The ‘To Hel And Back’ boys ventured out into the community this week , delivering their second lecture regarding the trip to the 1st Seer Green Scout troop.
A large turnout ensured that 50 local kids were present on Friday night to learn about the route, the charities, the preparation and the motivation for the trip from two ex-Scouts in Tom and Carl. The groups’ leader, Chris Rumsey, can be held partly accountable for encouraging younger versions of yours truly to get outside and gave a taste for challenge, expedition and adventure.
It must also be noted that the Seer Green troop also donated a fund to the expedition, for which we are truly grateful. The scouts will also continue to fundraise on our behalf whilst we are away, as well as following the route and learning about the different countries and cultures we pass through. Edu-tainment in its purest form, no?
Saturdays work on the car saw the arrival of reinforcements in the form of friends and family, with Elliot, Christian and Rob arriving from north Wales, London and Utrecht respectively.
All parties split up in order to fit and finish the clutch overhaul, winch wiring, Kenlowe fan installation and snorkel mounting. After 4 hours Tom had successfully drilled 4 holes in the bodywork with the real man’s powertool, the hand drill.
In the same time frame, Rob attempted to mount the fan using the bolts meant for the snorkel. After much sweating, swearing and supping of tea (supplied by the ever attentive Mrs James) the boys had the work done.
Mr James Snr then demonstrated the error of Tom’s ways by drilling 4 more holes in the bodywork in roughly 1 minute 20 seconds. Despite all this, even Mark Hughes couldn’t have complained about the extra time taken for the work; the ol’ bus is starting to shape up now.
The other really big new this week was the arrival of a Waeco fridge, for which we owe Alan at Dometic a huge thank you. A truly diamond geezer. It’s a 45 litre unit, which will be mounted in the back and ostensibly used to keep Tom’s G&Ts at optimum temperature.
With this (and our newly wired winch) we now have a complete power usage map, so thought can finally be given to finalising the dual-battery system. Work on this will begin soon, meaning the leaving date of the 14th October is still just about manageable.
The first of the Land Rover Monthly articles goes out this month, with the boys featured in their first big travel article, spread across 4 pages. Be sure to have a look, you’ll all be receiving reminders anyway.
Sadly, the last news this week is bad news. Due to the financial climate, large back-orders, short stock and other issues, Vango and AMG group have had to pull out from sponsoring the trip. Gutted as we are, the boys would like to thank everyone at AMG in Scotland for considering us, even if we couldn’t work with each other in the end.
