Overland with Kids

To find out where we are, please click here and enter password which is twospringerspaniels.

A large chunk of our time was spent preparing for the China leg of our trip - to the point of fast becoming the pinnacle of the entire journey in terms of route plan, timings and dependencies.

This is because we needed to know exactly what day and month we intended to transit, for how long and the exit date in order that we could arrange all visas for our trip and our chosen operator could inform the China government & border customs officials. We also needed to know about costs - transiting China using your own vehicle is not cheap!

Following our trip through China, we’ve provided some information plus the actual costs we paid here.

We originally decided to travel south via Europe to Turkey and onward to Iran, Pakistan and India. The idea being we would then head for Thailand and Malaysia, eventually shipping vehicles and flying ourselves from somewhere within this region. But, when it came to hard core decision-making and  the reality that we will probably get only one chance at this, we changed our minds! Instead the allure of a more unknown path (for us) began to beckon i.e. Russia, Mongolia and China. 

Our months of transit look something like this:

April - May 2010

Europe 

June - August 2010

Russia - Mongolia

September 2010

China

October - December 2010

Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia

January 2011

Australia

Timings are approximate and could still be subject to some change from time to time. We have changed our plans and timings on this page several times already.

Summer 2009 Shakedown Trip from UK to France, Spain, Morocco and Back Again with a Land Rover and a Jurgens Xplorer Caravan (July - September 2009)

With a big overland trip planned from the UK to Australia during 2010 and no previous long-term travel experience of any kind, we decided a shakedown trip would be in order to see how our vehicles, equipment and ourselves would fare under ‘real’ rather than theoretical circumstances.

We decided on an 7.5-week trip from the Uk to France, Spain, Morrocco and back again where we anticipated a 6- 7,000 mile journey ahead of us.

To do this meant unpaid leave from work, an empty house with continuing bills and mortgage payments, lots of money to be found, an evicted cat and as much reasonable notice and transparency as possible toward persuading both our children’s schools and our respective employers to release us for this period.

The Trip

We stayed at a total of 23 locations over 53 days during our shakedown trip, travelling through the centre of France, the coast of Spain, the northern tip of Morocco and back again via the Pyrenees. We drove a total of 5,067 miles ourselves but easily covered more than 6,000+ miles using (sometimes)our Land Rover and Jurgens Xplorer caravan (and other transport). In the process we made use of 4 bikes (ours), 4 ferries, 1 train, 1 hire van, 1 hire car, 6 taxi cabs, 2 trams, 2 coaches, 2 canoes, 1 shared mini bus, 2 horse and carts and 1 flat bed lorry/tow truck! In total, we crossed 2 continents, 4 countries, 4 time zones and 8 borders.

We managed to blow our budget right out of the water. Our bank balance resembles nothing like it should and we are scarily worried about whether we will be able to afford the bigger trip next year without running out of money part way. Sleeping arrangements included roughing it in either/both vehicles a couple of times (favourite), camping (equal favourite), guest house, pensions and hotels (the posher it got the less flexibility and money we had).

The Problems

Although we achieved most of what we wanted to get out of the trip and had a great and unforgettable time, we didn’t manage to do the entire trip successfully using our own vehicles due serious issues experienced with Land Rover. The Land Rover issues had a huge knock on effect for us impacting our budget, route plan, accommodation and the duration of time we expected to stay in each place.

Route Plan

We planned to travel through the centre of France, the coast of Spain and then onto Morocco before heading back through the centre of Spain to Bilbao.  Things did not go exactly according to plan but needless to say, we still had a lovely time and nothing spoiled our ability to have fun, enjoy each other and the freedom and experience of travelling. 

To see a summary of where we stayed and our overnight stop points, please click on the following document:

Where we Stayed - Overnight Stop Points

Budget

The initial contingency budget set aside for the trip was tiny (5%) as the vehicle had just been newly & fully serviced including cam-belt change and several modifications added - lots of money spent. We were only going away for 7.5 weeks and had already booked ferries, campsites and understood and had planned our route. With a 6,000 mile on-road journey, spare equipment, 1st aid kit, off-roading & mechanical training under our belt - and we weren’t yet going to Australia yet - what could possibly go wrong?………………….

…………The reality was that we easily spent a whopping 60%+ more than planned - a large bulk of this being Land Rover repairs with the remainder on hotels, guest houses and pensions (a lovely way to travel! - but these too-frequent instances presented themselves when we didn’t have vehicle or caravan, which was often - disabling our capability to camp/sleep rough). We had planned to camp it all the way! 

Added to this was the fact that we were travelling in peak season, through relatively expensive Eurpoean countries when compared to the rest of the world. In addition, there were four of including 2 children who we wanted to introduce to the road without too much of a shock factor. So, to ease the bumps this meant visits to Disneyland and reasonably comfortable campsite locations with things like a swimming pool and other trimmings - well it was our first ever trip and it was summer!

Armed with these factors, we decided on a combined budget was £150 per day for all of us. This was to include all campsites, food, diesel, motorway tolls, some ferries, any excursions (places like Disneyland are not cheap!), ferries, public transport, sight-seeing, emergency contingency - everything.

Just to give an idea of the type of costs we’re talking about:

Things like:

Disneyland - to do this ‘one time only’ (next time our kids go - they’ll be bringing their own children!) not much change out of £400 - £500 for one day (travel there and back and about £200 just to get in for a family of four, then the food and gifts etc. - all adds up).

Total all vehicle repairs - £2,000

Total all ferries including 2 vehicles and a family of 4 - £900

France - a beautiful but horrendously expensive country - 30 days stay in total (and that was virtually all campsites luckily).

Peak season - we went during the children’s school summer holidays - always an expensive time with accommodation, even campsite pitch costs sky-high.

Maths: £150 x 53 days = £7,950. We brought £7,200 minus vehicle repairs, ferries and Disneyland (major heart attack), this left approx £20 per day per person for everything else. Not enough as this wouldn’t even cover accommodation some days - let alone food, diesel etc. - financially buggered!

The Highs

Making it to Morocco (even if it was as foot passengers) The children: Disneyland, beaches, swimming pools, bikes and all the below

The freedom of being able to travel, discover, eat, swim, cycle, rest, snore, lie-in, day dream, spend time together and just ‘be’.

The Lows

Making alternative arrangements (haveing to store caravan, hire a vehicle) when the Land Rover out of action 

Not being able to do the entire journey using the Land Rover and caravan

The amount of money spent and post-recovery process.

What we learned

Flexibility when travelling is important. Although we had a planned route, we weren’t overly rigid and this paid off when unforeseen circumstances (and opportunties!) arose (just made it horrendously more expensive!).

We love our caravan but if we were to provide advice to others - towing anything is a  real ‘no, no’ - for the long haul in any case - but we’re still going to do it for the hell, romance and the sheer fun of it - no sense at all and maybe even stupid - we obviously haven’t learned anything from our snail paced shakedown. But we loved the experience, comfort and security it provided.

Then there is the reality of the speed and power of the Land Rover Defender 110 - just not built for hills with heavy weights behind it.  Towing also put strain on the vehicle, was a bugger to park and cost us a fortune in ferries and campsites.

Contingency - rather than 5%, we would estimate a much higher % - maybe 20% to cover any unforeseen issues.

Most Used Equipment

Waterproof picnic blankets - Godsend and saved our bacon a few times having several different uses. Firstly, acted as a waterproof protector for matresses when rain storms hit inside leaky caravan (faulty roof which we already knew about before we left). Also as window shields if sleeping in vehicle and for the grass floor outside caravan.

Roll Mats, Sleeping Bags and pillows

Find Me Spot Satellitte Tracker, Mobiles Phones, Laptop, Gameboys and Portable DVD for children

Colemans Dual Fuel Stove

Two Pop-Up tents

 Least/Never Used

Air Bag - not used, Hand Winch - not used - left under bed bunk in caravan.

Clothing - we brought far too much stuff with us - well,  a small bag each but we could have easily halved this but then we had jeans/long trousers we may have needed for the longer haul (and had we got much deeper into Morocco).

Medical supplies - too much stuff but again ‘could’ have been needed

Vehicle Spares - not used but could have been needed

All of the above still important just none used this trip 

More following shortly (updating when we can) including Trip Diary with photos plus Jessica’s diary (paper version has just been returned from school), more on equipment used, Planned versus Actual Route map, Planned versus actual Duration per Country.

