A Long Way Home

Day 14 of Roadtrip/Day 3 of Ringmeet

After a couple of weeks and around 3500 miles, the dusty look is truly settled in. And watching this go out on the track (despite knowing it'll be fine since I'd thrashed it round yesterday) I couldn't help but think how far we had to go today.

The morning saw a very tasty breakfast at the bakery down the road. Something the Germans definitely do oh so well. Once everyone was up (as always the early birds got the breakfast) the scenic route was picked to get to the Ring. I'd forgotten how nice a route it is. But we may as well have stayed there anyway.

Upon arrival it was clear it would be a long day. A lot of cars, and a lot of track closures. A good fun passenger lap in the Volvo was had, but it took almost 2 hours waiting for the track to open. More laps as everyone filtered their way through. I'm glad I drove it yesterday.

Fortunately Arron did get his laps in - here seen in full Roadtrip livery on the way out. Thankfully he didn't implode, crash or beat my time.

But once those were over and the car had cooled a little, it was time to head off. Another 500 miles to do overnight had hints of the 1400 miles we had to do overnight to get out to Romania, but it was an easy drive anyway. Finding people around is always amusing; Antti and Shad in Breidscheid and a few people back at the campsite. We loaded up and set off to collect out waffles from the Dutch.

Ah the dutch. Upon leaving the motorway and driving through town for all of 5 minutes someone clearly saw British plates and thought we'd be perfect targets. Never before have I been tailgated to be offered drugs.

The drive through Belgium sums the journey up nicely really. Dead straight, very long roads with a lot of rain and poor drainage makes for tiringly tense driving; right when we didn't need it. I find it very strange that through all my experience Belgium has the worst motorways in Europe.

Once we got into France and Calais; time became a bit of a mush again. We arrived just too late for the early train, meaning we had to wait for an hour to cross the channel. Fortunately that gave us time to rest and once on the train I was able to remove the stickers - all of them - taking my car finally (ignoring the sports exhaust and suspension) back to stock. Sleeper spec is how I like it.

Finishing the journey without the Saab was sad, but amusing to do so in the Kangoo again. Arriving home just as the sun rose is something I've done a handful of times now, and while beautiful is usually followed by tiredness. I slept for a solid 8 hours. That's how to end a roadtrip.