Start
Here are having luch just before leaving Uppsala, three Minis rolling
and one on a trailer (look in the background).
Here are the caravan of three Minis, a Mini 40 -99, an Austin 850 -65
and an Austin Cooper -63. This is the first, but not last, service stop.
We had to fill up with oil and water in the middle car, if you looked down
in the filling holes you couldn´t tell the difference, it was the
same greasy mixture in both and we wondered if this car was going to take
the Kronsell family to the IMM and back again. You should know that they
have a very nice 1959 years Austin Mini at home but they had some trouble
with the gearbox so they had lend this Austin 850 -65 from Joel, www.mini1275.cc.
He told them that the car had never been driving outside Uppsala and he
gave them no gurantees whatsoever. They packed the car and left Uppsala!
It looks nice and have time typical packing on the roofrack.
Look how happy thet are, the Kronsell family from Gävle, 100 km
north of Uppsala.
We drove to Gothenburg where we paid a visit to Calle and Kristina.
They offered us a room for the night that we happily and thankfully used!
Calle had his 1959 Mini parked on the drive way but unfortunately they
had no opportunity to join us on the trip to IMM2002.
Next morning we drove to the ferry terminal where some Minis and caravans
already waited for boarding. Here we se the Gårdh family with the
white caravan and the Olsson family with the red caravan.
Here we see Vivian from Lysekil who came in company with Johnny and
Linn. They had an accident on the way to the ferry. They met a truck who
sprayed their front screen with loose gravel(stones?), the front screen
was totally damaged so they had to kick it out and drive the last part
on their way to the ferry without any front screen. It looked weird when
they came...
On the ferry to Denmark they managed to get hold of a bit of plastic
so the could repair it temporarily. They had also managed to phone another
Miniac in southern Sweden and aksed them to bring a windscreen, see more
below.
Here is another service stop, now in the middle of Denmark. Food for
the humans and oil for our small friends.
Now Esbjerg where we met up with some other swedes. These people had
forgot their passports at home so they had fix soem temporarily papers
to get onboard the ferry. If the ferry company lets anyone who is missing
any valid passport/visa onboard they can get into trouble and have to pay
up to £2000 per person in fines. They were three persons in this
Mini and they had all their stuff inside the Mini. But a roofrack was transported
in one of the caravans which they borrowed. They had also brought an extra
windscreen for the Mini without any. They managed to fit the new screen
during the ferry trip to England.
Another service stop for the little green one, now in Esbjerg...
..and another one, now in Harwich.
We were 9 cars on the ferry to Harwich and after landing and an hours
service stop at a gas station, we split up into two teams driving two different
routes, but about the same stops. We had deciced to stop overnight on two
places on the way up to the IMM, mostly because one of the cars was a very
slow driver(guess which car??). We found a "lovely" place just north of
Newark. We followed the signs for a campsite and I think we took the wrong
way and ended up at a placed that the owner (the Greengrass type of man)
called a campsite. He charged us £1 per tent and he even offered
a caravan for free to Marika and Thomas, but the choosed to pay £1
for putting up the tent. Then we had a lovely view when the sun was going
down behind the power plant!
We had a pub meal and some ales and bitters before we used the toilets.
The "campsite" had no toilets.....
After an early stroll along the beautiful canal we had breakfast, lookked
on the poer plants and then left, going north to York.
In York we were tourists for most of the day, having a pub lunch. Some
of us went to the Viking museum and some others went up in the tower. We
strolled along the narrow streets ans had coffe and bought candy. Nice
town, must come back some time. Here we met up with the other swedish team
that we had left in Harwich (well, it was actually they who left us, tired
on waiting for us servicing the little green one...).
Now we saw some hills and pressed the pedal of our Minis, just to have
a chance to reach the top of the hills before they died. This photo
is taken at a service stop where we found some cheap oil to buy, 20W-50,
4 litres, £3.50! Guess if we bought soem oil for our thirsty Minis!
Minis in front and Minis behind, a lovely feeling!
Border! Now we are entering Scotland, at our own risk ....
Beautiful roads if you just avoid the Motorways.
This day ended in Jedburg where we found a campsite after some driving.
Between two showers of rain, we erected our tents. Time to get some sleep,
tomorrow we will reach the place for the IMM2002 and everyone are excited!
Ok lets go on to next part in this IMM2002 report