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So after a few hectic weeks getting organised, we loaded the 130 into a container in Brisbane, and 45 days later it was in Hamburg (June 2015). The details of the shipping are in post #14 here - http://www.aulro.com/afvb/90-110-130...ml#post2468609
As you can see in the photos, there is just enough room to walk around the 130 inside the container.
I don't seem to have many AULRO interesting photos of Germany/Bavaria. But below is a random selection.
We went to the Abenteuer Allrad in Bad Kissingen, Germany, which is Europe's largest off road show. I posted photos of some of the machines in this thread - http://www.aulro.com/afvb/general-ch...one-going.html The camping area is probably just as interesting as the show itself. I suspect many of the "offroad" machines don't do anything more strenuous than cruising from one show to the next?
We also went and saw a large group Alphorn ladies playing. They sound pretty impressive live, especially with a scenic backdrop. Here is a random Alphorn utube vid to give an impression of Alphorns in action - [ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_vDaKgifEs[/ame]
Photo of a "different" camper on a Series 3. Apparently if the "camper" is only strapped down and not bolted, it is only considered a load by the authorities.
We also went to an "Old-timer" tractor meet. Lots of great old tractors. My favourite are the LANZ bulldog (tractor). The bigger 10 litre single cylinder LANZ tractors make an impressive sound as they idle by at 60 revs a minute. Sounds a little like this but obviously far more impressive live - [ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYv6bbJiJP0[/ame]
Who needs a ute? Certainly not this bloke who's been out chopping a little bit of wood.
A photo of one group of "Maschkera" in Partenkirchen's Fasching parade. There was over 10 different Maschkera clubs all dressed in different themes. It is an old pagan tradition to drive out the evil spirits of winter, and encourage the coming of spring and good crops.
In November 2015 we travelled to Morocco for about 5 weeks. Even though Europe seems small and Africa quite close, it was still a fair way. First we drove 600km from Bavaria down through Austria, and Italy to Genova port, where we caught a ferry (2 nights, and 2 days) to Tanger Med in Morocco. The ferry saved around 2000km each way to southern Spain. As an idea of costs: the Autobahn tolls in Austria and Italy cost 50 ? each way, the ferry was 1200 ? return for our Land Rover and a four person cabin. The cost of food, fuel, accommodation etc in Morocco was about 800?. We ended up doing about 4,500km in Morocco.
It is much more pleasant to travel through Morocco now, than it was when I was last there in '99. They are keen for the tourist dollars and the new King has apparently said he will chuck anyone harassing tourists into Jail. So you can actually look at an item in a souk (market) without having the bloke follow you for the next 2 hours tugging on your sleave with 'monsieur, monsieur?. It is a safe country to travel through, the police just saluted us and waved us through checkpoints. But the toilets, and rubbish are not so great.
Only in Zagora and Merzouga, were they up to their old tricks. Walking in front of the car to force you to stop, before starting with their spiel ? "Salam etc etc", then establishing what language you speak and where you are from. Then starts the whole "Australia, Kangaroo, Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra?" business before trying to direct you into their camping, restaurant, or guided tour etc. When I said we were heading out into the desert alone, the general line was that we would get lost, roll the car, get hopelessly bogged and die... None of which actually happened of course.
It still pays to be alert when shopping. They type the prices into a calculator, and are either really bad at addition or have "clumsy" fingers, as often the price is much much more than it should be. Difficult when you are first there, and still working out prices and currency, or are tired. On questioning the price, always smiles and laughs "silly me" and a far lower more reasonable price - all part of their game. Somehow the "mistakes" never worked out in our favour?
Of course driving a big car like a Land Rover, everyone automatically assumes you are a millionaire. Unfortunately not true. But there were heaps of new model Range Rovers and Evoques running around. Apparently they mostly belong to Saudis who have holiday houses in Morocco, where things are a bit more relaxed and they can access booze. It certainly makes a stark contrast to the fellows with donkey-carts, or others who have to push the carts themselves.
The scenery is great. The best part was travelling the 500km through the desert along the Algerian border. It is a mostly stoney desert, with only a couple of small (30x10km) patches of sand dunes. We drove into the dunes to find great camping spots, the sand is surprisingly firm on the windward side. The dunes were also the highlight for the kids - finally running down sand dunes again. The amazing roman ruins at Volubilis, and seeing dinosaur footprints were two of the other highlights. The shortcut track between the Todra and Dades gorges was also an interesting drive.
