The curates egg

 

As the saying goes  the day was “like the curates egg, good in parts”.

 

We started the day early as we needed to transit through the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa, and wanted to get through before it got too busy. We didn’t leave quite as early as we hoped but the transit across the city could not have been easier. It is the only major city I have ever driven across when I didn’t experience a single set of traffic lights. Happy days!

 

On the other side the road was excellent although the climbs were long it was all on high quality duel carriageway. We had 292km to travel and the road looked good for most of the journey so we expected to be in Gracias (supposedly the politest town in Honduras!) by about 1pm for a more leisurely afternoon. At this stage in proceedings that is what it looked like but as is often the case the gods conspired against us.

 

We turned off the CA5 onto the CA7 which took us through a national park along one of the great motoring roads you would ever want to travel on. The road goes through the mountains with beautiful forests of pine trees and fantastic views. “What could possibly go wrong” ringing on our minds and then in the middle of nowhere we ground to a halt. A long traffic jam, so as usual we proceeded to the front where we discovered that teachers had blockaded the road in protest to some governmental restructuring which they didn’t approve of. Fortunately we only had to wait until midday before they removed their obstruction and we were back on the road.

 

About 10 miles further on, at the junction we needed to take, we ground to a halt once again with the road blocked by the teachers once again. This time they and their supporters were carrying large sticks. I tried to talk to the oldest, largest of the strikers hoping to persuade him to let us through. I explained that we had driven from Buenos Aires, I tried to tell him that my son is a teacher and would be very supportive but sadly all my efforts came to naught and we had to wait until speeches were made and their point made. It seemed as if they were making their point to themselves rather than any third party audience so Nigel decided he would enthusiastically support each point that was made by the speakers a plan which undoubtedly backfired because he was joined by the crowd which prolonged the whole process. Finally we were off again, no longer arriving at 1pm but now scheduled for 14:30.

 

In the crowd we had met Paris, a local with excellent English. He had warned us that the road the other side of Esperanza to San Juan was nit good and would take some time, but thereafter was once again excellent.  Paris was spot on. We stopped for an excellent coffee just outside Esperanza and then transited through the busy town. The sun was up and the town was hot, as were the cars by the time they left.

 

The 47km from Esperanza to San Juan was a minefield of potholes, some of which were large enough to break a axel if one wasn’t careful. It was mostly downhill so, even in a low gear, one has to brake whilst steering through the holes. One makes the best decisions one can but inevitably there are times when you commit to a route which leads one into a series of potholes which then cannot be avoided.

 

The result was at the bottom of a long, steep, pothole covered section Ham’s back, driver side brake locked up. We were convinced that like Nigel in Bolivia all those weeks ago the brakes had just got too hot and locked up. Careful to avoid breaking the shoes we very carefully tried to unlock the seized brake drum. It moved but not by much and certainly Ham couldn’t  proceed with his rear brakes locked on. Tobs suggested releasing the brake rod and Nigel that the rear geometry of the car was misaligned. Then it dawned that Ham had broken a spring.

 

We set off gingerly in the hope of finding a garage with a lift so that we could fit the spare spring and Chris found salvation in the form of Tito and his garage in the very next village. He had a lift which the Lagonda was quickly up on. The broken spring was removed and the new one produced. Unfortunately one of the bushes didn’t fit but that was a minor inconvenience to Tito who somehow managed to remove the old one and fit the old bush to the new spring. His assistant fitted the new spring and by about 17:30 Ham was back on the road.

 

All the drivers were anxious to avoid driving on this pothole filled road after dark but we only had about 40km to go and about an hour before sundown. As soon as we passed through San Juan the road was back to normal and we all arrived at our hotel in Gracia just as the sun was disappearing. A very lucky escape.