My XK spends it's life in the North of England where the heater and the windscreen wipers get a lot more use than the cooling. Time for a check on the AC.

The AC was cool but not COLD so I had it re-gassed. 200 grams down therefore not surprising it had been only moderate. Other preparations for the sunnier parts of Europe included changing the headlamps from LH dip to RH dip. I wonder which genius at Jaguar thought it was a good idea to have to remove the headlamps to switch the dip direction or change the bulbs.


(the route south)

Left home in Durham at 7:00pm on Saturday for the 337 mile slog down England's congested roads to Eurotunnel and crossed the English Channel on "Le Shuttle" in 35 minutes, arriving in Les Coquelles, France at 01:35 local time (one hour ahead of UK time).


(crossing the English Channel the easy way - Le Shuttle)

The French roads are almost deserted at this hour on a Sunday and we made good progress before breakfast, completing the 671 miles to the Spanish border by 12:00.

After a pause for lunch, we completed the remaining 146 miles to our hotel in Burgos, northern Spain by 3:00pm.


(overnight stop at Burgos)

Three countries and a Channel crossing totalling 1154 miles in 19 hours. My wife doesn't drive but she is an uncomplaining passenger.

Turned in early because the following day was an early start to cross Spain from north to south. Good roads but Madrid and Granada are large, busy cities which slowed us down. Once on the south coast we headed 30 miles up narrow winding mountain roads into the Sierra Nevada to our destination of Competa. 498 miles in 7 hours.


(climbing up the Sierra Nevada)

Total distance 1652 miles across some of the busiest roads in Europe in 44 hours door to door. This may not seem unusual to US or Australian members but it's an achievement in Europe.

Toured 641 miles during the month we stayed including a visit to Gibraltar at the southern tip of Europe. The AC worked perfectly with no sign of the notorious condensate leaks onto the passenger side floor. Temperatures reached 98 deg F which is far above anything we ever get at home.


(The Rock - Gibraltar)

The return trip included an overnight stop at Poitiers in central France. Serious delays at the border where trucks were backed up for 5 miles waiting to cross. French border control backed up by the military were checking every vehicle. The 942 miles from Competa to Poitiers took 14 hours.

The following morning we left Poitiers at 09:00 heading for Eurotunnel with a stop in the Loire valley to fill up the remaining space in the car with wine and lunch at a favourite restaurant. Arrived home in Durham after a further 793 miles at 23:00.

The XK performed flawlessy thoughout, used no oil or coolant.

Total Miles = 4028
Fuel consumption = 658.80 litres (145 Imperial Gallons / 174 US gallons)
Fuel cost = £843.68 ($1064.37)

Gave the car a wash, changed the headlamps back to LH dip and it passed the annual MoT inspection this week.

Graham

 

Sounds epic well done

 

wow . quite an achievement alright ! thats about 6 laps of our country .
and I'm thinking i wouldn't want to pay for that amount of fuel with new zealand dollars ether .
but good you for using that jag for what it was built for .
sounds an awesome road trip!

 

Good show.

 

A whole month in southern Spain. Now there's an owner who knows how to treat his XK right!

I'd never thought about that 'dip' direction issue you have. What percentage of cars/trucks do you find approaching you at night have the wrong dip?

 

I've used 'beam benders' stuck on the headlamps on previous trips. The XK is the first car I've had where the headlamps can be switched LH to RH with a lever inside the assembly. I never got 'flashed' once so the adjustment is clearly effective.

That's more than can be said for French vehicles. It seems regular for them to have one headlamp pointing up at the sky and the other somewhere vaguely ahead. The DREAL (les directions régionales de l'environnement, de l'aménagement et du logement) which is the French equivalent of the UK MoT must be a lot less strict.

Spanish vehicles undergo their ITV test and all vehicles approaching or following me had the correct dip.

Graham

 

Interesting. I was actually thinking along the lines of how often do you recognize LH drive cars invading your homeland by the fact that they have the wrong dip as they are approaching you at night?

P.S. It doesn't count if you recognize them because they are coming at you in the wrong lane!

 

Sounds like a wonderful trip. I can't remember the last time I spent a week on vacation let alone a month, that's great. As for the 1600+ miles, that's about two weeks of my commutes around the Los Angeles basin on a regular basis, I could have visited 8 countries instead.

 

nice! Thanks for sharing

 

Great trip, one of the very few things I miss in Aus!
When we toured around Spain a few times, we usually just tried to get through France as swiftly as possible. I found travelling overnight on the train down to the south of France was a nice - only about an hour to get into Spain when you get off the train. (Never had any damage loading vehicles*).

http://www.seat61.com/Motorail.htm#Map of European motorail routes


(*Triumph bikes, an XJS-C, and an XJR-S)

 

In Kent, where the major Channel ports of Dover, Folkestone and Eurotunnel exit to the motorway, it's rare to see a LHD vehicle coming from the Continent with correctly adjusted headlamps.

Our British Police seem to ignore this unlike the French Gendarmerie who often sit on the autoroute outside Calais and hand out on-the-spot fines to British drivers for the same offence.

Graham

 

Well, at least they acknowledge your existence!

 

Is that one of the reasons you guys are doing a Brexit? Seriously, that sounds like a great trip. We have done several road trips in Southern France, Spain, Switzerland and Italy; all in rental vehicles ranging from Feats, through Renaults, Peugots to BMWs. Unfortunately no Jaguars. All of them have had there moments both good and bad, but mostly good.

 

Don't get me started on Brexit. The lunatics are running the asylum.

Graham