With some delay here a short summary of our journey to Malvern three weeks ago.
It was a fantastic trip with a total of 1.968 kms and at the same time my present to my father for his 70th birthday some days later.
We started on June 07th at 02.15am in the night, well prepared with the luggage rack, custom made luggage straps and the Rimowa suitcase (sealed with duck tape – respectively considered a good investment…).
Together with all the other equipment, provisions and the two of us as not really lightweight passengers, the car was on it´s permissible maximum weight…
A nice drive followed trough the night via Luxembourg, Belgium and the french Pas-de-Calais region until Calais ferry port.
Some light rain started near Lille but in Calais it was dry again but with a very cloudy and grey sky. In the waiting queue for the ferry we had a nice encounter with two nuns who where very interested in our MORGAN.
They admired the “little car” a promised to pray for good weather (what at least partially failed).
On the ferry the weather became better and better and the island welcomed us with nearly blue sky.
We decided to let the roof up until Sissinghurst Castle. Just some minutes before leaving there (and taking the roof down) it started to rain, grrrr.
But that was only the beginning… We passed the motorway around London under heavy rain and later behind Oxford and especially around Cheltenham we drove nearly under water (“…we all live in a MORGAN submarine…”).
Fortunately it stopped for a few minutes when we arrived in Malvern at our B&B to take off the suitcase and other things from inside the car.
We had a nice dinner in Malvern and we were rather tired after a long day.
Next morning the long awaited factory visit was to impend. We had booked the 09.30h tour and entered the factory already 30 minutes before. The MORGAN was parked in front of the factory halls (back to the rootes) and we felt happy to meet Jay who was already waiting for us in the visitors centre.
Very nice to meet him – thank you again, Jay, for coming to the factory in your MORGAN despite the bad weather and spending your time with us during the tour!
Compared to my visit last year I had the impression that the guided tour was a bit shorter/quicker so not enough time to absorb every interesting detail I was interested in… After the tour Jay invited us to a cup of coffee/tea/cold drink in the cafeteria and then he kindly took the obligatory photo of my father, me and the MOG in front of the old office entry on the street (under heavy rain).
Later on I had the chance to meet Charles Morgan in his office for a short small talk (about his Gumball tour across the US) and he signed my photo build book. Very nice moments…
Then we started a second tour alone through the factory especially to the Threewheeler sections. We left “the paradise” only when they closed the doors for the weekend. Very kind people there at the factory! Thank´s a lot for allowing us to walk around wherever we wanted to!
Later in the afternoon (and after a heavy thunderstorm) we visited Stoke Lacy (the old rectory and St.Peter & Paul) and in the evening we had a nice dinner in the Nag´s Head Pub in Malvern (indeed very recommendable).
The next day started with dry weather and another “photo shooting” in front of the factory before leaving Malvern to the Cotswolds region.
A very nice day was waiting: We stopped in Deerhurst, Prescott Hill, Stanton, Sudeley Castle, Broadway Tower Country Park, Snowshill, Chipping Campden, The Slaughters, to name only a few.
The weather was quite nice and much better than the days before.
We stayed for the night in Iffley in the south of Oxford, had a nice dinner in the Prince of Wales Pub and the next morning we unfortunately had to leave already back to Dover.
As already on the first ferry trip we could park the car in the lower lorry deck again, so no problem with the ground clearance of our fully loaded MOG.
Back on the continent and with the roof down we enjoyed the last 540kms back home.
The car performed very well. No problems at all. The average fuel consumption despite the very heavy loading of the car was only 6,5 l/100km respectively 36 mpg. The next days we cleaned the MOG from top to down, inside and outside and also the engine bay.
Almost every free minute (beyond daily work) since then we spent on cleaning, polishing and waxing the other cars of the “fleet” and today is the first day to relax a bit and make this short write-up of our adventures.
All in all a fantastic experience whose special quality has a lot (!) to do with the unique MORGAN car.
The best “therapy” to get a better quality of life!
Enjoy your MORGAN cars and have a nice summer,
kind regards,
George
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