Since returning from our trip, we initially found it a bit difficult to weigh up lessons learned with regards to experiences with both Land Rover and caravan.

The length of our shakedown really helped us to understand the realities of a long-haul overland trip such as vehicle issues and breakdowns (and costs!! of which we went approx 60%!! over-budget). Plus, we were able to gain an understanding of how the children and us felt about each other 24-7, the prospect of further travel over a period of a year and about being in it altogether for the longer haul.

Given the vehicle issues experienced we can’t deny there were times when we felt really deflated to the point of wanting to kick the Land Rover and send it home.

And, if we were to offer advice to anyone considering a long-haul overland trip we’d have to say towing anything a real ‘no-no’. If you could choose a ’single’ solitary vehicle to live, eat, sleep - this would definately be the way to go for all the reasons we’ve mentioned in both our issues pages. With one vehicle you can just pull up and sleep anywhere (for free in many countries) without concerns of parking or regarding whatever you might be towing behind you. Much less hassle factors all round.

We considered alternative options seriously since returning - options that would provide primarily maybe more guaranteed / longer vehcile reliability, more freedom and less financially draining considerations. But ones that would still provide comfort, security and practicality whilst ‘on the road’.

Long before our trip and since returning, we’ve looked at other options such as Land Cruiser, converted truck/ambulance, campervan, roof tent options (we really like the Maggiolina products). Out of these truck/ambulance conversion would be our chosen option. However, with only a short time before our big trip, the ones we’ve seen are either well out of our price range else the front cab is only designed for two rather than our existing safe and comfortable 4-5 person set-up. 

With children, the roof tent option doesn’t appeal to us over a period of a year. We think the ability to be able to sleep inside a vehicle, comfortably and securely is the best way to go. We definately tossed and turned regarding our chosen configuration and moreso since the shakedown. Thoughts such as, when we had just the Land Rover solo, during parts of our trip,  we were able to pull in - cover the windows and sleep anywhere. Unfortunately, the vehicle is not big enough for 4 of us to do this as part of a daily habit. We also had much more speed and freedom to get ‘off track’.

The caravan brought with it alot of considerations but it also has many upsides:

Handling - Apart from minor issues and known weight, it didn’t really present any serious issues and handled really well behind vehicle. Stayed behind us comfortable on flat sealed roads comfortably at speeds of up to 65 - 70mph.

Comfort - nice thick mattresses, slept 4 of us flat without hassle. Daytime, could chill, read, relax, have somewhere decent to escape - especially if raining. Electrics hooked up (to Land Rover as well as campsite pitch services) also meant we could have electric kettle, lights and DVD’s plugged into portable player.

Storage - can keep all bedding in caravan

Insulation - noticed when we slept in Land Rover - much more noisy whearas caravan provides buffer of silence both inside (children playing, shouting, singing) and out (from busy port side harbours, people and streets).

Security - Felt better for us and the kids while sleeping - could lock door, sleep well etc.  Relying on Land Rover only would have been too cramped and restrictive and worried about noise and who could see us (Andrew slept solo in Land Rover and Anne with children when/if security was an issue).

Off ground - for sleeping/weather - much better than maybe muddy, hard, cold, wet ground or windy, noisy, wet roof in our view. Much more comfortable and felt like proper living on the road - comfortable sleep is everything when you are spending a long time on the road.

Compactness - sits neatly behind caravan - no additional driving mirrors required.

Robustness - excellent

Reliabiity - excellent

Cooking, shower, gas, hot water, cold water - all on board (though we didn’t use any of these as had alternative as equipment / additions on land Rover which we’ll list at some point).

Set-up - we could just open the door and climb in.  

Jerry can storage - caravan carries 2 x 20L jerry cans plus spare wheel securely on the back. This meant spare can of petrol which we used for Colemans dual fuel stove and another of can diesal for vehicle if needed kept away from Land Rover load.

With regards to the Land Rover, we got unfortunately very unlucky but the issues have now been resolved and it didn’t mis-behave at any point during our drive homeward.  When on the road and OK - as Andrew says ‘it was well - the nuts!’

We thought long and hard but can’t seem to find an alternative configuration that suits us better. Both the Land Rover and the caravan have become part of our skin so we’re sticking with them and are going to make them work. Our eyes are wide open to the what this entails for us. And who needs speed!

In terms of immediate changes we are going to make to try to make our bigger trip better - the caravan for instance, we are going to strip and  leave as a carcass with just beds on board. We don’t need the heavy load on board - i.e. 80L fridge, 2 x 20L water tanks, 2 x large gas cannisters - can all come out. A new roof surround has been successfully ordered from South Africa and is currently en-route to the UK. We’ll further seal the roof and seek support from the South African community to help further improve our lot with regards to this - maybe look at shocks etc.

Foley’s will address issues that are theirs regarding the Land Rover though nothing apart from silly bits appears to be wrong now (they have already provided us credit and support throughout without hesitation) and are reputable, committed and professional in getting things right.   We’ll get used to the vehicles speed capability uphill’s and even learn how to make tea without leaving the wheel!

Despite everything that happened, we had great fun and the issues became a large part of the adventure as well as presenting several challenging tests for us. In a funny way, that made the trip and logistics quite interesting to say the least. That just leaves our sanity and the prospect of the children getting used to possibly several flatbed lorries throughout (and being stuck with their parents). We loved our time together and decided we are up for the challenge (or maybe just plain stupid!) to lose our shirts completely in financial terms but one of our highlights could be that maybe we’ll be among the first (we can think of several good reasons why others wouldn’t do it) to traverse from Uk to Oz with an off road / bush caravan in tow? and then tell everyone else ‘never’ to do it! In any case, it will certainly determine the caravan’s capability if anything along with our nerves! In all, we are not prepared to trade our choice just yet! (well…..an affordable truck solution could be considered???? and the Azalai www.azalai.co.uk is an interesting concept - see also http://www.lro.com/print.php?sid=232). Last note on caravan side - if it can be dragged around South Africa in bush conditions - ours somehow made it to the UK - there has got to be something said about it’s capability. 

Land Rover

None to report.

Caravan

A. Towing - biggest issue we faced was towing on hills and we came across many. It became a mission and a challenge to put our foot down to pick up speed on the downhill stretches in order to get the best run up to the next approaching hill possible. If we wanted to get off the beaten track or traverse a more interesting but complex route containing a 2-vehicle train, we had to really think hard about it and often avoid. We must have delayed half the motoring population of each country we were in when driving on a single carriageway especially when no overtaking was allowed or possible.

B. Weight strain - on the lead vehicle (Land Rover) - especially uphill - a major consideration as all weight is currently front loaded in the nose of the caravan.

C. Parking - even if we could find a space in some of the smaller villages/towns etc. suitable for 2-vehicle set-up - a run-up was needed in order to be able to straighten both vehicles into position - not often possible so often finding need to move on.

D. Speed - much, much slower pace when driving with a caravan.

E. Limited freedom and versatility - unable to chuck Land Rover about due to having heavy load attached. Plus abiity to get into awkward places (mountain tracks and again parking up quickly) if we wanted to.

F. Expense - ferries, campsites, weight, fuel - much more expensive consideration due to towing weight and because essentially bringing two vehicles.     

G. Stress - by this we mean - when Land Rover issues kicked in - it would have an impact depending on where we were on the road - more difficult rescue plan consideration along with children to think about.

H. When lead vehicle-less - where to keep / store / pitch caravan safely while waiting Land Rover return.  

I. Manouverability - didn’t really cause us any serious issues and didn’t bother us but when pitching on campsites, caravan so heavy it’s difficult to turn even when using Land Rover. When unhitched, too heavy too lift/turn etc. so often had to leave pitched with nose out facing front rather than sideways like most traditional caravans tend to be parked.

That time of year again! Handmade Pesky Christmas cards for sale - only 75p each. Available for sale at our forthcoming That Pesky Rat Puppet Shows. Else, please contact Anne for more information 07771 840316 or by email info@overlandwithkids.com

We had a total of 6 vehicle and caravan issues during our 7.5 week shakedown trip as follows:

1. Day 1 - Land Rover
On arrival to France (not even 350 miles into our journey) and travelling on good, easy, flat, sealed motorway (we had not even made 1st campsite location), the timing belt snapped (we had just had it changed via Foley’s before leaving the UK). We didn’t know what the issue was at the time only that we had lost power very suddenly and couldn’t get ourselves off the motorway (we could see a service stop area but just couldn’t reach it in time).

