Adventures in the marvellous Mini of doom!

Dave Smart

First time the tent goes up
First time the tent goes up

Part four:
Salsa dancing already

I left Erwin’s place mid morning and headed for Osnabruck in Germany, weather was dull, but good at first, however as I crossed the border, the Germans decided to make me feel at home as the skies slowly lowered and it started to rain, quite heavily in places.

The Mini is equipped with a rather mismatched set of tyres, all of which seem to have decent amounts of tread, but dissimilar amounts of grip in the wet! The front ‘Roadstones’ have good tread, but very poor grip in the wet. As I attempted to take off from 1 set of traffic lights I sat there bemused as I was left with the wheels spinning hopelessly trying to find grip. I’m going to have to be careful in the wet as I think these tyres should be renamed ‘Ditch finders’

Crossing Germany sadly reinforced the German stereotype of being rather humourless. Whilst in the UK, France, Belgium and Holland, plenty of people waved and smiled at the ridiculous Mini, however the further I got into Germany, the fewer smiles were evident, most seemed to be impassive glares.

Having decided to stick to the Motorway today as the weather was bad, and I think the wet A roads could have been lethal, I arrived in Osnabruck in good time. I Had a quick wander round the town and then set off for a campsite just North of the town, where I was met by a rather grumpy receptionist asking if I had a reservation. Once the formalities were completed for the princely sum of €13, I was shown to a pleasant wooded area for camping. Whilst the welcome to the site wasn’t warm, the facilities were very good, clean toilets, showers and even a washing machine and tumble dryer.

The tent took about 20 minutes to put up, which was good as it was the first time I’d tried.
Later in the evening I took the bus into town to find a salsa bar that I’d found a couple of years before on an IMM trip to Denmark, thankfully the bar was still open and was buzzing by the time I arrived, even better, the dancing style was predominantly Cuban, I was a very happy man.

Keith Adams

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