Post by Rachel on Sept 23, 2010 10:17:32 GMT
On Friday 9 September, Dave, Josie, Tony and I set off on our holiday to France with Matilda and Plan B.
We met up at 4am to travel to Dover for our 6am ferry. We then drove through France to meet up with some of Josie’s family and friends near Clermont-Ferrand where we were to stay for the first night.
We finally arrived around 7pm and enjoyed a relaxing meal, marvelled at the scenery and relished the peace and quiet. The house was in the middle of nowhere and ,with a clear night, I don’t think I have ever seen so many stars.
The next morning we were given a guided tour before saying our goodbyes and setting off for our final destination Quarante in the south west, not far from Montpellier.
On our way, we drove through some spectacular scenery, particularly the Tarn gorges and over the Millau sky bridge.
We eventually arrived at the house we had rented, unloaded the minis and opened a bottle of wine.
Plan B had developed a leak in his clutch slave cylinder, so Monday we set out to the local supermarket to purchase brake/clutch fluid as the leak was not too bad, and keeping the levels topped up meant we would still be able to drive around.
Tuesday morning we were up early and drove down the motorway for about an hour and a half into Spain.
It had been Tony’s ambition to drive a mini round the Pyrenees so we headed for the coast. The roads in this area are made for minis, unfortunately we found ourselves stuck behind a coach and then slow driving tourists. We took advantage of this by admiring the spectacular views and taking lots of photos. We took a wrong turning coming out of Cadaques and drove along another long twisty road which eventually led nowhere but again had spectacular scenery.
On our way back we stopped in Argeles sur Mer for a paddle in the Med and dinner.
The rest of the week was spent visiting local towns, sightseeing and sampling the regional wines.
Saturday morning we loaded up the cars for our two-day drive home. We stopped on the way at the Millau sky bridge to take some photos from the viewing area.
Not long after, we were heading up a very long steep hill when Plan B starting protesting. We pulled into a motorway SOS lay-by to try to sort the problem. Thinking the problem was electrical Dave and Tony adjusted the gap on the points and changed the coil. We headed off again, only to find the problem had not been solved. We pulled over again and were about to investigate further, when the motorway security people arrived in bright orange vans and stopped us from working.
They called for a tow truck to remove us from the motorway and we were taken a local village. Here, Dave and Tony changed the points and condenser, still thinking the problem was electrical.
We set off once more, but as soon as we hit an incline, the problem started again. Tony and Dave then bypassed the fuel filter, checked the carb and other bits that I can’t remember.
By now it was late afternoon, and we were still scratching our heads, though we had come to the conclusion that the problem was probably the fuel pump. A local German lady pulled over to see if we were ok. She offered to take us to the local garage to see if they could help and said she had rooms in her B&B if we wanted to stay the night.
Unfortunately, the local garage were about the close and would not be able to get a new part till Monday. The garage owner said he had a friend with a mini, who may be willing to sell us the pump, but we thought it was too much of a risk as it might not be that at all and his friend might not be willing to sell it anyway.
We followed our new German friend to her B&B where I phoned my breakdown insurance people again.
I explained the situation and asked if Plan B could be repatriated and if there was a way of getting Tony and I home. The very nice lady explained that Plan B would only be repatriated if the value of the vehicle outweighed the cost of bringing it home and she would let me know if they could help.
Our immediate thought was that the insurance people would say no, as the book price for a 1983 mini would not be very high and the recovery costs would be much greater.
We were discussing other methods to get Plan B home, when I received a call to say that yes, he would be repatriated.
As there was no car hire available on Sunday, Tony and I were offered flights home from the local airport in Rodez to Stansted. Tony really does not like flying, so after a bit of negotiation, Josie was allowed to take his place on the flight and Tony would drive home with Dave in Matilda.
We thought it would be fun if we treated this like one of the Top Gear challenges where they see if the plane is faster than the car.
Dave and Tony left the next morning at 7.30 while Josie and I waited for the local garage to take Plan B away. We then jumped in a taxi to the airport for our flight later in the day.
We arrived at 11am to find we were the only people there and the airport was locked!!! You wouldn’t get that at Heathrow.
We waited and waited and waited and eventually other people started arriving and the airport opened it’s doors about 1pm. We were hoping to get something to eat and drink, but there were only machines that took coins and we had little change.
Tired, hungry and thirsty we eventually got on our plane at 5pm and as soon as the drinks trolley arrived we ordered a glass of wine each as we felt we deserved it. We had a great flight home, laughing and giggling all the way.
Jake met us at Stansted and dropped Josie home before taking me home about 8.30. Dave and Tony were still on the ferry at this point and I had to go out later to get Tony from Dave’s house.
I received a text yesterday from my insurance people to say Plan B will be delivered to my house on the 4th October.
Though we had a few problems at the end, I can quite confidently say that we had a great holiday, we are very proud of Plan B for getting as far as he did, and though we took a lot of spares with us, a fuel pump was not on the list.
I would like to thank Dean for working his magic, tuning the engine before we went. Dave and Josie for so many happy memories. Dave for trying his very, very best with Tony to get Plan B home under his own steam. Finally, Co-operative Bank breakdown insurance for being so helpful and stopping the situation from being stressful.
We can laugh about what happened as we went fully prepared, we have a sense of adventure and good breakdown insurance.
