The morning sun rising across a beautiful corner of the Adriatic is what eventually wakes me. Even around this early hour, the warmth tells me it’s going to be another sensational day – Europe has been sweltering under a prolonged heatwave for weeks now – but I’m bleary-eyed, probably from a single beer too many at last night’s beach barbecue, making the rays of 5am sunlight none too welcome.
With this delicate state, it takes us a moment get used to my canvas surroundings, and there’s a minute of genuine shock once i look out of my tent accommodation and discover the nose of a Mini Countryman protruding from beneath my bed. Then I remember – I’m sleeping on your roof of a car!
You see, europeancarweb.com is among very few outlets given the opportunity to sleep in just onestyle of the Countryman. Croatia has all the scenic beauty of its neighbor and fewer of the crowds, meaning it’s well worth a visit.., although and the location for this night in the outdoors is the Dalmatian coast in Croatia, just north of Zadar – it might seem like the less fashionable side of your Adriatic when Italy is across the water.
What’s also noteworthy may be the five-star hotel 500 yards away, having a room within it for me with the luxuries I was able to want. I will chicken-out of sleeping in the Mini any time I enjoy, but in the interest of critical appraisal, I decide to sleep outdoors. Besides, it seems somewhat curmudgeonly to sleep down in the hotel when there’s sensational scenery plus a real Mini adventure uponfor the roof of a Countryman hardly spoils the lines from the mini-SUV. The truth is, you could suggest it allows the car a much more purposeful, outdoors look. The roof box is a slimline item when folded, and Mini even mounted a tire on the roof of it, Dakar-style.
The box is barely wider than the car, and about the duration of the Countryman’s roof, therefore it doesn’t overhang the cabin in an ungainly manner.
Mini countryman camp rear view 03
Mini countryman camp passenger side view 04
Mini countryman camp driver side view 05
In terms of the bed, setting it up in your campsite is simplicity itself. Just pop the catches on the roof box and making use of fabric handles, pull the top half of the clamshell upwards to allow the heavy-duty hinges to extend. The tent is fixed inside of the solid areas of the roof box so is automatically set up in seconds. And also the base of the box is filled with foam, meaning it’s a comfy bed competent at sleeping two average-sized adults with minimum hassle. And you may pitch this anywhere the Countryman All4 can physically drive.
Needless to say, the car is as practical as ever, retaining five seats and a decent trunk; if you eventually opt to settle down for the night, you can use it being a closet by slinging all of your belongings in theresimilar to a Mini, given that the donor car is structurally unchanged by the addition of the roof box. As a 184hp Cooper S model, it isn’t lacking punch on Croatian mountain roads, which can be welcome since the roof box/tire combo adds weight up high. However, there isn’t a good amount of roll for that reason, and the Countryman generally behaves as it should – it has good grip, a decent chassis, and a ride that’s good on the super-smooth surfaces of two-lane freeway between Split and Zadar, but less impressive about the broken blacktop of urban roads negotiating their way through Zadar’s outskirts.
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