Just when it was going so well.

The fifth consecutive day of shirtsleeve driving. That's almost unheard of in this green & pleasant land.

The car started well but a few miles down the road it started to misfire and lose power at moderate revs. I found a place to stop and found that the front carburetor was out of adjustment. A few minutes tinkering soon had us going again.

Our journey took us through Harwich which I have always assumed was little more than a ferry port. How wrong I was. Old Harwich is delightful and we will add it to the list of places to visit again later for a proper look.

From there it was onwards to Walton on the Naze (a lovely place), Frinton, Clacton and Brightlingsea. Brightlingsea is a place we'll never forget. Just as we were leaving there was a clunk from the rear end and old Numbum wouldn't go any further. We managed to push it into a car park.

I was sure that we had broken a halfshaft so called the RAC and explained the situation and said that we would need recovery. After over an hour a patrol van turned up. He confirmed that it couldn't be fixed and ordered a recovery truck. Yet another wait.

While waiting for the RAC I called NTG Services of Ipswich and spoke to Linda to see what could be done about getting another halfshaft and she was most helpful in agreeing a course of action.

Here's where the story gets a bit interesting. We planned to stay the night with John & Ann
Ward of the MGCC T Register. We didn't know exactly where they lived, only that it was somewhere near Chelmsford. We were going to get directions when we got closer. Ringing them got their address for getting Numbum to them and it turns out that they live in Southminster which we would have passed through as part of our planned route.

Eventually we arrived in Southminster and pushed old Numbum into a massive four car garage with room to work too. It was now 8pm and Ann had dinner prepared so we decided to leave the car till the morning.

Now we've finally got the pictures off the cameras and identified here are some from today.

A quick fix on the carburetor.

Enjoying the view at Shotley Gate.

Beach huts at Brightlingsea.

Hitching a ride.