Polar Challenge Blog

It was a wet start to the day and we had been listening to falling rain and the sound of road works all night, the site was next to the motorway – I say night time though it doesn’t actually get dark here anymore. After a hot shower and a most refreshing cup of tea supplied by Jeff, we set off towards Rokland. The weather was dull and wet and within a few miles Ivan ground to a halt. Upon inspection his rotar arm had shorted out and needed replacing. Geoff set to work upon his car and a fresh rotar arm and a bump start later and we were off again.

Todays journey took us through some of the most amazing scenery you can imagine with snow capped mountains and large blue lakes with idylic houses potted about here and there. The roads however were dreadful in places and definately not designed for 3-wheelers with large ruts in the centre that would capture your wheel and try and steer you off the road.

Just before dinner we lost Ivan through some road works though thankfully we soon found him again. Whilst we waited, as we were in a built up area, I fired up the laptop and tried to connect to an unsecured network so that I could post the latest update but even though I connected, I couldn’t get on the Internet. Our “3” broadband modem doesn’t seem to work anymore, we don’t know if we have exceded some sort of limit or if it is just completely useless. We had only used it for 2 nights to update the blog and send 2 emails and it reported a bill of £32 for Internet services then. The crazy thing is that when it did connect the connection was so poor it would have been faster to post a letter. So … we think 3 is completely usless.

Back on the road, as we got further North the weather was starting to pick up and after a short session of hail falling on the screen the sun came out and stayed out. The scenery seemed to just get better and better as we drove along and the roads got worse. It didn’t deter other road users though and Artic lorries came charging down the roads at frightning speeds and at one point we saw one crashed at the side if the road, his cab had gone one side and his trailer was on the other. There are skid marks everywhere.

About 7:45pm we passed a camp site next to a lake with snow capped mountains set around it. So we pulled in and set up camp there and even had time to go for a short walk. We checked the laptop once more to see if we could connect to the Internet by some means. Alas not. We shall have to post all the updates when we next get a connection.

Elvis

Eating three boiled eggs each for breakfast was a mistake, the aroma that generated in the car later on was rather alarming and the Bond Bug owners reported a green gas behind our car. By 9:30am we had all packed up camp and headed on our way from Oslo to Tronheim which is about 300 miles. The roads started off fairly pleasant and as we reached the mountains they became twisty and narrow with some of the most wonderful scenery you can imagine. The only problem is that as the road is narrow many great photo opportunities pass you by as you cannot stop.

At the start of the day Rory’s Bug needed a push as his battery was flat though later on it was our turn to break down. Whilst driving along we came to rather an uncerimonious stop and the car wouldn’t start. Donning our day glow jackets and putting out the warning triangle, Geoff quickly diagnosed that there was no petrol getting through to the carburettor and tracing things back to the tank, he took off the petrol filler cap. Suddenly there was a whoosh of air and the tank expanded. It seemed that the breather hole in the petrol cap had become blocked and so pressurised the tank cutting off the fuel to the carburettor. Earlier he had noticed a leak on the petrol tank around the sender unit and so dropping the tank fixed the leak. This must have been acting as a breather and now that it was fixed it caused the tank to pressurise. The petrol cap was cleaned and to make double sure it would not happen again a 1/16th hole was drilled in the petrol filler pipe. A turn of the key and the problem was sorted and we were all on our way again.

The further North we get the colder it gets and the snow topped mountains in the distance were soon patches of snow next to us as we climbed to over 3,300 feet. Spotting snow in a parking area we all pulled over for a photo and of course to make a few snowballs before starting off once more.

One of the things worth mentioning is the houses as they are all made from wood with either slate slabs for the roof or correghated sheets, surprisingly some are covered in grass. It’s amazing how many houses have a roof covered in long grass. I pondered whether the newer houses were actually brick houses with a wooden exterior but a couple of burnt down houses seemed to suggest that the house was indeed all wood.

