Europe, Here We Go!

Friday & Saturday were prep the Landy and sort out gear days. I changed all the fluids and filters. Re-tightened up the loose prop shaft bolts, cleaned out several months worth of field, sheep and dog debris, added in some mount kits from RAM Mounts and generally went to town on making sure I had all the junk these kinds of trips need. As part of this, I packed all the spares for the Landy, so a spare starter motor, a power steering pump, (mine whines every now and then), the Radius Arm bushes I never got around to fittings and several sensors, bearings, oils, filters etc etc. I had also forgotten about the sump bolt, which got dislodged on a rock in a river crossing awhile back. I meant to change the sump itself, but have left it and now its too late. That set me off on a search for a bash plate to protect that part of the engine, but no such luck finding one. I still haven't fitted a steering bash plate either, so that whole front bottom end is going to need regular checking on the trip. I did pack some metal putty and a spare sump bolt though! Last minute delivery arrivals were the gas regulator & hose for the cooker, the Sand Recovery Boards, headlight deflector patches and some Dog Turd puncture repair kits. 

Sunday was a day of visiting people I hadn't seen for awhile. Working and hibernating seem to be my main past time the last couple of years, so it was refreshing to actually talk to people for once! Most of my friends know I'm a bit of a loner, so they just give me some stick whenever they see me! 😏

Once the Landy was loaded up and the house cleaned & locked up for the rest of the winter. I set off on a bit of a weird south bound journey via Lancaster and Liverpool and then on Monday, down to Dover. 

The travel time to Dover has increased on Google Maps from 6 hours to 7.5 hrs it seems. No doubt due to Britain's infamous and growing crappy driving standards, poor quality roads and the huge increase in traffic flow over the last few years. For me, its going to be longer as I have a few stops to make as well. So prep the music library with updated playlists, download a few Podcasts and pack some nibbles and drinks was the last minute job. 

I still need to pick up a Hi Lift jack for puncture & recovery issues, so I found a place in Liverpool that has the HL604 version I'm after, alongside a couple of extras like mounting brackets and anti rattle plastic clips. The LR Centre seems to specialise in Landrover stuff, and for me its on the route with just a minor detour. I'm hoping to mount it on the rear crossmember of the chassis, so its low down and I can also use it as a step into the back of the truck. It could do with a canvas cover to stop it getting covered in road shite, so maybe I'll find somewhere in Tunisia and have one made. I also need to find a rubbish carrier to hang of the spare wheel, but in the UK they seem to be £100, which just seems extortionate for a 1000 denier nylon bag that is going to get slowly destroyed by waste, sun and road grime.

The LR Centre turned out to be a waste of time. I turned up at 08.10 as their website says they open at 8. Once I found a way in, I was quickly thrown out to stand in a wet and slushy doorway. I got told off for not phoning before arrival and the stock on the website wasn't accurate, (either that or their employee couldn't be bothered). They seem to be set up for online sales and don't want visitors at all. So I never got my bits and they missed out on £200 of sales. Hey ho. 

Once finally down at Dover, it was stop for food, a bit of shopping, then check in to P&O Ferries and wait to be boarded. I did have time to do a bit of comfort shopping before leaving the UK, so Liquorice Allsorts, Walkers crisps and plenty of Veggie Samosas went into the shopping cart because a healthy diet is really important apparently! 😇. 

Once in France, I'll get some nice wine, cheese and pay a visit to the charcuterie counter.

Stark contrast in weather between the north and south of Stoke on Trent. Snow, black ice and really cold, then Dover is blue skies, warm and calm seas. Happy days.

Now, its sit back on the ferry, ride the swell of the English Channel to the land of the French for yet another traverse of that great country.

Sahara Bound: Tunisia

At the last minute, I have been planning a trip back into the Sahara. This time into Tunisia. I would have liked to extend the trip into Algeria, but Tunisia doesn't need any visas, whereas Algeria is between a month to three months to process theirs. My original plan was to wait until later in the year and go on my bike, but between the ongoing poor weather, really short daylight hours and some work related issues, I now have some free time between January & March, so it seemed a good idea to head somewhere warm and avoid all the rain/ice/high winds etc that are becoming more common in Britain these days.

The route started out as a bike trip, so I included some of the French, Croatian, Bosnia and Hungarian Trans European Trail routes in it. I also have been wanting to explore Sardinia and Sicily for awhile now, so as they are en-route, I've included potential GPX routes to the collection and see whether I get there. Now its a 4 wheel trip, I'll change the plan accordingly and stop off to see a mate in Italy at some point as well as drive along the Amalfi Coast and explore southern Italy a bit. 

After a lot of soul searching and no small amount of horror at getting so cold again, I decided to go in the Landy this time. Apart from avoiding the obvious things I faced on my last trip, sub zero temperatures, heavy rain & snow etc, I have not done an overland trip in a 4x4 for a long time and never in this particular truck. The last one was through northern Mongolia in a Toyota, so why not have a little extra comfort and bear the extra expense to test out a few thoughts and theories.

I've owned my TD5 Defender, (2000) for around eight years now. Its been my main work vehicle and as such has done a lot of things that have helped me get a good sound knowledge of its quirks plus its strengths and weaknesses. I looked at and costed out all the fancy things that can be done to Defenders to make them 'Overland Trucks', but a mix of having the mindset that too fancy equals 'stolen' and also the last minute nature of this trip stopped me from spending thousands on it. So, its pretty standard and basic inside. I have added some sticky back foam to the panels to decrease the vibration, I've added some navigation specific bits to the cab and some very specific bits of kit for traversing a desert. Mostly though, its going to have a full range of spares of wearable parts, several necessary fluids and some basic recovery equipment. 

For me personally, there is a small camp kitchen, camping chair, two burner stove with a large gas bottle and my own things such as clothes, toiletries books etc. 

The inspiration for this trip came recently from a book I read about crossing the Algerian desert by Tom Sheppard called 'Quiet for a Tuesday'. He has spent a fair bit of time exploring many parts of the Sahara and alongside Chris Scott is probably one of the most knowledgeable people about living in such an environment. Tom has driven multiple vehicles across the Sahara, but more lately he drives a Mercedes G Wagon van version. The idea of keeping the vehicle light weight and simple came from his ideology. 

I've managed to source some paper based maps for Tunisia, they mainly consist of standard road maps. I did find an online resource which has digitised the old colonial maps from the French Military. So I have saved each one into a file and have added them to my tablet to view as I go. 

Technology seems to be moving backwards at the moment though. I can't put a shortcut onto the tablet for the map image folder and my Garmin GPS units all seem to be having screen failure issues. Garmin component quality seems to be dying out since they have tried to compete with the mobile phone manufacturers and their app based software. So I've added in a heavy duty phone as a nav tool to cover the need for back up reliability. Especially after the abject technology failure on the last Morocco trip! I've also included all my camera equipment, so I can play with taking pics again like I did for the Antarctic. We'll see whether any turn out nice!

It's now about two days before I plan to leave the UK. Today is the final day to be able to service the Landy, so once its daylight and the heavy frost has retreated a bit, that'll be me for the day. I also need to change the worn out Radius Arm bushes, which is currently making the truck feel like its floating when I go around a bend. I'll change all the fluids today and filters, then once the headlight beam deflectors and the traction boards arrive today or tomorrow, that's me set to go.