This weekend saw much progress in our logistics and packing. Our equipment acquired until now was packed into our new ‘Wolf Boxes’ to get an idea of how much (or how little) space we still have and how everything will fit into the back of Bee-Bee in some kind of ‘Toyota Tetris’. We have identified all the equipment items that we still need to source and purchase (the lists and spreadsheets detailing this reach new anally-retentive organisational highs). The interior of the back has been carpeted; it took Andy several hours which may have been a result of the super potent epoxy he was using (he looked a little dazed afterwards). The storage drawers are securely fixed and the fridge mounted on a sliding shelf from the rear. We have spent our first night sleeping in the roof tent... OK, it was only parked on the drive and we had to go to work in the morning but it got the expedition butterflies fluttering...
Emma
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Over the last couple of weeks we have been really busy working on and ordering things for our adventure. It’s been exceptionally exciting to return home after a drab day at work to discover huge parcels containing adventure goodies.
Our home for the next two years has arrived, our roof tent of choice is a Maggiolina Airtop; this should offer enough protection from the elements whilst still being practical enough for daily use. Our possessions inside the car will be equally protected inside Flatdog Wolf Boxes; which are a great cheaper alternative to the many more expensive boxes that are available. We have also purchased our new wheels and tyres; we have chosen to replace the impractical, but incredibly cool looking 33 x 12.5 fatties on alloy rims with more sensible 265/70 R16 BF Goodrich A/T’s on steel rims. These new tyres have a much stronger sidewall and can handle all the extra weight we will be carrying. This size tyre is also readily available anywhere around the world whilst the 33 x 12.5’s are tough to come by. Our food and drinks will be nicely chilled inside our Waeco CF-40 fridge freezer whilst the Coleman Duel Fuel stove takes care of the other end of the temperature spectrum. The car will also be fitted with a Bushranger hot water shower, so we can keep nice and clean(ish), that we purchased from the lovely people at Taubenreuther. All our auxiliary electrical goodies are going to be powered by an Odyssey PC1500 battery, which provides a unique combination of deep-cycle and high-current performance. This ‘house’ battery is isolated from the car batteries leaving the fridge, camp lights to run all night without flattening the starter batteries; It can also act as a jumper battery if the starter batteries fail. We have slowly been buying various ‘soft’ items too, clothing, sleeping bags, bedding etc. We have been well impressed with the quality of Berghaus clothing and are totally loving our –10 °C sleeping bags; although judging by the weather in the UK this week we might need a few blankets too. Andy We have recently been talking to Sylvie Wilson, president of the charitable organisation, “Le geste d’amour” (the gesture of love). The charity was established following the devastating Tsunami of 2004 to assist the people of Sitinoraiti in Sumatra.
Their vision is to provide a better general quality of life for the children of Sitinoraiti and in 2009 an orphanage “Lembaga Panti Asuhan Sitinoraiti” (Institute to help the children of Sitinoraiti) was inaugurated. They strive to provide a secure, healthy and caring environment; promoting the children’s educational and social development. The orphanage is located in Pangururan in Northern Sumatra, Indonesia and occupies an area of 6000m² on the border of Lake Toba. The objective is not only to house, educate and care for the children, but to continue to help them into work. During our month’s stay at Sitinoraiti we hope to assist with the general day-to-day running of the centre, coordinate various educational programmes and arrange leisure pursuits and English conversation classes. With our ’home’ on our roof and our vehicle making us completely self-sufficient, we will not be dependent on the resources of the charity projects we visit so can give 100%. To find out more about the work of Sitinoraiti Orphanage please click here. Emma Most 'young?' people, when their parents/in-laws go away on holiday for a month would be breaking out the sound system and advertising 28 days of non-stop parties. Not us loser travel-type geeks... we have transformed the lounge into 'Adventure Planning HQ'. Over the next 4 weeks we want to engross ourselves in full-on research and start amalgamating facts and info that we have accrued over the last 16 months (has it been that long?). We pillaged Guernsey Library of all its Lonely Planet guidebooks, brought our computers downstairs, stocked up the fridge hibernation style and banned all television. 800 days has officially moved up a gear and is gaining momentum...
