Trouble

An interesting ten days. And we're only in Germany.

To begin with, we did not actually leave on Saturday as planned; Bernard and I were not ready. We picked Ed up and went to Greenwich for the launch of the Roof of the World rally and to meet Emma. This was also the first time that Ed and Emma met each other, and the first time both of them met Bernard. All got on well, although Emma was a little concerned by the lack of space.

Having seen off the other teams, we then returned to Ed’s place for some further preparation – including putting some bits of Bernard back together and repacking more efficiently. This took most of the afternoon but was time very well spent for it made Sunday’s actual departure and the subsequent days on the road much better.

We got to Dover and found that our two pop-up tents were missing. Ed and I remembered not being happy with how secure they were when leaving, but then we forgot to retie them. Whoops. They are probably somewhere alongside the motorway, and we hope that they did not cause a major accident when they left us.

The next few days went well and we were well into Switzerland before the first problem. Cruising down the motorway when there was a loud clunk that we all heard and felt, we lost power and glided to a standstill on an exit slip-road. After some activity, we diagnosed a broken timing belt – a serious problem and clearly not one we could fix ourselves. Ed and I both have breakdown cover, but neither of us have European cover. Whoops. We managed to find a Land Rover dealer very close to where we were (on the edge of Zurich) so we had the car transported there and they had a look.

It was indeed a broken timing belt. This was particularly curious given that I had had the timing belt changed the week before departure to avoid an expensive and potentially trip-threatening situation should it break. And here we were in the middle of an expensive and potentially trip-threatening situation. I am going to have some very interesting conversations with a few people when I get back.

Fortunately, however, the garage appeared to know what they were doing and so ordered the new parts and set about repairing the damage. It gave us a few days to get to know Zurich, a city that we found to be fun, friendly, attractive with plenty to offer.

We finally got Bernard back and he seemed to be running well, so we set off, camping that night at Innsbruck in Austria. The journey went well but the following day it went wrong: black smoke, horrible noise and loss of power. Once again, we glided to a halt at the side of the motorway. I will not recount any of the language used at the time, but I think you can imagine what was going through our minds.

Initial diagnosis identified a bolt that was no longer binding – directly where the Swiss garage had been working. Another interesting conversation is on the way. In the meantime, however, we had to get somewhere to have the problem fixed and, fortunately, another Land Rover dealer was close by, so we headed there on the back on another rescue lorry. This was Saturday, and we were told nothing would be done before Monday, so we abandoned Bernard at the recovery firm and headed off to Munich, another city that we had not planned to visit but were now having the chance to discover.

We have had a lot of conversations about what to do; worst case scenarios discussed and back up action plans have been prepared. It all depends on how quickly the Germans can get us going again. Today we spoke to the garage and the problem was identified: the upper camshaft is broken in two places. The German garage were reluctant to directly blame the Swiss garage, but it’s clearly no coincidence.

They also told us we may have the car back as soon as tomorrow and be back on the road. Time is marching on and we are a long way behind schedule, so some places will be skipped and the next week will mean more driving than we would like. The real pressure is with our Russian visas – we have to be out of Russia by 25th July or extend the visas. The next few days will decide which option we take.

The irony has not escaped me that all of these problems on the trip are directly due to the work I had done in advance of our departure to avoid problems on the trip. Bernard was running so smoothly beforehand, and so I hope he will be the same again. We have had to endure significant delay and considerable expense. I am worried now that SWORDE-Teppa may not be getting the car I promised them, and worst of all is my loss of confidence in Bernard.

However, all is not gloom and doom: morale is still high; we have got to know Zurich and Munich – both great places; we have had some adventures, a lot of laughs and met some great people; we have also had experiences that we would not have had if all had gone according to plan. And experience was the point of the trip almost as much as delivering Bernard. So, fingers and toes are crossed that we can continue to make it a successful trip.

There are some pictures on the website, and others will be added as we go on.

More in due course.