The further adventures of Doogle

We went to Camping in the Cotswolds a couple of weeks ago, now I’m back down sarf set up at Rookery Farm, Silverstone, for 3 days at the Classic.

Only one major drama with the van, on the M1 near Sheffield, 4 lanes and no hard shoulder, she suddenly cut out dead in lane 3! The traffic was quite slow, and I managed to roll into lane one, and with the hazards on I rolled downhill to the next junction, where I pulled over once off the motorway. Fearing the worst I looked in the engine compartment- after staring at the engine cluelessly I suddenly spotted a loose black wire with a female connector not connected to anything! The negative wire to the coil had vibrated off - I pushed it back on and restarted the van. The easiest roadside fix I’ve ever done, probably.

 

This is where I’d managed to roll to, on a slip road near Sheffield.



That was one of the scariest moments I’ve had in a long time. This morning before I set off back I gently nipped up the rolled sides of the female connector, I never want to go through that again.

I had an uneventful journey back, no dramas, it’s exactly a year since I bought it back from Silverstone after I’d bought her. Last year I came home the long but flat way via the M6, I didn’t fancy Woodhead in a van I didn’t feel confident in. This year I enjoyed Woodhead, all purple heather in the setting sun. I even overtook a beer lorry on the two lane bit going up the hill. As often happens with Dougal, the Woodhead pass was strangely empty in front, although it looked a bit busy in the mirror.