The original front seats were pretty gone. They had plush genuine LR wool seat covers, but it was still like sitting on an empty bucket. Under the covers they weren't pretty either. So I started looking at options.
Recovering the originals is obviously the cheapest. Exmoor trim seats look good too, but are quite expensive. As we are currently in Germany I decided to check the second hand price of Recaros, Scheelman etc. The second hand prices seemed quite good, and there was plenty of availability. As the search evolved, I progressed from searching for an older pair, to near new ones with all the bells and whistles.
I eventually decided on a Recaro Orthopaed. They have seat heating, seat ventilation, electric everything and air lumbar support, extendable seat cushion, and also low side bolsters to allow easier entry and exit from a higher vehicle - https://www.recaro-automotive.com/en...orthopaed.html
Postage in Germany is pretty cheap, and it costs around 20 Euros for a 20kg seat type package. Then the search was on for a suitable adapter to not only be able to bolt them in, but still have access to the under seat storage.
The price of the adapters is simply outrageous for two bent pieces of metal. But I have no power tools over here, no source for the steel, and nowhere to actually make them anyway. So I closed my eyes and pressed buy it now for two Nakatanenga Recaro folding seat adapters. These adapters reuse the original seat adjuster rails. This meant undoing the 20 year old Philips head screws to separate the original seats from the rails, which was a bit of a mission.
The Recaros weigh about 18kg each which is about 2 to 3 times the weight of the original seats. After bolting the seats in, I found I needed a couple of washers, at the back under the rails, to allow the seat to slide all the way back (over the folded lip in the floor). The adapters make the seat height about the same as the originals with a 30mm raiser. Wiring the seats was easy, they just need pos/neg which I fed through an ignition switched relay. To access the storage under the front seats, the pin at the front of the adapter is pulled out which allows the seat to pivot back. Access is pretty good, but I think I will have to unbolt the left one to actually remove a battery.
The seats are obviously very comfy. The heater is really nice in the temperatures over here. The cooling is great also with no sweaty backs anymore. The cooling is done by two computer style fans, one in the base and one in the backrest. My wife managed to break the seat base cooling fan plastic housing on the second day, while kneeling on her seat to attend to the kids in the back seat. By pulling the sprung mesh off the bottom of the seat, I could access the fan, and pull the fan housing out of the blades, and it was all good until it got pushed in again the next day... I am planning on buying a fan with a stainless housing to solve this. It also didn't take the kids long to put their grubby little feet all over the back of the seats, and also all over the front seat bases. It's amazing how grubby their little feet can get when wearing crocs! The seat back is a tad thicker than the originals, but the kids still have enough space even with their gigantic car seats.
Getting in and out is a little bit trickier than before, as you are held quite snugly in there. It is something you quickly get used to. On really steep uphills it is the most noticeable. While I don't like the optic of the sidesteps, it certainly makes getting in and out of the seats easier. The Recaros, combined with the Momo steering wheel make the front of the defender a pretty flash place to be!
Our latest trip was a big loop from Garmisch (in Bavaria, Germany) down to Albania. We ended up traveling 6,000km, through 11 countries.
We mainly joined the dots between the numerous Unesco sites in this area, such as Roman Ruins, Amphitheaters, Fortresses, and Castles, and avoided larger cities where possible. We camped at a number of Castles and Roman Fortress', which was pretty special. Roman masonry skills are simply outstanding, fitting colossal solid blocks of rock together with precision. The block work still fits perfectly together 1,500 years later.
The weather was the major disappointment. It was May and should have been up to 30C in the middle of Spring, but it was cold and rainy, with only 3 days in 5 weeks where it didn't rain. With top temps of 6C on the way down, and below 0C at night, the diesel air heater got a work out. Given the cost of the thing, in some ways it was good to get some use out of it, and it was awesome. It's just like a big hairdryer, quickly drying jackets, jumpers and towels, and generally making a pleasant temp inside the car.
