In order to build an Earthship one has to find a piece of land first.., obviously.

Unfortunately that isn’t as easy as it sounds.., obviously. We found some interesting lots which could serve our purposes. Because the information we had was a bit thin we decided to go to Belgium and have a look.

The good news is that we have a better understanding of how large 3000 square meters really is, the bad news is, it’s going to be tough to find just the right piece of land.

The thing is that Earthship Biotecture claims you can build an Earthship anywhere in the world.., and you can. As long as it has a clear view to the south, not in a forest, not where the groundwater is close to the surface and there might be a few other criteria I do not know about.., yet.

So finding a piece of land is not as easy as it might be with a regular house.

As we were to find out…

The first lot we looked at turned out to be in a forrest, with big trees. Next to fact that it looked like a trailer park we could never get enough sunlight to heat up the house and generate enough power. Wind energy would also be a problem.

The second lot was bigger and greener, but this lay in a valley. And water ran on both sides of the lot with to the south a hill. Just big enought o prevent the winter sun from entering the house.

Here this story ends, but the quest continues. It will take some time to find a good spot. We learned a lot from this trip and will put it to good use.

And so the Earthship community proves to be a good one.., again.

I visited the Earthship in Normandy last week. A request for help originated from the Trott family and resonated all the way through to silly old moi. And as Kevan is the European representative for Earthship Biotecture he is the man to meet. So, in a spur of the moment kind of way we decided that I (Rogier) should travel down to Normandy and check out this mystical thing called an Earthship.

I drove down on Monday, during the day and made good time. I even arrived a bit earlier than expected and visited the Earthship before heading of to Diane’s B&B (Cinq la Ruelle), which, by the way, turned out to be a most excellent choice.
Now, I have seen the Earthship before, I’ve read the blog and got a few books on the matter, so I knew what to expect.

But, seeing it for real does add an extra dimension to the experience. Obviously a lot is already done on the house, in fact, it’s nearly finished and thanks to the blog and fotos/dvd shown by Kevan one can get a good sense of the labor that went into creating it.

So, my primary objective was to make contact with Kevan and Gillian, the rest was secondary to that.
Now, it must be said that one has to be a little nuts to start a project like building an Earthship. Granted, it is a house, and people are building those all the time, but most of the time they pay somebody else to build it. And even if they do it themselves, building an Earthship has its own set of challenges. The building permit for one is in most cases the biggest hurdle (or mountain) to overcome. Then there are the resources (i.e. tires, bottles, cans). Of course, anything can be bought and delivered to your doorstep, but that kinda defeats the purpose of an Earthship.
Anyway, my point is that the Trotts are a bit nuts too, but in a good sense and not dissimilar to Laila and myself, which makes for a good foundation.

My time at the Earthship was spend working, on various little things, and talking. A lot of talking. Similar minded people make for good conversations on the various topics which mark an Earthship.., environmental, ecological, biological, sociological, monetary, and more…
Three students from Holland (Lotte, Joris and Niels) slept in a little tent and were interested from a scholar point of view, Steve (a Brit living in France) from a career point of view, Robert (also from Holland) from a personal point of view, like us, he wants to build his own Earthship.., somehow.., someday. Then there were two British guys, Will and Nick. Will having his own renovation company and Nick.., ehhh.., well Nick is just a very open minded man who’s motives remain a mystery…

Anyway…, it certainly was a worthwhile experience. I met nice people and had good conversations. The Earthship remains an enticing future. After visiting another one for real, it confirms the feelings we have since we first became aware of the concept.

We definitely want to build, and live in, our own Earthship.., we will make it happen…

We bought the Brownchurch awning with sidedrops and front. This so we can stay warm and dry in the summer to come. It might be a bit overkill for Africa, but we plan on spending quite a few weekends away from home. So it is justified…

We also did extensive maintenance on George at British4x4. APK was looming again and george went for his anual checkup. While he was there his head came of due to leaking Valve Stem Oil Seals (yeah, I got it right). It caused oil to drip into the engine overnight and when starting George in the morning a huge blue cloud of smoke would fill the street. It’s also bad for the valves due to carbon ofset.

Anywho… while the engine lay apart we also changed the timing belt, a very critical part, especially on a 300TDi. The belt that came of was in good condition, but we had no idea when it went on so it had to be replaced.

