“On the Stelvio trip I kept a rough diary which I tried to update every evening. Some evenings the scrawls were basically unintelligible due to massive Spanish Gin and Tonics! To be honest it all became a bit of a blur, just the fantastic combination of eating drinking and driving long hours every day. Apologies for any inaccuracies. As I started typing a lot came back to me, it has been possibly the trip of a lifetime. Big thanks to T&J for the organisation and total commitment to making it so enjoyable. Also many thanks to:
Lisa & Campbell, Christiaan & Claire, Tut, Paul, Rob (Geezer) Groom, Arrianne & Greg and Mark Derry for making up our usual key crew and fantastic company on the roads and in the evenings. Lastly, "total big up masseev respect" to the Team Techno crew.
I am amazed at how well they took it all. For Ross to Pax with Tut shows nerves, and Robin is the only guy I have ever had in the car who actually giggles and chortles at dodgy overtakes and my lift off oversteer moment! I will always remember the conversation we had immediately after the incident where Robin said something like "yeah F@ckin' SE's - we don't just crack a clam shell".
Anyway, here are the lies and embellishments:
Day One.
We set off from the carpark opposite the famous Esso garage. Campbell takes first picture of the trip, a group shot, of which I would love a copy!! Tut also discovers a loose heat shield, as well as points out a seepage from the new oil cooler! Team techno boot up all their appliances and off we go down 'old familiar' i.e A701. Good fast run in two groups, hit the motorway and then down to Tebay services. I discover to my horror that the CD player has stopped working.
This is quite alarming - Tut of course finds it hilarious! We turn off the motorway into a part of the country I am not familiar with at all. Think it is Yorkshire, somewhere connected with cheeses and James Herriot anyway!
Great roads with some superb hill sections but not as well sighted as Scotland due to lots of dry stone dykes. We have a great lunch, which is followed by my discovery of a reset button behind the stereo face, which does the trick - superb! We then blat cross country to link up with A1/M1.
Time is now marching on, so we agree on sticking with motorway to Leatherhead. I am sticking to Cambell & Lisa and am most impressed. They both demonstrate superb motorway driving. The M25 at 9.30pm is still madness. Brief rain which luckily doesn't come to anything. We all regroup at the Leatherhead junction, then Campbell leads us to his local Chinese (which he cunningly booked whilst on the motorway). This involves the bewildering Leatherhead one way system Grand Prix.... Late but good meal. Paul, Tut, Robin and Ross are in a travel lodge, whilst Lisa and Campbell are kindly putting me up in the flat.
Bed.
Day Two. Leatherhead/Southrun/Portsmouth.
Early rise by Campbell and myself to attach headlamp deflectors and other such last minute tinkering. The hoods come off and are to stay off for the next 14 days. We then pack up the cars. Bit of a moment when Cam's bootlid jams shut and will not open due to all the gear crammed inside. 15mins of jiggling and problem solved.
We meet up
with the others on the A3. Tut has blasted off early with the intention of doing the whole southrun, but we learn later that he went the wrong way up the M25 for half an hour! We arrive at Goodwood, loads and loads of Elises, lots of milling around and we then wait for our lap, which is over far too quickly. Superb circuit though and would love to do a track day there.
Everyone else heads off, but Paul, Campbell & Lisa, Robin, Ross and myself are toying with the idea of seeing if we can arrange some track time.. This is largely due to the fact that our initial assessment of the southrun is that it is just too busy in terms of Elises and of other road users. There is of course the fear of doing damage/getting nabbed at this stage of the game. Paul goes off to find out if there is any chance of track time. He finds out that the answer is "yes if we had any instructors available, but we don't, sorry!" Oh well. We find a great Pub with massive garden for lunch, which is good. Tut and others go off to terrorise people, we just lounge arround. Robin removes the central brain of Team Techno in order for Lisa to watch a DVD. She is wearing Paul's headphones and chuckling away to herself ('till the battery runs out :-( Campbell goes off to find a pressure washer whilst Team Techno repair their mirror which has fallen off. Paul and myself read the papers. Great afternoon, which can best be described as the quiet before the storm.......... We then head off to Portsmouth, stopping at a mate of C & L's who lives 10mins from the ferry terminal. He kindly feeds us beer and we then head off to the terminal and we catch up with Tut and others. Onto the boat with a whole bunch of strange 3 wheeled Citroen powered vehicles which are so esoteric that you apparently can only drive if you are retired and wear silly hats. Bizarre thing is that most seem to have multi coloured bike hero replica helmets strapped to their totally overloaded luggage racks. Some even have trailers. We head onto the boat, and meet up in the bar (complete with tacky entertainment). Tut abuses all the English football fans celebrating their victory over Germany.
We have a meal, back to the bar where we stay until they kick us out at 3am.
We are surprised at this as Robin had set the challenge of 6am and pretty much everyone was up for it. Lisa and Cam give a superb 70's stylee disco dancing demonstration and we all loose 20 quid in the casino. Good night!
Day Three. On the boat.
Late rise by all, there is a pre-Stelvio brief at 12 noon, where Tony dispenses good advice as do some of the others who have been on previous ones. Quick lunch, watch the final stages of the Grand Prix (in German) then back to the bar. Ross wins 30 quid on the puggy, so Robin and I help him drink it.......Dinner then off to the cinema to watch 'Swordfish' simply 'cause it has a TVR Tuscan in it. Rest is a load of bollocks. Earlyish to bed.
Day Four. Bilbao-St. Ettienne de Bagory-Jaca.
Up at some ungodly hour to get off the boat. Disembark and then form up a fairly massive group in the port. Onto the motorway. Just after we turn off Tut's car will not restart. Visions of a very, very early bath for him, but luckily restarts eventually. We are heading for the only planned lunch stop of the trip just over the French border, where we will meet up with the continental entries. Even at this early stage the main SE based group/s are becoming clear. Tut, Paul, Team Techno and Greg Blackband (Ali S2) plus myself are pottering along. Pull up at a T junction and watch two speed cops on bikes go past. 10 mins later we are on quite a long stretch of road, passing through some roadworks. Large truck and some cars..........Tut, Paul, Team Techno and Greg all pass the truck who decides to speed up and close the gap, so that Greg is left with no choice but to floor it and pass everything, including the two cops who pull him!! We decide to carry on for a wee while as all pulling into the same layby as the cops might just compound the situation, therefore we stop at the next village and have a big discussion about Greg's fate. Tut grabs a beer and Greg pulls in.
Amazingly he got off with a 30 quid fine! Not bad considering he was doing about 3x the limit on a no-overtake line...........God I wish the UK was as tolerant. We meet up slightly late for a great lunch at a really scenic restaurant by a river. Tut regales us all with stories of dynamiting fish and then exposes himself to the entire Stelvio squad whilst putting his shorts on....Afternoon run includes some interesting cow infested roads (it later transpires one of the cows booted the front clam of one of the cars.
Same car later got trapped in the automatic garage doors. LOL). We get to Jaca, which looks quite lively. However the entrance to the hotel garage is a f@cking nightmare. Even cars on standard ride heights are grounding out everywhere, the noises are horrendous. At least it all sounds worse than it is!! Hotel is okay, we assume meal is included, so stay in to eat and face the surly head waiter who will not give Paul, Greg, Rob and myself the wine list?
Food is okay, later in the bar Campbell lines up a nightcap for all of the local speciality (transpires to be tequila in almost half pint measures).
Head off to bed with that horrendous taste in the mouth akin to siphoning shittty diesel! Tony Churly impresses us all by downing the massive shot Campbell offers him!
Day Five. Jaca - Vielha - Andorra.
The core group (for us anyhows) is pretty much defined by now. Basically reads all the SE entries, Christiaan and Claire (who are SE anyway!) Greg, Rob Groom and sometimes Mark Derry (sole 340R nutter). Mark's front undertray is pretty much minced after yesterday, so he intends a direct blast to Andora where there is a Lotus dealer (allegedly). There are two possible routes, one includes a highly dodgy ungraded road which Team Techno, Rob G, Chris and Claire and myself elect for. It turns out to be great, although the suspension wrecking possibilities are numerous. Views are magnificent and other road users are great apart from one twat in a Freelander who holds us all up (deliberately) for 12ks. Christiaan is leading and despite his weaving and headlights the prick blocks every move.
Eventually reach a junction where I make our feelings known with the finger.
We then come to a magnificent gorge section on the main route. Here there is no run off, in fact on one side there is Armco, the other side the rocks are so close as to often overhang the road. The bends are magnificent. I have my first moment of the trip, being too late on the brakes into a corner and getting the back end well out off shape. Whole thing is caught on video by Rob G behind me. Luckily nothing was coming the other way. Meet up with Lisa & Cam for lunch and replays! After lunch there is a magnificent run up to the huge tunnel at Vielha. Road is very fast but the altitude is affecting all the cars as everyone is running out of puff. I got a wee bit carried away in the huge tunnel, pulled out to overtake and only team techno's main beam flashing woke me up to tunnel regulations..... When we come out the other side it is like entering a different world. Low cloud, greasy roads and chilly. Team Tech and Chris & Claire understandably back off as they are both on Yoko cut slicks. In Vielha we meet up with Tut, Paul, Greg and Jean Pierre who have had a slap up lunch. We then descend the other side of the mountain, thick fog etc and see the rapidly approaching Tony & Jane, Steven Mack' and Alexandra. As we hit the valley floor it then becomes a chase. 10 + Elises and massive speeds. Sensibly Team Tech and Lisa & Cam drop back (it is a bit much with the numbers involved). Tut, Paul, JP, Greg peel off for fuel leaving Myself, Rob G, Chris & Claire to chase 'em. The four of us stop for a beer, everyone blasts past and we then continue to Andorra. What can I say about the place apart from the fact that it is cramped, very busy. First and last visit. Only any good if you are a consumer electronic/perfume/fag/cigar smoking type (basically describing myself apart from the perfume bit!) Rob G somehow navigates us to our hotel. I spy Ross and Mark getting into the 340r and assume they are going to the hotel car park, so try to be clever and follow. Later realise they are going to the Lotus 'dealer'.
There they try to straighten Mark's undertray with a cold chisel and identify John's (Danish guy) coolant leak. Ross and myself go into the showroom to check out low Andorra prices. They only have an Exige (32 grand) and a 340R (38 grand). After much laughter neither of us are tempted (my cow shit splattered orange car was not looking like a good trade in prospect and I have never seen car prices which can only be displayed on 12 digit desk top calculators). We admire the Porsche Turbo in the w/shop and head for the hotel, leaving Mark and John to deal with the crowds of bystanders who are wandering in off the streets to look at the goings on.
On the way back to the hotel Ross and myself conclude that judging by the reaction from the pretty hot local girls we could get quite used to swanning around here <BG>. Back at the hotel we get showered and meet up with everyone for beers in the adjoining plaza. Paul has decided to try and get his daughter to come out to join him for the rest of the trip, but later turns out she cannot make it. We all have a great meal in a pizzeria with massive brandies and head for home. Have to say that it was about 10hrs of some of the best roads I have ever driven.
Day Six. Andorra-Barcelona.
Late start (becoming the norm for SE.) We all head out as the usual suspects in two groups. Meet up at the top of a magnificent pass for photo opportunities, in Tut's case it is time for a quick re-map (first of many!) as the altitude is affecting the car pretty badly.....We head down from Andorra area on pretty busy roads. At one point we follow some local headcase in a SJ410 who disproves everything I have ever heard about their lack of corner stability... We have a good lunch stop where the girl serving does a superb job of translating the menu. Tut borrows some spanners off some totally bemused local garage in order to tighten up his troublesome oil cooler. We then decide on two viewpoints/objectives - those who want the more direct run to Barcelona & those who want to spend more time in the mountains. Lisa & Cam, Paul, Chris & Claire opt for a more direct route in order to try and spend some time in Barcelona. This leaves
Team Tech, Tut. Rob G, Greg, Mark and myself to take a more twisty section.
Greg is leading and navigating on his own, pace is very fast and once we hit some fast A-roads the pace is becoming pretty frantic. I pull an overtake on a truck which was rather reckless (i.e makes me shiver thinking about it), shortly after that Team techno end up on the gravel on the otherside of the road, having chosen that option rather than the JCB fast approaching whilst they were overtaking the same truck.......Greg then picks up a rather scantily clad, tanned girl (leading does have some advantages). We all laugh with envy as she poses on the S2 for a photo and then kisses him goodbye! We then take it a bit slower into Barcelona and find our beachfront modernist hotel with hassle free parking - yippee! We chill/siesta and then congregate downstairs. Xavier has local knowledge, so we arrange to meet him near his choice of restaurant. We grap a couple of people carrier taxis (driven by nutters) and battle our way into central Barcelona. The eatery is great, house wine 1 pound a bottle, great meal for about 6 quid each!! The waiters then bring out brandies and the local octane booster, Greg breaks out massive cigars he bought in Andorra. Shots of the firewater all round, then Lisa decides to get serious, so Lisa, Greg, Robin & myself start knocking this stuff back. The waiters eventually left us the bottle and we got trolleyed. There are intentions of clubbing, but as it turns out only team tech & Greg go looking for action (and get propositioned by ladies of the night). Rest of us head home and find Lisa, Cam, Chris & Claire semi-carrying Lisa into the hotel. Great evening!!
Day Seven. Barcelona to Teruel.
We all wake up to horrendous hangovers (well, we were warned by Xavier!).
Robin slept on his bathroom floor, Lisa can't remember much and basically we all feel terrible. We set off on the route (Team tech, Paul, Tut, Greg, Rob & myself). pace is slow enough to allow a Seat Tdi to overtake the whole lot of us which sends Tut into a flat spin!! But he doesn't realise how ill the routemeister (Robin) is! We then elect to autovia it to a lunchstop. Even that we manage to mess up by going into the wrong toll booths and bringing the whole thing to a complete standstill! Eventually park up for lunch and are promptly joined by loads of others (including a very sheepish Lisa!). Greg goes off to be ill off a bridge, general consensus is that most just want to cruise to our destination. I sense that Tut is about to flip out, so volunteer to lead Tut, Paul and Rob G. Start off, within 20 mins I go round a bend to find a landslide accross the road.
Did test my braking distance. The roads now are bumpy, very very slidey.
Rob G realises his Pzeros are totally shot, so backs off. The three of us then continue with a very fast run including some interesting loose surface roadworks for 9 kms!! Last section is brand new sweeping bends allowing 100mph plus nonsense into Teruel where by a stroke of luck we follow Tony & Jane, Stephen & Alexandra into the tiny hotel carpark. Everyone else has to use public underground one. We find our rooms, I go to check out my balcony and am 'treated' to the unforgettable site of a naked Tut one floor up throwing bits of fruit at the opposing building. As Paul then appears further along in a similar state I am quite traumatised! The hotel is good, the food (which is described as local specialities) is bloody awfull!
Starter is breadcrumbs fried in week old oil! Robin's vegetarian
option turns out to be a plate of 5 slices of cheese - all the
same type!
Reasonably early night after our Barcelona antics!!
Day Eight. Teruel to Toledo.
For once an early start by SE. Last night Tut was threatening Tony and Stephen with our company, which may explain their very early start!! It is quite chilly but looks like it will burn off. 1st section very good mountains and one gravel stage through a forested national park. After the mountains it is into the high plains of central Spain. Heat is searing, roads are super smooth with massive straights. Greg takes the lead for this section and he has good reason (read Arianne his girlfriend meeting him) to want to get to Toledo in good time. Therefore lunch is skipped, pace is as fast as the cars can go (literally!). Tut of course does a few 140mph blasts before realising he has to drop back as he doesn't have a clue where he is, has no map, and still thinks we are near the seaside. 'Tis literally a case of applying suncream at 100mph, and forcing water down to avoid dehydration. We get into Toledo which is stunning and find our hotel, a Parador which transpires to be the best of the whole trip. It is set on a hill overlooking the town. The pool & terrace bar has one of the best views ever. We have a very late tapas lunch, meet Arianne who is great - real livewire. I siesta, later join the others for the end of the huge G&T and swimming session. Fantastic meal on the terrace overlooking the town, couple of drinks in the bar and bed. Fantastic place - we all actually comment that we could happily spend another day there!
Day Nine. Toledo to Caceres.
First part of the day is extremely bumpy, suspension wrecking possibilities and the deserted countryside of Extremadura. The noises from the cars are slightly unnerving! Again we opt for no lunch, the later part of the day is back onto fairly straight roads with good surfaces. The heat is intense (i.e 40c!). We scream past the local Guardia in a petrol station at about 120mph. Obviously they decide their 10 year old Nissan Patrol is not the ideal pursuit vehicle (luckily!). The relative boredom (if such antics can ever be boring?) accounts for no lunch stop. Five miles from our destination we stop for fuel. After filling up I see a puddle of coolant under offside sill. Nightmare....... Robin surmises either waterpump (i.e.game over) or hose at/in the sill. Either way is a major prob. We limp into Caceres, where Arianne's good Spanish gets us to the hotel.
