Purple Haze made it! - Ramshackle Munich part one

The Purple Haze and occupants Wedgi and Giggles completed the 2011 Ramshackle Rally to Munich and back home again - just!

We set off from Calais on a September Friday morning with the Hendrix themed beast, complete with unique paint job courtesy of my son Lawrence. His final parting shot was to have written the slogan 'A spliff a day keeps the doctor away down the drivers side'- This inevitably got us stopped at customs in Dover. They were most disappointed to find we were not carrying 3 tons of weed.

Long motorway slog down to Friday's stop at Annecy was punctuated by frequent stops to ensure no overheating:

Surprisingly the Purple Haze was one of the more sedate and refined entries on the rally(unlike our behaviour!), which was about 25 vehicles in all which included a tank, a pirate ship, a car with an elephant on the roof and a car covered in orange carpet!

Annecy was beautiful and after a decent Italian meal Giggles and I decamped to the pub with the other Ramshacklers to indulge in copious amounts of Leffe beer and to commiserate with the occupants of three bangers already terminally broken down:

The following morning we awoke with hangovers and strangely missed the rendezvous at the start. Instead had strong coffees and contemplated the deteriorating weather and more frequent groaning from the undercarriage of the Haze. We followed a mountainous route into Northern Italy, including up and over the Petit St Bernard in the mist and drizzle.

En route to Milan we were forced to a standstill not by mechanical failure but by hailstones and torrential rain which took out the Pirate Ship. Did not arrive at the hotel in Bormio in the Italian Alps until well after dark. Family run hotel and restaurant was fab though - within 30 minutes of arriving we were chilling with a litre of red wine and a couple of modestly priced pizzas. Feeling better, we descended into town into a basement bar with a certain reputation amongst Ramshacklers for a few beers...... (what goes on tour etc...).
Sunday morning dawned with even worse weather, which meant we were unable to see any of the spectacular Stevilo Pass as we negotiated its twisty hairpins in the pouring rain. Near the top the rain turned to snow so we could not resist an impromptu snowball fight at the summit:

The descent into Austria was hairy, as the Haze was an automatic with the added issue of no engine braking whatsoever. Plenty of sliding in the slush! Managed to make it to the warm bosom of the Ibis hotel in Innsbruck by mid afternoon - It was straight to a bar brewing its own fearsome beer served in litre steins accompanied by the obligatory goulash and dumplings. Later we did it all again with beer, beer, beer, beer, beer and a fat sausage with the other guys. In the restaurant things were beginning to get out of hand, our cue to retreat to Burger King for another meal for Giggles and some strong black coffee for me.

Next morning the weather had deteriorated further as we attempted to re-cross the Alps via the Grossglockner. As we climbed higher the road became covered and we slithered to a halt just past Kitzbuhel, with no option but to turn the Haze around:





We decamped to a snowy Kitzbuhel for lunch and then decided to abandon the plan to get down to Slovenia on the official Ramshackle route and instead head for Salzburg via the Eagles Nest at Bertchesgarden where Hitler had one of his hideouts - unfortunately it was closed as a result of the poor weather.



Salzburg was lovely but bloody freezing, as a result we had to sample a few more bars including the obilgatory Irish Bar which was strangely deserted. Had an excellent Italian meal followed by a relatively early night.......