For the APK a few “small” things had to be done as well. Among them, as it turned out, the front left stub axle. As you may, or may not, remember, a while back George had an encouter with the ANWB when the right front bearing failed. It was repaired, but extensive damage was done to the axle and the new bearing. As a consequence the bearing wore faster than it was supposed to and by the time the APK came along it was already at a point where it had to be replaced. After taking the hub of we couldn’t get it back on due to the damage to the stub axle. So everything was replaced, properly. It is something we never have to worry about again, at least not in the foreseable future…

Hi y’all…

Hmmm.., that is as far as my American dialect extends. The Mister and Misses had a friend over from the United States of America. Now, most of the time Americans are obnoxious and unreliable, but the people are friendly. So I was happy that it was a human and not a vehicle that came over.

Now, again the Mister managed to get himself into a lot of trouble and me in an embarrassing situation, needless to say that it was completely unnecessary and avoidable. As it turned out, our guest had a lot of fun.

After the click you can view the videos of the event…

[youtube]5UfEWScQnr0[/youtube]

[youtube]01tWZMg2mv8[/youtube]

It truly is as they say; “Taking a Land Rover for a drive is always an adventure”. I do, however, refer to the older models of the marquee. The later models just stop because of some sort electronic failure and they’re not supposed to do that.
No, I am talking about getting into a vehicle and just not knowing what the day is going to bring you. Allow me to put this in a more literal context:

adventure (plural adventures)
1. That which happens without design; chance; hazard; hap; hence, chance of danger or loss.
2. The encountering of risks; hazardous and striking enterprise; a bold undertaking, in which hazards are to be encountered, and the issue is staked upon unforeseen events; a daring feat.
3. A remarkable occurrence; a striking event; a stirring incident; as, the adventures of one’s life.
4. A mercantile or speculative enterprise of hazard; a venture; a shipment by a merchant on his own account

It is interesting to note that any of the four statements above constitute for a busy day on themselves. But when the word (i.e. adventure) is put in a Land Rover context we achieve a unique situation where all of the above are achievable in a single event.

So, is this an old automobiles lament? It is not, I assure you. It is merely an observation, a statement if you will, and factional at that. Off course, it could be stated that you run a risk with any old car and it is true that they do break down. But when it comes to servicing, towing and repairing or simply driving a Land Rover it is a whole different matter indeed. Let me tell you the story…

A simple “on the road” drive apparently does not exist. One might hope or even expect a clean run but one must always be aware, and prepared, for any eventuality. As it was this time.

Getting water into the cab is a nuisance but not a technical inability to get from point A to point B. Although the Mister did replace the door seals his feet, or rather his right foot, still got wet. The reason why I mention this is because it creates a mind set for the rest of the drive which would add to the sense of adventure. It must be said that the reason for the drive constitutes for a big part the negative spiral in which we became entangled.

About three quarters of an hour into the drive, in a long left hand high speed turn on the freeway a clear, audible “dunk” was heard and felt. It was actually a quit sickening feeling which I never encountered before; it took me a while to realize what went wrong. It took the Mister quit a bit longer, although the amount of possibilities was limited.

Because of some new noises we stopped to take a look, but nothing was to be seen, so we drove on. During the return voyage the noises coming from my right front wheel were first ignored, then diagnosed as sustainable (we did want to get home), then undeniably present and eventually reason enough to pull over to the hard shoulder and, reluctantly, call the ANWB. This is the first point of the definition of “adventure”.

30 minutes it would take for help to arrive. As it turned out, within 20 minutes the first(!) ANWB vehicle stopped. This one drove by coincidently and the driver turned out to be an enthusiast of the marquee. Actually, owning a 1948 Series I (the oldest one can get) and 3 more of a slightly younger era, one could call him a fanatic. It really takes a special kind of human to own and care for these most ancient, and valued, of Land Rovers.

Not long after a second vehicle pulled over and I was, quit unceremoniously, pulled to a less dangerous location so the ANWB men could work in safety. This would account for the second point in the above list, being pulled without the engine running leaves one without power steering and with a rather short tether braking was quit necessary.

The diagnosis was easily made. The wheel bearing suffered a catastrophic failure.

The boys tried to tighten it up but the conclusion was that one should not drive with this any further for risk of a complete lock up of my wheel, which would be a dreadful experience indeed.

In essence; I was bogged down, not by mud, sand, water or anything else dramatic, but by a wheel bearing. It also constitutes the third point on the list.

The fourth, and luckily the last, point could be construed as us being dragged behind a tow truck to an undisclosed garage with whom we have had no dealings in the past. I do feel comfortable with British4x4.

Being towed, by the way, is an adventure on itself. Having permanent four wheel drive means that when lifting the front wheels of the ground and keeping the rear wheels on the ground the transfer box in the middle will run twice as fast as it would normally do. One does not want this. The rear drive shaft was taken out by the boys in order to let the rear wheels run free.

