Leeds MG and Classic Car Club

At 10:00 am on Wednesday 15^th September “Team
Yorkshire Puddings” set off for a camp site at Margate in Kent where we were to
meet up with the rest of the Screwballers and register for the rally. We
registered, put up our tents, then sat with a beer chatting and getting
acquainted with our fellow travellers. Then snatched a few hours sleep before
travelling to Dover (about 40mins drive). We boarded the Ferry in Dover all
bleary eyed and sailed at 4.40am Thursday morning.

All the teams were to congregate at a meeting point just out
of Calais where we were to be given the address of our first nights camp in
Dijon so when we docked in Calais we drove off the ferry and promptly took a
wrong turn! We got hopelessly lost and totally missed the meeting so we didn't
have a clue where we were heading, (Great Start – ha ha!) all we knew was that
it was near Dijon so we headed off in that direction, luckily not too far into
our journey we spotted one of the marshalls cars so flagged him down and he
gave us the address. We had a relatively trouble free drive through France and
arrived at the Dijon camp around 3pm all ready for a relaxing night. There was
to be no relaxing for Wayne yet though as one of the other teams had found a
problem with their car so he grabbed his tools and crawled under their motor it
didn't take long for him to sort the problem and get them back up and running.
After a quick shower and change of clothes we headed out into Dijon to sample
the local cuisine and of course we had to test the beer, it was a great way to
end a pretty good first day.

What a day! We set off from our Camp in Dijon at 9am heading
for Asti near Turin a mere 320 miles away, roughly 6 hrs driving time we
reckoned. We chose to take the back roads to avoid paying the tolls and headed
towards Geneva as we wanted to catch a glimpse of the Jet d'Eau Fountain, it
didn’t seem too much of a diversion to the route. Around 3 hours into our
journey the car started to make a very strange noise so we stopped, looked under the car and kicked the tyres
this must have fixed the problem as the noise had gone when we set off again.
We had been on a newly resurfaced bit of road and must have picked up a stone
between the disc and the back plate. 6
hours later having got hopelessly lost on the Alps, we were heading out of
Switzerland towards Italy we starting to realise that the route we had taken
might not have been the best choice and this drive wasn’t going to be as quick
as we had first thought. We were feeling quite down and pretty shattered by
this point, however a short while later there was to be light at the end of the
tunnel…Red lights!! we turned a corner and found ourselves right in the middle
of an Italian red light district there were prostitutes everywhere, well
obviously we were horrified and closed our eyes as we drove through….YEA RIGHT
!!, needless to say the scenery lifted our spirits somewhat for the final leg
of the journey. At around 11.45pm we arrived at our destination, or at least
that’s what our sat nav told us, our hearts sank however when we realised there
wasn’t a campsite to be seen, we had the wrong postcode! There was nothing else
for it but to drive around Asti searching for the Camp…Finally at 12.45am we
found it! We had actually arrived at our destination after nearly 16hrs on the
road – After freshening up in the shower we clambered into our sleeping bags to
grab some much needed sleep as we would be setting off for Munich in a few
hours time.

Not a lot to report from today, it was a pretty
straightforward drive from Asti to Munich, we decided to take the direct route
due to yesterdays gruelling trip and we were looking forward to seeing some
spectacular scenery as we drove up through the Italian Lakes and across Austria
but unfortunately the torrential rain put the dampers on that. We arrived in
Munich at a very respectable time of 6.30pm so had plenty of time to set up
camp and freshen up before enjoying the evenings 3 B’s BBQ, Bavarian Beer
and.... Bavrian Oompah band. Were not
too sure where they popped up from but they certainly added atmosphere and
helped us realize we had made it as far as Germany (nearly 1400 miles) and
surprisingly, the car and us were still going strong.

Today was another good day, we covered 420 miles driving
from Munich to Hannover it was the furthest distance of the week but didn’t
take us too long as it was mostly autobahn, the car behaved itself impeccably,
at one stage we were cruising at 105 mph and we arrived in Hannover at around
6.30pm. After a quick shower and change we sniffed out the bbq and of course
the beer and we were ready to enjoy our final evening with everyone, sharing
stories of our trip. The two trophies were presented. One for the Best Theme.
This was won by “Shielas Wheels” A pink
BMW with the four lads dressed in pink dresses as in the TV advertisement. And the “Spirit of Screwball” Won by a couple
of very brave lads who had done the rally in an old Reliant Robin. We were
having such a good night that before we knew it it was 3am so we made a hasty
retreat into our tents for the very last time to grab a few hours sleep before
setting off on our marathon drive home tomorrow.

Our last day, we left Hannover at 8am as we had over 400
miles to drive and we needed to be in Calais in good time for the 17.40 ferry, we
drove through Germany, through Holland and then into Belgium, our intention was
to stop at a Hypermarket we knew of near Ghent to stock up with booze and
tobacco but when we got there it had closed down and was all boarded up, we
continued our journey towards France all the while trying to spot an
alternative hypermarket but we eventually had to ditch that idea as the clock
was ticking and realisation dawned that we were now cutting it very fine for
the ferry, we crossed the French border and hurtled towards Calais as fast as
we dare, at 17.30 with our hearts in our mouths we arrived at the docks and
joined the long line of vehicles which were already loading onto the ferry with
horns blasting and loudhailers bellowing out music, jokes and general mayhem -
much to the bewilderment and amusement of other travellers who were wondering
what on earth was going on but they soon entered into the spirit of it all. –
We had made it with just 10 minutes to spare - Phew!! We got our breath back
during the crossing to Dover and said our goodbyes to all the other
Screwballers. Before we knew it we had arrived at Dover and we drove off the
ferry as noisily as we had driven on and headed for the nearest fish and chip
shop, a short while later with full bellies we finally set off on the last
stretch for home totally shattered but relaxed and very relieved that the car
had survived its ordeal and hadn’t let us down……..when, all of a sudden there
was an eruption of noise from under the car, we couldn’t work out if it was the
radiator that had burst or the gearbox had dropped out, mortified we swiftly
pulled over and shoved Wayne, our mechanic, under the car with torch in hand to
inspect the damage, much to our relief it turned out only to be the sump guard
which had dropped down onto the road, it must have broken when we created a
road kill a few miles before, after 3 minutes work with a 10mm spanner we were
back on the road homeward bound. Finally at 1am Tuesday we were all home, drunk
with tiredness but elated that we had achieved our goal – we had successfully
driven 2600 miles across Europe cooped up in an old car and more than that…WE
ARE STILL FRIENDS!!!