Driving around mountain roads is pretty strenuous as you constantly need to have your wits about you as you weave around sharp corners. By about 7am we went through a local village and decided to stop for dinner. The menu was unpronouncible and Jeff ordered a Lovsteak with chips. Looking at what looked like Road kill, I figured that was probably a good option so me and Geoff had that as well. It turned out to be a large beef burger that someone had sat on to flatten it out. I say beef burger but we couldn’t actually work out what it was made from though it was rather nice.

Four Bond Bugs and a Reliant Robin parked outside the restuarant was causing much interest as people were constantly stopping, looking at them and taking photos. As I have mentioned in previous post, it is like this where ever we go, the vehicles cause such a stir as everyone seems to comment that they have never seen anything like them before. Most Scandinavians are now convinced that Geoff is Mr Bean.

Back on the road we continued to follow the E6 which runs alongside a raging river - despite intructions to the contrary from the AI android. We have sacked C3PO and for a while had Yoda but he was incoherent at times, “Right you must turn and left you must bear, over the roundabout you must go and third turn you must take” … and there wasn’t a third turn - that just confused us more though thankfully we trust the AA map book a lot more now. Driving through the rain, we finally reached camp at around 9pm. It’s quite cold now and I’m not sure if it gets dark anymore. We pitched our tents in the pouring rain … oh the joys of camping!

Elvis.

Well 2,800 miles later and here we are at the north cape, jolly cold as well. Still no internet access but we will post all daily updates when we can. There are now 5 reliants at the north cape and they are getting more attention than the scenery
Elvis

Well the 3 modem we got to access the internet is useless as we can no longer connect. So this is from my phone. We are nearly there and have done over 2,500 miles. We have done the daily updates on the laptop so when we find a camp site with internet access we will upload them all. Today we passed the arctic circle. We should get to the north cape tomorrow. Elvis

Today was always penned in as a day of rest and so eating up the miles in their hundreds yesterday ensured that today was indeed a day of rest, having said that, where we are now gets dark at about 11:15pm and gets lights again at 3am. Last night we were pitching tents in dusk without the needs for light. There was the most amazing purple sunset though sadly screaming down Norwegian roads isn’t the best time to stick a camera of of the window to take a shot.

Around 11am we went into Oslo with Rory to try and find a place that would repair his punctures. Eventually we found a place and they were horrified that Rory used inner tubes and said they could fix the punctures if he didn’t use a inner tube. So Rory said OK and they fixed them. Rory then asked the price and the guy turned round and said “Nothing, think of it as a present” and he wished us good luck for the journey. He was genuine to, these little 3-wheelers create so much interest over here that everyone just wants to look at them, wave at us and take photos.

We then went to look at a medieval fortress and getting there we parked up. A lady, dressed in military uniform told us we couldn’t park there and she had three other people with her, two of which were dignitries from the Ukraine. What status they had in the Ukraine to get a military escourt of Oslo we don’t know but they were fascinated by Rory’s Bond Bug and wanted their photo taken with it. In each country we have also been getting people to sign the bonnet of our car with a permanent marker pen and so we asked the Ukraine dignitries if they would like to sign the bonnet. The officials taking them around looked a little shocked at first but both dignitries signed the car with huge smiles and with a hand shake off they went.

After a bit of sight seeing in Oslo we also came across a film being made. I took a few shots of an old Rolls Royce next to a huge ship with “Viking Oil” on the side and was asked politely to stop taking photos. Maybe they were concerened I’d use them as promo shots?? Back at the camp site where Geoff gave “New Blue” a full service. She has been running superb though every now and then there is a slight cough which we are not sure if it is dirty fuel or not. Best of all this camp site has wireless Internet access so I can sit in the tent and send emails. The mobile dongle we have is costing a serious fortune so to get a camp site with Internet access is great.