In the end the bearing had welded itself to the hub and had to be forcibly removed. The men at Autopunt.com were efficient, professional and friendly. They took care of me in a way one does not expect anymore. They even hooked me up with a winch specialist who knows all about my Ramsey.

In conclusion, it was, as they say, a hell of a day. It took us 6.5 hours to get home. The other bearing has to be replaced as soon as possible and I made a few new friends in the process.

It is as I stated earlier, taking a Land Rover for a drive is always an adventure.

Until next time…

George

“An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered.” – G. K. Chesterton -

I really wanted only a two part piece on this, but apparently that’s not happening. So, I’d better get on with it.
George performed extremely well during the drives through the field and through the wee forest at Henrik’s Grandfather place. But, indeed, now has no rear mud flaps.

We did do some work on George, or rather, Henrik did some work on George. Maybe not as much as we would have liked to have done, but still… He fixed the passenger door. Being 21 years of age this door has had a hard life and the metal bits in it are almost completely gone, it practically hung on one hinge and would be falling off soon if nothing was to be done. Henrik fixed it. A bit of grinding, welding, riveting and being generally pleased with himself the door shuts and fits better then ever.

Another highlight was our visit to the summerhouse of Henriks stepfathers’ mother, or Henriks step grandmother. Anyway, it was quite a drive up there, not in distance, but in beauty. The roads we drove got smaller and smaller, starting with a regular 2 lane country road and ending up with a grass covered track. The house itself was small with a kitchen the size of a.., well.., small kitchen. A small table was in it and enough room to turn around. A very big, cast iron stove took up a quarter of the kitchen and was as ancient as the lake not 200 feet away.

The living room was not much larger then the kitchen and held two beds and a couple of chairs and upstairs, merely a large attic, held a small storage area and a smaller room with another two beds in it, that’s where we slept.
 
The whole house was cozily decorated the way old ladies tend do and was generally comfortable. The lady of the house by the way comes out here very regularly and does everything on her own, including walking butt naked to the lake for a swim, where she also happens to fish, albeit fully clothed . Not bad when you’re 75 years of age…
We did have a very relaxing time here in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by nature and very, very dark and very, very quiet at night.

We only met one challenge whilst staying there. The outhouse. Well, not really a challenge, it was just something new, but strangely comfortable when used to it. Sitting there with the door open, doing your business on a big wooden box, with a nice sandpapered edge mind you, is quite refreshing. And you could share the experience with a loved one, or anyone else for that matter, since there were two holes, snugly next to each other, in the same space. We didn’t try that one out though, I don’t think our relationship is that mature.., yet…

The summerhouse will be sorely missed by the both of us.

Back on the road only one other bit fell off George while on the way back home.., the last 15 cm of his exhaust came off. We did here a “clong”, or “clang” I don’t remember which, and figured we either ran over something or something fell off. And being in the Netherlands where the roads are pretty clean we figured something must have fallen of. Luckily for us, it was only the exhaust and caused no further problems. George performed beautifully and we start to enjoy, and respect him more and more.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, or at least just end it. We had a marvelous time in Sweden and will definitely come back next year.

The weather we were having was very good and, being on a farm, advantage had to be taken. It was a great opportunity to get the hay sorted and the seeds planted before the rain could ruin it all. Therefore, Henrik was still working long days, as was everyone else on the farm, and we offered our services. Off course we couldn’t do much as a lot of jobs require driving very large machines, but they did find a job for us.

Quite a lot of hay roles, or roles of hay if you will, had to be rolled inside to stay dry and to be used as floor cover, or dung catcher, during the winter when the cows will be inside.
These roles are almost 6 feet in diameter and I don’t know how heavy they are, but believe me, they are. It got me sweating, and that’s a rare thing. We did have fun though…
I also helped Henrik with covering huge stacks of hay in the fields. This entailed being lifted up with a scoop of a tractor on top of the 14 feet hay stack and cover the top with a tarp which is attached with ropes to steel rods poked in the side of the stack, did you get that?
This was also good for a mornings work with a good lunch at Henrik’s mom as a reward.

Off course we did some relaxing and we saw all the slides Henrik shot on their trip through Africa. And for those of you who think slides are boring.., you should get the right subject and the right stories. This slideshow was everything but boring.
Their journey was phenomenal and took them all the way from Sweden to South Africa.., on motorcycles…
Yep.., that’s right, they did it on a bike..,well two actually, but still, quite impressive.

What else did we do.., ehhh…, o yeah, we visited Stockholm for a day. Beautiful city.