Plan B is coming home and can be easily fixed to do it all again.
I would recommend it to everyone!!
We met up at 4am to travel to Dover for our 6am ferry. We then drove through France to meet up with some of Josie’s family and friends near Clermont-Ferrand where we were to stay for the first night.
We finally arrived around 7pm and enjoyed a relaxing meal, marvelled at the scenery and relished the peace and quiet. The house was in the middle of nowhere and ,with a clear night, I don’t think I have ever seen so many stars.
The next morning we were given a guided tour before saying our goodbyes and setting off for our final destination Quarante in the south west, not far from Montpellier.
On our way, we drove through some spectacular scenery, particularly the Tarn gorges and over the Millau sky bridge.
We eventually arrived at the house we had rented, unloaded the minis and opened a bottle of wine.
Plan B had developed a leak in his clutch slave cylinder, so Monday we set out to the local supermarket to purchase brake/clutch fluid as the leak was not too bad, and keeping the levels topped up meant we would still be able to drive around.
Tuesday morning we were up early and drove down the motorway for about an hour and a half into Spain.
It had been Tony’s ambition to drive a mini round the Pyrenees so we headed for the coast. The roads in this area are made for minis, unfortunately we found ourselves stuck behind a coach and then slow driving tourists. We took advantage of this by admiring the spectacular views and taking lots of photos. We took a wrong turning coming out of Cadaques and drove along another long twisty road which eventually led nowhere but again had spectacular scenery.
On our way back we stopped in Argeles sur Mer for a paddle in the Med and dinner.
The rest of the week was spent visiting local towns, sightseeing and sampling the regional wines.
Saturday morning we loaded up the cars for our two-day drive home. We stopped on the way at the Millau sky bridge to take some photos from the viewing area.
Not long after, we were heading up a very long steep hill when Plan B starting protesting. We pulled into a motorway SOS lay-by to try to sort the problem. Thinking the problem was electrical Dave and Tony adjusted the gap on the points and changed the coil. We headed off again, only to find the problem had not been solved. We pulled over again and were about to investigate further, when the motorway security people arrived in bright orange vans and stopped us from working.
They called for a tow truck to remove us from the motorway and we were taken a local village. Here, Dave and Tony changed the points and condenser, still thinking the problem was electrical.
We set off once more, but as soon as we hit an incline, the problem started again. Tony and Dave then bypassed the fuel filter, checked the carb and other bits that I can’t remember.
By now it was late afternoon, and we were still scratching our heads, though we had come to the conclusion that the problem was probably the fuel pump. A local German lady pulled over to see if we were ok. She offered to take us to the local garage to see if they could help and said she had rooms in her B&B if we wanted to stay the night.
Unfortunately, the local garage were about the close and would not be able to get a new part till Monday. The garage owner said he had a friend with a mini, who may be willing to sell us the pump, but we thought it was too much of a risk as it might not be that at all and his friend might not be willing to sell it anyway.
We followed our new German friend to her B&B where I phoned my breakdown insurance people again.
I explained the situation and asked if Plan B could be repatriated and if there was a way of getting Tony and I home. The very nice lady explained that Plan B would only be repatriated if the value of the vehicle outweighed the cost of bringing it home and she would let me know if they could help.
Our immediate thought was that the insurance people would say no, as the book price for a 1983 mini would not be very high and the recovery costs would be much greater.
We were discussing other methods to get Plan B home, when I received a call to say that yes, he would be repatriated.
As there was no car hire available on Sunday, Tony and I were offered flights home from the local airport in Rodez to Stansted. Tony really does not like flying, so after a bit of negotiation, Josie was allowed to take his place on the flight and Tony would drive home with Dave in Matilda.
We thought it would be fun if we treated this like one of the Top Gear challenges where they see if the plane is faster than the car.
Dave and Tony left the next morning at 7.30 while Josie and I waited for the local garage to take Plan B away. We then jumped in a taxi to the airport for our flight later in the day.
We arrived at 11am to find we were the only people there and the airport was locked!!! You wouldn’t get that at Heathrow.
We waited and waited and waited and eventually other people started arriving and the airport opened it’s doors about 1pm. We were hoping to get something to eat and drink, but there were only machines that took coins and we had little change.
Tired, hungry and thirsty we eventually got on our plane at 5pm and as soon as the drinks trolley arrived we ordered a glass of wine each as we felt we deserved it. We had a great flight home, laughing and giggling all the way.
Jake met us at Stansted and dropped Josie home before taking me home about 8.30. Dave and Tony were still on the ferry at this point and I had to go out later to get Tony from Dave’s house.
I received a text yesterday from my insurance people to say Plan B will be delivered to my house on the 4th October.
Though we had a few problems at the end, I can quite confidently say that we had a great holiday, we are very proud of Plan B for getting as far as he did, and though we took a lot of spares with us, a fuel pump was not on the list.
I would like to thank Dean for working his magic, tuning the engine before we went. Dave and Josie for so many happy memories. Dave for trying his very, very best with Tony to get Plan B home under his own steam. Finally, Co-operative Bank breakdown insurance for being so helpful and stopping the situation from being stressful.
We can laugh about what happened as we went fully prepared, we have a sense of adventure and good breakdown insurance.
Plan B is coming home and can be easily fixed to do it all again.
I would recommend it to everyone!!
love to do something like this myself one day!