One thing I didn’t mention yesterday was our school-boy amusement at certain words over here. We think “fart” means speed as in Sweden there are signs along the side of the road that state “Min Fart” and when you drive passed they light up with a number. We wasn’t sure if this indicated the mimimum amount of times we had to pass wind and the faster we went the higher the number of minimum farts. Perhaps the biggest commotion was caused when we passed a sign saying “Bastad”. It seems this is a little town though when we passed the local camping ground we had to howl with laughter at a grey caravan that had in huge words along the side “Bastad Camping”.

The evening was spent drinking non-alcoholic beer (that’s all they sell here) and having a barbeque, we are not 100% sure what we are eating but thanks to Ivan the chef, it taste OK. Tomorrow, it’s back on the road again for more driving.

Elvis

Today was an epic and we covered around 480 miles. By about 7am this morning the tent was like an oven, as it was so warm so Geoff and I got up and decided that we’d go out and find a chemist so that I could get some hay fever pills. We were told there was a chemist in the local village in ??? and so we took a drive across. It turned out this was just a little fishing village and the chemist looked like a health and beauty shop. Thankfully we waited until 9am for the local supermarket to open and managed to get some extra strong 1 a day Benaday pills – except one did nothing so I took 2. Despite no chemist they had a hairdresser and Geoff pondered about having his hair cut. Looking at his hair, I pointed out he’d actually need a garden centre and someone with a hedge trimmer.

Back at camp we all decided to leave at 9:30am to make up some time, Geoff drove again today leading the pack whilst I map read. Since C3PO tried to kill us yesterday by saying “Turn Left” head on into oncoming traffic we fear he may be losing his marbles. As a protocol droid he may be well suited but as a navigator, he is not to be trusted. C3PO tried to send us up to the top of Denmark to catch a ferry into Sweden though thankfully Jeff has now lent us his map book so we decided to take a different route over a toll bridge. On our way to the bridge we hit our first traffic jam since leaving the UK. It’s amazing , we have driven through five countries and do not hit any kind of traffic jam until we get to Denmark.

Once over the bridge, we arrived in Sweden and so we pulled over at the first opportunity to give our legs a stretch. Geoff also took a picture of his pigs! In the glove box are two stuffed pigs , one decked out in kinky leather that Pete and Dee gave him and another one that apparently lives there. So far there is a picture of them in each country.

As we then started off again, Richard’s Bond Bug wouldn’t start. It seems as though his battery was flat so after a quick bump start he was soon driving again.

Drving through Sweden gale force winds struck with a vengence and the car was being blown about badly, probably having a large roof box didn’t help as it was acting as a large sail. After about 200 miles we stopped for a break and swopped over so I took over the driving. The winds were still attacking and I had to constantly steer the car to right though every time a lorry overtook us the wind would be cut off and then battered back into you as it had gone passed.

About 7pm we were around 140 miles from Oslo which was where we wanted to be so we decided to drive through the night. Jeff phoned the camp and they said we could check in before midnight so we decided to press ahead. As we reached Norway, the roads became a lot worse, you would get a few miles of motorway and then miles of side roads with severe chicanes. This slowed us down no end and then in a confusion of road works we lost Jeff and Ivan. We pulled over and luckily via walkie talkies we got them back to us but now according to the Sat Nav we would arrive 4 minutes before midnight. The last 80 or so miles was a mad race, five 3-wheelers charging along through mountains and over bridges. It was actually great fun and thank heavens at that point the strong winds had subsided.

We made the camp for 11:58pm, just 2 minutes to spare before they closed. We all booked in and set up camp. 480 miles in one day. That was some going.

Elvis

Today began with sniffles and sneezes. It seems our European counterparts do not like me here and despite never getting hay fever, I seem to be the only person having made sneezing attacks. Luckily the window is always open though I fear the Bond Bug following gets sprayed with my home made debris.