One flat bed lorry later, plus two taxis to take caravan, equipment, bikes and us onto campsite at midnight - the Land Rover was taken the following day onto Jeanne Le Fevre, a Land Rover specialist vehicle centre based in Amiens.

It was 15 days before we saw our vehicle again. During this time, we placed caravan in storage for a short time, hired a van and travelled down to the Loire and back again with two po-up tents and bikes in tow.

Cost for repairs: £900

Where: Garage James Lefebvre, 656 rue d’Amiens, Amiens

Verdict on Mechanic: Very slow in both diagnosis and then the repair itself.  Promised date came and went - as a result our vehicle insurance co. had to put us up in a hotel for weekend in Dieppe while we waited - hard life! . Foley’s had to keep intervening on our behalf (and in French!).  Suggested we repatriate at outset though in retrospect this was understandable due to the issue experienced. See also issue no. 6 which further makes us wonder.

2. Day 8 - Hire vehicle
On gaining the understanding that we weren’t going to see our Land Rover any day soon, we hired a Renualt Traffic (9-seater van) courtesy of insurance company. Only 10 minutes into having, Anne smashed up along the side as well as another stationary vehicle parked innocently on a narrow high street in the Champagne region. Totally self-inflicted and luckily vehicle (and Anne!) still fit to drive complete with dents, marks and minus driver wing mirror which Andrew duly stuck back on with duck tape before driving off again.

Cost for repairs: £900 (paid by credit card on return of vehicle)

3. Day 15 - Caravan
Before leaving the UK, we decided to have the hitch on the caravan changed via Foley’s from an old heavy, rigid one to a more up-to-date version but the jockey wheel broke (lost it’s pinch and broke into two parts) before it hit the ground on winding down to pitch ground on campsite - we had not even unhooked following collection from storage in the Compiegne. The jockey wheel was the only source we had for holding the caravan up when detached from Land Rover. In the jockey wheel’s absence - Andrew became resident pitch master by winching caravan off Land Rover using 2-T trolley jack, 2 x caravan A-Frames and several blocks of wood to support it - a worrying time! In the end we decided safer NOT to unhitch from Land Rover after a fashion.

Cost: N/A
Duration: remainder of trip

4. Day 23 - Caravan
En route from Dordogne to Millau, we got a flat tyre on caravan (luckily, just as we were pulling off motorway into service station). A nice Portugese lorry driver came to our rescue with a more capable bottlejack than our 2-ton trolley jack.  We were then tasked with sourcing a new spare before moving on - took a little while as apparently the tyres (15″ Firestone Steelbelt Tubeless Radial ATX 245/75R15C107S15) not standard or generally available in Europe. A phone call to Foley’s helped us locate alternative slightly more heavy duty equivalent - BFG 255/70R15 - so we bought two for the road

Cost: £242 for 2 new tyres
Where: Euromaster, Clermont Ferrand
Duration wait for Tyres: 2-3 days

5. Day 30 - Fuel pump failure on Land Rover

En-route from Clermont Ferrand to Millau.  We tried a couple of garages ourselves directly but no joy. Result of fuel pump failure meant that speed was a serious issue and combined with weight strain of caravan, ever growing leak under vehicle and smoke from the exhaust - we decided again to put caravan in storage. Conscious of our timetable, we then hobbled on using cable ties and duck tape to Valencia in Spain before getting fixed.

Cost: £327
Duration of fix: Same Day

Where: British Car S.L., Doctor Marco Merenciano, 41 - Valencia

Verdict on Mechanic: Excellent - could see we wanted to get back on the road quickly and pulled out all the stops to help make it happen same day - highly recommended.

6. Day 41 - Suspected engine gasket failure Land Rover

Occurred on en-route to Malaga. We exited at Castell de Ferro for an unplanned welcome break along Sierra Nevada coastline for weekend to organise mechanic.  Anne had been complaining she could hear a continous tick, tick, ticking noise since day 15 on picking up the car in Amiens -kept saying still not right but thought maybe over-acting.

Used local garage in Castell itself. Mechanic advised the issue - though not gasket afterall, was related to the first issue and replaced two rods plus balancers? (difficulty translating) x 2 and cups? x 8. He showed us the broken part but we didn’t think at the time to take it or a photo or something so we could be able to determine problem better once back home. Mechanic said something about balancing/tuning incorrect following cambelt repair. Anne’s ticking noise disappeared finally.

Cost £246

Where: Emilio Sanchez Barranco, 18740 Castell de Ferro, Granada

Duration: 5 days

Verdict on Mechanic: Small family business. Excellent - deals with 4×4s all day long. Highly recommended. 

Total ‘on the road’ repairs: £1,714.

Other Minor Issues

Vehicle

A. Fuel leak - we think due to new tank connection to existing.

B. Fuse on reverse/brake lights kept blowing on last knockings of our journey home into UK.

C. 13amp plug socket not easy to put any plugs into due to awkward positioning.

Caravan

A. Leaky roof - due to age, canvas roof surround was in a bad way (ripped, stained etc.) before leaving due to not being able to address in time before trip - buckets, cloths, gaffer tape always on hand.

B. Water retention on roof - gathers and doesn’t go away -  keeping an eye on and tipping the roof every so often became a regular housekeeping task. 

C. Electrics - some work performed by Foley’s to enable hook up to Land Rover but lights failed to work inside caravan after a fashion - we think due to water leaks - may have blown something. We did still have power capability (plug sockets) just no lights.

D. Gas - boiler on board and may have worked but due to not being sure about when last serviced and we didn’t get a chance to do before shakedown, we were a bit nervous that maybe the caravan might blow up if unsafe so left this untouched.

To follow

Vehicle Preparation

We bought a 1998 Land Rover Defender 110 CSW 300TDi - 12 seater bench seat standard base vehicle with no modifications during November 2007.

We thought long and hard about our chosen vehicle before buying and then about how we wanted to modify to suit us, our children and the more longer-term trip to Australia. We only wanted to do this once so for us, it was important we got our mode of transport right first time without making any costly mistakes.

Although we did a tiny bit of work ourselves we opted for Foley Specialist Vehicles for all major fit out and servicing required:

Seating, Child Comfort and Cargo/Load Divider
We noticed that our kids sleep with their heads tilted forward whenever they have fallen asleep in any car we’ve been in. They are still relatively young and we felt that for any long trips that we really needed to address this. Comfort would be king and would make or break the bigger trip for the children in our view.

We were quite happy with the front passenger and driver’s seats but removed all the bench seats ourselves, replacing 2nd row only with hi-back reclining Trakker seats from Exmoor. This was the first ever project undertaken by us and although willing and eager to become more able (we did get there but did struggle a bit):

Observations we made once we’d fitted the seats was that, while you can get these seats to recline so far back that the children could actually lie down, this couldn’t be part of the long-term plan else, we’d have no adequate load space or ability to separate load from the children during the journey and, that lacking time and expertise, we realised very early on that having someone who knows what they’re doing (i.e. Foley’s) for the major elements rather than amateurs (i.e. us) who could put ultimately put the vehicle at risk, would become a major consideration. Even with excellent advice from members of forums and threads we had joined, we would need to be careful.

Given the new seats and the load space consideration, additional work we did take on ourselves included a full length cargo divider/dog grill which was placed behind the children’s seats but allowing only some recline flexibility (5″ to be exact) - enough to enable the seats to remain upright but at a slight gradient backward. This way, when the children slept, the theory being, their neck and head would tilt back and rest more comfortably.

We could have set the cargo grill back further but again would start to compromise much needed load space. See also Internal Roll Cage and Fridge sections as all had a bearing on combined seating, fridge, divider and load space configuration.

We also invested in relatively inexpensive children’s booster seats with reclining hi-back and neck rests - to provide added comfort, support and height while in vehicle.

Verdict following shakedown: Children loved it and were really happy, comfortable and never complained. The slight recline worked a treat and the additional boosted height for vision meant the children were always involved and part of whatever we were doing - whether chatting, arguing, looking at views etc. As a family, we felt very much together in the vehicle and never segregated - something afterwards we especially thought was very important and counted toward a major success on a long trip duration.

