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Published: September 5th 2008
Last time i wrote we were set to head on to Brussels and then decided to drive on down to Luxembourg where we heard there are good campsites. I got to drive the car for the first time that morning. Later that day, after leaving Brussels - about 45 mins into our journey, the car started overheating. Problem is we were flying along the motorway and you can't really tell until the front of the car is engulfed in smoke. We stopped on the hard shoulder and let it cool for almost an hour, before deciding it was probably the waterpump or the thermostat that was causing us problems. So we headed for the nearest town (Achene) which was only 1km away. This took us over an hour! Basically if we let the car cool for 10mins we'd get 4 mins driving time at a low pace. We got to Achene to find a garage but nothing else. By now it was late and we saw a sign for Ciney just 3km away. By the time we got there it was too dark to find our way around and there was nowhere to sleep AND it was really raining so we struggled on back to sleep in the car outside the garage in Achene. This took 5hours from when we first broke down!!!
An uncomfortable night in the car was made worse when we were told the garage was closed down, but we were directed to a mitsubishi garage....in Ciney!! So... another 3km drive back to Ciney where a Mitsubishi man - with very limited english (he just did the actions) informed us that the head gasket had gone aswell as the water pump and the radiator leaking. Basically our car is f**ked! He could fix it...in 3 days...for 4000 euros.
We decided against this as the cost was too great and due to the language barrier we couldn't be sure there wouldn't be more problems later on.
So.... a new challenge. Get to Singapore without flying. On the bright side we have an extra 1500pounds each from the china tour that we now won't do. On the downside we have a LOT of luggage. We left behind what we thought we didn't need and headed to the station in Ciney. I never want to come to Ciney again. Mitch is going to be picked up by the AA in 10 dayes. RIP Mitch - total mileage, 90,314.
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anonymous
non-member comment
The blog is a bit backwards? anyway.... Sorry about Mitch, man this changes everything doesn't it? In the guidebook for western europe, it will tell you about train passes (http://www.seat61.com/Europe.htm) and bus/coach passes (ilke this http://www.eurolines-pass.com/index.php?id=113) and (http://www.busabout.com/)