Unplanned Pause in Guadalajara Garage

The first indication that something was wrong was the dropping fuel guage. I seemed to be using a lot of fuel, even allowing for a strong wind and less than ideal aerodynamics. Then I noticed a suspicous cloud in the rear view mirror.

I pulled in at a petrol station, and found diesel literally pouring from under the car. A fuel line had sheared, and I must have left one third of a tank on the rather nice road that runs south from Soria towards Madrid. It turned out to be the line that returns excess fuel to the tank from the injectors, which is why I had been able to keep running, obliviously.

The station owner was very helpful. No running repairs were possible, and an hour later there was the sad sight of the car up on a transporter for the short run into the Land Rover dealer at Guadalajara. Like yesteray, I arrived just in time for the two hour lunch break, so there was plenty of time to explore town. Slightly down-at-heel, graffitti, chill air, smokey cafes, it felt like Ecuador.

By 5pm a new fuel line had been found and installed and I was on the way. There was no particular reason for it to break, just nine years of vibration at a bend in the metal. I´m happy it happened now and not somewhere remote.

So I was a bit later than planned on the A4 south of Madrid, driving in darkness, which was horrible. For a motorway it has some terrible bends and surfaces, and the combination with speeding cars is not good. I saw several accidents, and one spectacular one must have happened sixty seconds before I arrived- a fuel tanker had jack-knifed in the opposite lanes, come through the barrier, and the cab was lying across the fast lane on my side.

This morning I took back roads through fabulous olive plantations, and have reached Granada, on track to meet Steffi at Malaga airport in a few hours. Tomorrow, Morocco.