This may or may not be of interest to anyone as is a trip of a tiddler, but here it is anyway.
Got a call, do you fancy delivering one to Athens? It’s a McLaren.
Blimey that’s a fair way I think, I’ve done all over Europe from North- Arctic circle Sweden, to South of boiling Italy, East to Poland & West tip of France,& I do a lot of Germay, but a 4000mile round trip, that’s a haul, but yes of course what could go wrong?
Well a fair bit as it turns out.
A quick look on the map, Greece over land so Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, yip ok, hmm but then Serbia, Bosnia,Macedonia, even via Albania if I felt like it. Hmmm sleeping in laybys with an expensive motor on in those countries, nah thanks, I’ll go via Italy & jump on a boat.
Right so car is loaded, I have no pics, i will when its off, but imagine this is a macca & its sorta like this, only that is a million quid 918 I loaded in St Tropez obviously!
& tucked up inside like this, only more macca like & less like an old £3million Aston.
Anyway, its loaded & stored at mine & leaves a few days later.
So first up tunnel delays, not horrible operation stack for days, just a 3 hr one but a pain.
So onward I go, for this one I will go via non toll rds to Swiss, its considerably cheaper by a good couple of hundred £ & easier (ok swiss customs can be a pain & i have had issues in the past but with paperwork usually OK & anyway I’d hit a rural border at late night usually unmanned by then anyway… Only I don’t…
Completely toll free to Swiss is easiest via Luxembourg, but its a dull way & its actually shorter & more interesting to go via France, pay a bit of toll to Reims, then toll free on the v good N road via St Dizier via Nancy down to St Die, then if fine & day time & in the mood over the pass, if dark & knackered via the toll tunnel, saves a good 30min you pay €17 (half that for under 2m cars)
But as I approach the tunnel clutch starts to feel odd, engages/disengages OK but the pedal is sticking down.
Pull over have a look, ahh clutch fluid is on min, hmm that was fine when I left, OK I’ve no spare fluid its in my other motor, damm, I syphon a bit from the brake fluid res (its huge) & will buy some fluid at 1st garage, so fluid on max & off I go.
Only about 10miles later near Selestat its game over, clutch no work, pedal on floor, I’m stuck at a junction, bugger.
Hazards on check fluid, oh dear dry as a bone, I’m blocking the road, its dark at gone 10pm & just above freezing, perfect.
I tried but no way I’m pushing approx 5.5tons on 5 axles on my own, hmm I remember what my dad taught me when I snapped a clutch cable at 17 & moaned I couldn’t drive my car home, yet he jumped in & did it fine, so I practiced it, start in gear & then its easy to do clutch less changes. Fine with the clutch less changes, but pulling away hauling over 3tons hmm.
Ah well lets give it a try, bang bang judder judder & off I go, OK so that’s me moving but what now?
A few miles down the road is a nice layby, its empty & I pull in, hurrah safety.
Nowt I can do now, sleep, look at it in morning.
Morning arrives, so I’m not daft & think it has to be one of 3 things, either a clutch master cylinder kaput, or a slave cylinder, or & what I really hope it is, just a fractured line or broken hose, all the undertrays mean I can’t see a thing. But sod all I can do here no matter what it is, so recovery to a garage it is.
I have no pics of recovery, wasn’t really in the mood, ferries booked, deadlines of delivery & a return load on my mind.
So I arrive here, its over the border in Germany.
Nice guys they can look at it in an hour or so.
Answer, its the slave cylinder, its pi$$ing out fluid, we can get one on & fitted in the morning.
Hmm OK bugger, but it could be worse, I’ll be a day late, but all arranged.
I book in here
& yes that is a Finnish reg’d S600 Merc
Is a gym & across the road a nice bar & restaurant.
I have a long wander around the small town, I always try & have a wander somewhere on my long trips away anyway, sitting down all day is not very healthy, but didn’t exactly plan this one.
Ahh beer make it all better.
Yummy food, but really whipped cream with that dish? crazy krauts.
So morning comes, I scoot to the garage, hmm not good news, slave is done leak is fixed but the master cylinder won’t hold pressure, they think seals damaged from running so low. Agghhhhh.
No of course none in stock, & worse its different for lhd & rhd… Bugger, they can order just a seal kit & hope it does the job, but that won’t arrive until the next day
…
So another day here, its a nice enough place & its unseasonably warm & sunny but I should be 600miles away boarding a ferry now.
Borrow a bike from the hotel.
Ha ha yes its about as awful as it looks, not suitable at all for a 6ft4 16stone fella, but off I go anyway.
I’m at the top left of that map, I decide to go & explore the scenic delights of the sprawling metropolis of Bad Krozingen.
All prepared & off I go-
[Along a dry river-
](Quite pleasant
[Past vineyards
](
A park
And a heron
And flowers for bees
I liked this place
Needed a chemists, but not using this one if it’s bad! 
Morning update, the seal kit worked, I’m good to go, hurrah.
Onwards-
sunny Swiss
I have the choice of Bari port or Ancona, I’ve been to Ancona delivering before, Bari is a shorter ferry, but 600 extra road miles, so sod that Ancona it is-
boarding the ferry, oh a coach load of hot American girls, jubbly:thumb:
My cabin, I paid a few quid extra for a window
Cabin window view in port
Oh those girls, my god, nice to look at but lordy 2 mins of them & you want to kill them all! so hearing them whitter on for 20 odd hrs on the ferry is faaaar to much.
one of the many many island passed on route, think that was near Corfu
upper deck & pool area at night
Hello sunny Greece, Igoumenitsa.
Then to where I get off- Patras
View of the Rio–Antirrio bridge, as you come into Patras it crosses the Gulf of Corinth, its a tad spectacular
On the way to Athens on the motorway you pass the Corinth Canal, I planned to stop here on the way back
Anyway I unload no probs in a now dark Athens, customer is happy & off I go to find somewhere safe to park.
Its now Saturday night, I’m a tad full of a cold, my mate has called me John Travolta as I have a Saturday night fever & I’m in Greece! ■■■■
A new day & its nice & hot
that will do for nearly Nov! I am a lizard after all, I have a few hours to kill so its basking time :thumb:
so I head to the canal, scoot off the motorway & onto the old N road is loots of room to park up & explore
It really is spectacular
I wander an hour or so down to the canal entrance at the Isthmia end & sit in the sunshine by the submersible bridge
Submerged-
up it comes
up
random youtube clip of it-
Bye bye Greece-
Returning to Italy, tiz a tad misty
To Modena for my return load I’d bagged, peanuts but makes up for the 2 days I wasnt earning, tiz an utterly cracking Fiat Dino
& off I go into the night
at a fuel stop, a deal €5 for those oh yes please :thumb:
a Swiss morning dawns nice & bright in the services-
as do the roads-
Anyway all goes well on the return & car dropped off no probs & its was 30 mins from base, perfect.
Oh & a pic of the McLaren at last-
