Older diary entries
For our older diary entries please click the 'Our Diary Pages' link at the top of the page.
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The most important first step was to get the right vehicle for us and the conditions we will encounter. The choice was made easier having spent our working lives owning & running a garage. We needed reliability, good parts availability and a preference for Rear Wheel Drive without going to the extent of a total Expedition type of vehicle.
Various modifications were going to be required for this long trip. A refillable gas tank for running fridge and cooker was fitted, heating was changed from gas to diesel by fitting an Eberspacher System because we are not sure of the availability of LPG in some countries.
Two large leisure batteries complete with solar panels for recharging were fitted. Air assisted suspension on the rear to help cope with road conditions was installed. A very important area was the supply of drinkable water & to this end a complex filter system was fitted with a separate drinking tap installed. We use a three filter system, firstly into the water tank, then through a primary filter and finally through Naturpure filtering. Finally a Full service and a TLC check before we leave is booked. Now Mel (that’s our van) has to be shipped across the Atlantic. We are using a Freight Forwarder Cutler Freight (
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) to arrange this. She will go on a flat rack from the UK under deck on a cargo ship bound for Ecuador. There are reams of paperwork necessary for us & the van including carnets, visas, international driving licenses, insurance etc etc. Planning the route was a different story. It made sense to go via Europe into Asia, onto Australia. We spent three months working on this only to find that you cannot outrun Monsoons in India when they are coming head on. What to do next was decided when we attended the Annual meeting of The Silk Route Club where we met The Weather Man, Clive Barker. He gently nudged us in the direction of the bible, Weather To Travel and asked if we might consider joining his little band heading for South America in 2006 and continuing on our original plan but in the opposite direction. And so here we are, all set to join 3 other vans in Ecuador in May 2006.
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Older photo albums
For our older photo albums please click the 'Our Photo Albums' link at the top of the page.
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