Countesthorpe - 29.4.11

Spent the day planning alternative holiday – after the Royal Wedding of course.  Decided to resume tour in Berlingo and leave on Monday 1 May.   However, red tape descended upon us!!!  The Berlingo MOT runs out in September and the Road Tax in July so these have to be arranged as we will be out of the country on both dates.  MOT was easy since you can have your car checked whenever you like.  Road Tax is more difficult.  You can apply for it on line up to one month in advance, which we will do from wherever we are at the time, but the disc is only posted to your home address.  So, when we re-enter the country we will be effectively breaking the law by not displaying the disc on the car.   Sod em!  At least we can prove we have paid for it.

Emptied the Land Rover and put it all into the Berlingo. 

Because of loss of one week’s travel, have decided to head down through France into Italy (to ensure we are in Rome on Jane’s birthday) and then will do Germany and Belgium on the way back.

Sandwich to Countesthorpe - 28.4.11

Up at 8a.m.  Candy lent us her landline phone and we arranged for the breakdown firm to pick up the Land Rover.  I managed to drive it onto the loading bed and we set off for home at 9.40.  Sat in a traffic jam just before the Dartford tunnel  for 1 ½ hours – God, what patience Londoners must have!  The driver, Martin, was quite glad to have our company because usually he just moves vehicles.  After an aeon, we arrived home at 3.45p.m.  Feeling really fed up and a bit despondent.  

Brentwood to Sandwich - 27.4.11

Left the Travel Lodge about 9.15 and set off towards the Dartford Tunnel.  Got confused in Turrock – too many roundabouts.  Went to ask directions at a conveniently parked HGV, looked at his mirror and witnessed a fat white bum moving up and down.  Withdrew to a respectable distance and got directions from a fully dressed passer by!  We duly drove over the bridge and set off east with Deal as the proposed next stop.  Stopped at Rochester for coffee – very nice place with a well-preserved town centre.  Carried on to Faversham – also a very nice place and had lunch in the sort of English pub foreign tourists love.

Onwards down the A2 to Sandwich.  On route the Land Rover slipped out of high ratio gear with an accompanying dreadful noise.  Put it back into gear but from then on it continued to slip out of high ratio with increasing regularity.  We made it to Sandwich as if we were walking on eggs. The gear box sounded as though it was on it’s last legs.

Stopped at a B & B (Candy’s) and took stock of the situation.  We made the only sensible decision in the circumstances and have the Land Rover brought home on the back of a breakdown truck.  Had a lovely meal at the Kings Arms and the world did not look so black through the bottom of a wine glass.

Barnaby at Rochester

Rochester Castle

Royston to Brentwood Travel Lodge – 26.4.11

Yesterday we had trouble accessing the Internet at the Banyers Hotel.  We enquired at the Hotel and they said all was well their end; so this morning we went down to the local PC Shop.  The owner had a cursory look at the PC, issued to us many portents of DOOM about viruses, passwords, hard drives etc.  He was obviously after our business but as we could not stop we took our laptop back. We travelled from Royston to Brentwood via Chipping Ongar.  At the Travel Lodge in Bentwood (lovely place!) we successfully logged onto the internet there, scanned the laptop for viruses etc and all was OK.  Visiting local “boil in the bag” restaurant next door for our evening meal.  It’s called the Halfway House.  If it’s half way decent I will be pleasantly surprised.

Was pleasantly surprised!  Very nice meal indeed.

From Countesthorpe to Royston.

Hello folks!
Left home at 10.45 on our journey full of trepidation. The landrover makes different noises with the new engine so, for the first hour, we were familiarising ourselves with the breathing and wheezing of the beast.
Everything went smoothly  (probably an oxymoron in a Landy) through Kibworth, Market Harborough, Kettering to St Neots, where we stopped to draw breath. The Landy dribbled onto the car park, having marked out his new territory. We continued onto Royston (not Vasey) where on a 'c' road we lost all forward motion. Terrified looks at each other ensued. Fortunately I'd inadvertantly knocked the gear lever with the overdrive lever which put the gearbox into neutral. Carried on, with much higher blood pressure.

Arrived at Royston, stayed at the Banyer's hotel in the wedding suite, and went onto an Italian restaurant for dinner.Ciao

Setting Off!

We're ready!!

I've downloaded some pictures of the Landrover for your delectation.

Land rover rebuilding.

Over the last 3 years I have rebuilt my old Land rover as well as I can (afford!) in an effort to make it reliable enough to cover an estimated 6000 miles. For the uninitiated into Land rover lore, a brief description may be in order. (please skip this bit if you already have a life)
Originally built in November 1955 it was initially sold by a dealer in Newmarket called Crisswell's Garage. I bought it in 1984 from a chap in a local village for £300. The engine was shot so I rebuilt it, and unwittingly started a fairly frequent regime of fixing / bodging / rebuilding exercises to keep it on the road. Eventually, 3 years ago I got so frustrated with it I thought I'd sell it. Unfortunately Jane and myself, over the years, have become so attached to the bloody thing we couldn't abide to loose this almost sentient member of the family.
I rented a garage and stripped it down to the chassis, and patiently rebuilt the Land rover.
It is almost as original, the differences being:
1. A 2.6 litre, 6 cylinder engine from a Rover P4 car.
2. Disc brakes on the front axle.
3. An overdrive.
4. A radiator from a Discovery. (To accommodate the longer engine)
The only thing left to do is to refit the distributor which is the only part I could not refurbish.
I'll post some pictures of the Land rover very soon.