Blooming ideas, who's bright idea was this, oh yeah mine! We start our little story with the alarm clock going off at 3am on Saturday morning. So we got up and jumped in a cab we booked the day before to take us the station to catch the 5am train south to Gatwick where we got the 7am plane a long way north to Aberdeen, the shortest flight I've ever been on though, arriving early at 8.10am.We had a short wait around because the hire car wasn't ready but after about half and hour we were away in a little Hyundai upholstered roller skate (that was actually quite nice). About 20 minutes later, and a bit of off roading in the roller skate, we arrived at our destination, where we met Mary, Dave's missus. (if you've seen The Bus Movie, Dave’s the musician who pretty much lives in his split and travels around the states playing gigs, he's still out there at the moment) And this is what we'd come to see - Its my new 73' Westfalia Helsinki that’s not long arrived from Arizona. It's Mot'd and tax exempt and its a bit rough around the edges but almost free from the dreaded rust, suffering with only a tiny spot on the cab floor and a little hole in the battery tray. There’s a few knocks and dents but not too many and the paint is pretty naff but overall its a very solid bus So, after giving it the briefest of once overs and with out taking it for a test drive (stupid I know) I'd already decided I was buying it. So Liz got back in the hire car with me following, and we set off back to the airport to ditch the car and take the bus all the way on the 600 mile journey home. The stupidity of the lack of a test drive became immediately apparent when upon pulling away for the first time one of the rear brakes locked on, only for a split second but it locked on nonetheless. Ignoring this we made it to the end of the driveway before I noticed the slight slip of the clutch, and almost back to the airport before the rear brake locked on again as I was making a right turn. After a little bit of throttle and pulling the handbrake on and off again it released thank god! And we dropped the hire back. Now by this time I had noticed that the heater was only working to the point of making the plastic vents on the dash warm with no actual heat coming through them. And it was freezing out. Anyway, a journey that had begun and with no tools and a growing list of faults was all becoming a little bit nerve-wracking. We stopped at the first petrol station we came to and filled up, and unsurprisingly got the faint whiff of fuel when going round corners or roundabouts or even little bends in the road I duly ignored this and carried on over the fourth bridge. I had noticed a little bit earlier that this bus had been built without a cigar lighter (who knew - something made in the seventies not catering for the smoker!) which is a bit of a problem when your sat nav has a flat battery! Luckily we had a backup as Liz has a sat nav on her iphone and this kept us heading south, but by eck it was cold in there. Of course to add to the lack of heating there was also quite a few drafts, and I mean quite a few, basically all the rubber bits on the bus are a little withered or pretty much non existent. Now we had gone about 130 miles and it was time for a coffee, so we pulled up in a petrol station and I topped the tank up with £30 and armed with a hot cappuccino (did I mention it was cold) we were off again. You'll have to excuse my ignorance but I didn't realise how big Scotland is! Always seeing it on a map as that bit at the top and never fully taking in how BIG that bit at the top really is. Well, after some beautiful scenery (can I say that, as a bloke?) and some rain and some hours and some lovely empty roads we came to a sign reading Welcome to England some 220 miles after our journey started. And onward we went with numb toes and hands, I'm not sure if I said the heater really was pretty useless, by resting my hand on the top vents I could just get a little bit of warmth. After about another 70 miles it was time to stop for fuel again. Another thing that doesn’t work on this bus is the fuel gauge so at 200 mile intervals I thought it best to bung in some go juice. On the little trip from the drivers seat to fuel flap (I know, a fuel flap posh eh?) my route took me via the back of the van, and it turns out that the rain on the rear screen I could see in the rear view mirror was in fact oil! And it was all over the back of the van But, what are you gonna do? I bought some more oil in the garage and topped up the engine, I topped up the fuel and off we went again. Liz was now starting to talk about where we could stop for the night. Somewhere with heating and a hot shower, and using the miracle of modern technology we found a Premier Inn. I did keep saying just a little bit further until we got down to around Stafford some 400 miles into out 600 mile journey, 17 hours after getting up in the morning and 8 hours after leaving Aberdeen. Heating, a shower and a pub serving grub next door, that saw us through the night to the early start the next morning. 8am (on a Sunday I’ll have you know!) lets get going. Check and top up the oil, start the van, scrape the ice off the windows and try to tie the heat exchangers open. Liz got some warm water from the people at the hotel to pour over the glass on the van to warm it up and clear off the ice that was re-forming after the scrapping exercise. And with that done and the windows down we were away, and 3 and half hours later we were home! Here endeth the tale.
Nice one dave n liz, n all that for another tent on the roof . Good luck with it ,nice ta see you showed it who the gaffer was. 8)
I like mack as a name, strong and upstanding with authority Not Doris, sounds old and decrepit, prone to empty it's bladder at any moment and a bit windy. Oh!)
Wow what a journey, bet it was cold! Well done for an epic journey, I reckon you would have had to drag me out of that warm premier inn bed... Robo...
