Charlie's Journal
The continuing adventures of a Series 2 Land Rover.
Wednesday 19 July 2017
Totals
Wednesday 19th July - Dover to Andover
Tuesday 18 July 2017
Tuesday 18th July- Calais.
Monday 17th July - Warmeriville
Monday 17 July 2017
Sunday 16thJuly - Longcochon
Sunday 16 July 2017
Saturday 15th July - St Stephen
Saturday 15 July 2017
Friday 14th July - St Stephen
Friday 14 July 2017
Thursday 13th July - St. Stephen.
Thursday 13 July 2017
Where's Charlie - objective 3 achieved.
Wednesday 12th July - Jungfrau
Wednesday 12 July 2017
Tuesday 11th July - Grindelwald
Monday 10th July - Brig
Tuesday 11 July 2017
Monday 10 July 2017
Sunday 9 July 2017
Thunderbolt and lightning
Saturday 8 July 2017
Saturday 8th July - Biere
Friday 7 July 2017
Friday 7th July - Biere
Where's Charlie? Objective 2 achieved.
Thursday 6 July 2017
Thursday 6th July - Besancon
Wednesday 5th July - Domevre Sur Durbion.
Wednesday 5 July 2017
Tuesday 4 July 2017
Tuesday 4th July - Volklingen
Monday 3 July 2017
Monday 3rd July - on the move
Sunday 2nd July - the full English
Saturday 1st July - mud, frites and mayonnaise.
Saturday 1 July 2017
Friday30th June- Opheers
Thursday 29 June 2017
Dunkerque to Opheers
Dockside at Dover
Wednesday 28 June 2017
Well I'm ready!
T minus 12 hours
Tuesday 20 June 2017
Saturday 26 July 2014
Where's Charlie?
Tuesday 1 July 2014
Where's Charlie?
Monday 30 June 2014
Charlie's home!
Sunday 29 June 2014
Esbjerg
Short run from campsite to Esbjerg. Continued down the scenic coastal route. Today in sunshine, so different to yesterday. Flat as a pancake.
Plenty of time to kill in Esbjerg, but it was all shut. As it happened the queue for the ferry took ages anyway.
I'm safely on board, parked up in exactly the same spot as on outbound voyage. Time for a rest.
Not quite so calm a crossing as before, but not too bad. Which is good news for the others as they've just stuffed their faces at the on board buffet
Where's Charlie?
Hvinde Sande - Denmark
He soon had the gear stick welded up and it is a superb job. It won't be replaced with a new one.
Back to hotel and they had it all back together in no time. Quick test drive then on our way. We'd been told to take the scenic coastal route, which included a 20km stretch along a beach.
Part way along the beach, like a mirage, through the drizzle, a group of land rovers, headlamps blazing, appeared in the distance. I don't know which group was more surprised to see the other. A local group outing who had just decided to go along the beach too. A stop for a chat and then we were on our way as the weather wasn't very conducive to standing around. It was cold and pissing it down.
We trundled onwards, and then a dash to catch a little ferry. We were told at a petrol station that we had 20 minutes to make it 24km, or we'd have to wait 2 hours for the next. We made it but were denied as it was stuffed full of camper vans. Luckily, we had less time to wait than we feared for it to return. Not happy with the docking. I was right at front of ferry and when they opened the doors a few minutes before docking it felt like I was hanging out over the sea.
With the crossing the weather improved massively, and we had an hours drive in the sunshine to the chosen campsite. Close to the beach, behind the dunes. On a narrow spit of land between the sea and a lake.
Because of the scenic route I've done a lot more miles than I was expecting to, but thankfully Denmark is flat so not too much effort required.
Saturday 28 June 2014
Where's Charlie?
Friday 27 June 2014
Larvik to Hirtshals
None of us knew just how slow it would become.
Lovely twisty turny roads up and down low hills running alongside rivers. Coming up to a bend, John went to change down to third and my gearstick snapped off at the root. John managed to yell 'big problem' on the CB to the others and then quickly pulled in to a very handy layby.
Stick had brittle snapped right at base, slightly inside the ball of the selector so it meant there was no way of attaching anything temporary to either get it out of third or to use to drive further.
Needed to take all front floor, transmission tunnel, and bell housing cover off so selector mechanism could be removed. This allowed us to select 2nd gear, and we would have the bits loose should we find some one who could weld the stick back together again.
Floor back in the car and I then had to do the next 50 miles in 2nd. Luckily, with my range rover diffs still in place I could trundle along at about 35mph, but I still held up plenty of traffic. Unfortunately not many camper vans were held up - that would have been some payback.
We decided to just head for the ferry. If we saw something promising on route we would stop. Sure enough, James spotted a series 2 in someone's garden, (he has an uncanny knack of spotting series land rovers) we stopped but they were out.
Fortunately the road was easy, reasonably level, and I didn't have too many roundabouts to deal with until I hit Larvic. There I'm afraid I just bombed it across a few not being very courteous. I had to stop at a pedestrian crossing for two old people though, one with sticks, the other with a trolley. I suspect they were waiting for me.
Made it on to the ferry, and with some help from the 'home team' ( Cassie) I have a welder to go and see in Hirtshals tomorrow morning.
Getting away from the ferry terminal was a bit of a problem in Hirtshals. In first gear you can't go very fast down a dual carriageway. Found a pull off, stopped and got into second gear. Hotel only 5 miles down the road, safe and sound for the night.