Being out of contention for the prizes we skipped the trip to Loret de Mar and headed straight for Barca.

Dropped John off at airport and then into centre.  Took our eye off the gauge on Las Ramblas and boiled with steam shooting out from our radiator hole that we’d previously fixed with radweld. Discovered that fan wasn’t turning as plastic cowling was sticking in it so broke it off.  Radiator did not seem to leak again during next two weeks and never overheated either!

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John and I started the day with a hangover and let Martin do the driving.  More...

Day 2 was definitely the best, hardest and scariest day.  Here are some more pictures and clips.  See also Rocky Mountain High.

 

Here’s how we do it – heating on full – later discovered cowling was stopping fan from turning – keeps the engine temperature down, roar of engine and up we go.

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I’ve been chastised for not filling in the rest of the Journey – but I wasn’t sure how much roaming data I had left and then Holidays kicked in and I wouldn’t have been too popular blogging on my family holiday.  So here’s some more of Friday.

After cruising down the German Autobahn as already blogged in "Two Dead Already” we cut back into France travelling towards Strasburg and then Bern along the French ‘A’ roads.  A nice drive through beautiful countryside.  We crossed into Switzerland where I very polite man tried to charge us €35 for use of motorways until we told him we weren’t going to use them.

 

We then got lost firstly in Bern and then in Switzerland in general.  For a country that’s supposed to be civilised they have worse road signage then even Ireland.  All the roads seem to have the same number.  Martin got hungry (and so ratty) and the rain poured down flooding the road and me through our leaking roof.

Eventually we got on the motorway (no paying) for the last 20 miles or so to Thun where we checked in, drank beer and relaxed.  Some people arrived much later.  Hat’s off the the South African car who refused to pay the toll and then just drove all the way on the Motorway.

Endearing image of the day has to be the the iron lady boys as Maggie

Day one car park Lille the cars got together.  Ours was pretty pants compared to some.

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Left my house at very early in the morning and picked up Martin and John.  At John’s house we put the finishing touches on the car – the barmy to Barcelona sticker.  Then we headed to Larne for the 7:30 ferry.  Some people say Larne is a dump but they should try 10 minutes in Hull.

 

 

 

Ferry to Scotland, fry, drive, kebabs in Hull, ferry with beer and poker and whisky – thanks to whoever bought me the Glenmorangie for my birthday.

Despite our driver looking a little tired we made it into Belgium and popped up to Holland just so we could do another country before the start.

 

Then we headed down for Lille.  Only pulled once by French Gendarmes at border.  Set up camp near Lille and then went into Lille and signed up.  Lille nice town.

Signed up at Cage Oz, few more beers (except me who was driving) then back to camp for beer and poker.

My current location.

These are the passes in order we did them.

Aigle Col du Pilon. (Stuart)

Grd St Bernado. (Martin up John down).

PS Bernado (Jonh up Martin down)

Col de L'Iseran (Martin up Stuart down)

Cenis (John)

First pass was pretty gentle but after crawling up the St Bernard at 20 km/h for an hour and a half with the heating on we noticed smoke coming out of the side of the car whilst stopped at lights. Pulled over. Diesel leaking from a fuel injector leaking over engine.

So we closed the bonnet and drove another hour to the top.

At this point there was some talk of easy routes, not from me I hasten to add.

I think the car hears our concerns so she launched herself at the next three passes with renewed vigour - hitting 35 km/h on some sections.

Other than John an I shouting at Mr drive fast Samm not too many problems.

One more dead BMW. 12 hours driving and some beers.

Filling in some missing bits here.

Arrived Thun about 9:30. At Swiss border very polite police tried to make us pay 30 Swiss francs for motorway so we opted fir A roads.

Got lost a couple of times and generally cursed bad Swiss road signs. Martin started to get hungry and that brings problems. Pouring rain with road flooding did not help. Sun roof not as waterproof a new.

Did last 10k on motorway by accident and seemed to get away with it.

Burger and beers in Thun went down well.

Just coming to end of gruelling day in alps having completed 5 high mountain passes in about 11 hours.

Car generally ok but very low on power at high altitude. Crawled up some passes at 10kph for long time. Heating on full to keep engine cooler.

Hoping beer is cold.

Arrived at start 7 am this morning to see Robin reliant being worked on. Helped them by lending wd 40. They were changing the only part they had - the fuel pump.

Some great cars which I'm sure will be on the main wacky rally site o the blog spot soon. http://wackyr.blogspot.com

Just outside Lille stopped to aid another dead car but oil in all cylinders. Dead.

Merc gauge approached 120 during hill climb. We now have a new tactic of turning heating up full on hill climbs. Gets a bit warm in the cab.

we've cruised through France, Belgium, France again, Luxembourg and now on German autobahn where Merc feeling at home.