Want to plan a mystery tour?

FLYING BANANA · 27th July 2018, 06:28

Then buy a Navall 3.

Allen and I decided to attend the Torbay MG Owners Club night in Marldon near Paigton. As Allen's ZTT is not ready to be shown off yet we decided to take The Flying Banana. So I duly set up the Sat Nav on the Navall 3 and went off to collect Allen.

We was soon crossing the Tamar, the Sat Nav was telling us to leave the A38 and onto the A385. Allen remarked that this was a new one on him. But we carried on. And that was our mistake. "Take the next left" announced the Sat Nav, and that was the last time we saw civilisation for the next 40 minutes. We travelled down lanes where the grass stood two feet tall in the middle of the lanes. The hedgerows were a thousand foot tall, well not quite.

We went through Landscove, Broadhempston, Staverton, we crossed the river Dart countless times, and went went across the A381 a couple of times. And still the Sat Nav kept announcing turn right, we must have turned right about 30 times but only turned left 5 times, well that is how it felt.
We travelled through Wash Cross and into Red Post Cross then there was the river Dart again.

We finally go into Marldon after 40 minutes, we had met the occasional car on our travels which meant one of us reversing into the hedgerow and folding our mirrors in so one could get past.
When we finally found the pub, "Ye Olde Smokehouse", that first pint never touched the sides. And Banana never missed a beat on the whole journey. Never played up once.

According to the now "sacked" Sat Nav it should have only taken 48 minutes from home to the pub, but instead took us 85 minutes. And the irony was the pub was less than 300 yards from the A380, a road I use frequently to get to Matt Darke's house.

As for the MG club, they were not as friendly as the Cornish club. Naturally in amongst the MGB's, F' and TF's Banana stuck out like a sore thumb but she was soon having her photo taken. A stunning and totally unspoilt MG GT won the show and shine trophy.

And the return journey took 50 minutes.

75c · 27th July 2018, 08:12

Navalls make good doorstops. I wish I'd never bought one. Mind you, I wish I'd never bought an invisible premium bumper either but that's a different story. Happy to see flying b running again after spitting her dummy !

MSS · 27th July 2018, 11:48

We had an interesting experience getting to Helford - an absolutely beautiful coastal village - in Cornwall some years back. The Satnav's take you down a long winding lane that has very few passing places. At the end of the road, I ended up doing a 7-point left turn just to follow the road into the village - it is that narrow. That is why local people approach the village form the other end!

Fortunately, I had taken the omega so I wasn't too worried about getting stratches from driving into hedges in order to pass tractors going in the opposite direction.

27th July 2018, 08:12	#2
75c Gets stuck in Rover 75 Saloon Join Date: Feb 2018 Location: Belfast Posts: 601 Thanks: 150 Thanked 294 Times in 190 Posts	Navalls make good doorstops. I wish I'd never bought one. Mind you, I wish I'd never bought an invisible premium bumper either but that's a different story. Happy to see flying b running again after spitting her dummy !

27th July 2018, 11:48	#3
MSS This is my second home Rover 75CDT, Jaguar XF-S 3.0V6, V'xhall Omega V6 Estate, Twintop 1.8VVT, Astra Estate and Corsa 1.2 Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Suffolk Posts: 7,085 Thanks: 283 Thanked 624 Times in 440 Posts	We had an interesting experience getting to Helford - an absolutely beautiful coastal village - in Cornwall some years back. The Satnav's take you down a long winding lane that has very few passing places. At the end of the road, I ended up doing a 7-point left turn just to follow the road into the village - it is that narrow. That is why local people approach the village form the other end! Fortunately, I had taken the omega so I wasn't too worried about getting stratches from driving into hedges in order to pass tractors going in the opposite direction.