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Estonia today makes it 7 countries in 7 days! Weather was pretty horrible this morning on the way to the ferry. The waterproofer I picked up for the roof made a big difference. There was very little water coming through the fabric of the hood. Instead it was running into the zips where it leaked like a seive right over my steering wheel! Oh well, easier to deal with now at least. I can run a rag or towel over the zips every time water is visibly pooling before it starts dripping. Onto the ferry then, and had the usual tradition of people coming over asking to take a picture of the car etc. Its great how positive people are about it! Also get to hear about some great cars other people have too. There was one Swedish guy with one of 3 remaining Buicks still running that he was telling me about. Unfortunately I didn't quite catch what model it was though. Once we got off the ferry into Estonia, the weather was initially dry, but quite overcast and threatening to rain. We went to our first stop - a short trail down to saula siniallikad, a natural blue spring. The photos don't do it justice unfortunately, but it looked spectacular. The rings you can see in the photo are actually 3 or 4 metres from the surface, and created as the water flows through the sand at the bottom into the pool. It was pretty fascinating to watch, and the colour was so vivid. After that, and another round of locals asking about the car and taking more photos, we set off towards our hostel in Pärnu. The weather was still looking pretty threatening and the forecast wasn't good, so we left hoods up. We got onto some fun little roads, with some nice twisty sections. You have to stay awake on the Estonian roads though, they're regularly rutted where years of wheels have run, resulting in a raised section in the centre. With the low mx5 sump under the car, that was a littlw nerve wracking at times! About a half an hour down the road, I was very tempted to gamble on the weather, but glad I didn't in the end! When the rain came, it came heavy, and to be honest, the waterproofer has now made a massive difference with the hood. It was dripping in the morning having had the car stationary in the rain for a few hours overnight. When you're moving, the water seems to stay out of the zips, so it's a much more pleasant place to be in the rain now. That said, the popper for the driver's side zip has broken now, having been opened maybe 10 times at most, so that's another slight disappointment but doesn't really effect the use other than a permanent jingle when hood is up. The only other niggle I've got at the moment is the car has been running quite rich. I know mx5s have a tenancy to do this at the best of times, but it's definitely worse now than when I set off. It might just be a product of the stock. Ecu coupled with a much more free flowing exhaust and intake setup, or it could be down to the fact that since leaving I've switched to 95RON fuel rather than 98 (couldn't afford 98 for the miles I'm doing). Or it could be down to the temperature. Anyone familiar with my build thread will remember I switched the thermostat from an 88 degree one that was in the donor to an 82 degree one that it should have had to begin with due to it running quite hot on the day of my IVA. With the much cooler air temperatures up here, coolant temps have generally been around 84 degrees, so it's not impossible that the ECU has been pumping more fuel in to try to bring the engine temperature up a bit. The other option is that my O2 sensor may have died but annoyingly I forgot to pack my little diagnostic LED circuit to check for any DTCs. I'll keep an eye on it as we head south to warmer climates and see if it changes at all. Anyway, clothes (and ourselves) all washed atand ready for another few days camping. We'll set off in the general direction of Riga tomorrow - after the rugby of course!

Spent 7hrs driving on some great roads - Newcastle, Stanhope, Middleton in teesdale, Brough, Kirkby Lonsdale (Devils Bridge), Hartside, Alston, Langley and home. Had too much fun to take any pics 🤣🤣 Ok there was a couple but they are pants... need to to get the go pro shots from the Caterham 😁

One of our well loved members, has a mild mannered passenger (who never drives their Westie). He had a previous life in advertising and world wide adventures. I've been sworn to stay silent for too long and can no longer keep his exploits secret any longer. I suspect I'll be stonned to death by cakes shortly........ After many years of secret filming I will now share the adventures of Tango Man: More to follow over future weeks, including Tango Man's other worldwide travels, and more recent adventures closer to home............

What a beautiful day to be out today. Where did you go?.

I couldn't possible comment that @LukeW broke his car pulling out of the devil's ar$e ! Who say's S2000's have no torque! I've not heard of a Sport 250 snapping a CV joint off the rear hub yet! @AdgeC @BugMan Challenge on! I hope you're quickly fixed Luke! But I'm not sorry that you're breakdown mean't I had to drive Winnat's pass 3 times instead of 1, like the others! 😎

Estonia! (but the weather here was horrible so no pretty pictures!)

Lucy Verasarmy has spoken and wow, that's a lot of rain coming our way tomorrow, so it's a no show from us. CANCELLED.

Doh!!

I’ve worked it out.. my membership had expired.

Oi! Who’s nicked my GoPro?

Yea I am up for it, @Josh Lawson - North London AO @Scarey @Andy Banks - Chairman what about you lot?

The other upside is that they seem to be really overspecced for the 1 series, so they aren't exactly overstressed. I've only gone through one set of pads in 90k miles, and I haven't been driving it gently!

Was a little fresh this morning, but a stunning commute to work...!

That sounds like a good idea. I'll be spending most of Friday in Helsinki so I'll find a camping shop then. Carried on to Stockholm yesterday. Decided to forgo the 3.5 hour motorway drive in favour of a 5 hour non motorway drive - which turned out to be 2 hours of non motorway followed by 3 hours of a different motorway. Still a good trade in my eyes! The views were beautiful, although the speed limits too low for any entertaining driving. Once I got to Stockholm, I parked up the car and checked into my hostel. It was nice to have a hot shower after two days sleeping in a tent! Then went and met up with my friends - one originally from Finland and the other from a bit further north in Sweden. In my head it was only 2 or 3 years since I'd seen them, but the reality was more like 8 or 9 when we worked it out! That's one really important point about this car that could be so easily overlooked - it's a fantastic conversation starter, both with old friends and new ones. My housemates lived in my old house for 4 years before I moved in without knowing the neighbour's names properly. Once I started working outside on the car, everyone would stop for little chats here and there, or ask for a little advice if they were having some car trouble. The result was that I got to know them really well, to the point where I know a good chunk of their backgrounds now too! It's so easy these days to live without building these relationships, that's what makes it so fantastic to have something that facilitates them! Anyway, I'm now on the ferry to Finland, where I'll be meeting up with my friend and his mk1 MX5, and the rest of the trip then we'll be doing together. I quickly changed my speedo back to mph this morning to check the mileage reading. 1 week today since the reg plates went on, and the car has covered over 2000 miles and driven in 5 countries (that'll be 6 in about 11 hours time)! That's some pretty decent progress I think!