Emma It is important to both Andy and I that we are not merely tourists on a whistle-stop tour within each country we visit. We want to experience what life in each country is really like; laugh with local people, stuff ourselves with regional foods, get drunk on foreign boozes, become lost in wilderness realms and stumble upon indigenous wildlife. On the same note, we are conscious of it being a one-way arrangement; all take and no give. For this reason, we have decided to team up and work with a few local non-governmental organisations in several of the countries on our 800 days itinerary. Our trip is already a low-cost endeavour so unfortunately any financial support for these charity organisations would be minimal. What we can offer however, is our time and extensive knowledge (well, we have plenty of time). We are willing to help wherever needed and are focusing on community based educational, social and environmental projects. We are hoping to arrange running educational courses or groups in our area or expertise. For myself, I will run short courses on local environment and wildlife (collecting bugs, measuring plants, identifying birds). Andy will run art workshops which could include drawing, painting, textiles, photography, woodwork and sculpture.
We have recently confirmed our first 800 days local project partnership with Emmanuel Children’s Home in Kerala, Southern India http://www.emmanuelchildrenshome.com/ . This project was established in 2000 with 12 children; the home now has 160 residents including orphaned children, vulnerable young women, boys and girls from extremely impoverished single parent families and youngsters with physical disabilities. The home provides shelter, food, education and security for poor and disadvantaged kids irrespective of caste, creed, religion or social and financial status. Children who come from distressed or broken homes are provided with special care for their physical, mental and emotional health, nutritional, developmental and educational needs. We are looking forward to spending at least a month with all of our 800 days local partners and being able to give a little bit back. Emma Having drafted our ‘ideal route’ (roughly W. Europe - Scandinavia - E. Europe - Turkey - Iran - The ‘stans - Russia - Mongolia) we started to look more closely at a time plan. This led us to the realisation that we would be hitting Southern Siberia mid- winter and could expect to face temperatures of -15⁰C to -39⁰C. In a tent.
This presented us with two choices; spending an extended amount of time in Europe (expensive and, let’s face it, less adventurous) OR speeding through almost a third of our planned route in a few months. Cue a world map and some scribbling with red pens and we now have a brand-spanking new route (the black line) which will see us back-track through Russia and travel south through the ‘stans and Iran with the winter behind us. It also gives us more time to explore Croatia, Bosnia and Montenegro. This is at the sacrifice of our sensible plan to spend an initial 6 weeks to road-test Bee-Bee and our equipment in the U.K. Aaah, she’ll be fine. This also means we have the far easier and cheaper task of shipping the car from Iran to India rather that navigating across the China Sea which was proving to be a mission (note to Russian shipping companies: if you’re company folds, remove your website!) Emma After some frown-inducing maths, we estimate that for ‘Leg 1’ (Europe) it will cost us approximately 25p a mile. This now presents a new cash-conscious strategy... ‘The Adventure Mile’. Take for example the following scenarios; Emma: “shall we have these £8 steaks or 50p lentils for tea?” Andy: “That’s a difference of 30 Adventure miles, lentil me up”. Andy: “I need a new shirt, should I buy a dope Zoo York shirt for £37 or this Primark shirt for £6?” Emma: “that’s a difference of 124 Adventure miles, go pikey style!”. It works. The guilt element plus the realisation that every small amount adds up will hopefully hold us in good stead for saving and accumulating the necessary funds.
