RogueRunners Devon IV - Day 3 - When It All Went Wrong

It started off well, the overnight rain hadn’t found its’ way into the car, so the roof came off & after breakfast we said farewell to Duncan & Alison who were heading home for a family celebration & au revoir to Mark who was spending the day seeing the sights of Ilfracombe – yes I did warn him about the Damian Hurst sculpture “Verity” – after all he may want some lunch during the day.

We decided to go west, so only five cars headed out of town heading for Cornshire & we found ourselves on a lane with “ROAD AHEAD CLOSED” signs, I’ve never understood the point of these signs unless they say where it’s closed. We rumbled on though many pretty hamlets & past many more such signs & eventually after perhaps eight miles we did find a road that was closed, but not on our route. We seemed to get through Barnstaple easier than yesterday & got out into the countryside, but all was not well.

In a village, as I pulled in to let a vehicle pass, there was a small thud noise, barely audible, but I thought I’d felt it through the chassis. I decided it was probably just a pop though the exhaust as it had started doing that again recently. But as we travelled on it did it again & again, then I was hearing it properly. I wondered if a suspension bolt had loosened, but bouncing the car up & down in the “Buffing Billy café” car park showed no sign of clonking, so we moved on. It was still getting worse, so I pulled into a layby on the A39 & looked underneath, axle oil was dripping from the nearside end, I took the wheel off, but all the bolts were tight, something had failed in the bearing I had fitted less than a year ago.

I would be going home on a truck.

I thought if I could limp the car back to the hotel I could passenge with someone for a day & organise a truck for the Saturday, so Ken (who had given up his blatt to stay with me) & I turned round & trundled up the A39 at 30 getting in everyone’s way (sorry I we held you up) but all the time the noise was getting worse, the worrying thing being that it wasn’t constant, it was horribly mechanical, then it was disappeared, then it was horrible again, so after a few miles I pulled into a layby & called for a lorry. To their credit they didn’t send a man in a small van to assess it, they just sent a low loader with a promise of 60 – 90 minutes. But after an hour & a half, of a lorry there was no sign.

At one stage a recovery truck went past with a graphic of a Cobra on the side, I said to Ken "that one would be appropriate", but it didn't stop. When I called again for an update I was told there had been an accident up the road & that had taken precedence. After another hour I called the dispatcher, to be told my rescuer “was a few minutes away” which to be fair he was – but on the other side of the A39 & it was ten miles & two sets of road works to the next junction to turn around.

While I had been waiting, the bank called me to say my credit card had been used fraudulently, though I wasn’t convinced it actually was the bank as it was all “a bit odd”.

So eventually I was picked up after three hours by the truck with the Cobra on the side & Ken went back to the hotel. I have to say the truck itself was very nice, air suspension & all very comfy as far as it went.

But as far as it went was Taunton Dean services. 

I would have to await another lorry, then I got a text message saying the other lorry would be 2hrs 20min – just long enough to need to pay £15 for parking via an app that I didn’t have. I waited 1 ½ hours in case the truck arrived early – no chance of course & it then took me the thick end of an hour to get the app & pay for the parking.

The next low loader arrived at the promised time. It was not like the first one. It was older than my Cactus & pitched, heaved & crashed over the slightest ripple in the road, but I was on my way.

Three hours later I arrived home, ten hours after calling for help. I put the car in the garage & retired to bed.