Sorry for not updating this recently, the laptop died. Super hard on this crappy iPad thingy.
There will be a decent update on Tuesday with many more pictures, tales of near misses and even a couple of run ins with the law.
Today will be a quiet one and then tomorrow is the epic 750 miles home. Weather is looking grim so we shall see how the photo taking goes.
Mountain diversion
-
pbmr2
Topic author - Posts: 1181
- Joined: 17/06/10 1:42
- Years of MR2 Ownership: 8
- MR2's Owned: 3
- Gender: Male
Re: Mountain diversion
"Time is the true wealth, spend it well."
Rev4 T-bar gen4 swap
Rev4 Moonroof 3sge daily
Rev4 T-bar gen4 swap
Rev4 Moonroof 3sge daily
-
pbmr2
Topic author - Posts: 1181
- Joined: 17/06/10 1:42
- Years of MR2 Ownership: 8
- MR2's Owned: 3
- Gender: Male
Re: Mountain diversion
Well made it back ok so best add some more to this, an update will be installed this evening. Gotta go out and enjoy the sun first.
I'll just leave this here for now...
I'll just leave this here for now...
"Time is the true wealth, spend it well."
Rev4 T-bar gen4 swap
Rev4 Moonroof 3sge daily
Rev4 T-bar gen4 swap
Rev4 Moonroof 3sge daily
-
pbmr2
Topic author - Posts: 1181
- Joined: 17/06/10 1:42
- Years of MR2 Ownership: 8
- MR2's Owned: 3
- Gender: Male
Re: Mountain diversion
Starting where I left off, the Col du Lautaret.
In the valley the sun was out but up the mountain the clouds were building. After a blast up to the parking at the top and scream back down, the brain kicked in and stopped for a quick snap.
Much merryment was had that evening with a beach party in a local bar so ended up sleeping on a mate's sofa. After a decent breakfast and a couple of extra hours of waking up it was time for a drive up to Vars and around the dam at Serre Poncon to come back up past Embrun.
The roads were quite clear and the sun was shining through the milky clouds. Not T-bar out weather though, was quite chilly. Just coming off the main road south through Mount Dauphin, the local plod wanted a word. Nothing to hide so was happy to chat to them, seems all they wanted to do was ask about the car
Didn't dare take any pics of them so carried on my way up to Vars. Spotted a hitch hiker about 5 miles short of Vars so pulled over to give him a lift. Nice chap from Germany who had been snow shoe walking over night in the area and couldn't face the last 5 miles.
Dropped him off and parked the car under a ski lift in search of coffee.
Full of caffine and off into the hills, it wasn't long before a couple of stunning views made me stop for pics.
Took one more shot slightly further up the road, looked like a good idea at the time with the stunning backdrop. Kinda missed the fact that the carpark was a wall of black dirty snow.
Not realising my shot framing skills needed much more work (really sorry for that last shot
) happilly plodded down the other side of the Col and stopped a couple of times to catch the views.
A few hundred yards further down the same road..
Scream down a couple of bends but just kept getting blown away by the views and wasn't really in a blasting driving mood, much more mellow take your time style that day.
The road ahead
The view behind
and above
The problem with great roads is that they kind of suck you in and all picture taking goes out the window. Before you know it another 30km has wizzed by and not a single photo has been taken. Ended up on a boringish road towards Barcelonnette stuck behind a few slowish moving cars. In no hurry I just kept my distance and enjoyed the tunes in the car and the lovely smooth mountain roads.
Soon there were signs for a dual carriageway so I prepared to pass the couple of cars I'd dutifully waited behind for many KMs. The road started to widen out into 2 lanes coming out of a bend, the gears were dropped and the hammer put down. Breezed past the fisrt car and drew up level with the second when, on the right about 200m ahead there was a Gendarme car with a speed gun hanging out the window.
Stright away the blue lights came on, I'd already taken my foot off the pedal after seeing them but it was too late. Rolled into the next layby a few hundred meters after where they were parked and awaited the doom.
They pulled up along side and asked me to follow them. Not 1km down the road was the gendarmerie. Many papers checked and all details were given to audience of wide eyed gendarms who has clearly never seen an MR2 in their life. Even the cheif came out to look at what the stupid tourist was driving.
They were clearly a pair of young, new guys learning the ropes. No guns and they kept asking stupid questions etc. Near the end of it all one of them asked me to pay €90. I showed him the €3 in my pocket, he was a little dissapointed. Didn't ask me to go to a cash point (it turned out there was one about 2 mins down the road) so he said they would post a bill to me good luck with that one boys. He also explained that I'd lose 2 points from my licence. I explained that this wasn't going to happen with an English licence and after appologising for my stupid driving, left slowly down the road to continue drive.
Strange thing was that it start off slow and regrettful that I'd been nicked and ended up being an "oh sod it, they prob won't do me twice" trash up the mountain to the dam on the south end of Serre Poncon.
Drove the rest of the way home and felt like a walk to the shops for a beer and some cheese. Took this little snap just before getting back to the house. Can just see the blue of the car on the drive. It's a hard life sometimes..
Many more days passed in the mountains, most of them filled with booze and snowboarding. Sadly didn't really take any pics of that.
The brain kicked in a little on the drive home and took some final snaps.
Weather for the drive home
Frejus tunnel, honest officer, the phone was on a mount
Little break after the first toll back in France
Turned out that driving 750miles in a single hit takes your mind off taking photos. This last shot of a bin and a lamp post turned out to be the last of the trip.
The miles rolled past at a steady 70mph to save fuel for the long road ahead. All plain sailing untill about 100km short of Calais, when a huge hail storm started to batter the car. Much of the traffic stopped, I carried on behind a campervan doing about 30mph by now. The sound of smashing glass was all around me, just like the bottle bank sounds when doing the recycling.
