Plans gone awry

The very best plans can go awry, and ours have. Tonight finds us ensconced at the Hotel Phonix in Aalborg in northern Denmark. A very gentle Scandinavian city. Bicycles, pedestrianised streets and a mix of old Danish architecture with brand new contemporary designs, but all blending harmoniously. Dinner was fish…

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Day 5

A disturbed night. Having just fallen asleep, we were awoken by the arrival of very noisy vehicles parking right beside us. I thought they were motorbikes, but on emerging from the Land Rover this morning discovered we were surrounded by a posse of Volkswagen camper vans of indeterminate vintage. They…

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Day 4

What a difference a day makes! Woke at 7.45am to a beautiful sunny morning. A little bit of R&M as the winder on one of the roof vents gave up winding. Nothing major, as a pivot pin had come out. Seems that there is always something to hold us up…

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Day 3

Not much to report. Motorways, congested towns and massive traffic jams. Drove through Belgium in an hour or so and we are camped outside Breda in Holland.  Weather, dull and overcast with some fog and cool. All going well, apart from starting problems!! We hope to get fixed in Kolding…

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Day One and Two

On the road by 7am heading for Newhaven. Nearly never made it. Land Rover wouldn’t start!! Eventually got it going but it seems to be troublesome since changing a fuel filter two days before. I didn’t bleed it properly. Being a common rail diesel it’s not easy to bleed the…

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Ready to go.

Departure is at 0700 tomorrow morning. From Newhaven across the Channel to Dieppe. Our first night will be spent with good friends Mike and Wendy in  deepest Normandy in Villers en Ouche. Preparation over the last few days has been frantic. Hopefully, we have thought of everything! More stickers but…

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Departure on track for May 17th.

Our Landie is back from Gumtree 4×4 and looking good. New shock absorbers, a secure box for storing valuables and modifications have been made for fording any rivers or floods. These include the addition of a snorkel and moving the computer from under the driver’s seat to a box behind…

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The Plan – Stage 1 – Overland from the UK to Vladivostok

D day is 17 May when we will set off from Wineham in West Sussex. First the ferry from Newhaven to Dieppe . A slight diversion on the first night, when we visit our good friends Mike and Wendy at their lifestyle property in Villers en Ouche in Normandy. Next day we head north driving through France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, Denmark and up to Nordcapp, the most northern tip of Norway. Soon after we will cross the Russian border close to Murmansk. Our route will take us south, then east through Russia to Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, back into Kazakhstan and Russia. Next we will cross Mongolia before returning into Russia. We have to stay in Russia, skirting China (too difficult as it is mandatory to be accompanied by a guide in China) all the way to Russia’s Far Eastern Coast and Vladivostok.

From here we will ship the Land Rover to Canada where it will be stored in Vancouver over winter. We will then fly back to the UK for a few weeks before returning to New Zealand for the Southern summer. Stage 2 will then begin in May 2019 when we continue from Canada to the US, Mexico, Central and then South America.

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Pre trip planning

With only days to departure from Wineham, we have hardly given the trip the kind of attention that’s needed but we have been planning this for the past 6 years and the main things like vehicle preparation and visas are pretty much in hand. Some final mods to the Land…

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