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…

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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…

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.

This is sort of a test, but it’s a nice clip of George.., before the paint job. It’ll be on the next page…[youtube]Lu5Z8HcAi6E[/youtube]

I’ve been a bit off my axle the past weeks.

The weather and my lack of shelter have put me in a state of perpetual hibernation. Only to be awoken for short and senseless drives.

An exception to this boring sequence of non-events was a visit to my dear friend André and his family. No, he is not a car but merely a man. Albeit one who has been co-driver on one of my more interesting drives and since then a Land-Rover enthusiast.

So, after having a rude awakening on a cold Saturday morning they took me on a drive to the not so wonderful city of Almere, they simply can not handle a vehicle like me in those narrow urban streets.
It must be said that it turned out to be quite a lovely day, dry and sunny.

Anyway, the drive to Almere was as tedious as any other drive on the highways, so no surprises there, and consequently nothing to report.

It seemed that in the developing areas of Almere, at least in certain parts, there is actually a terrain suitable enough to be enjoyed even by me.., or so it seemed.

After the mandatory pleasantries that have to follow any reunification of humans we could finally take of and seek out this promised off-road terrain.

At first glance it did look promising. It was large, that’s a plus. And a lot of motocross machines so one can assume it is rough terrain.
As we prepared to set out on an exploratory drive a Series III 88″ showed up and this was indeed a sight for sore eyes. After a short “lay of the land” chat we finally set of.

It was a tranquil, easy drive, no mud, no deep water, no soft sand and no big hills. There was nothing to worry about. We did a couple of small hills, just to be able to say we did something.
Then I hear the Mister offer the wheel to André. Now this sends a shock up my taillight. André is a nice guy and I hope he will join the ranks of Land Rover owners, but never before has he driven the likes of me in his life.

They switched places and under the guidance of the Mister André took of… Low box, first gear… second gear… easy does it. Driving thru a puddle, a big puddle, but not deep. So far, so good. Then, turning hard right we aim for an embankment.., going up. At least, that was the idea. André tried to tackle the ascend with out much coaching. Half way up he stalled my engine, not enough speed. That’s okay.., first time… try again… after that he learned fast. Going up and down like a pro in no time at all.

Then we came to another type of embankment, or rather, two in a row. One goes down and directly after that.., one going up, a “V” shape, if you will. On the first try André failed, on the second try.., again.., failure, not quite getting over the top. Eventually he did get through and the victory was tangible.

Off course, The Mister with his infinite bravura had to out perform this newbie. He immediately proved his skill by powering up and over an embankment. It must be said that the performing and the powering were ultimately my doing.
Probably realizing this himself the Mister made it more challenging for himself by taking on the “V” embankment.., the first time was not a problem, but after turning around and preparing for the second, slightly more difficult I was getting nervous and feeling quite hot.
Actually, I was so hot that steam was rising from within my engine bay. My water was running precariously hot!
Previously, in a momentary lapse of reason, the Mister had incapacitated the thermostat of the radiator fan; it didn’t want to switch off. Granted, in winter there doesn’t seem to be much use for a cooling fan, but when one starts driving thru sand at slow speeds and high revs one can use a bit of cooling.
After reconnecting the fan, replenishing lost water and turning on the engine I was able to cool of to an acceptable temperature level.

With everything cool again it would have been perfectly acceptable to turn around, drive back and call it a day. But no.., the Mister had something to prove, to whom I do not know. Off we went for another “V” embankment. This time not making it up the other side, sliding a bit sideways and consequently not being able to back up in order to create speed and try again.., we were effectively stuck between the proverbial rock and a hard place.

Eventually, it took us 45 minutes to get out of this awkward situation by digging away a lump of clay in order for me to back up just enough to make a run for it. Even then we got stuck in the soft sandy top layer of the embankment and more digging had to be done.

The decision to go home was easily made.

Near the exit of the playground it seemed the adventure would last just a little bit longer. Remember that 88″ I told you about at the beginning of this tale? Well, suffice it to say that his owner was terribly glad to see us.
He ventured of in to a patch of reed with black mud, no place for an 88″ without back-up.

Naturally we ventured in after him, not getting stuck again being our primary goal. We made contact, extended the winch cable, attached said cable and majestically pulled the 88″ from his predicament. This was a successful rescue, George saved the day.

Be cool…

George

“The intelligent man is one who has successfully fulfilled many accomplishments, and is yet willing to learn more.” – Ed Parker -