sniff

There she goes...

Cheerio to the chugger

After 1700 miles, the Rugger Chugger is no longer ours. Rather than driving to the scrapyard this morning, we gave it to one of the hotel staff's friend, who runs a garage.

Sad to see it go, after the work we put in to decorating it, and the journey we've done in it, but it wouldn't make it back without new brakes, and none of us is up to another 2 days of constant driving. So farewell, old girl.

We attended the end of rally party last night, which was a bit chilly, but fairly enjoyable. We ended up in a convoy of cabs afterwards, heading for some nightclub or other. When we asked the driver how far it was, he said 8km. So we told him to stop, and drop us at the Diocletian palace. This was good, as we were able to walk around the place with nobody else there. The palace, and much of the old centre of Split is absolutely beautiful.

Two of us have moved hotel tonight, to the relatively swish Marmont, which is in the midst of the alleyways surrounding the palace. Fairly quiet night out tonight, I expect, then off to the airport at 9:30 in the morning. Job very nearly done.

Er...

Well, this appears to be Split. Rally successfully completed. No breakdowns, no bust-ups, no problems to speak of. Sad to scrap the car after it got us here in such comfort (if you ignore the mandatory heater usage when sat in traffic).
Know any Croats who want a Saab 9000 by tomorrow morning?

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Croatia

Well, we're in Croatia! Taking a longer route so we can stay on the
motorways before descending into Split on the coast road.
Tomtom took us the wrong way again, but back on course now. Police
at Croatian border were extremely friendly. Think they approved of the
car's decoration. They also wanted us to explain the slogan on the
back of one of the other cars; 'honk if you bonk' We attempted to
explain, to the amusement of the giggling plod lady.

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Slovenia

Made it to Ljubljana after needless tomtom 2hr detour. Other teams
similarly misdirected. Hotel's rubbish. Maybe we should have hung
around in Verona this afternoon. Shortest stint tomorrow though, and
hopefully a good night out and less smelly hotel.

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Italy

Bit of a big night in Bormio last night. We may be too old for such larks. Still, we're out on the road, looking for Ljubljana.

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Italy

We got here! Brakes slightly cooked (should recover, but will check
tomorrow) but otherwise a good day. Sat by a glacier for an hour,
waiting for tunnel to open, but it meter did, so we had about 4 hours
of re-routing to get here. Bormio's very pretty though.

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Italy

Phone charge nearly gone, so i'll make this brief. Leaving Bern now.
Weather's better today, and 3 of us got some good sleep last night. I
like to be different, of course. Fairly long slog through Switzerland
ahead of us today. Hoping for impressive scenery. Bern is beautiful,
by the way.
MG

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L'ennui

French autoroutes fairly quiet, but drab in this weather. Road tolls a bit steep too. 359km to Bern. It was 800 at 9am. Still, people seem to like the car, even if it's not as inventive as many of our fellow rallyers.

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Go

We're on the move, food poisoning and all. Weather is grim, and we've got 828km to do today. We're following some jockeys and a car full of gorillas.

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Calais

Made it to Calais, eventually (with one stop for food and engine aeration). Briefly detained by the authorities at Dover, following a misunderstanding about what rally we were participating in. Ferry was delayed anyway, due to rough seas. Gave us the opportunity to talk to some other Ramshacklers, and compare cars.

Registered at the fairly dismal Australian Bar and Grill, where two of my (MG) cards were refused. Saw a load of other tea,s there, and some fantastic cars (and one or er, weaker ones.) Cost us 18 Euros to get there, though it's barely 3 miles away. Let's get out of France, chaps. It'll stop Al from whinging about those cab fares, if nothing else.

Rally starts in earnest tomorrow, so we're hoping the car stands up as well as it did today. No wi-fi here, so no more pics today.

Tomorrow, Rugger Chugger heads for Switzerland. Wish us luck.

GoA.

Dover!

Well, 200 miles down! Ferry delayed due to weather... Chatting to other Ramshacklers in the queue.

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