We left our wonderful camp in Germany where the beer flowed freely around 10am with the plan to travel over to Puttgarden and then get the ferry across into Denmark. All seemed well and Geoff led the pack in his Reliant Robin, about 40 miles in, the TomTom insist that we take the next turning off, we duly oblige, it then navigates us up over the motorway and then back on to the other side. This might sound OK but it was actually insisting that we drive on the wriong side of the road against the traffic. The TomTom it seemed had a death wish. Needless to say we ignored if and went back down the road and stopped in at a local BurgerKing. This was most interesting to. I went to visit the Gents and there I was quite happily standing there and a lady comes in, starts cleaning the toilets and says “Morgen”. “Hello”,I said rather bemused.

Once heading back in the right direction we caught the ferry across to Denmark and no sooner were we off and Rory stopped saying there was a strange noise from his car. We looked underneath and the universal joints on the prop shaft were really loose and desparetely needed replacing. Both Geoff and Jeff said they had a spare universal joint and so the car was propped up on two wheels and Geoff took apart the prop shaft and replaced the universal joint. It took about an hour in total though the operation was successful and Rory was back on the road again. Geoff’s Robin has now has “Bug Support Vehicle” written on the side of it.

The time now was getting on and we visited two restaurants and both were closed. It seems that so many places close so early over here. Thankfully the local garage came to the rescue with a reheated hot dog … and a bag of liquorice allsorts for pudding.

Sneezes are now in adundance, with streaming eyes and scratchy throat. We brought a nasal spray from the garage, haven’t a clue what it did or what it was for but it tasted rather horrid. We thankfully found another campsite with hot shower facilities so it’s back to the beer and back to the sneezing!

Elvis

Well up at eight this morning and first job was to fix the leaking seal in the top of my fuel tank. This was a quick and easy repair as I just dropped the left hand side of the tank and then fitted some instance gasket to both sides of the seal and refitted. This did the job and all was sorted.

The next job was to fix Rory’s flat tyre Jeff put in some tyre repair stuff in then used my compresser to inflate the wheel all seemed to be holding so after a quick shower we set of for the fuel station.

Fist problem was the tyre on Rory’s Bond Bug was flat by the time we got there so with the Robin to the rescue I removed one of my two spare wheels and we fitted this to the bug then off we went.

I plan was to drive to a half way point which was Munster then have lunch. The journey went well and with Elvis leading the pack we got to Munster in Germany for 13:30. We then found a really nice outside cafe where we had some refreshments. After looking at the prices for the food we thought better of that and so went back to the cars and pulled in at the garage to fuel up once again. The tank was half full but as we stopped it seemed daft not to. We also brought some food Elvis picked up some pop noodles so if we could not find a food place at the camp site then we could at least have more than a Mars bar.

Things seemed to be going really well till we hit road works and realised that three bugs were missing. As we were going though the road works we could not stop so ourselves and Richard (the only bug that was now with us drove though and pulled over to the hard shoulder to try and find what had happened. Richard managed to get Jeff on the phone to be told that Rory had got another puncture (this time in the other wheel) and Ivan’s engine had stopped and for us to carry on and pull in at the first parking point.

So we got there and waited for about twenty minutes and Rory turned up now sporting two standard Reliant wheels (a far cry from his alloys).Then after another 30 miniutes Jeoff and Ivan turned up. Jeff had managed to hot wire Ivan’s car to get it going so with out stoping his car we carried on to the camp site at Bremen.

Safe at the camp site (How we would of found it with out Rory’s sat nav is beyond me) and what a nice place this is. All the German people here came out to look at these five strange cars coming on to the site then out of nowhere comes the owner with five beers in hand and a big smile. He then brought out a mains lead so we can charge all our batteys and even more beer much to the delight of all the others except me. But then he brought me an OJ.

So we set up the tents then me armed with my muti meter and screw driver attacked Ivan’s bug to find what had gone wrong. It turned out that the cable from the ignition to the coil had broke so I routed in a new cable and all was then well.
As the football was coming on they cook our tea for us real quick and we all had three eggs, chips and gerkins which was well received.
As it was Ivan’s 50 bithday Jeff had brought a cake over with him so we all signed his card and gave him his cake which was very nice.
But the best was a chap thats staying here brought us all a round of drinks as he drives a Trabant.