Food shopping has taken on a new frugal approach; Waitrose and delicatessens are a luxury of the past that now give way to the prudent purchases available in Iceland. Buying the same amount of chicken in Iceland saves us 12.64 adventure miles than going to Waitrose- significantly more economical eating. That’s why Adventurers go to Iceland*. We are addicted to e-bay, if you want to keep something it has to be screwed down in our room. Everything and anything goes on the ruthless auction website. This has the dual advantage of saving monies and de-cluttering our possessions ready for a minimalist life on the open road. Ironically, the CD ‘A Grand Don’t Come for Free’ (The Streets) sold on ebay for 20p + £1 postage. Christopher Columbus came from a very poor family; the King and Queen of Spain gave him money and ships to begin his adventure. Queen Elizabeth I paid for Sir Francis Drake’s explorations and Sir Walter Raleigh was also funded by the adventure-loving Monarch (although the latter explorer may have been the object of Liz’s affections). In the absence of any Royal acquaintances, we plan to continue our thrifty lifestyle for the next 10 months; skimping, saving and living a cutback existence. As we plan subsequent legs of our trip the average ‘Adventure Mile’ should decrease as overall costs of fuel and living is lower. * NB: the supermarket, not the country (where food prices are 50% more than in London). Emma While half of the adventure duo is having all the car-pimping fun, the other half has been starting the meticulous task of planning and organising all the tiny details.
Cue excel spreadsheets, lists, maps, plans, lists of lists, highlighters, colour-coding, tables.... it is an enormous task (although one, as a logistical geek, I am enjoying tremendously). An overview spreadsheet will allow us an ‘at-a-glance’ reference to the entire trip; countries in order, best time to visit, visa requirements, currency, exchange rates etc. Each of the countries in the list can then be ‘clicked’ on to access an in-depth country profile with more detail on sights and cool stuff. While we are eager to embrace the free-spirited spontaneity of our adventure, this back-up information reserve will hopefully prevent us deep-freezing in the Arctic Circle in January, floating away in Cherrapunji (Northern India) in July or frying in the Ethiopian Danakil Desert in August. Plus, we basically don’t want to miss out on stuff; imagine arriving in Rio as they are sweeping up the feathers and sequins, Nevada as they are stamping out the smouldering embers of the burning man, Thailand as the sun comes up following a night of full-moon partying or Munich as they are mopping up the dregs from Oktoberfest. On a trip where budget is a huge controlling factor, planning protects pounds! Take a comparison of essential adventure supplies... in Greenland it’s £7.35 for a pint, compared to a much-easier-to-swallow 25p a pint in Tadjikistan. A dozen eggs in Delhi will cost only 24p compared to £3.60 in California. 23p will buy you 1lb of dried pasta in Brazil, yet the same amount of spaghetti will set you back £2.41 in South Africa. When motoring long distances through countries it is also useful to know costs of Diesel in advance ... preferable to travel in a straight line through Turkey where Diesel is £1.22 a litre and meander extensively in Iran at 2p a litre. It all adds up the cash, which consequently reduces the kilometres. From a simple spreadsheet beginning, our travels will hopefully be climatically conscious, maximised for fun and economically sustainable... Emma Over the last week I have been ordering small bits and pieces for the car and requesting quotes for various products from various suppliers around the UK. The reason I have been doing this is because, firstly, I’m keen to save as much money as possible (we don’t pay VAT in the Channel Islands, and so any UK companies we mail order from should deduct it) and, secondly, so I can suss out which companies are friendly, helpful and reliable. Ultimately we are going to have to fork out a couple of grand on parts, extras, mods, etc and I want to make sure whoever we buy from deserves our custom.
