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To rectify this situation James arose at 7am and boosted off to the hire car office, demanding better service, bigger cars, and a couple of blonde floozies. He managed 2 out of the 3 and vowed that the 3rd would be complete before the trip was out. He returned to the climbing wall with our new ride, which was neither pimping, large enough, or fast. Our new ride was an Opel Zafira! It was now approximately 9am and we’d all had about 3 hours sleep so we began to brainstorm (badly) about the plan for the north face jacket. We had to get to Pfalz, which was 4 hours away, and climb the classic route Magnetfinger. Normally this would be an easy day but without the RV it was difficult to plan where we’d end up staying. Then someone came up with the bright idea of phoning the garage to check if a miracle had occurred and they’d managed to receive the new turbo and fit it. Someone must be keeping an eye out for us as the unbelievable had occurred and the mechanic said it would all be ready for 5pm. This was amazing news but it left us with a serious conundrum. How could we pick up the RV at 5pm and also go the pfalz to climb? At this point an injection of caffeine helped to get the brainstorming into gear and we came up with this genius plan. We’d hang out in Zurich,north face denali, taking it easy and resting our weary bodies, collect the RV at 5pm, then head straight to the Pfalz. What this meant was that our schedule would be a day behind but this was not in any way acceptable, so stage 2 of the plan dropped onto the table. We’d arrive at Pfalz late at night, sleep for a few cherished hours, then arise at dawn to get on the route. Once James and Gaz had done the deed we’d leave for Frankenjura, which was only a 4 hour drive, then tick the second route of the day; Slimline. After that was dispensed with we’d drive on for another hour to do a lecture and slideshow, followed by the first leg of our drive to Poland. Without a doubt this was a grand plan which could seriously break us, but this is what we decided we must do to get the trip back on schedule. There were many variables that could easily destroy the plan but we were pumped up and ready to take on the challenge. Dare to Dream north face denali fleece...

We reloaded the van, put the kettle on, and got back on the road to Pfalz. Being back in the van was like returning home after a long trip away. The slowness, the cheap build quality, the gas guzzling, the instability, and the lack of leather were all forgotten about. We had a kettle, we had the ability to walk around, we had beds, we had all of our gear, we had it all. We felt on top of the world again. Ten minutes later it was all forgotten as we settled into the slow lane for the arduous drive to our next destination. The ETA was around 1am and this was the first of the many variables with potential to go wrong over the next 24 hours! To Destruction!