Having had a rather nice diner and fully rested we
left the restaurant just after 10.00 pm. To start on the last and most
difficult leg of this 10CR, the long nightly haul across Germany. From the 2005
edition we had learned that driving large (monotonous) stretches of Autobahn at
night was a recipe for problems. That’s why Roger had worked out a nice and
easy route, using secondary through roads (so called Bundesstraßen) as far as
possible.
We firstly headed over the Austrian Bundesstraßen in
the direction of the little and rather picturesque German border town of
Füssen. If we’d driven this road by daylight I could have posted several
pictures with nice alpine views, but alas it was dark! Luckily the roads were
in very good condition, with clear markers and nice flowing corners. So the
driving was relative easy but nevertheless entertaining.
Despite missing an exit near Reutte we crossed into
Germany in good time. As we didn’t fancy searching for fuel in middle of the
night in deepest darkest Germany we first took a stretch of the A7, just to be
sure we had enough fuel for the ”inland” stretch. This also gave us the
opportunity for a little nap before carrying on .
We eventually left the A7 to join the B312 which we
followed all the way till its end near Stuttgart. This was actually quite a
nice road to drive. For the rest nothing much happened if it hadn’t been for
this red GT6 standing beside the road in the middle of a small sleepy village. Turned
out to be Don Cook who had some problems with his alternator, but thanks to his
mobile phone the rescue forces were
already on their way. And indeed they turned up within 5 minutes. After
chatting a bit with them we carried on, as there was nothing more for us to do
then stand in the way.
The only downside of taking the Bundesstraßen instead
of the Autobahn is that you’re passing lots of villages and small towns, and
they all have permanent speed traps. Good to know, but waiting to get caught
speeding nevertheless. While driving into the town of Bibberach over the B312
there was a speed limit of 70 kmh. Then the B312 turned left and the speed
limit dropped to 50 kmh. The moment I saw this I also noticed that the traffic
light a few hundred meters away changed to red. So I just let the car freewheel
to the lights. Wrong idea as a flash by the side of the road proved ... bugger!
I was doing less than 60 kmh. at the moment so I hope they won’t bother to sent
it across the border. A German friend told me the fine won’t be more then €
15,00, I hope she’s right!
To keep us awake there were some drunken youth’s
(probably going home) who thought it rather pleasant to walk in the middle of
the road in complete darkness !!!
But eventually, somewhere in the night we reached
Stuttgart where we joined the A8. By the time we passed Karlsruhe I could feel
some sleep coming up. So after fuelling up we put the car in the car park and
slept for an hour, before we hit the Autobahn for the last approximate 250 km
to the Nürburgring. At dawn we had our last stop, this time for breakfast.
After this we carried on to the Nürburgring where we arrived at exactly 8.00
am. Over the last hour or so the weather had really deteriorated in true Eiffel
style, wet, windy and chilly. The few crews that had arrived were all looking
slightly ... euhh ... sleepy!
(To avoid humiliation I felt I had to make him
unrecognisable 😜)
As it was not really the best kind of weather to hang
around for too long Roger and I decided to call it a day and decided to do the
last bit of the route as per the roadbook. For those of the entrants that
didn’t do this part through the German Eiffel, Luxemburg and the Belgium
Ardennes, you really missed a very nice bit of driving! Luckily the weather cleared
slightly and the roads dried up a bit, so we didn’t have to hang around too
much. Which nearly resulted in a head on collision just before entering
Luxemburg. While being chased by a local in some small hatchback I went into a
lefthander a bit to spirited, clipping the corner too much. The guy coming from
the other side was actual running wide so we more or less met head on in the
centre of the road. Luckily for me easy to rectify, of the throttle and a short
dab on the brakes and I was back where I belonged. When I looked in my mirrors
I could just see that the other two cars just managed not to hit each other as
they came to a standstill, but the chase was of.
After that it was into Luxemburg for a cheap fuel stop
and over familiar roads up to the continental finish in Rolduc where we arrived
just before 2.00 pm.
As there were no cars at the parking yet we thought we
were first but it turned out that the manager at Rolduc had decided it was
better to park the cars in the courtyard instead of the parking lot.
After putting the car to rest the only thing left to
do was instructing some Triumph minded friends who were volunteering to help
with directing everyone into the rather large complex, have a shower and make
my way to the bar which opened at 4.00 pm. Till date waiting for pictures of
that evening, saw lots of flashes but no pictures. The bar eventually closed,
an hour before the last team arrived, at 1.00 am in the morning.
As we were only an hour’s drive from home we were in
no hurry to get started next morning!
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