I have been pretty busy lately with my holiday season. Though that ended already a few weeks ago. Time to catch up a bit on the action, starting with the first trip: Club Triumph’s 10 Countries Run. As the previous edition in 2024 I teamed up with Monique, a friend and her 1977 TR7 V8. The event itself should, according to the roadbook, cover approximately 2550 kilometres. And contrary to the previous edition, the distance was this time spread out over six days instead of five. As such there should be more time to enjoy the scenery without getting at the overnight locations late in the evening. A few pictures of the first three days of the event:
Day 0: A short rest in the Belgian Ardennes Forest (N819 Rue du Palis near Bouillon)
on our way to the start in Sedan (F).
Day 1: Walking back to our hotel through the old town centre of Biberach an der Riß (D)
This was actually a glitch in the GPX-file, caused by a slightly of route waypoint! (A)
In the last picture above the first signs of doom can be spotted in the shape of coolant being thrown out from the header tank’s overflow pipe. At the time we thought this was caused by the combination of a spirited drive up the mountain in combination with the high altitude. And sure enough the remainder of that day’s stage proved to be without any problems.
The next day started well, crossing the Plöckenpass on the border between Austria and Italy without problems. The wet and cool weather probably helped here! But a few hundred meters under the top of the next pass, the Forcella di Monte Rest, the temperature gauge suddenly went into the danger zone. Fortunately, a parking bay was available on the otherwise very narrow road. A quick check of the cooling system seemed to indicate at a radiator leak. However, it turned out to be rainwater running from the hood over the radiator. But there were also small traces of dried coolant visible (something that looked familiar to me!) Clearly, something was not right! Time to make use of the international roadside assistance. And after most of the participants had passed, we decided to drive back down into the first village slowly and wait there for the recovery truck. And after a few hours waiting the recovery truck did show up.
Sadly that wasn’t the end of the story. The tow truck’s driver brought us to wrong garage. And when we found that out the lady in charge refused to hand back the cars documents despite several requests for this. In the end I managed to retrieve the documents (stealing according to the lady in charge!) and hand them back to Monique. By that time we were completely fed up with it. So we decided to take the gamble that the cooling system would hold out a little longer. And after more discussions we left the premises to go in search for a hotel nearby. Which we eventually found in a little village several miles to the North. Because the cooling system had behaved well on the way to the hotel, we decided to try to reach Switzerland the next day via a flat detour. The long way round over the motorway towards Venice. And from there towards Milan, Como and across the border into Switzerland and our booked hotel near Andermatt. Hoping that we would receive better service there!
Or the long and fairly easy way round. First heading towards Venice
and from there towards Milan, Lake Como and into Switzerland.
We managed to reach the our destination in the end. Though not without a few extra stops to check the coolant system. At one point close to our destination the temperature gauge suddenly went to cold. Pointing towards an empty cooling system. It wasn’t. At least it was clear the car was not fit enough to carry on. So the roadside assistance was called upon again. They would contact us the next morning to let us know where we could leave the car and where we could go for a rental car. It took them till after midday to come back to us. But at least we had an address where we could drop of the car and get details where we could pick up the hire car. Dropping of the car went pretty smooth but there was no sign or mention of a hire car. Fast forward a few hours and we got a message that the had found one and that it would be with us in the afternoon … of the following day! It is high time to throw in the towel and look for alternatives to get home. Turned out there was a railway station in the small village of Erstfeld where we hanging around. So two one way tickets were booked to Maastricht. Departure time 20:34h and ETA in Maastricht around 8:00h the next morning!
But we never reached Maastricht. Thanks to the modern social media and Monique’s neighbour we had a taxi home from Bahnhof Frankfurt Flughafen, knocking a fair amount of time of the journey. As a result of which I was back home on the Saturday morning before 7:00h! And after a few hours sleep I dug out ‘t Kreng and headed towards the finish location, the abbey of Rolduc in Kerkrade for a few well deserved beers and some food. Was good to see most of the cars had made it to the finish. A few pictures from the parking area:
