380 miles round trip over a long weekend.

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heinkeljb
Posts: 2753
Joined: Sun Dec 30, 2012 12:49 pm
Location: Lewes, East Sussex - UK

380 miles round trip over a long weekend.

Post by heinkeljb »

380 miles.

Some of you will know what that means straight away, other will have to be told that is the distance Lurch carried me from when I set out from home on Friday morning to when I returned back on Monday afternoon from the Dersingham weekend.

In a bit more detail, I packed Lurch with camping gear, a selection of spares and set off. A nice day for a drive as it wasn’t too hot or too cold. No bright sunshine either as Lurch doesn’t have sun visors so not a good idea to drive into the morning sun if you can help it. At a leisurely pace, we wended our way towards London. Biggest problem is the river Thames crossing. I could head for the Dartfod crossing and fight with the lorries going through the tunnel, but as they have now removed the toll booths you have to either pay in advance or within 24 hours of having made the crossing. Who know if I will have signal on my phone at Dersingham in order to pay over the phone or via the Internet and then there is the hassle of not knowing if the tunnel control people will take exception to a Haflinger crawling through the tunnel without an escort!
So in the end I headed for the Blackwall tunnel which I know is easy enough to travel through even if you have to brave three lane traffic to get to it. At least the speed limit is 50 mph at maximum and 40 MPH in the bits that matter.
So on to the A10, it is the easiest road to use to get out of London as it is two lane dual carriage way with only traffic lights to hold you up. Again most of it out to the M25 is 40 or 50 mph speed limited. Uneventful trip as far as Dersingham to meet up with the people who had arrived before me – how long did it take? 5 hours give or take a bit as I had a couple of rest stops on the way up curtesy of the anti high blood pressure tablets I have to take. The way they keep your blood pressure down is by limiting the amount of water in your system, so stops become necessary!
Anyway, be that as it may, Put the tent up – yet another new one as the wind in Holland wrecked the big 6 man one I have and the small 2 man popup tent is really too small for a camp bed and a bag of clothes. So with help from onlookers who became participants, tent went up and things unloaded. Next on the agenda was supper – portion of chips as I had already consumed sandwiches prior to arriving.
I can’t remember the dream I was having as I was rudely awaked at some dreadful hour of the morning by the local Rooster!
Leisurely breakfast whilst getting ready for the road run – including managing to wreck 2 jacks trying to change a set of tyres on a Haflinger - which turned out not to have been planned beforehand but never the less was suitably interesting. A strange amphibious vehicle which somehow was classed as a north sea ferry was operating from Hunstanton. During our preamble round the countryside we managed to drive round the rain!
Most of the rest of the afternoon was spent talking to those who had made it Dersingham even if it was only for a couple of hours – shame more don’t bother to come. I wonder if they think – I’ve done it some many times in the past and it’s always the same! Well, why not come and then suggest something different to do? We were all for parking up in front of Sandringham to get a photo and taking bets on how long it would be before the Rosser’s would be out to move us on, but for some reason we just drove straight passed!
Evening meal at the pub, but if more people turn up we will have to find a bigger pub! So I suppose we don’t really want all rest of the club membership just to turn up! A bit of notice and I saw a big Indian restaurant just down the road which I am sure we could book.

Those that wanted to enjoyed driving through the new obstacles which have been made at site. Lurch’s gearbox has become nosier since I have owned him, so maybe this winter I am going to be forced to do some major work on him. The week end also saw the end of his exhaust system! We drove home with both heat exchangers blowing, so I had to disconnect the hot air heating to prevent getting gassed! That made the cab cold and I am quite habituated to being able to pull the cable and heat the cab to above the outside temperature.

Trip home apart from being cold and very much noisier than the trip going was equally uneventful, similar length of time including the dreaded “rest stops”. I now get strange noises on the overrun as well as the whine which as I say, probably means lots of work to be carried out. If I don’t make any treffen’s next year that’s probably the reason.

I do wonder how many of the members of the club actually have Haflingers and of those that have, how many have a means of transport for said Haflinger? You would have thought that as the average age of the clubs members is over the retirement age that they would have time to get out and about. Maybe it is all down to disposable income – nobody has any any-more!

Till the next time.

John and Lurch

(Sorry no pictures from me, but I'll see I can get some form the other attendees!)
Haflinger 703AP LWB 1973 - (Once owned by Lady Sutherland & Sons.) Now called "Lurch" !

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AustHaflinger
Posts: 2465
Joined: Sun Jan 06, 2013 1:27 am
Location: Canberra Australia

Re: 380 miles round trip over a long weekend.

Post by AustHaflinger »

I think it is really great that you get out and give your Haffie a good run every now and then - I would love to do the same but I am unable to do so on the registration class the vehicle is on so limited to "club" runs but as they are all landrovers I am too slow so I cannot use it - so potter around Canberra on "test" runs which are allowed up to 40km radius from home.

Thinking of changing back to full registration but that is almost 10 times the cost of what I have now.

Even though you have had a couple of niggling problems the fact that you are able to do these longer trips shows Lurch's mechanics are still pretty good.

Oh I have a 2 hour bladder as well.

Cheers

Garry
Haflinger 700AP (73)
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Julian B
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Joined: Sun Dec 30, 2012 4:07 pm
Location: W Sussex, UK

Re: 380 miles round trip over a long weekend.

Post by Julian B »

That is an impressive trip, John - well done for going & thanks for the write up. How does 380 miles compare to driving to the Dutch Treffen (in terms of distance)?

I am guilty as charged re: non-attendance; no excuses other than excuses really, and I won't bore the world with them here. I have the time, vehicle(s), transport and funds to join in but frustratingly my mind is not in the right place for me to be able to be there in person. :oops: :oops: :oops:
Julian B
W Sussex, UK

| '62 Early Series I SWB | '72 Series II LWB |
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heinkeljb
Posts: 2753
Joined: Sun Dec 30, 2012 12:49 pm
Location: Lewes, East Sussex - UK

Re: 380 miles round trip over a long weekend.

Post by heinkeljb »

This was only about half the total distance we travelled when we went to the Dutch Treffen, but there are more things to see and do going to the Dutch Treffen!

Still, it was a good weekend and I am sure those who went enjoyed it.

John
Haflinger 703AP LWB 1973 - (Once owned by Lady Sutherland & Sons.) Now called "Lurch" !

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