Unfortunately the parking is a municipal underground job a good 10mins away from the hotel. We park up, head back for a couple of hours. Tut's car is also playing up, won't idle, won't start etc. He and I are pretty pissed off. I head to my room, fall asleep for an hour before realising I have to do something about it. At reception I try to find a garage with ramps/pit to enable me to get the undertray off to check it out. Eventually head off to the car park with Ross (who thankfully has decided I might need some morale support) to meet 'Jesus' the breakdown mechanic. Turns out to be a fiesta in Caceres! Jesus speaks not one word of English. He attempts to tow my car (err, no thanks). Eventually a very helpfull girl translates and we follow Jesus to a dodgy 'Reservoir Dogs' style warehouse.........Jesus basically is just f@cking around on his mobile and stinking of booze, so myself and Ross just set about his truck and warehouse. There is no ramps or pit, so we grab his trolley jack, raise the car by driving it onto bits of asbestos! and then jack up the offside. Ross grabs Jesus' socket set and we then whip off undertray and diffuser. After removal the cause is obvious; coolant has been pissing out the header tank, onto the tray and then running forward and across. Thank God! We get the trays back on. 20 mins start to finish. Jesus' boss and entire family then arrive. I get totally ripped off, but we are in no position/place to argue....Get back to hotel, down a much needed beer. Shower and then we head out to a nearby restaurant for a group meal which is superb. Caceres is great, the central square is magnificent and heaving. Paul and myself wander down to it for a beer. The local girls (i.e teams of 16 year olds) are causing me palpitations (Paul too!). Am seriously tempted to bring down the 'Liz which is 2 mins away.
This train of thought becomes even more tempting when I see how much attention the local hero in a WRX is given........Head to bed before I blow a gasket!
Day Ten. Caceres - Zamora.
After breakfast Paul manages to get everyone down to the magnificent (but now empty) square for a photo sesh with the cars. Looks fantastic and attracts huge attention. I cure my leaking header tank with a plastic bag (quite why Rob G was carrying a roll of pedal bin liners, glue gun, battery charger and six half litre bottles of Tesco water is still a mystery!) Group is Greg, Tut, Mark, Rob, Paul and myself. Fast run through some roadworks, manage to misplace Tut and Mark until lunch. We stopped for fuel but they were on a mission and did not see us! Greg and myself have a lunatic chase through a mixture of brand new sweepers and tight bends mixed with roadworks (by now almost obligatory.....) We all group up in a tiny village for lunch where the local attention/alarm triggering is way too much. Cam, Paul, C & C, G & A elect for a fast run to hotel (i.e. pool).
We are in the heart of Spain now and temperatures are massive. Rest of us take the twisty section. Somehow Rob G, Tut and myself lose the others - end up chasing our tails around more washboard type mountain roads, but great fun.. Short plains blast to strang modern/ancient style hotel. Hotel can only be described as Louis 14th meets pimp mobile and B & Q warehouse...
very strange but works somehow. We have a huge dinner at ONE table. Tut of course cannot resist it and goes under the table and crawls up and down molesting the ladies (and Stephen Mack!). He then freaks 'cause he thinks Paul and I have stolen his leg of lamb. Campbell and Chris use the napkins as hats, great meal and lots of laughs. We adjourn to the bar, one drink then bed. We later learn that there was a massive commotion, seperated by Tut, but ends up with Gary and Theresa buggering off from the trip at 3am totally pissed.
All a bit unnecessary. Turns out they drove straight to Bilbao and home.
Day Eleven. Zamorra - Ribadeo
SE and friends head off. We elect to take faster roads until the mountains to avoid the unclassifieds which we now know can be either superb or crap - no medium. The mountains heading up to the north coast are fantastic, roads are great and it is magnificent apart from coal mines right next to the roads spewing dust all over the place. We stop for lunch after a fantastic climb and descent section with loads of squealing tyres and very fast driving. After lunch Arianne rides with Paul, so order is myself (having been 'elected' to lead), Greg, Tut, Paul, Team Techno, Rob G. The roads are like pre-lunch ones, great surface and very mountainous. I cannot really remember that much, only that there was some traffic which spread the convoy out, before a fantastic climb up a huge pass. Gradually it becomes apparent that myself, Greg and Tut are on our own.
We have just passed a fantastic viewpoint, so I attribute the lack of others to having stopped for photos. Then Tut disappears, eventually so does Greg.
I pull over and wait for a good photo opportunity. Then a Spaniard pulls up and indicates an accident. I race back up with my heart in my mouth, turn a corner to see a silver car under the Armco. Then it becomes clear who it is, but thankfully see Team Techno up and about (Ross complete with loony Banzai style bandage). They take it magnificently, Arianne is very upset, We are all quite shocked by what could have been. After a few hours of phonecalls/waiting a guy arrives and winches/jacks the car out from the Armco and departs with Robin's car which has to be totalled from what we can all see. We continue at a very subdued pace down to Ribadeo where Cambell greets us all at the hotel entrance with a tray of beers - forward thinking, Geezer of note!
