mirror of
https://expo.survex.com/repositories/expoweb/.git/
synced 2024-11-23 07:41:56 +00:00
121 lines
6.3 KiB
HTML
121 lines
6.3 KiB
HTML
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0//EN">
|
|
<html>
|
|
<head>
|
|
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" />
|
|
<title>1988: Cambridge Underground report</title>
|
|
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../../css/main2.css" />
|
|
</head>
|
|
<body>
|
|
<center><font size=-1>Cambridge Underground 1989 pp 15-17</font>
|
|
<h2>Homeward bound (I wish I was) or. A Rover's Return</h2>
|
|
<h3>by Tina White (and Mike Richardson a bit)</h3>
|
|
|
|
<p>Featuring: Rover the Rover (age 32)<br>
|
|
and: Little Min (age 14)</center>
|
|
|
|
<p>We waved at each other cheerily as we left Gasthof Staud'n'wirt, thinking
|
|
"we've got plenty of time, we might even get an earlier ferry!". Little Min
|
|
was the first to have problems. The milo was dead, the speedo was dead, as
|
|
was the fuel gauge and the temp gauge. We had an instrument-free panel. This,
|
|
combined with a small, leaky petrol tank was not good. Little Min did her
|
|
best but that wasn't good enough when the drivers kept overestimating how
|
|
much petrol was left. Also, German autobahns sometimes leave awfully large
|
|
gaps between petrol stations. Running out was OK we thought, we had two cans
|
|
in the back. But on running dry a second time Little Min protested at being
|
|
abused. She would not start. She was all clogged up and very heavy to push.
|
|
|
|
<p>Then a green and cream vehicle went past. "Look," said Mike, "its Rover."
|
|
"Nah," said Tina, "that's wishful thinking." "Oh look, its stopped, and who's
|
|
that coming towards us?", said somebody. It was a good fairy in the shape of
|
|
a hirsute caver who hadn't changed his underpants for three weeks. But even
|
|
so, Adam was welcome. Little Min was bump started and with Rover travelling
|
|
in convoy, just in case, made it to a petrol station in Luxembourg.
|
|
"Hooray!".
|
|
|
|
<p>It was a good job that Team Min was there because Team Rover hadn't got
|
|
enough dosh of the right type to pay for the petrol. They'd got some French
|
|
Francs and Deutschmarks, but the man didn't want them to pay with a
|
|
combination. He was being awkward and demanded one denomination only. All was
|
|
well, we bade one another guten tag and continued
|
|
|
|
<p>Team Rover decided to slog on to the coast, hahaha! Team Min got too tired
|
|
and kipped down for the night. The next time Little Min ran out of petrol the
|
|
good fairies didn't arrive so we huffed and we puffed (rather, Mike did) and
|
|
on the tenth attempt, she started. We were very tense, and considered
|
|
changing roads, autobahns aren't made for Little Min, so off we went onto the
|
|
B road. Luckily for Rover, we found a petrol station quickly, and
|
|
reconsidered.
|
|
|
|
<p>"That's Rover," said Tina, pointing to a service station car park. "Oh
|
|
yes, and there's an axle stand under the back wheel" replied Mike. As we got
|
|
close, we found Rover very ill. First, a big ball of flame had erupted out of
|
|
his back wheel arch, causing Adam to decide to stop. The oil had leaked, the
|
|
bearing had run red hot, the brake seals had failed, and brake fluid sprayed
|
|
onto the bearing wooomph! Jared knew the French for "brakes" on the SOS
|
|
telephone. The man who came disconnected the brake and told them to drive
|
|
carefully. And all had gone well, until they tried to go round a corner in
|
|
the car park, when the wheel fell off. When Team Min arrived, they had had
|
|
breakfast and were thinking of leaving Rover and hitching home (aah, poor
|
|
Rover).
|
|
|
|
<p>Team Min to the rescue, drove to Dunquerque, and threw themselves on the
|
|
mercy of a very nice French lady at the Sally Line. She must have thought us
|
|
right idiots, coming in saying "we have a broken down Land Rover 20km away,
|
|
what do we do?". She organised a man to move Rover, and a taxi to take us to
|
|
the man, and she let us take Rover right up to the ramp at the ferry
|
|
terminal. She interpreted our English to everybody. Rover only had to limp a
|
|
few yards, with the brake shoes and drum as wheel bearings. Jared walked
|
|
alongside to check that the wheel didn't fall off again. Amazingly, with all
|
|
the drama we were still only four hours off schedule, but it wasn't over
|
|
yet...
|
|
|
|
<p>Meanwhile, back at the P&O (would you trust this ferry line?), where
|
|
Team Rover was supposed to be, Adam tried to use his ticket. A cock-up on the
|
|
way out meant that the vital bit was missing, and he had to buy another. We
|
|
had wondered about getting help from P&O (sail safe, sail Sally!) because
|
|
we thought Rover was booked on there. But in the end we thought the Sally
|
|
Line was best 'cos it was smaller and nearer and that was worth an extra
|
|
ferry ticket. It was a good job we did. We wouldn't have been happy Wombles
|
|
turning up at P&O, having paid 'loads-more-money' on the recovery and
|
|
STILL having to buy another ticket.
|
|
|
|
<p>The RAC were called in Dunquerque. Unfortunately the RAC card got left
|
|
there as well (take a bow, Mike). All was not lost. We rang them again in
|
|
Folkestone using the phone no. on the RAC card that goes with the Mini. A
|
|
little man came but he didn't do anything. He was just sent to check we
|
|
weren't lying and had just ran out of petrol or something like that, and he
|
|
phoned up the computer to check we really had got a card. Hours later the
|
|
little man who does did. We were whisked back to Cambridge much faster than
|
|
Rover is used to. Little Min had a hard job keeping up.
|
|
|
|
<p>The story is nearly over. Only one more thing could go wrong, the
|
|
alternator. Again we were lucky (well things could have been worse!), five
|
|
miles from home the ignition light came on and a strange noise was heard. But
|
|
Little Min managed to get home before she conked out which is more than can
|
|
be said for Rover (sorry Mike).
|
|
|
|
<hr />
|
|
<!-- LINKS -->
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>Cambridge Underground 1989,
|
|
<a href="../../../jnl/1989/index.htm">Table of Contents</a></li>
|
|
<li>1988 Expedition info:
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li><a href="index.htm">Index</a> (more detail than in this list)</li>
|
|
<li><a href="log.htm">Logbook</a></li>
|
|
<li>Cambridge Underground Expo Report:
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li><a href="report.htm">Austria 1988</a> expedition report</li>
|
|
<li><a href="cavegd.htm">161 Description</a> to date (ie. 1988)</li>
|
|
<li><a href="164.htm">1623/164</a> exploration</li>
|
|
<li><a href="to1989.htm">And so to 1989</a> work for 1989 expo to date</li>
|
|
</ul></li>
|
|
<li><a href="bcracc.htm">BCRA Caves & Caving Report</a></li>
|
|
</ul></li>
|
|
<li><a href="../../pubs.htm#pubs1988">Index</a> to all publications</li>
|
|
<li><a href="../../index.htm">Back to Expeditions intro page</a></li>
|
|
<li><a href="../../../index.htm">CUCC Home Page</a></li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
</body>
|
|
</html>
|