Costs: Exmoor Trim 2nd row reclining kit (recliner frame kit) @ £295.00, Classic low back Rayleigh seat x 1 £97.75 and Classic high back Rayleigh x 2 £199.50, plus shipping £23.48. Total charge: £612.23 including VAT. Mail Order 4×4 Full Length Wire Mesh Dog Guard £99.88 incl. VAT.

(NB. Above costs may be slightly less now as VAT reduced to 15% since we bought some time ago)

Engel 40ltr Fridge
We bought this fridge not long after buying land Rover with little contest in terms of which manufacturer/size etc. But, it took us an era to decide where to put it -maybe we should mount on shelf in the rear of the vehicle? maybe in the front with the adults? Or, maybe use to replace existing 80L fridge in caravan - this way we’d keep the land Rover completely clear? - We also liked the idea of leaving it free and portable rather than fixed so we could move it around between vehicles as we liked. And so the debate went on, we couldn’t agree.

Given at this stage that there were now 6 seats in Land Rover - 3 in the front and the 3 x new in the 2nd row we’d just paid for, sweated to install ourselves and loath to lose from our first attempt and successful, new and happy configuration.

We thought the seat left free in between the kids would be ideal for guide/guest along the way. Also, we had visions of being able to climb into it ourselves - i.e. one of us climb in the back with the kids while driving if they were sick, any fights or just to chill with them. However, after much tossing and turning and seeking advice - the need for a sensible, easy to reach location for the fridge won out.
We also decided that to have the fridge on board in the Land Rover rather than the caravan was essential - in case separated from it (caravan) anytime during our trip - and in case countries or areas where we couldn’t stop - quick, easy access essential.

With Foley’s now in charge, centre 2nd row (centre only) seat was quickly dis-charged and the fridge located in place between the children. It was also then hardwired to a second battery also supplied and fitted by Foley’s alongside a new main battery.

The vehicle now finally a 5-seater in configuration (3 front, 2 back - 4 are hi-back with front row centre seat a slightly lower back - but available to accommodate additional human cargo when required)

Verdict following Shakedown: It just so happened that we picked up a hitchhiker on our trip and A) it was better for him to be up front with us so he could give us directions about where to eventually drop him, B) we could chat and find out more about him without boring the kids to death and he could find out about us. C) We could keep an eye on him in terms of security and level of dodgy-ness etc. D) Was a bit of a squeeze having 3 adults in the front, but we managed as not travelling in this fashion for long periods and was a welcome bit of excitement or us first-timers. E) We realised from this experience - while the guy was lovely - we would never want to place a stranger at any point in the back with our children. F) Was also probably better for the hitchhiker as maybe uncomfortable for an adult to sit in the rear with two noisy, inquisitive children to contend with.

The fridge’s location behind us and in between the children meant we never had to get out to access while on the move. Both front passengers and children could reach very easily. Also acted as headrest on long journeys and became basecamp for toy soldiers, books and pens etc. Only thing we had to be careful about was the kids leaving the fridge (front closing) lid open when getting a drink out while on the move as it sometimes banged back on their heads. This would happen for example if vehicle jolted while driving or when suddenly stopping/starting - we soon learned to be more vigilant! The other area of care was the temperature gauge - sometimes we got frozen supplies instead of just cold if the kids accidently brushed/knocked the gauge with their arm or elbow while helping themselves to something or playing. We got around this by taping a large plastic bottle top lid to cover/protect it. This way, our dial was still accessible when needed (just lift tape off and reseal again afterwards) but we normally left fixed and untouched at the same temperature setting throughout trip. Having the fridge wired to a second battery meant fridge always on even when vehicle stationary for long periods.
Fridge quality itself - without question - excellent, robust and very reliable. Highly recommended. The 40L size perfect for a frequently hungry family of 4 and meant we could easily get wine, beer, milk, water, fresh food stuffs all stored comfortably - this was especially important as the weather was incredibly hot and the need for regular cold drinks a frequent one. Any smaller a sized fridge would have been uncomfortable - the 40ltr roomy and ideal for our needs. We couldn’t put a week’s fresh food shopping in it (not that we would have done) but we could stock up at a supermarket en-route in preparation for moving on without worrying if we had enough supplies for regular nibbles or ravishing hunger bouts.

The fridge also came in handy in the centre between the children seats as provided each child their own personal space but they could still share and access each other when they wanted. Handy barrier also to make keeping them apart easier when any serious fights or arguments ensued.

Costs: Engel 40L fridge £480.00 incl. delivery and 17.5% VAT (MPS). Split Charge, 2 batteries incl. labour and fitment of 500w x 3 inverters & 3 pin plug socket point £730.25 incl. 15% VAT (Foley’s), Fridge fitment between 2nd row seats 142.60 incl. 15% VAT (Foley’s).

Internal Roll Bar
Internal roll bar - This was always a high priority on our list with children on board. Again, a lot of deliberation spent veering between external roll bar as well as just fitting rock-sliders but in the end opted for a Safety Devices Internal Roll Bar on seeing it and others in the flesh and finally upon hearing Foley’s advice. Factors included - cheaper and much less complex to fit than external version, rock sliders would not do the job of strengthening the upper body (though we argued vigorously about side vehicle impact likely being lower rather than as high as the cage reached - until lorries were mentioned though we’d probably be goners by then anyway!) There was also the matter of rolling and stability and finally, the internal version we were looking didn’t compromise internal space as we had initially thought it would from other versions/makes we had seen. (Another thought factor we had about installing roll bar was because we felt that while we would unlikely cause Land Rover to roll, the caravan might pull us over if crossing dodgy terrain).

Foley’s had to be extra careful when fitting to ensure allowance for the reclining seats, fridge and load divider all considered - more a bespoke rather than standard set-up. Outcome was successful with the solution being load divider finally fitted at a very slight angle behind children and the seats then slightly given into even less of a recline gradient than we started, but still there - all to combine new cage, seat, fridge and the uncompromised load space requirements.

Verdict following shakedown: Definitely got there. Roll cage very neat and unobtrusive without reducing internal space inside either the passenger or rear load area in any way. Very happy with it. Anne managed to knock her head against (she’s tall anyway) the side rolls a couple of times initially when sorting children into their seats from the side doors but she soon got used to. Might not be as comfortable for adults in the rear as t is currently for the kids due to their size and height but we had no real problems climbing in and testing if needed. Apart from the safety aspect and peace of mind the roll bars have become a welcome addition to the vehicle for hanging stuff - i.e. hanging towels etc. to drape as curtains over/from bars to keep light and prying eyes out and when sleeping. Top bar in front of children houses DVD player with bungee cord for the kids when they wanted to watch - could attach and detach as we liked - perfect! Children kept their favourite toy each side of them in stowage, just above their heads in roll bar crevices each day when travelling.

Costs: Internal Roll Bar £914.25 incl. labour and 15% VAT (Foley’s)

External Security Grilles and Window Tint
We fixed external security grilles and window tint to all rear load area windows ourselves using Halfords self adhesive tint and the cheapest, lightweight, most robust grilles we could find on the internet. We thought about tint for children’s windows but decided to leave as is.

Verdict following shakedown: All good, no issues except maybe the fact that we have grilles fitted externally rather than internally may invite potential thieves to wonder what we have inside in longer term. Meantime, we’re happy enough as maybe better chance of limiting any smashed glass at outset from chancers. Downside is that we can never clean windows but as blacked out anyway, who cares. We could hose down if really desparate. Glad we didn’t tint children’s windows as kept light, airy and open on the road. If they were asleep or leaning back and an unwanted stranger peered in, hardly notice them as they recline and disappear into the back slightly so no issues for us.

Costs: Approx. £200 total

Wolf Rims, Tyres and Swingaway for Spare
We bought the vehicle with alloys so they had to go and were replaced with wolf rims.
Vehicle was already fitted with BFG All Terrain tyres and we were happy with these. Tyres all checked and balanced before leaving with one replaced. The replaced tyre along with original spare (making two spares) were mounted on vehicle - one on roof, the other on rear door. We reluctantly invested (more money!) in a swingaway (didn’t want to be spending any more cash than really essential as costs were adding up and we still hadn’t finished fit out yet!).

Verdict following shakedown: No issues. Only one observation we’d make is that if towing something, make sure you know how much new swingaway protrudes into hitchlock area from having had spare simply bolted to the door previously. Swingaway doesn’t add incredibly but dependant on what’s being towed and how it hitches to main vehicle (protruding/suspended rods or whatever) - you might want to check you can open rear door adequately into available space left. We experienced minor limitation but nothing overly concerning.

