We left my house in Cambridge about an hour later than planned (at about 9:40pm!), as once the car was loaded, we discovered that the battery was flat! Once we jump-started and warmed it up, the car was happy and it was time to go. Unfortunately, the first couple of hours of our journey didn't go very well. The car was very grumbly, and wasn't running quite right. The engine would shake when we slowed down, and it even cut out when we came to a dead stop at the Catthorpe interchange. We stopped for a breather at the services on the M6 toll, and the car was behaving so badly that neither of us thought it would actually make it all the way. However, after a little break (and we scoffed some muffins!) the car miraculously began to behave itself. It ran sweetly the whole rest of the way to Wrexham where we crashed at a Travelodge to break up our journey (it was by now nearly 2am).
The next day, we got caught up in some traffic going into the roadworks at St Asaph on the A55, and the car started to misbehave a litlle once more, although I had by now mastered keeping the revvs up when slowing down which kept the engine a little happier.
- Queue on Rhuallt Hill, A55
Saturday and Sunday were spent driving around the island, visiting relatives and friends, and stopping off at various places that I hold rather dear to have photographs taken.
So, here are some photos of the Menai Bridge:
- View of Menai Bridge (with Oliver)
- Car with the Menai Suspension Bridge
- Car, the Bridge and me
- Car with Tyn Lon Garage
- Volvos Llannerchymedd
The 343 I took on the same journey was a different matter, but I must say I was far more impressed with how that little 1.4 coped up it compared to my old 360 GLT's - that extra capacity of 0.6 litres should make more of a difference than it does in reality.
