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Published: April 3rd 2010
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Reshaping the rear wheel arches
John and I agreed that bending the inside of the wheel arches should stop the tyres rubbing on their insides! Tuesday 30 March 2010
This is the first blog of our epic journey from London to Sydney in Australia. We (John and Barry) had a wonderful send off from the Ace Cafe on the old north circular road, London by friends and family. Not to mention the number of strangers that came to bid us a farewell. The pictures say it all.
We are now in Bologna, shacked up in a wonderful hospitable B&B where we have been for two nights. But more about that in a moment. The drive through France was wet and miserable but the car behaved really well. However, we realised once on the open road that we were very heavy and our rear springs were taking a pounding not to mention the side walls of the rear tyres being rubbed by the flange of the rear mudguard of the car. After the second night John and I set to to give the car a good check over and while I did the servicing, John did the panel beating to turn back the flange so that it did not scrape the tyres any further. Onwards.
Milan service station. We were accosted by a well heeled gentleman and
France to Italy
Hillman with the Mt Blanc mountain range in background. a woman who turned out to the journalists. They saw our car and came over to talk to me while John was inside the service station having a pee. The upshot of this twist of fate was that we ended up driving down as far as Bologna in Italy to look for a B&B they recommended us staying in (friends of theirs) and to participate in the gastronomic delights that their friend produced as the best chef in town. They were not wrong.
Today with the help of our newly found chef and his wife who runs the B&B we got our car into a garage to have the springs of the car strengthened by having a further spring added to both sides of the car. Hopefully, the car will be ready tomorrow morning and we will be able to start the journey again, heading this time for Bari to catch the ferry to Greece on Thursday night. We have already completed just over 1000 miles of our 16,000 mile trip.
Thursday 1 April
Well here we are - on the high speed ferry to a place called Igomenitsa, Greece. We have now passed the 1400 miles mark since leaving
Service station, Milan
Barry being accosted by two local Italian journalists. See blog for the outcome of this encounter. Bologna, Italy, yesterday morning. The car has travelled like a dream since we had the extra spring put into the rear springs and corrected the tracking of the front wheels, which were badly out of alignment for some reason. But it has its temperamental moments but more about that later. Last night we came off the motorway and travelled towards the Adriatic to find a camp site for the night. Needless to say so early in the season nothing was open. We find a dilapidated site that had been sign posted and caught the eye of a guy working within the gated camp site we stopped at and in 10 minutes, with a little sign language, a discourse in german, Italian and English, John and I were given a plot to put our tent up. The night was dry and windy - we dined on compo, courtesy of our supportive military friends, and both of us actually enjoyed a three course dinner before turning in for the night. We woke to a beautiful morning - warm and sunny. John had problems with his blow up (bed!) which had gone down in the night but that’s camping for you. After a
Bologna, Italy
Barry and John with the city's theatre's director of marketing and PR, Bruno, who showed us around his theatre empire and got us an interview with the leading local paper. breakfast of beans and sausages, some time taking some physical exercise, we struck camp somehow getting everything back into the car and began our final leg to Bari to catch the ferry. We found the office within the port area, and now we are on the superfast ferry waiting to leave Bari. While waiting, John came back to me where we had set up for a few hours to await boarding to tell me that the catch on the boot lid had failed. Fortunately this time (as it failed before) we were able to open the boot and make the repair needed. A ll part of this challenge we have set ourselves to get to Australia. Both of us are now looking forward to a good meal on board accompanied with some good vino before settling into our aircraft type seats to sleep until we arrive in Greece. Pictures attached show the campsite and our boarding of the superfast ferry.
Friday 2 April
At 4.45 am we were awoken from our troubled slumbers in our aircraft seat by the ship’s tannoy telling us we would be arriving at Igoumenitas, Greece in 30 minutes time. Most of us were probably awake
B&B - Gio style
Our photos taken with Gio, the landlady and her husband, Mario, the greatest chef in Bologna. A great welcome and well looked after. anyway thanks to some pretty inconsiderate individuals who chattered away between them in their east European language.
John had already gone and I too joined him shortly to await the ship’s arrival in port. Overall the ship’s company and service given was excellent. We didn’t have to wait long before we were hustled down the escalator to the car and lorry deck to be with our beloved Hillman. Shortly we were being waived off the ship. “Where we going? Which way?” says John to me as he drove off the ship. “Haven’t a clue.” says I, “haven’t been here before but follow that truck it seems to know where it is going.” And it did. We knew not what direction to go so we did the next best thing and stopped at a BP service station just outside the town where we had a coffee, consulted the map and asked the way of a very nice woman running the cafe. And so we headed further East towards Thessalonika to our present destination, Kavala. Uneventful as the trip was, we both thought that overhead gantries warning us of bears was a little nerve wracking although the scenery was wild and very
B&B - Gio style
Our photos taken with Gio, the landlady and her husband, Mario, the greatest chef in Bologna. A great welcome and well looked after. rugged. We decided since a camp and a sleepless night might be making our progress dangerous to find a suitable small hotel to stay in for the night before proceeding on into Turkey and Istanbul tomorrow, A good choice as the weather has been foul all afternoon with thunderstorms and torrential rain that has even taken out this hotel’s electrics for the past two hours. Back on I might be able to finally get this blog working for everyone. John is presently relaxing in one of his deep sleep modes! I will endeavour to get this and pictures to all of you interested in following this blog.
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christine
non-member comment
hello from france
sorry you had such awful weather through France!! Pleased to see from the photos that you are getting on well with the locals - following the route avidly - and look forward to your next blog big hug Christine