So this week has been the final week of work for both of us. From now we are full-time trip preparers and soon to be full time adventurists. Until now it has been extremely difficult trying to juggle work on the car, visits to embassies and speaking to companies with full-time jobs. We’ve been arriving home in the dark to work on the car with a combination of worklights. This is followed by the usual routine of discovering rusted fixings and broken bolts, which generally delays everything for 24hours until the shops are open and we are home from work once again! We have been striking a balance between our desperation to stop our jobs so we can throw ourselves 100% into trip preparation and having to keep working because we need the money to pay for the trip! From now on however it is full steam ahead with all things Land Rover, bureaucracy and charity fundraising.
This week one of the jobs on the car we had to complete was removing the callipers so that Big Red Calipers could overhaul them for us. We came across the usual problem of rusted and rounded connections so ended up having to cut off all the brake lines, catching the fluid as best we could, and then pull the callipers off. Luckily Hel Performance car parts have agreed to supply us with a set of brake lines, so once we change the master cylinder, fit the Hel braided hoses and the EBC discs and pads we will find ourselves with a completely new braking system – a substantial weight off the mind when you think we will be getting on for 3.5tonnes fully loaded.
Naturally having no brakes on the car means it is immobile. However the silver lining of this is that it gives us a chance to get a few other jobs done which require the car to be significantly dissembled. Hence the new EBC discs have been fitted and the turbocharger stripped off ready to be overhauled. Additionally it forces us to give some time to paperwork and visas. Chiltern Railways are heading for world domination with their increased prices and the number of London trips we face.
Some very exciting news this week is thanks to the very generous guys at Land Rover Experience who have agreed to provide us with two days offroad driving training. This will cover everything from driving up and down 45 degree inclines, wading through deep water and winching basics amongst other things. As if that wasn’t enough they are also throwing in a few bits of expedition kit they have available. This is once again an amazing act of generosity and we are so grateful to all of our sponsors for buying into the trip and supporting us.
With regards a leaving date we are playing the waiting game of how late we can leave it to book ferries to minimise the chance of the car not being ready so haven’t nailed down a date, but at some point between the 15th -23rd October we expect to be making serious tracks on the road to Hel…