We are just chilling now and we soon be off to bed as we have a long day tomorrow and need to get two punchers fixed for Rory.

Geoff

Day 2 – Champagne & Cheese.

Driving down to Dover the day before was a good move, after a wet and windy night (and that was just Geoff) we went into the camp site cafe for a full English breakfast and the best cup of tea I’ve ever tasted.

After a quick pootle around Dover town centre we met up with four Bond Bugs (Driven by Jeff, Rory, Ivan and Richard) at the Ferry car park and tickets in hand we boarded the ferry. Jeff had booked us all on the ferry and done so in Club Class, as a result we were offered a welcoming glass of champagne which went down rather nicely. On board we also had a Ploughmans lunch though this seemed to consist of a few bits of lettuce, two pickled onions that make you pull daft faces and 19 tons of cheese provided in two rather large slabs on each plate.

One hour later after our champagne merryment and cheese overload, the ferry pulled into a rather dull and wet Calais. The fact none of us could find our cars was actually quite worrying, here we are embarking on a 4,000 mile journey and we can’t find where the car was parked.

Driving through France tickled Geoff no end and his pronounciation of French place names was most amusing. I had to remind him a few times that folks drive on the left over here though currently he is sulking as his phone doesn’t work over here . A battle between Geoff, Rory and the French speaking machines at the petrol station prooved a saga though my pigeon French came in useful in guessing what the machine was actually saving and what to press. It gave us petrol anyway.

On the roads, four Bond Bugs and a blue Reliant Robin are causing a lot of interest, People are driving passed smiling, waving, tooting, taking photos and almost causing accidents by looking at us and not the car in front.

Jeff has given us all walky talkies so we can communicate, they are good when we are close together but a lot of the time its a bit like listening to Norman Collier, “Hello ab ib eb fast and think ib ob gonna need a ibble obble eb ib ob”

Today has been good though we have driven through France and Belgium and we reached the Netherlands for around 9pm. That itself proved interesting as due to a rally most roads were closed. So we all followed Rory whos Sat Nav proceeded to take us down a cycle path, much to the bewilderment of those cycling along.

At the moment we are all hungry as over here everywhere seems to shut up shop really early … so it’s half a Mars Bar each for dinner.

Elvis.

Well the big day is here and with tears back home we are off on our journey to the Cape. With the wonders of modern technolgy I am writing this from the camp site.
All is going well, we left Tamworth at 19:30 a little later than we had hoped for. The main delay was that the broadband dongle that Mark was going to lend us never came as the postman forgot that he was supposed to get it to me for three O clock. Still a quick call in to the local Phones 4U shop and we now have a fancy 3 modem.
It’s amazing how much we have got in the car and you can still see out the back window which will help when you are driving on the wrong side of the road. Talking of roads there are lots of silly people that are driving slow and as we go to over take them in New Blue they speed up. She has the power to show them up but we are happy doing 60 – 65 mph.
ACcording to the good old Tom Tom we would get to the Dover camp site for 23:00 but the good thing is they have an hounisty section for late comers so we can just pitch and pay in the morning. We got here for 23:26 so with the road works that was good going. We thought it best to drive down the day before as this means we won’t panic if we hit traffic on the way down and possible miss our spot on the ferry.
With Elvis driving this makes me a passenger and you see some strange sites like the 1930’s safty bus that was stuggling up a hill and looked down on us as we flew by. Quite a few people are waving or sounding there horn at us as we driving along as well as taking pictures at least that’s what Elvis says the flash was. It seems that the look of the car says we are going some where (He says laughing).
The trip down was great and the car purformed brillient we could not of asked for more. We did the run down non stop so the first 250 miles are now done only another 3750 miles to go.
Well tent is up and it’s time for sleep so catch you all tomorrow night night all and a kiss to our love ones xx.

Geoff