Costs: Wolf rims x 5 £333.50, New BFG AT 235 Tyre £135.70, Spare wheel secure fixment to roof rack £34.50 (2nd is fixed to rear door swingaway), Tyre Balance & Re-fitting x 6 £103.50, Rear Swing Away £393.30 - all incl. 15% VAT and labour ( all Foley’s).

Rear Shelving System
We saw several very smart shelving systems, some with drawers, locks etc. by all kinds of suppliers but couldn’t justify spends and not really knowing exactly what we wanted, needed flexibility and time to decide.

Andrew being a carpenter (tools, equipment, wood) was thinking about the longer term (when vehicle a workhorse and not a travel mobile) and the fact that now and again there is a need to use for dumping larger than average items into our space. Ideally, we needed a shelving system that could quickly disappear again when not needed, change heights and still be strong and rigid. With not much time before departure date, we ended up using several removebale ply planks with batons fixed to sides (Andrew cut and fixed) to make into two removeable shelving bases - job done!

Verdict following shakedown: Not perfect but worked a treat for us and cost us nothing. Heavy items stored in base and we kept others dotted around edges to save too much pressure on the weak ply centre areas. Even when we did load central areas - bore up well. Upside, fully adjustable according to needs as Andrew can adapt and change as quickly (he brought a couple of tools along just in case - saw, wood blocks, lightweight tools - he couldn’t leave home without them!).

Costs: N/A

Additional 40L Fuel & 40L Water Tanks
While Foley’s doing the work, we figured it would be a good move to get additional fuel capacity sorted. The one we had fitted is essentially an add on under the rear fuel arch which just integrates direct to main tank so when you fill up at service station and you hit full indicator - the pump just keeps going until additional tank also full. You can tell if the additional tank is empty when the full indicator on the main tank starts going down. Sits under the wheel arch somewhere hidden out of site (so well we can’t see it ourselves) so has not made any difference whatsoever to the space inside our vehicle.

The water tank is situated in exactly the same place but on the other side under rear wheel arch area. Again hidden under vehicle so no space impact. Have to open back door and reach inside to unscrew cap to refill, no problem. Tap externally toward bottom rear of vehicle to wash hands etc.

Verdict following shakedown: Nice and simple with no impact to any visible space in rear load area. The only thing we noticed was that there was a very slight fuel leak now and again - seems to be where the additional fuel tank meets the main tank connection. We haven’t really checked in any great detail but we’ll speak to Foley’s about this. We constantly used water tank to wash hands and the additional fuel tank was always utilised and invaluable on our trip - meant we could go longer without stopping, go off road into unknown territory, less worrying about likelihood of running out of fuel. With heavy caravan in tow, also meant fuel consumption was high so again additional fuel to keep us on the road very useful. We haven’t drank out of water tank though in theory you could as aluminium but not recommended without boiling/treating.

Costs: 40L Fuel tank £488.75 & 40L Water tank £270.25 - incl. 15% VAT and labour (both Foley’s) 

Hi-Lift Jack
Fitted on floor inside vehicle in front of children’s feet. Easy to access and out of the way. Causes no issues and we haven’t needed to use as yet. Not just for Land Rover but possible caravan use also (though no jacking points currently).

Costs: Hi lift jack and fitting kit incl. labour to fix to floor in front of 2nd row seats £129.95 (Foley’s).

Sand Ladders
Fitted to side of roof rack - not used yet.

Costs: £148.35 incl. fitting kit, labour to fix to roof rack side and 15% VAT (Foley’s).

Heavy Duty Suspension
To cope with caravan. Happy with this and seemed to cope with the weight of the caravan without any issues. Fittings included 4 new springs and shocks and twin rear shocks.

Costs: New heavy duty springs and shocks x 4 £556.60, twin rear shocks £304.75 incl. 15% VAT and labour (Foley’s).  

Bull Bar, Electric Winch and Heavy Duty Bumper
Inexpensive winch fitted in case any arising issues with caravan rather than Land Rover. Deliberated for ages on whether to get or not. Heavy duty bumper to support. Bull bar fitted in preparation for Australia.  

Verdict following shakedown: Not used as yet. We have heavy duty Tirfor hand winch but felt ease and speed of electric winch might be much more beneficial. Glad we have it. Meantime, adds weight to front to balance overall rear load and suspension also. 

Costs: Winch and heavy duty bumper £902.75, Bull bar £327.75 incl. labour and 15% VAT (Foley’s).

Invertors and 13amp plug socket
One either side of the children, one front passenger seat, 13 amp socket mounted underside of one of the children.

Verdict following shakedown: Inverters used all the time for charging/playing gameboys, using DVD, charging mobile phones - invaluable. 3 pin socket in funny place on floor under one of the children’s seats - not easy to get odd shaped plugs into - need to see if we can get an adaptor. Didn’t use as a result and would have been handy now and again for items we didn’t have inverter attachments for.

Costs: See Fridge costs

Additional Driving/Spot Lights
Fitted to front bumper - not used during shakedown as un-needed though we could have done with using a couple of times but worried about blinding on-coming traffiic. Come on automatically with driving lights but have plastic covers which we left on. Might be worth bringing a couple of spare plastic covers as if one falls off/gets lost could be an issue to recover lights when not required at night.

Costs: £201.25 incl. 155 VAT and labour (Foley’s).

Catalytic Converter
Removed

Front Anti Roll Bar
We had one on the rear but the front was missing. Fitted to assist balancing.

Costs: £189.75 incl. VAT and labour (Foley’s)

Diff guards

We decided maybe some protection in order.

Costs: £189.75 incl. 15% VAT and labour (Foley’s)

Heavy Duty Lock fitted to rear door
We supplied own padlock and additional security

Costs: £68.42 to fit door lock anchor incl. 15% VAT and labour (Foley’s). Supplied own padlock and keys.

Board Roof Rack

Andrew had done but a rough quick job using cable ties. As Foley’s needed to anchor spare to roof they re-supplied a better board and fixed properly. Really we should have done this ourselves.

Costs: £109.25 incl. supply, 15% VAT and labour (Foley’s).

Full service
You name it, it was changed/addressed including cam/timing belt:

Driver door lock button & plastic trim, Brake servo, Wiper adaptor, Drop arm ball joint, Track rod ends, Steering damper bushes, Front radius bushes, Front brake discs, water pump, Leaking tri-pod gasket, Flange kit & seal, A frame bushes, Rear lower arm bushes, Rear disc brakes, Split rear breather pipe, Rear half shafts & drive members, Clutch master, Rear brake pads, Front brake pads, radiator, EGR exhaust removal and new down pipe replacement, Cambelt - was due for replacement, Oil leak from rear of engine - manifold gasket, anti freeze/consumables, New track rod tube, Manifold Gasket plus labour to carry out all.

Verdict following shakedown: We had several issues en-route taking us off the road and causing us huge expense and change of plans.  Still need to provide our view - see separate Vehicle Issues section within Shakedown categories. We have been in touch with Foley’s and are still dealing - updates to follow once we have resolved matters. (NB - we initially chose Foley’s due their excellent reputation from our perspective and research - to date this view remains unchanged - speed and response to help us resolve excellent, Foley’s are an excellent company. We unfortunately got unlucky with the cambelt which should have been fitted correctly by Foley’s but appears to have been out of alignment - then going onto cause us all kinds of catastrpohe’s during our trip - ultimately very expensive one’s for us (we went 60% over budget on our trip as a result - due to vehicle repair costs, resulting route changes, hotels instead campsites etc, not being able to take vehicle onto Morocco, lost trust in vehicle and so on). 

Costs: Full Service incluing all parts, labour and 15% VAT before leaving the UK for our trip £2,738.38     

Spares

Spares pack included Alternator, Water pump, Drive belt, Rear props U/J’s, Wheel bearings, Lock nuts, Lock tabs, Hub seals, Slave cyclinder, Master cylinder, Wiper blades, Mirror glass, Top hose, Bottom hose, Oil filter, Air Filter, Fuel filter, Fuel pump, Transfer output seals, Hazard switch, Flasher unit, Drop arm ball joint kit, Panhard bushes, Light units, Head set, Inner tubes, Tyre levers, Fuses, Bulbs, Hub spanner, Fan spanner, Nuts & Bolts etc.

