Well, what can I say? Spaghetti challenge was fabulously attended and a great success. I can’t thank “open book” for all their hard work. You are super stars each and every one of you.
The day after I flew back to Bydgoszcz Poland to begin an epic road trip to transport “Polka” our lorry for Sierra Leone. We started off at around 21.30 with expectations to arrive in Zeebrugge the next morning or late afternoon. However, life isn’t always a smooth road and it ended up to be the road trip to beat all road trips!!!
We started off driving through Poland which went fairly smoothly to be fair. Polka drove lovely, and was very comfortable to travel in. As we entered into Germany Adrian was doing a wonderful impression of a nodding dog! And I was happy to let him sleep. However, after about 80km, a EDC warning light flashed on Polska’s dash and the engine died somewhat in power. However, she kept going bless her. I left the pretty boy sleeping and carried on….. The fault cleared, and I hoped it was just a hiccup.
Another 100km along our route, sleeping beauty woke up and we agreed it was time for a pit stop. So we pulled off the motorway and I had a snooze whilst Adrian slept more!!! I’m the old man here?!?! After refuelling we continued on our way…… But soon after re starting the fault reappeared and speed was reduced to 42mph with 300miles to go on this motorway alone!! Without a spanner to my name….. Or breakdown cover! We were in trouble! But Polska kept going, so we thought….. We have lots of time, we’ll get there anyway. As we travelled further the periods when the fault appeared started to overtake the periods that we had top speed driving. Not so good on a motorway where the speed was 130km! We googled the fault and common consensus was that it was a fuel issue…. Filter or blocked fuel line…. But without spanners, it was irrelevant anyway! (Thanks Rachel for jinxing us btw!) We stopped several times and looked sternly at the relevant engine parts….. But to no avail! The fault was intermittent, but getting progressively worse in terms of length of time it persisted. We did all we could and continued onwards praying to God to see us safely to Zeebrugge. Alas, around Hamm in Germany we were forced off the motorway doing a top speed of 18mph! The hills were beating us….. I’m sure Poland is in a hole….. We always seemed to be going uphill, never down??? Anyway, what to do? Sunday afternoon, no mechanics available we checked out hotels, but who could say if we could get Polka sorted the following day?
The executive decision was made, we contacted Rachel who kindly did all she could to help us and rescheduled our crossing for the Monday night. We were going cross country! 250miles on minor roads with a lorry which was poorly….. It had gone from epic to lunacy! However, what alternative? So we set off, and made it into the Netherlands early evening. Where Adrian wanted a coffee in a special coffee shop??? Not sure what was wrong with the service station stuff?! So for a minor diversion, I said we’d stop off….. However, Polka decided to go back to working normally for a bit. Maybe she didn’t like Germany! So, we headed for the motorway, the sat nav somehow didn’t divert us to Eindhoven , so Adrian never got his “special” coffee….. He was glum about that? Strange boy! I digress, Polka heroically marched on without appearance of the dreaded fault. I was desperately tired, but wanted to “make hay while the sun was shining”. We continued on the motorways and reached Belgium by 21:00. Hooray!!! Another 60 miles to Zeebrugge, when the fault reappeared. We limped into port…. Literally! But we had made it. Thank the Lord our God. As it was only by his grace that we arrived. After a good nights sleep in a local hotel. We awoke refreshed, ready for the sea leg. We are praying for a smooth crossing and that Polka is kind to us when we get off in Hull.
Thanks for reading my blog.
