevitable bump was not quite avoided, I fell asleep and didn't wake up until we were all the way into Germany. One of the few bits that we had actually completely forgotten was the frying pan so we made up wraps for a breakfast / lunch type thing when we stopped to swap drivers. They were really really nice and filled a hole very suitably.

A picture of a bridge for my dad

I then took over the driving for a bit and A settled down and dozed; this routine was really working well as we had both been able to catch cat naps. Harrison was still making the noises and the clonking, while not worse, was certainly not any better either. Our original target had been to get to Germany and stop for the night somewhere around Frankfurt which is where, on the way back, we had driven from originally to get to Manchester on the last day of travelling. With the excellent luck of making the earlier ferry, and the fact that Harrison was going so well and making such good speed even on the hills, we were well ahead of this schedule and pushing on for Austria maybe.

A traffic jam in Germany. Again.

It was around 4pm local time, and near Frankfurt, when we hit the first traffic of the journey. This was caused by some roadworks and was not a very long queue but the one benefit we found was that we could actually hear the music as we crawled along; the noise was definitely getting worse from the drive train and, when A had been driving, I had felt that there was movement in the wheelarch on the left side from which the clonking was coming; it seemed the problem there was not just a slightly loose suspension arm but maybe more serious.

A camping chef

After a few failed attempts to find an open mechanic at a Motorway service station (they have Spanner icons on the signs but when we get to the service station there is nothing like a proper garage; never mind) we decided to just rock on and cross our fingers. So far, so good and all that. I drove while A slept and then I got so tired that I pulled over and we both went to the bed in the back and slept for an hour. I woke up feeling so much better from that, and it was good to know that our nest in the back would be comfortable. I drove on for a bit more then we found a place to stop for dinner so pulled over. There was a Lidl just by the service station so I went looking for a frying pan but only found scissors, some toothpaste and animal shaped baking trays as a gifty for A. Sadly at the till they wouldn't take VISA(what kind of third world country IS Germany anyway?) so I had to leave it all behind. Dinner was macaroni cheese from a tin and baked beans and it was a bit rubbish but filled a hole very nicely. We also refilled the thermos flasks so we could keep making coffee for ourselves then A took over the driving and we headed onwards to Austria.

Harrison where he rested up over night

It was about 10pm (and 980 miles on the clock from home) when we pulled up in a dark layby just inside Austria where we could park up and sleep; there was not much faffing around we just locked the van and climbed in the back and I fell mostly straight asleep. At some point in the night I was woken by the feeling of the van moving slightly and then A woke as well and we listened; someone was messing around with the front doors. I opened the shutter and jumped out and the sound of us moving must have scared the scrotes as a BMW shot off as I appeared and screamed out onto the motorway. We had been worried about the Romanians attempting to steal stuff but it turns out Austria has its share too. After this it took a little while to sleep; another car pulled up behind us at one point and I peeked out to check but they were fine, but eventually I slept and slept so well we got an accidental two hour lay in and woke at 6am to the sounds of the birds singing.

Red sky in the morning part 1

Red sky in the morning part 2

I drove first this day and A was in charge of the camera and was able to capture some stunning photographs of the sky as the sun rose. The feared for snow-geddon had failed to materialise so far though there was a bit of snow still in evidence in shaded areas by the road, and the sun had been a pretty much constant companion all the way which certainly was helping our mood. The roads were not great however and this was quite stressful making for very active driving; we had to make a call as to whether turning to avoid the bump was better than going over it as the creaking sound was happening when the wheels were turning as well. However, so far so good...

Lovely bacon butties

At a service station further up the road we pulled over and I fried up bacon in the saucepan as we were still without a frying pan. A had disappeared to the toilet and came back amazed at the self cleaning loo and how spacious and clean it was. I'd put the kettle on again so we had more hot water for the flasks and so I drove off after breakfast to give A a little more time to doze which she did. Our plan was for me to drive across Austria, A across Hungary, and then we would sleep for a few hours before entering Romania and driving over night to arrive at Ken's in the morning to collect Rambo and be back at home by the end of the day.

The Alps seen over the sound baffle

Harrison did really well with the huge hills in Austria and with being so much higher above the road than when I did this in Julian we were able to see over the sound fences and admire the Alps in the distance, glinting in the sun. A did fall asleep as I say and she missed the stork that was flying along (this is NOT a sign of Bulgarian spring, however, as we are clearly not in Bulgaria) and also a load of eagles floating near the road. Eventually we crossed the border into Hungary where we were stopped twice by two different police checkpoints for our passports but waved through quickly with a smile at both. The lady at the vignette office couldn't have cracked a smile if she had tried, however, and would not take card so we drove on a bit and got the vignette, and a full tank of diesel, at that point when A took over.

A monument to a dragon; Hungarian culture

Hungary is the most boring of countries and I really don't like it very much; A even complained that she would have to drive through the boring country but I pointed out it just meant she would have the pleasure of  looking at the scenery in the not boring countries so she quieted up. The journey was going well and as always we were getting on famously; there are few people I can spend this long cooped up with and not get annoyed but I was not even slightly feeling that at all so far. After a boring drive over the plains we started into some ripples you could possibly call hills and spotted a huge dragon statue on a hill. I had time to change to the zoom lens and snap a load of pictures as we proceeded past and I think this may be the only redeeming feature of Hungary.