Verdict following shakedown: We did use several fuses for reverse lights which seemed to keep failing (fuse blowing?) but otherwise spares kit largely unused due to newly serviced and relatively short overland period.  Any vehicle issues experienced were not problems we could have fixed ourselves or supplied via on board spares. We had a fuel pump issue but garage sourced replacement same day so we retained ours. We did have peace of mind though knowing we had spare kit to fall back on. Meantime, happy in the knowledge that we can learn and become more familiar and confident with our spare items and no doubt these will come into own for the bigger trip.  NB. Kit didn’t include liquids (e.g. oil etc.) which we bought en-route.

Costs: £575.00 incl VAT (all supplied by Foley’s) .

Total Foley’s Costs

Including caravan parts and labour which we’ve  listed on separate page under Shakedown trip we spent a whopping £10.5K with Foley’s alone - easily the price of another vehicle!

Overall verdict: Alot of money! But fit out - excellent- we are really happy with overall configuration. Servicing good except unfortunate serious issue with newly changed cambelt at outset of trip. Cost of repair has been fully credited by Foley’s.  Kitting out and servicing a Land Rover Defender is not a cheap business to be in if you are unfamiliar with safe vehicle yourself. 

 Photos

Let us know if you want more of anything in particular not already shown.

That Pesky Rat Amateur Puppet Shows!

“Sometimes when I am tucked up into my crisp packet, I look up at all the cosy windows and wonder what it would be like to live with creature comforts. To belong to somebody, to be an actual pet.”

Working together with the children’s author Lauren Child’s team, we are supporting www.ceem.co.uk, Crosshall Infant School and other schools / children’s groups and organisations interested  in raising the profile toward Educational Aid for deprived children across the world. During October and November 2009, we staged some puppet shows, together with the huge help of our friends, based on the ‘That Pesky Rat’ story written by Lauren Child and raised a total £1,257.79. All profits from the shows are being donated directly toward educational items which will be sent directly to the 4 children’s schools based in the hard to get village of Burlacu, Moldova. One of the teacher’s from the schools in Burlacu will be arriving to the UK during March 2010 - just before we set-off on our own trip. The teacher will be able to make important decisions and source educational equipment using the money provided to take back to the children in Moldova. 

Story Telling Sessions Saturday 17th October 2009

In preparation for the shows, two special friends of ours Alan and Margaret did some special story telling sessions which took place at St Mary’s Church, Eaton Socon, St Neots, Cambridgeshire. The sessions ran from 10am - 12pm every 15 - 30 minutes. The story didn’t take very long to re-tell and it’s themes of home, belonging, identity and discrimination are ideally suited to introducing children to some of the world’s pressing issues.

The highly compelling story of That Pesky Rat won the 2002 Gold Smarties Award for the best children’s book in the UK. 

The value in providing Educational Aid to those less fortunate than ourselves is ever-lasting and we would like to do what we can to try to get as many individuals, schools and educational groups involved. Small monies raised by us from doing fetes earlier this year have already enabled us to help purchase several items including a human torso for the Biology department in the main school, dessert spoons for Kindergarten and even parachute canopies (just for fun!) for all the schools. Quite ordinary gifts to us but invaluable gifts for the children of Moldova. Special permission was provided by the author to perform these special shows.

As part of our involvement, we’ll be visiting the schools in Burlacu during our trip to provide added support as part of our involvement with www.mylifeisastory.org campaign.

Puppet Shows

Pesky is a very special rat who helps deprived children across the world. We performed our amateur puppet show performances at St Mary’s Church, Great North Road, Eaton Socon, St Neots PE19 8EJ.

Based on a story written by the children’s author Lauren Child, Pesky has no family and lives in a dustbin. The show was aimed at children from aged 4 years and lasted approx. 40 mins. including audience participation.

The puppet shows were panto based and feature an adult sized Pesky Rat. Silly Sally the Clown was the narrator and we had commissioned some rod puppets for the 4 main characters which appeared in the show. Good sized hand puppets suitable for the stage were also sourced. All the props were homemade and we begged, borrowed and stole everything else.

We never did anything like this before but got great insight into the cause, learning about performing, working with children and huge fun and value in making an effort for something very worthwhile.

We are forever grateful to all our friends, aquaintances, the Church where we staged the performances and to the members of Ceem for helping us make it all possible.

If you would like to learn more about the work we have been involved in, please click on the following links  www.mylifeisastory.or and www.ceem.co.uk.

Anton the Ant Puppet Profile

Rene the Caterpillar Puppet Profile

Rags the Cat Puppet Profile

Lula the Dog Puppet Profile

Herta the Hen Puppet Profile

Show Profile (Press & Radio)

Article in St Neots Town Crier 22 October 2009

Click here and go to page 34.

Article in Hunts Post end September 2009

hunts-post-article-sept-2009

5 min live radio interview with Jeremy Sallis on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire 14th October 2009 at 7.30am (only available 7 days - will provide a permanent recording shortly)

BBC Radio Cambridgeshire Interview

My Life is a Story Profile

My Life is a Story

If you can help us continue the good work in any way, please contact us by email at info@overlandwithkids.com

Help us make a difference.

You can help!

Do you know a school, college or children’s group who would be interested in forging similar, ‘personable, long-term and direct links’ with other individual schools across the world and assisting & developing Educational Aid requirements. It’s not just about money but developing strong lasting and regular links e.g. teaching support, help with teaching guidelines, infrastructure or helping and encouraging groups / pupils to collate and send often regular items we take for granted which could be sitting at home, or, maybe become a friend or penpal or even visiting the partnership school to bolster and strengthen much needed relationships?

Puppet Commissions

With copyright permission of Lauren Child, we commissioned a company called www.costumesandmascots.com to make the adult sized ‘Pesky’ costume (mascot) and 4 of the main rod puppet characters (Pierre the Chinchilla, Oscar the Siamese Cat, Nibbles the Rabbit and Andrew the Scottie Dogs) especially for us, in time for the shows.

We sourced and purchased the other reasonably large hand puppets which will feature in the shows also - from existing stock items bought from an internet supplier (see profiles below). We made the MDF props and painted ourselves - i.e. pet shop, street scene, Pesky’s dustbin and Pesky’s letter.

Following the shows, as we couldn’t store or keep the items especially while we’re on the road, these have now been donated for continued use in favour of Educational Aid and/or the My Life is a Story campaign in the Grantham area. We are very keen that the puppets and props continue their life in raising the profile for the important Programme for Educational Aid for Deprived Children across the world.

During our shakedown trip, we used this device (Find Me Spot Satelitte Tracker) to keep friends and family up-to-date with our location in virtual real-time linked via google maps and found it excellent - easy to use, lightweight and portable. It also has emergency provision, email/mobile contact facilities and password protection if needed. You can find out more about the product by checking out  www.findmespot.com.  The only thing we didn’t like was that it retains co-ordinates for only 7 days when we would have like co-ordinates to be retained permanently as a record of our route. UPDATE: A new product called Spot Adventures has been launched which does this and also allows download of photos to each location - cool!  Looks like we’ll be upgrading shortly. We’ll re-launch the satellite tracker again shortly before we leave during 2010 so watch this space!

We’ve been busy collecting and stealing cardboard and cereal packets as well as personally contributing by way of buying materials to help us make some homemade stick and lollipop puppet kits for the children of Burlacu, Moldova. We’ve managed to make about 200 kits in total and have sold some at our fetes. We’re hoping these will be suitable for use for the children there and that they will enjoy them. We’re aiming to get these on the lorry which is planned to leave in September. 

The very generous donations of funds we raised so far (total of £715.21) from both St Neots May Day and the Melbourn June fete activities during 2009 have already afforded some valuable help toward educational aid for children in Burlacu, Moldova.  Some of the money has been put toward purchasing the following items for both main Kindergarten and the main school as well as for 2 other schools in Burlacu:

• Counting Cookies (main Kindergarten)
• Geometry Tray (Main school)
• Percussion Packs (Main school)
• Assorted Paper and Board (All schools)
• Sugar Paper (All schools)
• Dessert Spoons (Kindergarten)
• Cotton for Embroidery (Main school)
• Parachute Canopies (just for fun! for all the schools)
• Human Torso (for Biology Main school)

Some of these items may seem quite ordinary to us but for the children of the Moldovan schools they will be spectacular gifts. These gifts will be put onto a lorry travelling out at the beginning of September 2009.

