24 June - Ahaus to Sandwich. 351 miles

The forecast for the western edge of Germany was 35 degrees, so it was never going to be much fun. At that temperature, it does not matter how fast one drives: the air will still be hot.  And that is if one can keep moving.

Today's route home started south towards Essen, then west in the direction of Eindhoven, Antwerp, Ghent and on to the Tunnel. We opted for the fastest roads just to get the job done. Even in The Toad, 17 consecutive days in the saddle was enough.

It became a mix of no-limits autobahn bombing at 80 plus, and M25 crawling for miles on several occasions. And when we did slow down, the heat was roasting: my right arm now looks like a cooked lobster. 

In the passport queue at Coquelles it was difficult to miss this, in a typical Lamborghini "look at me, I'm vulgar" colour.

Small penis syndrome?

Perhaps because it was a Monday, the lower deck of the Shuttle contained just two cars, The Toad, and a dozen bikes. I know this because I wandered from empty carriage to empty carriage looking for a loo, only to find that I was parked three feet from one. And as chance has it the elderly man in the car in front told me he had owned a 1925 Morgan-J.A.P. Something like this: 

He quite fancied mine, but rued that "nowadays, I cannot get my leg over".

25 minutes after we arrived at Cheriton we were back. A wonderful 17 days in a wonderful (if occasionally frustrating) vehicle.

At this point, let’s compare the three M3W attempts at the North Cape to date: 

The first try, by a factory team (an Aero, a +8, a +4 and an M3W) hopped from Morgan dealership to dealership (Brands Hatch, Brussels, Hamburg, Oslo) and then took a shorter route to Nordkapp (six days to my nine). The weather was dreadful, driving in convoy slowed them down and the M3W lost an injector and limped along on one cylinder. Looking at their blog, http://www.drivenatheart.co.uk/category/diary/ they often reached their night’s stop in the small hours. It must have been exhausting., but at least it was for charity. 

Richard Hardy is good at planning his annual adventures. He took a chunk of the driving out by sailing to Hook of Holland, from Kiel to Oslo and after he drove to Bergen, hugging the west coast scenic route with a good many fjord ferries. He returned via Finland, taking a similar route to mine (or rather, I copied his). He also suffered a lot of rain. https://rh03mog.com/2015-norway/ 

Because we live within a few miles of the Channel Tunnel, it was always going to be the road route through France for us. Fancying the Hardangervidda, Geiranger etc., I chose to enter Norway at Kristiansand, which meant driving through Denmark. And less fjord-crossing meant more time driving. I did not mind that a bit. My return, also through Finland, pretty much followed Richard Hardy’s route with a more southerly path through Germany and France back to Blighty. I was mostly lucky with the weather. The first morning in France and two or three mornings in Norway aside, we had dry roads even if it was a touch on the cold side - my fault for not bringing gloves. I benefited from good advice from Ian Parkinson and Aeroman and, of course, from Richard’s inspiration; but I also had a little guardian angel who kept me going for much of the trip, and it is to her that I dedicate this blog.

Would I do it again? A couple of poor hotel choices (I have to date received over forty emails from last night's hotel. That's what being handled by a server rather than a human does) and perhaps the route through Finland aside, I would not change a thing and would recommend the trip to anyone. Where to next? Someone has suggested Canada’s Ice Road (in Summer). Maybe all the way round Ireland. Following the Atlantic coast down to Gibraltar. I have agreed with my muse that The Toad and Africa will not mix - in the unlikely event that the M3W made it from Cape to Cape it would only have scrap value at the end of the journey. We have a few months to think about it.

I garaged The Toad, admiring of its job well done, and transferred to my Kodiaq to collect the dogs. It felt like driving a Bentley.