We returned home from another
great trip through some countries of Europe. "10 Countries, 4 days, 14 Alpine
passes, 2000 miles, 85 Triumphs" as the package states. Or we survived Club
Triumph’s 2019 edition of the 10 Countries Run!
To the start in Sedan (F)
The Netherlands-Germany-The
Netherlands-Belgium-France
(263 km, 3:10hr)
We headed off towards our
hotel near the start early in the afternoon. This way we would be able to spend
some time in the town of Sedan. Glad to say our hotel was above average for the
town! Some pictures taken during our stroll through the town centre …
The car in front of our hotel,
in the courtyard of the imposing Chateau de Sedan (F)
And seen from the hotel room
Nice NSU 1200 TT in the centre
of Sedan (F)
Nice hotel (AirBnB😂) in the town's centre, close to the
river Meuse
Also came across this
abandoned looking TR7 in the town centre.
Actually one of the entrants car’s in
front of his hotel …
And a few more pictures of some of Sedan's faded history ...
Day one; Sedan (F) –
Bartholomäberg (A)
France-Belgium-France-Belgium-France-Luxemburg-France-Germany-Switzerland-Liechtenstein-Austria
(655 km, 12:14hr)
As in previous editions the
first day was a nice mix of all kinds of roads through most of the countries we
would pass through on this run. Some truly memorable driving roads, including
the Belgian-Luxembourg-French border area, the Col du Haut de Ribeauville in
the French Vosges area, and around the Feldberg in Germany, to name a few. With
the best bit, chasing a scooter down a fast flowing road down one of the many
mountains in the south of Germany. Good fun! But a few pictures from the start in Sedan first:
At the start in Sedan (F)
Near the summit of the Col du
Haut de Ribeauville,
in the Ballon des Vosges Nature reserve (F)
Fantastic turn out of the
Swiss TR Club in Bütschwill (CH), where they were lining the road to welcome us.
Sadly a lot of the entrants had chosen an alternative route, so missed this
sight.
Day two; Bartholomäberg (A) –
Dölsach (A)
Austria-Italy-Austria
(458 km, 10:40hr)
The weather forecast hadn’t
been too good for this day, but the weather turned out to be just fine. And
with some lovely driving roads what more do you want! This day’s drive went
over some high Alpine passes, inclusing the Silvretta Hochalpenstraße, Sella Joch, Passo
Pordoi, Passo di Campolongo and the Staller Sattel. The last one being a one
way pass. Brilliant!
On our way up the Silvretta Hochalpenstraße (A) early in the morning
(©EllisS)
Official start of day two, near the top of the Silvretta
Lunch stop in Sankt Ulrich,
Grödner Tal (I)
On the Passo Pordoi (I)
On the Passo Pordoi (I)
On the Passo Pordoi (I)
On the Passo Pordoi (I)
Waiting at the traffic light for the driving
direction to change
Staller Sattel (I) on the border between Süd Tyrol and Austria
Day three; Dölsach (A) –
Adelsried (D)
Austria-Germany-Austria-Germany-Austria-Germany
(543 km, 10:13hr)
The third day sadly started as the
second day had been forecasted, rather wet and dreary. But despite the bad weather it still was a rather enjoyable day's driving. Which included the Großglockner Hochalpenstraße, the Gerlos Paß and part of the Deutsche Alpenstraße to name a few.
Official start of day three at
the bottom of the Großglockner Hochalpenstraße (A)
As it was rather wet and chilly
we decided to head on ...
… and enjoy the views near the
top of the Großglockner Hochalpenstraße (A)
Lunch stop in Achental (A), close
to the Achen Pa
Along the shores of the Plan
See (A), in the Austrian-German border area near Reutte.
Day four; Adelsried (D) –
Kerkrade (NL)
Germany-The Netherlands
(632 km, 8:38hr)
Day four started rather wet. But by the time
the sun got out we were trying to win back some time which we lost because of
roadworks on the B25 between Harburg and Möttingen. Sadly they forgot to sign
out the diversion. And the GPS decided it wanted to go back to the closed road
constantly. I later found out that with the last map update all roadworks
and speed cameras had been wiped of the memory. So we had to rely on the road book
and the “emergency map” But we came back to the official route in the end. As we
had lost half an hour, we decided to press on. Luckily the weather was fine by
now which made for a pleasant drive through the heart of Germany. Taking in
parts of the Romantische Straße and some nice roads between Nördlingen and Miltenberg.
Soon after which we hit the motorway near Aschaffenburg the rain returned. And
it would accompany us almost right till the end. Though the rain died away
slowly when we were crossing the Eifel from the Nürburgring towards the finish in Rolduc,
where we arrived around 5:00 in the afternoon.
Time for a quick shower and a look at the awesome abbey complex ...
... and some food and beer …
Boring statistics etc.
Total distance covered: 2756
kilometres;
Total fuel consumption: ±300 litres;
Average fuel consumption: ±9,2 km/lt.
Maintenance needed: not
really! This time all fluid levels remained where they should be throughout the
event, close to their maximum marks. Only the engines' oil level dropped a little, but
not enough to top it up! The only “problem” (if you could call it that) was a
brake light switch that decided to go on strike. But that took only a few
minutes to rectify.
Overall the car behaved very
well. But there will always be things that need improvement or repairs. The
most important one still are the brakes. Though it is safe to say that the work
I carried out just before the event did improve the feel of the brake pedal a
lot. But from time to time the feel of the brake pedal still is a bit random.
That needs to be investigated further. And I found out that crickets are very good at impersonating the sound of chirping brakes 😂
Other things that need
addressing are the clock that stopped working. So I’ll have to pull the one
from the original instrument cluster, because that was working properly. Also
one of the four LED’s I put into the instrument cluster decided not to work.
Probably a bad contact or something. And the fuel gauge still is registering in
the lower area. So that points to a faulty sender unit in the fuel tank. But to
get that sorted I’ll have to empty the tank first. To be continued …
And finally looking at the cars fuel consumption it looks like the fuelling isn't to lean any more. Will look at that when I check the car in the coming few days!
No comments:
Post a Comment