More news to follow.

The Project

Our children’s school is closely aligned with Street Childrens Project/s toward Educational Aid (supported by the charitable organisation CEEM www.ceem.co.uk) within a small village in Burlacu, Moldova where many children are left to their own devices with no parents or family to support them. We don’t go to Church and are not religious or spiritual at all but decided we wanted to help and to get involved in a constructive way if we can. Firstly via small fundraising efforts (i.e. money) but also by providing practical support (i.e.  visit there as part of our trip route next year to assist in maintaining, strengthening and building on the links and efforts already in place). Our trip is still a little while away yet so still need to determine how we can best help nearer the time of our visit in a way that adds value and strengthens the bonds there.  We are hoping our children will be able to meet the children there to help forge closer links and, in the future, be able to remember their experience in their own growing-up with fondness and great understanding.

Please click on the following newsletters to get an idea regarding the work of www.ceem.co.uk and how our children’s school is already involved:

Newsletters

moldova-news-1 Christmas Shoe Box Appeal and Percy the Lorry

moldova-news-2-2 Adventures in Moldova

moldova-news-3 Moses the Lorry

moldova-news-4-08 Furniture and Equipment

update-moldova CEEM Update

moldova-news-5-march-09 Head Teacher’s Visit

moldova-news-6-june-09 More Adventures and Samuel the Lorry

You Can Help!

Wanted Wanted Wanted

Balls of wool for knitting, embroidery silks and embroidery fabrics, new tennis balls, plastic skipping ropes and large flat packed cardboard boxes are always needed. Please contact us at info@overlandwithkids.com if you are able to help. Please see latest newsletter moldova-news-6-june-09 for more information.

Melbourn Fete Saturday 27th June 1pm - 5pm with Music on the Moor 6pm - 10pm

Another fete and we we’ve been fund-raising again!

Attending the Melbourn fete www.melbournfete.co.uk had special significnce for us as the village will be our official leave point next year on our route to Melbourne, Australia. It is a lovely village - but unfortuantely we didn’t get to see much of it or take any pictures as we were too busy trying to get there and set-up in time for the day. No doubt, we’ll get them next time round but it is a very pretty area. The fete ran from 1-5pm with Music on the Moor from 6-10pm which included live musicians, beer tent and barbeque - what more could you want! A lovely time to relax! 

We didn’t have balloons this time (was a major attraction for us previously but proved too much preparation beforehand which we didn’t have the time for this time around). We decided to keep it small and simple and had our homemade ‘Splat That Pesky Rat’, colourful ‘Lolly Ball’  and a gambling game to play for 50p a go. We also had a ‘Guess How Many Pesky Rats Are In the Jar’ competition with a huge Winnie the Pooh as the main prize.  

We didn’t make much this time (£80 but better than nothing and brings our fund raising total so far to over £720) and we spent more than we made on the children with go-karts, crazy golf, food, stalls and plenty of fun.  We were all suitably knackered (Pimms bar was visited before we went home!) but we had a great day and the weather was gorgeous.

This fete represented our last opprtunity for this type of fund-raising opportunity before our travels so we’re gald we did it.

Thank you to everyone for supporting us and especially to Lynne, Sharon and Daniel for helping us on the day!

There is virtually no market in the UK or Europe (except Netherlands) for off-road caravans that we know of.  Off-road caravans are primarily manufactured in South Africa and designed for the bush. Australia and New Zealand have a market also.

Paul Maisey from Perth, Australia provided us the following information re: Australian market during May 2009 based on the Jurgens:

“The Jurgens has been around for a while over here - since about 2000 I think, but the 2nd hand market is quite small. I live in Perth (Western Australia) and have only seen a couple advertised on this side of Oz since I started looking mid last year, and not many more in the east. Unfortunately, I just missed out on a 2004 Xplorer today - I was about 3 hours too late and the guy had sold it to a South African living locally. It sold for about $22,500 AUD, about £11,000 GBP on current exchange rates. New, the latest model, which they call the Stargazer over here, sells for $48,000 (£24,000), which is a premium over the cost in South Africa. A company in Melbourne is importing them in component form and assembling and selling them to the local market”.

We initailly looked into importing a similar 2004 2nd version from SA ourselves and reckon this would have come in at around £11,000 (let’s say £7,000 for the van then import duty and tax etc.) but not too sure as this was mid-2008, so worth checking.

In the end however, we bought what is probably a third-hand South African Jurgens Xplorer Camper / Caravan (1999 model) during August 2008 for our trip (the photos featured belong to the previous owner). Following a B’rakhah Ingonyama (eBay) listing withdrawal disappointment and a Conqueror Commander ’seen in the flesh’ by Andrew at Billing, a kind acquaintance (Tony - thank you!), from Landyzone forum miraculously found this item on eBay for us - being advertised and put us on the trail. We didn’t waste time and contacted the seller immediately, had a look and virtually purchased on the spot.  After much debate about roof tents (we almost bought a 2.4 x 2.4 Howling Moon) and trailers etc. the Xplorer answers all our sleeping and overlanding requirements. Since buying, we are still happy with our choice (though we waver about it’s weight along with the pulling power of our Defender which can be quite stressful for it) and managed to do a shakedown trip during Summer 2009 to road-test it - click here and scroll to end of page to see caravan issues, observations and conclusions reports. The roof is in very tatty in condition and prone to leaks (we have since sourced and had made a replacement canvas surround, direct from SA which we are now arranging to have fitted and we will also deal with sealing the leaks in fibre roof). We have also replaced the main hitch to something more modern and new spare tyres. Electrics and gas need some attention but we intend to strip the caravan of gas bottles, water and fridge - leaving as light as possible and using only for sleeping (and electricity whenever we can hook up - though we do have a means attached to Land Rover but this isn’t working properly as yet).  Inside while fine is really dated looking - not a girlie or attractive caravan by any means but more than perfectly functional for an overland trip such as ours. It’s not in any serious dis-repair but, given it’s age, should something happen to it while on the road, we won’t be too precious about it.  Primarily, we just want it for high ground clearance and sleeping in but other bonuses include water (40L), electric, cooking, fridge, lighting, jeery cans etc. (listed in more detail toward the end of this page).

Because no UK market - unless, buying/importing from South Africa - there tends to be no help really forthcoming else a bit sketchy.

Anyway, for us, it is really important that the children have the best sleeping arrangements we can offer for such a long-haul trip along with quick set-up for those inpromptu stops. We can also detatch the caravan on-site and go sight-seeing with just the vehicle if we like. So hopefully, flexibility, no backaches and no lengthy daily tent packup required (as per a roof tent scenario).

Though it will have it’s downsides - speed of travel, towing and the trials and tribulations of travelling with a caravan permantly attached to our behind.

Jurgens are the original off road manufacturers of the three main contenders for off-road caravans (B’rakhah, Commander and Xplorer) in South Africa. Loftus (see more about Loftus below) kindly provided this information to us comparison-of-3-off-road-caravans-july-2008 last year, based on his excellent knowledge and experience.

Such was the seriousness of our decision in opting for an off-road caravan, that we made enquiries within the South African market itself for an equivalent one second hand for import to the UK. We came across Loftus at www.ingonyamarentals.co.za who was really helpful but in the end, just at the time we were making our enquiries) we found one as mentioned in the UK. Our model is 1999 and VERY dated but you can buy new (for latest SA specifications and information see www.jurgenssafari.co.za and www.jurgenssafari.co.za/4.xplorer.html or www.aartkok.nl  and www.aartkok.nl/docs/xplorer2.pdf in the Netherlands).

Loftus at Ingonyama advised they have all 3 manufacturers on their fleet which they update and renew from time to time hence have second-hand versions available for sale, so a good option for anyone if considering.  Loftus has a wealth of experience having tested all three caravan models which he uses daily on his fleet as part of his business. So, if your ever in the market for one of these, please contact him.  Indication of prices he provided us at the time (July ‘08) are as follows:

“We are probably the place to source an used Brakhah off-road caravan. At the moment we have 3 used units for sale of which 2 are 2005 models whilst one model is a 2004 model. Selling price is R120,000.00 each [the 2004 model is R110,000.00] including awnings, fridge, hot water geyser, 2 double beds, shower cubicle. All you would need is your own LPG gas bottles and crockery & cutlery & pots and pans. These units are scarce but very popular. We have the Xplorer, the Commander as well as the Brakhah off-road caravans in our rental fleet and of the 3 the Brakhah is the most economical in respect of maintenance. Our land line number is +27 +12-3479824.”