We have a good dinner and Robin makes a very amusing after dinner presentation of his rear screen..........SE then chill out in the garden of the hotel then sack it..
Day Twelve. Ribadeo - Fuenta De
We all head off, Robin as my pax, Ross as Tut's. Pace is of course a lot slower after yesterday. We basically cruise up to a great lunch stop in the mountains.
Afterwards we hook up with Lisa & Cam, Claire & Chris at the top of a pass.
We have some great photo sessions against an absolutely stunning background.
Then head of down the other side. The road is well sighted, but bumpy as hell. So much so that with Robin on board the mudguards are scrapping so much we can smell the melting plastic!! We therefore stop so I can firm up the Leda's. Everyone else pulls in, but Paul is off on a Solo mission, and he is gone.. Rob G, Ross and myself decide to go for a swim in the reservoir where we have stopped, but the quick sand and general uneasiness limits us to a paddle, I stick myself under water but we get out fast as hell as we are all a bit freaked by the idea of drowning in stinking mud!
We set off again, then Robin starts getting rather alarming SMS's about
unknown events in NewYork..... Rob G has suddenly decided he has found a
new source of (extreme) confidence and starts driving like a man possessed.
Tut and myself are quite happy to potter thanks! We head up to our mountain stop in Fuenta De, at one point I mess up, read the road wrong, taking the bend too tight as there is a large lay-by, bend tightens up, lift off oversteer....luckily road is fairly wide which allows me to catch it. Robin is giggling !!!!
We get to hotel and pile in to watch CNN.............We have a great dinner, where we just grab tables to form a massive SE & friends single table (to the waitresses bemusement!). Straight to the TV lounge afterwards where Paul remonstrates with the manager for closing the bar at half eleven (and gets a result!). A few massive G&Ts then bed
Day Thirteen. Fuenta De - San Sebastian.
Relatively late start, as we have all agreed the previous night to cruise it to San Seb. Except Tut who wants to run with what he has christened the 'young crowd' ???
Rest of us head up the cable car.. Magnificent crisp morning and great views. Apparently very unusual in the Picos mountains in the morning. We are at about 5000'!!
By now I think everyone just wants to reach the ferry in one piece! We stop for lunch where we find Kevin Mulloney with a terminally cracked manifold :-(.
Usual roadworks, then Autovia to San Seb where we are unusually pretty much first there. We have beers by the (baltic) pool. Tut shows up extremely pissed off as he has lost his back screen and the car is full of glass. He then whips out his seats to clean it out.We then group up to get taxis to a superb restaurant for our 'last supper'. Great food, a roof that opens and some good speeches from Tony and others. I got a few cigars in, we eventually found taxis home, Tut started to fall asleep in the bar, we all called it a night!!
Day Fourteen. San Sebastian - Bilbao.
Basically just a blat along the Autovia, but first we say our fond farewells to Greg and Arianne who are driving up through France, and Team Techno who are flying out later. It is all a bit sad now.
We get to the ferry terminal where bizarrely we meet a solitary random Elise. The couple are obviously gobsmacked to see 23 cars park up next to them.
Onto the boat, few beers, siesta, good dinner and bed. It is obviously a lot more subdued than the outward bound leg. It just doesn't seem right without Team Techno after 2 weeks in each others company.
Day Fifteen. Ferry - Separate ways.
We all have a damn good long sleep. Lisa & Cam, Paul and myself go and watch Captain Corelli ("not bad considering the lack of car chases and sex" as Paul memorably said!)
We get into Portsmouth, and the whole remaining crew say farewells to each other before heading our separate ways. Lisa & Campbell are going to overnight with their friends in Portsmouth, Paul and Tut are heading to Paul's mate in Cheshire, and I am going to weekend with my sister in Bristol.
That's it.......
Conclusions & Bull...............
To quote Tut after Robin's accident "there but for the grace go any of us".
Too true, Paul's video shows just how true that was.
SE definitely drove and played hard as any and harder than most, and as such were a great bunch to be with, a real team spirit developed amongst us all as well as Rob G, Greg & Arianne and Mark Derry. I hope they all make it north at some point.
Spain is one of the best places to do serious driving in. I had done the Pyrenees & central/south Spain on bikes, but never thought of the north which is possibly even better then the Pyrenees...
Thanks to everyone concerned.
Gil