The large living space inside the camper was also great in this weather, with heaps of room for the kids to move around in once they'd had enough of jumping in puddles. We experienced the strongest winds, and heaviest rain we've ever had in the camper, and it was solid and leak free. Twice, I moved the Land Rover in the middle of the night to a more wind protected spot, with the kids still sleeping with the roof popped out. Moving is very quick and simple, only requiring the two bed support poles to be clipped up, as there are no pegs etc in the ground when camped.
In Albania you can pretty much do anything you want, in terms of driving where ever, camping etc. We were generally ignored by the Albanians. We mainly wild camped and even the herders didn't give us a second glance. Many of the coastal areas were deserted, as they only have a short peak summer season for 2 months in July and August.
We'd heard that Albania was an offroad paradise, but I would class the ?off road? as basically ?high clearance? 2wd. In the mountains (eg Thethi), the main excitement is the narrow road with a huge drop off the side of the mountain. The large turning circle of the 130 made life interesting. The Detroit locker in the rear often stayed locked on steep muddy downhill hairpins, and kept pushing the vehicle straight (apart from this I've been really impressed with the Detroit).
Low range was needed quite frequently to drive the paved steep narrow roads up to the castle gates, thus avoiding the general parking scams in the town centres below, and to ensure the kids weren't worn out before even getting to the castle.
On more major roads, the mountainous terrain wore the edges off the front tyres from thousands of 1st gear bitumen hair pin turns. Despite the constant hills and heavy use of the diesel heater, average fuel consumption for the trip was 10.3l/100km.
There are a huge number of large black Mercedes cars in Albania. It is a status symbol, and is important to have it shiny clean, which is a constant challenge on the potholed grubby roads. So every couple of hundred metres is a ?Lavazh?- a bloke with gumboots, and a high pressure washer. We saw one ?business man? restaurant owners car cleaned 3 times in one day!
We have now slept 170 nights, and driven over 40,000km in the camper. So I thought it might be time to do a review on how everything is going.
In summary it is awesome. Nothing has broken, and everything works how it should. My kids (3 and 5years old) love it so much they have already decided amongst themselves which one will get it when I die :o !!! I am apparently building another one for my son :D.
There are just a few minor things I would do differently, and a couple of more additions I have planned. Once I have searched through the photos, I will try and explain these in the next couple of posts.
If anyone has any specifics they would like info on, let me know.
Yep, when do you get back?Quote:
Originally Posted by danialan
Some more info on your stove and fridge pls. How are they now? Any upgrades in Eu?
Hey Ranga, finalising shipping quotes at the moment. Looks like the 130 will be arriving back in Bris on 20th of December.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ranga
Alan
Hey Carzee,Quote:
Originally Posted by Carzee
With the stove, I assume you mean the Coleman petrol stove in post 140. Just between you and me ;), that stove was a ring-in, borrowed to appease our friends at the Dept of Transport and their silly regulations. Like I said, I prefer to have open flames, burning hot oil, boiling water etc as far away from the kids and canvas tent walls as possible. So there is now a sink in its place.
I have previously had a Coleman 2 burner petrol stove, bought after wasting a lot of time trying to get an Australian gas bottle filled in Russia. When the petrol stoves are running, they are great. On start up there is generally an impressive flare up, and on turning it off, a strong smell of petrol. After 6 months of use, the paint was pretty thin and it was starting to rust. For the last two years we have had one of those cheap gas stoves with the disposable cylinders, which you can buy pretty much anywhere. They are light, and let us cook inside or outside depending on weather, bugs etc. The friends who lent me their Coleman petrol stove are happily travelling around South America with it, cooking inside their 4x4 Isuzu motorhome, after 2 years travelling through Africa with a similar stove in their Troopy pop-top.
The fridge is a Waeco CF50 which we bought in 2003, and has been excellent. It has run continuously for at least half that time. The only problem we have had is the compressor cooling fan stopping in the Gobi Desert, Mongolia. A couple of guys at a computer and mobile phone repair booth sold me a little computer fan which got us going again.
The only upgrade to the Land Rover in Europe has been the Recaros. I did have visions of stocking up on Land Rover parts from England. But even though postage only costs $15 for up to 30kg, in the EU you have to pay the UK 20% VAT. So depending on the weight of the product, it actually ends up cheaper to pay the higher postage to Australia, but no VAT.