I won’t publicly badmouth any particular company but on the whole I have been amazed at the lack of response in regard to emails. Some companies haven’t bothered to respond at all whilst others have replied to the original emails but have failed to follow up further queries. Many companies have refused to deduct the VAT and I have been quoted prices that are far more expensive then their actual website states. I am aware that shipping to the Channel Islands can be slightly more expensive than to mainland UK, but some of the prices I have been quoted for shipping have been extreme. I operate my own personal webstore and work part-time at one of the many VAT free mail order companies that are based in the Channel Islands, so I’m well aware of the price of shipping to and from the Channel Islands. Having said this, a few companies have been exceptionally helpful, and these are the ones we are likely to spend our money at. In my research I have discovered that some products that are for sale on the UK over-landing market are available elsewhere for much cheaper. For example with a bit of shopping around I picked up a Safari Snorkel with Postage from halfway around the world for £137. The cheapest I found in the UK was £239 (without shipping) but I’d have to wait 3 months for it to be shipped from South Africa. This was a similar story at two other stockists, one of which was very polite whilst the other couldn’t really be bothered to talk to me. The next cheapest I found was £265 but the store never answered their phone or returned my emails… I have also been scoping out Split chargers, it seems the National Luna split-charge system + Dual Battery Controller is the system of choice for most “over-landers”. The average price I’ve been quoted has been in the £220 - £240 range. After a bit more sniffing around the interwebs it seems you can purchase pretty much the same setups used by the boating and caravanning fraternity for a fraction of the price of the ‘over-landing’ counterpart. After some forum checking it also seems that many of these system are actually more reliable and robust than the National Luna set-up. One in particular, the BEP Marine VSR relay splitter is used in fire engines and ambulances as well as in powerboats and so should be well and truly up to the job. Sourced locally from one of the many local boat suppliers I can pick one up for £53. Even if I allow another £100 for all the cabling and mate’s rates installation, that is still a huge saving. We have also purchased a Kenlowe bonnet extractor fan kit; this was purchased directly from Kenlowe for the lowest price. The Hilux Surf range are renowned for overheating, the 2.4 more so than our 3L model. To be on the safe side we have decided to fit an extractor fan kit to the bonnet to increase the airflow through the radiator. As the car is black it also absorbs sunlight like crazy, so when we are in sunny countries the car is going to get ridiculously hot. The fan kit should drop the engine bay temperature by about 10°C which will help no end. The installation of the fan and snorkel will be the first jobs to be done on the car. Once the snorkel is in place we can start thinking about the roof rack. Once the roof rack is done (it will be bolted through the roof) we can start thinking about the interior storage system. Once we have a bit of a plan for this we will install the secondary battery and split charge system and extra outlets. Anyway enough writing for one day, back to the research. Andy Our Hilux Surf, affectionately named Bee-Bee is now in Guernsey, Emma dropped it over last week and we christened it with a lovely bottle of Champagne, the cork of which is now lovingly hanging from the rear view mirror. The long and expensive process of prepping the car for the trip can now begin. The first job is to strip out pretty much everything in the interior from behind the front seats to the tailgate, including the roof-lining. One problem with the 2nd Generation Surf’s is the lack of roof gutters or roof rails which makes fitting a full length roof rack a bit of a mission. Having access to the internal roof and supports will allow Turx’s Custom Workshop to fabricate a full length safari roof rack which will be directly attached to the roof. Having something custom made will mean that we can design it to our exact specification with the rack as close to the roof as possible to keep the centre of gravity down (and it'll look cooler). Once this is complete we can start work on planning the internal storage space in the back of the car, this is going to take some serious planning to maximise the space to the fullest. Before we can do this we need to purchase some of the necessary equipment for the trip. Once we have this we can begin the game of ‘Car Tetris’ to suss out the best way to fit everything in. The 4x4 Storage Components website has been a very useful resource in researching various setups and checking out how other people deal with the same problems. I recommend everybody who is planning a trip like this should also read the 'Vehicle-dependent Expedition Guide' by Tom Sheppard this book is basically my bible for the next 3 years. It's available here. This book will tell you everything you need to know and then some. Everyday items like travel books, maps and day food supplies will need to be accessible from the passenger area whilst camping, recovery and spares will be stored in the rear of the vehicle. Heavier items like auxiliary batteries, water tanks and the Hilift Jack need to be stowed as low as possible and preferably central between the two axles. The internal storage space will need to be enclosed and offer maximum security, for this reason it will be separate from the passenger area.Having a bulkhead or cargo barrier not only offers extra security but in the event of a roll over will help protect us from being hit by any heavy objects from the back of the vehicle. More updates to follow soon, so please check back. Andy |
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