The wheel doesn't look right.. No, THAT isn't right either!

It was as we were going up one of those inclines that it happened. There was no bang that I heard but suddenly Harrison started juddering and grinding really badly. We immediately pulled onto the hard shoulder and I jumped out and looked underneath but couldn't see anything; one thing which distracted me was some rumble strips just where it had happened and I thought it might just have been going over them; we were not far from our change over point before Romania by this point anyway so I said I'd give him a drive and we got back in but as soon as we got up to 20mph the sound started again and it was clear something quite serious had occurred; maybe even the drivetrain which had been making terrible sounds had finally seized up. The crown of the hill was just ahead of us so I laboured up to that and then, amazingly, we saw a service station a few hundred metres further on so I coaxed Harrison down and pulled up next to the SOS phone. When we got out and looked again it was suddenly clear what had happened; the front left wheel was at a very strange angle and inside, where the clonking and vibrating had been happening, the metal had torn and the suspension was protruding through. This did not look good.

Trying to rescue Harrison

We went into the cafe and I tried to explain to the waiter who spoke a little English that we didn't want SOS but would prefer a friend of his who may be a mechanic however he didn't understand or didn't have any friends but he was helpful and rang SOS for us and explained what had happened. The rescue guy would be there in ten minutes, we were told, but it was 200EU for the callout. We ordered a beer, sat in the sun, and waited and sure enough very quickly a friendly long haired guy who spoke English as well arrived and took a look. He was also not very impressed with the situation and called for a recovery vehicle to tow us to their Service Station, a service for which an additional 100EU was tacked onto the fee. He sat and talked to us while we waited for the tow truck to arrive and after half an hour it was there and, with some little trouble, Harrison was attached to the back and we got into the car with the first guy and followed as we were pulled at slow speed towards Budapest.

Back at the Service, taking a closer look

There were a few interesting moments round some of the corners where the tow yoke actually grounded and then, as we turned down into the service yard the back of Harrison was also scraped a bit, but largely it was an easy and uneventful trip. When we pulled up the boss guy took a look and one of the other mechanics, who looked like a horse warrior and spoke good English, explained that they needed a specialist to look but he would not be able to get to see if Harrison was even fixable until Tuesday. Not good news but that is life. We had already spoken to Ken who said he was ready and able to come and collect us in his van if we needed so at this point A called him to explain while I went with the first guy to a cash point to pay the rescue charge. It turns out that 300EU is about 90,000 Hungarian so I felt rich pulling that much cash from the hole in the wall.

When we got back we were settled in the waiting room to wait for a lift to a hotel to spend the night as Ken couldn't get to us until the day after. The horse warrior guy came in after a while and told us that the specialist would, after all, be able to get past this evening and so we would know the price and time it would take by about 5pm local. I rang Ken back and explained and told him to hold off setting off until we had the news. And so we sat and sat and waited and then the news came and it was not good at all; the specialist had looked and not only was the wheel arch rusted through, the bit it attached to was pretty much gone as well and it was not a fixable breakdown. What a nightmare! I was back on the phone to Ken to tell him and he promised to be with us by the day after and then I set in motion the scrapping of Harrison which the garage was able to do.

Dinner; and it wasn't great

There wasn't much more to be done and so we were told that we would be taken to the hotel soon but it took ages, and the waiting room wasn't heated, before the boss turned up with paperwork for scrapping and then finally we were in his car and being taken to the mythical hotel. It was around this time that the day finally started to look up. We pulled up by a nice looking place and the man at the counter spoke good enough English to sell us some beers, order a pizza for delivery, and give us a room which was clean and tidy and had a bed that was sleepable on so what more could you want. The pizza turned up after quite a while and was cold and not great but the beer was cold and great and it all filled the hole so we were quite happy when the light was turned off and we both slept pretty well.

Inside the hotel

Outside the hotel

And so this morning we woke without any alarm call and with no sense of rush. There was no kettle in the room however we had brought tea, coffee, milk, and cups with us so A was able to get hot water and that urgent requirement was satisfied quickly. Breakfast, however, was not on the cards and her exploration turned up no cafe anywhere within easy walking distance. No matter, we had a banana each. Ken was running early as well so as I type this we have already called for our return lift to the garage to start the process of unloading again (I'm just glad we have no scaffold!) before he gets there so we can put as much as possible into his van. I am going to publish this, get a shower, then go and join A in the garden where she is reading and getting air. The hotel has been a lovely place as you can see from the pictures but I just can't wait to get home.

From here we go to Ken's and then unload and put the stuff into another van, maybe, or wait there for Ken to be available to take us on down to our place. It may be a good thing as reports of over a metre of snow near where we live and being cut off so being in a rush may be pointless however the feeling of just wanting to get there is pretty strong. Anyway, I'll leave this here and maybe next time I blog we will be home at last!