First long trip : Normandy (1500km)

Just a week in, and with some preparation, we went to Normandy.

Motorways were avoided as they're no fun in the Caterham. With the hood on you feel like you are camping with your tent in a 130 kph constant wind. Plus cruising for 7 hours straight with the engine continuously at 5000 RPM is as pleasant as it sounds.

Backpacks were fine for a 3 days escape, and fitted easily in the boot - having the roof up made that all too easy.

That trip was a good opportunity to get accustomed to the gasoline gauge, and what kind of range we can expect with a full tank. 

Driving to and on the beach in true beach buggy fashion (roof off, no doors) with 4°C outside was quite the experience.

We quickly understood what a godsend the opening rear window really is. It's basically always open when I drive with the full roof on, unless it's raining really hard. Open or not, it can get quite hot in there if you really want to. But the heater temperature is adjustable and there are 3 settings for the fan speed (off, min, max). The windscreen is heated to prevent fogging, but a cloth is required to clear the windows on the sidescreens (doors) and transparent parts of the roof.

The trip was un-eventful overall. We actually both slept a while when the other was driving, and didn't even use the inflatable neck pillow.

A damp and probably oily roundabout led us to some unprovoked drifting at a very moderate speed in traffic. But nothing that couldn't be managed with the gas pedal and a good dose of counter-steering.

The heavy rain encountered when we reached our destination was a good opportunity to discover that water rushes in from below the doors when you drive fast in a puddle. Quite the experience as well.