Ah.., yeah, I remember, we did take George off-roading, or rather, greenlaning. Obviously we didn’t destroy him but some parts did fell of.
In Almere (the Netherlands) I went off the road with my friend André and nearly destroyed a tire when my mud flap (or the steel it was attached to) was bended against the tire. After bending it back the problem was solved, but it has been a nuisance ever since.

Back in Sweden we took George into a field which was al but flat. A lot of rocks and fallen trees created enough of a challenge.
After driving through a ditch and not getting up the on the other site George again got his rear mud flaps caught. This time, while backing up to get a good run, I heard a load ‘crack’ and the whole bar with both flaps came of. And this time there was no bending back. Now George has a bare rear end…

Go to part four…

Our mini adventure to Sweden started with a defect in one of George his intercooler hoses. After a bit of an argument on which action to take, go or fix, we called Rob of British4x4 and got a consult. Ducktape the hose and we’ll take a look at it after the holiday.

The problem would be fixed later; George would be due for maintenance anyway.
The only problem would be running out of breath in higher gears going up the hill. Nothing we couldn’t handle.

The first leg of the journey ended in a F1 hotel in Bremen (Germany) where we had Spicy Cheese Nuggets (or something like that) at the Burger King. These are just great, you should get them…
After a bad night in a crappy bed in a crappy room in a crappy hotel (hell, at least it was cheap, or, at least, not too expensive) we left early. We wanted to end up in Malmö, 400 km and 2 countries away.

400 km doesn’t sound bad, but when you drive a (big) box on wheels with a head wind it can get pretty noisy and exhausting. It took us the better part of the day to get to Malmö in an uneventful drive.

The next day we packed up and headed for the Anna and Henriks house. This was the furthest we had to drive, over 500 km, but all of it would be through Sweden and we would end up at our final destination.

This drive too was uneventful; all in all it was a pretty børing drive. Although the scenery through Sweden is great, you don’t get to see much when you’re driving.
It got much better once we shut of the engine at our destination, the silence there was just deafening. Except for a cow or two, there was nothing to be heard.
Now it must be said that Anna and Henrik live in a small house which stands on a farm. This farm stands in the middle of nowhere. Far away from airports or highways or schools or factories or anything else that can make noise.., except for the cows then. It was bliss…

Read on in part three…

England was a succes. Altough only a weekend was planned on the island, it still was a lot of fun.

Sweden was great and we drove “George” to near destruction in the 3350 km we drove.

The ferry to England was a bit of a claustrofobic experience. Getting to the ship was only an half our drive and checking in went smoothly, it was only when we saw our cabin for the first time we had the thought that spending a bit more money on a cabin with a porthole would have been a good idea. This was confirmed during the night when the noise and vibration of the engines and the lack of fresh air, and maybe the anti-sickness pill, caused quite a restless night.
The drive down to Peterborough the following morning was as exhausting as the previous night had been, so when we, finally, arrived at the showgrounds and met up with Rob and his family it’s safe to say that we were happy to be there.The Land Rover Fest is an annual event at the East of England Showground in Peterborough with a lot of Land Rovers and a lot of stands with stuff to buy. British4x4 has one of those stands and we were invited to camp behind them which also provided us with free entrance.

The show itself was great. Enough was organised to keep everybody busy. Plenty of professional and private stands with everything you always wanted for your Land Rover, well, maybe not everything… I didn’t find some things I was looking for. But, in short, the whole event was good.

The Stewart family, who so graciously provided us with the tickets were also great hosts. During the day there was beer and in the evening we ate at a nearby restaurant.

The drive back to the ferry was better then the one from the ferry. This time we drove nice and comfortable behind Rob which was better. The roads we drove in England were busy and, dare I say it, dangerous. At least we thought so. People drove fast and the entry and exist lanes were so short people had drive onto the road with very low speeds.
The ferry was better to. The expensive all-you-can-eat diner wasn’t worth it but at least this cabin made less noise then the previous one.

We did meet the “Vicar” though. An old friend of the Stewarts who has a buzzcut, smokes, drinks and was in the Bar business for quite a while. But now.., he is an active vicar, or reverend. A very interesting man of a kind the church desperatly needs.., at least I think so…

After exiting the ferry we med up with “the gang” and drove back to Rotterdam where, along the way, we waved goodbye.

Our visit to home was short lived as we were very eager to start the long drive up to our viking friends… you’ll read about that in part 2.

Back to England, back to the Motherland. This certainly feels good.
We’re not going to Solihull, that is a pitty, but it will be good to drive on the proper side of the road again. So where are we going then. The Mister & Misses are taking me to Peterborough. It’s a true Land Rover Fest. A gathering of more Land Rovers then one can imagine.., over 10.000 of them. This is going to be a truly grand event.
Stay tuned for a full report…

With regards,

George