Not sure whether anyone will be interested in this, but I thought I would try and recount some of our European adventures in a Commer, so here goes:
A Wanderer in Europe Part 1
The year was 1970 and we had already had many adventures in our 3 year old Commer Wanderer from our first tentative trip to Swanage in 1968 to a tour of Scotland, discovering the Yorkshire Dales and sinking to our rear axle in the rain in St Davids. We were about to embark on our biggest adventure yet with a tour of Northern Europe.
We were to visit France, Belgium, Holland, Germany and Denmark. This may not sound far today, but to a 10 year old boy who had never been abroad before it might as well have been Outer Mongolia. Preparations included fitting yellow headlight deflectors, a GB badge and replacing the original round wing mirrors with larger rectangular mirrors to help with driving on the ‘wrong side’.
The day of departure arrived and we set off to Ramsgate where we were to cross the Channel on one of the new Hoverlloyd hovercrafts which had recently been introduced. We were to camp overnight in Ramsgate and I spent that first afternoon with my Dad down at the hoverport watching the two hovercraft, Swift and Sure arrive and depart. The next morning it was our turn and drove onto Swift for our journey. We sat in an inner lounge area and vibrated for half an hour. I did go for a wander to the outer lounge to see the view from the windows, but all I could see was spray.
In no time at all we were in France, through customs and I was standing on foreign soil for the very first time. We were just outside the hoverport and I set my right foot down first. Now the adventure would start for real!
'It's not a proper slider'
A Wanderer in Europe Part 1
The year was 1970 and we had already had many adventures in our 3 year old Commer Wanderer from our first tentative trip to Swanage in 1968 to a tour of Scotland, discovering the Yorkshire Dales and sinking to our rear axle in the rain in St Davids. We were about to embark on our biggest adventure yet with a tour of Northern Europe.
We were to visit France, Belgium, Holland, Germany and Denmark. This may not sound far today, but to a 10 year old boy who had never been abroad before it might as well have been Outer Mongolia. Preparations included fitting yellow headlight deflectors, a GB badge and replacing the original round wing mirrors with larger rectangular mirrors to help with driving on the ‘wrong side’.
The day of departure arrived and we set off to Ramsgate where we were to cross the Channel on one of the new Hoverlloyd hovercrafts which had recently been introduced. We were to camp overnight in Ramsgate and I spent that first afternoon with my Dad down at the hoverport watching the two hovercraft, Swift and Sure arrive and depart. The next morning it was our turn and drove onto Swift for our journey. We sat in an inner lounge area and vibrated for half an hour. I did go for a wander to the outer lounge to see the view from the windows, but all I could see was spray.
In no time at all we were in France, through customs and I was standing on foreign soil for the very first time. We were just outside the hoverport and I set my right foot down first. Now the adventure would start for real!
'It's not a proper slider'
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