As it cleared the windows looked ok, phew didged a bullet (or a million!). This was until the sun came out and around 80 tiny little stone chips started to twinkle like stars in the night. Doh, new windscreen time.
This was the first long drive the car had done. Previously only a single 120 miles to collect the wheels was the closest to any distance. The rest was 20 miles here and there plus commuting. In 3 months the car had done about 2500miles. In just 2 weeks it doubled that with this trip to France.
Didn't skip a beat the whole trip and super comfortable and practical to boot. It's transformed from a car I liked into a car I trust and am falling in love with. Ahh love in the spring time
In the valley the sun was out but up the mountain the clouds were building. After a blast up to the parking at the top and scream back down, the brain kicked in and stopped for a quick snap.
Much merryment was had that evening with a beach party in a local bar so ended up sleeping on a mate's sofa. After a decent breakfast and a couple of extra hours of waking up it was time for a drive up to Vars and around the dam at Serre Poncon to come back up past Embrun.
The roads were quite clear and the sun was shining through the milky clouds. Not T-bar out weather though, was quite chilly. Just coming off the main road south through Mount Dauphin, the local plod wanted a word. Nothing to hide so was happy to chat to them, seems all they wanted to do was ask about the car
Didn't dare take any pics of them so carried on my way up to Vars. Spotted a hitch hiker about 5 miles short of Vars so pulled over to give him a lift. Nice chap from Germany who had been snow shoe walking over night in the area and couldn't face the last 5 miles.
Dropped him off and parked the car under a ski lift in search of coffee.
Full of caffine and off into the hills, it wasn't long before a couple of stunning views made me stop for pics.
Took one more shot slightly further up the road, looked like a good idea at the time with the stunning backdrop. Kinda missed the fact that the carpark was a wall of black dirty snow.
Not realising my shot framing skills needed much more work (really sorry for that last shot
) happilly plodded down the other side of the Col and stopped a couple of times to catch the views. A few hundred yards further down the same road..
Scream down a couple of bends but just kept getting blown away by the views and wasn't really in a blasting driving mood, much more mellow take your time style that day.
The road ahead
The view behind
and above
The problem with great roads is that they kind of suck you in and all picture taking goes out the window. Before you know it another 30km has wizzed by and not a single photo has been taken. Ended up on a boringish road towards Barcelonnette stuck behind a few slowish moving cars. In no hurry I just kept my distance and enjoyed the tunes in the car and the lovely smooth mountain roads.
Soon there were signs for a dual carriageway so I prepared to pass the couple of cars I'd dutifully waited behind for many KMs. The road started to widen out into 2 lanes coming out of a bend, the gears were dropped and the hammer put down. Breezed past the fisrt car and drew up level with the second when, on the right about 200m ahead there was a Gendarme car with a speed gun hanging out the window.
Stright away the blue lights came on, I'd already taken my foot off the pedal after seeing them but it was too late. Rolled into the next layby a few hundred meters after where they were parked and awaited the doom.
They pulled up along side and asked me to follow them. Not 1km down the road was the gendarmerie. Many papers checked and all details were given to audience of wide eyed gendarms who has clearly never seen an MR2 in their life. Even the cheif came out to look at what the stupid tourist was driving.
They were clearly a pair of young, new guys learning the ropes. No guns and they kept asking stupid questions etc. Near the end of it all one of them asked me to pay €90. I showed him the €3 in my pocket, he was a little dissapointed. Didn't ask me to go to a cash point (it turned out there was one about 2 mins down the road) so he said they would post a bill to me
good luck with that one boys. He also explained that I'd lose 2 points from my licence. I explained that this wasn't going to happen with an English licence and after appologising for my stupid driving, left slowly down the road to continue drive. Strange thing was that it start off slow and regrettful that I'd been nicked and ended up being an "oh sod it, they prob won't do me twice" trash up the mountain to the dam on the south end of Serre Poncon.
Drove the rest of the way home and felt like a walk to the shops for a beer and some cheese. Took this little snap just before getting back to the house. Can just see the blue of the car on the drive. It's a hard life sometimes..
Many more days passed in the mountains, most of them filled with booze and snowboarding. Sadly didn't really take any pics of that.
The brain kicked in a little on the drive home and took some final snaps.
Weather for the drive home
Frejus tunnel, honest officer, the phone was on a mount
Little break after the first toll back in France
Turned out that driving 750miles in a single hit takes your mind off taking photos. This last shot of a bin and a lamp post turned out to be the last of the trip.
The miles rolled past at a steady 70mph to save fuel for the long road ahead. All plain sailing untill about 100km short of Calais, when a huge hail storm started to batter the car. Much of the traffic stopped, I carried on behind a campervan doing about 30mph by now. The sound of smashing glass was all around me, just like the bottle bank sounds when doing the recycling.
As it cleared the windows looked ok, phew didged a bullet (or a million!). This was until the sun came out and around 80 tiny little stone chips started to twinkle like stars in the night. Doh, new windscreen time.
This was the first long drive the car had done. Previously only a single 120 miles to collect the wheels was the closest to any distance. The rest was 20 miles here and there plus commuting. In 3 months the car had done about 2500miles. In just 2 weeks it doubled that with this trip to France.
Didn't skip a beat the whole trip and super comfortable and practical to boot. It's transformed from a car I liked into a car I trust and am falling in love with. Ahh love in the spring time
"Time is the true wealth, spend it well."
Rev4 T-bar gen4 swap
Rev4 Moonroof 3sge daily
Rev4 T-bar gen4 swap
Rev4 Moonroof 3sge daily
