Although i guess the tiny fuel tank i have on the Caterham means lots of stops for gas, that does have the benefit of forcing me to take a break pretty often, can’t be all bad!!!

Weather stunning again, i am almost ashamed to admit…. got to Hook of Holland about four hours ahead of boarding time, but once again despite my deafness and introverted nature, spent most of the time chatting to admirers of the Cat!!!

John and Alison in the XK150 hail from Bolton, so they were using the ferry from Rotterdam to Hull and while i had to face up to dragging round the M25 in the rush hour they had to do battle with the M62…. not a lot of fun, i hear! We had said our farewells at the hotel in Travemunde. The two of them had been very kindly patient about the frustration of trying to hold a conversation with me across about 15 dinners and upteen breakfasts!!!

Again, ferry trip drama free, again didn’t sleep too well… Ferry was running on Dutch time, so docking 7:30am, 6:30am UK time. Means getting up at 5:30…. I always find the disembarkation slightly stressful, mainly because i seem to have found it impossible to find a way of recording where i have left the car!!! It also takes me a little while to prep the Cat for the road – take the roof off, pack my stuff, all that – and folks get very impatient if they feel you are holding them up…….

Then it really was a tiresome three hours to get home from Harwich…. Stop/start pretty much all the way on the M25, but the weather was still grand so can’t complain too much.

Margie seems to have been mad busy for the entire three weeks i have been away, and my three weeks were full of new stuff and adventure as you will have seen. So that works pretty well for both of us after 45 years of married life!!!

Epilogue

What an adventure!!!

I had never visited Norway previously: what a misjudgement that was….. It is a wonderfully scenic country and has a relaxed and chilled vibe that is most endearing. Driving at 50mph for hours on end proved much more enjoyable than you might expect: in Norway no one cares if you do that, or for hanging back 100 feet from the car in front so that you can gaze around at the dramatic scenery, and almost nobody tries to overtake: very civilized!!! Travelling to the Arctic Circle was in itself an adventure not to be missed, even if the weather was more tropical than Arctic!

Would i do this particular trip again??? Probably not…. I drove the Cat 4,500 miles in three weeks and enjoyed it all, but that’s a hell of a lot of driving. I would love to take Margie to see the country, but i think that would have to be a short flight and car hire…. I don’t think it would include the Arctic Circle, unless Margie has a strong desire to do that, but it would certainly include the Flam Railway and the Lofoten Islands, plus the endless fjords and ferry rides. Probably wouldn’t bother to do the 1500 foot staircase climb again…..!!!

I must also pay tribute to the Caterham…. 4,500 miles: only problems were a failed indicator light bulb and a wonky headlamp. I topped up the water slightly just once and added half a litre of oil to the engine but i am far from convinced it was actually needed!!! Given the motor is built for racing it has served me nobly for touring….

What made this particular trip that bit more arduous was the fact there is no longer a direct ferry route between UK and Norway, meaning simply getting to the country and back via the Dutch ports adds 2,000 miles or so to the driving. And as you will have seen, it’s not very rewarding driving: in the Cat that’s not such a problem because simply being able to drive that car is rewarding in itself. But it’s still a hell of a lot of driving…..

So, 9/10 seems fair.

Prologue

The next Adventure does not involve the Cat….. it’s a Group Tour with Wild Frontiers, the gang with whom i did the Silk Road odyssey a few years ago.

It’s just a two week gig, we leave on 10th September visiting Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia. There will be some mountain walking, so i get to take my hiking boots, but mostly it’s about the culture and history of those three countries which goes back millenia but has been especially traumatic since the demise of the USSR and more recently Mad Vlad’s ambitions to be ‘Vladimir The Great’…..

Can’t wait…..