Pictures show camper in original state at seller’s property (and almost a year down the line we have not performed a singe modification as yet, really due to not knowing where to start with it - though we are trying to make in-roads with it now beginning with at least a service engineer to come and have a look - at minimum we need to get wheels, bearings and boiler checked).  First impressions, observations and information we have found as follows:

• Excellent queen-sized bed. Changes to two single beds/bench seats during day
• Additional double bed in the nose of the vehicle which sits over kitchenette and folds back when not in use - ideal size for children
• Kitchenette contains 2 burner gas grill, 65ltr freezer (not working but think may be treatable), sink with hot/cold water and storage unit - all cleverly slides out to external of vehicle for use.
• Dual Electric and Gas Boiler (gas boiler not working but electric yes)
• Concertina roof provides 16″ additional head height which folds down when travelling (still waterproof but fabric really badly stained internally and externally and has tears which have been sealed using duck tape (lets the camper down) - needs attention)
• Portable shower, sink and portaloo
• Fills the gap between camper, caravan and trailer
• Has high ground clearance and off-road capability (designed for the bush in SA)
• Electric Hook-up and 240 mains
• 12V lights inside and out
• 2 x 20L water containers in nose of vehicle in storage area (newer models store larger amount in the rear rather than the front facing heavy nose which we have)
• 2 x large Gas bottles
• 2 x 5 Gallon Jerry Cans strapped to rear with combination locks
• Spare wheel
• Wheels are 1″ smaller than Land Rover which is a shame as initially we thought we could interchange spare wheels between both but that idea is now out the window
• Locker and Linen Storage and a small wardrobe
• There is no table as not introduced until later models - but we reckon we can improvise this minor detail ourselves
• Good size for us and fits neatly behind CSW - no additional mirrors needed
• Extremely heavy  but very robust - tows really nicely on sealed roads that we almost forget that it’s there. We have yet to test on unsealed and up hills and narrow passes etc.
• Needs a beast of a car to two it - only a large car can tow e.g. Pajero, Defender CSW etc (off road caravans generally have a heavy duty chassis and stronger suspension) - but as before, a dream to tow - due to weight and low centre of gravity. Gross Vehicle Mass (GVM) is 1800kg (2T) with a tare weight of 1080kg (1T)
• Units and decor - very dated, drab and unglamorous - but all really clean. Don’t forget that’s just our model. The newer models are much more modern and clever with weight distribution and space. Essentially a boy’s toy in need of a feminine touch - which we think could manage at some stage if really pushed to do so.
• We’ve been told, sand is it’s biggest enemy
• Large open awning and ground sheet (excellent condition - looks unused)
• Small enclosed awning (excellent condition - unchecked)

Immediate benefits we can see in it’s current state:

• Ready to use - just need to add pots and pans and food and bedding and go.
• Comfortable sleeping and reasonable storage arrangements
• Loo and water facilities with enclosure in public places - e.g. while driving/no privacy
• No painful unpacking at the end of a day’s driving
• As dated, not going to stick out like a sore thumb for potential theft (in fact, we’ll end up looking embarrassed alongside nice, smart, shiny spaceship motorhomes). And if it does get broken into or stolen , we can live with that
• Gas bottles, water, spare diesal, bedding, cooking facilities and fridge can all be carried externally to the Land Rover vehicle (huge relief in terms of weight load here)
• We don’t have to pack up (vehicle) if we want to go sight-seeing for the day (we can leave camper in situ on site)
• If we fit a table - great area for study and eating for the children when stationary
• Means we can use 2nd row reclining seats in the CSW properly for the children while travelling - added comfort
• Higher ground clearance and defence bars -making it easier to navigate obstacles and rougher terrain. Think it has a wade capability also
• Overrun brakes

Overall, not glam but functional -  a real boy’s toy in our view.

Maintenance

Advice from Loftus: “Going through sand, dust, mud and water place immense strain on your 4×4 or caravan of trailer and we suggest that after cleaning it thoroughly to check the under carriage for damage. Jack up the wheels and turn it to see if there is any damage to the braking system or drums or bearings. Clean and re-grease it. It is always good to service your off-road trailer/caravan after a trip (esp.) into the bush. Off-road caravans and off-road trailers do take a huge amount of hammering, shocks and vibrations causing pop rivets, bolts and nuts etc. to come loose. Wheel bearings, shock absorbers and braking systems need to be checked, serviced and replaced where necessary - we replace dampers [on the coupler] at least once a year and shock absorbers at least every 18 months. Wheel bearing replacement depends on the terrain travelled, but you need to have them checked on every major service.

Canvas Roof Surround

We’ve been advised that the canvas for the Jurgens is made by Howling Moon. Trek Overland are the only distributors of Howling Moon here in the UK. We ordered and paid for a replacement last August 2008 but still waiting (June 2009)! we finally decided to cancel and obtain a refund. This was on Trek Overland finally telling us they couldn’t deliver. Throughout this episode we had to continually chase them over the months firstly by email and then phone, were told it was due to a shipping container issue, then asked finally for the model/year during June this year as they can’t actually order without knowing this and ultimately that it is now in fact Howling Moon’s fault. We received nothing but feeble excuses and bad communications from Trek Overland. Disgusted in fact at the way they dealt with us and we could go into far more detail but we don’t feel they’re worth it. Hence this complaint. We also experienced a similar situation with them when trying to obtain a 2.4 x 2.4m roof tent from them previously. Again, following a huge wait and again very bad communications (us chasing them again), we eventually obtained a refund for this also (hence the caravan option, hopefully a bonus in the end) . A complete waste of almost 2-years effort with them. Very disappointed. Not sure if this is normal practice or just us but we are not happy bunnies and won’t be using them again. Think we’ve exhausted the benefit of the doubt here.  We are now exploring other avenues and will keep you updated. Meantime looks like we’ll have to make do with a tatty caravan for our shake-down trip this summer - but we’ll live with it (might be a good thing).

Training

Again on the advice of Loftus from his June 2009 newsletter where he offers training specific to off road caravans, we reckon familiarity with the following advisable to know:

Emergency chassis repairs - how to splint a broken chassis, Emergency suspension repairs, How to build an emergency welder using car batteries if required, How to replace caravan/trailer wheel bearings and greasing techniques, How to adjust brakes and handbrakes, How to do tyre repairs, a look at tools and emergency tools as well as spares, A look at electrics - especially replacing trailer plugs, Common breakdowns.

We wish we could fly to South Africa or bring Loftus to the UK to show us!

Agan from the bible of Loftus:

Fire Extinguishers

“Fire extinguishers ….

When you buy a new caravan you will find that it comes equipped with a fire extinguisher, usually a 1-1.5kg unit. Having a fire extinguisher in your caravan or trailer was always a worry or concern soother for “just in case of a fire”

Have you ever used or tested it to find out its effectiveness?

How often do you check these fire extinguishers to see that their gauges are in order and that it has not passed its expiry date? We normally take our units for a check up every 12 months.

Well normally you would only “test” a fire extinguisher in a crisis situation where there is a fire, but we recently had to put 5-6 of these units to a test when we tried to contain a fire.

To us having one of these fire extinguishers in our car or on our trailers were a comforting thought, until now: what we have experienced was that they are only effective to contain a small fire [and mostly in a limited space]. These units gave us a blast of powdery substance for only about 15 seconds and it could only cover an area of about 1 square metre. For one square metre these units were effective and then it ran of gas [figuratively spoken] or “powder”.

To contain a veld fire on an Erf we came up with the following: the same water container we use on our 4×4 safari trips to purify water is used with our 12volt tyre inflator and switched it on only when we needed water. This may not be the ideal fire extinguisher for veld fires, but in an emergency this will work. See photo below. As an alternative to create more water pressure we use our this unit with our Karcher pressure spray and to give 220volt for the Karcher we put our 2.5kva generator on our bakkie. A veldfire usually starts very fast so you need to keep equipment like this ready at all times.

If you have a better idea of building a fast emergency “fire extinguisher” please let us know”.

and talking:

Gas geyser for caravans/trailers

 ”In the past we have had certain manufacturers who thought they can bully us with gag court orders to prevent us from saying something negative about their products whilst other regarded it as positive criticism and used our comments to improve their products.

Two of the major problems consumers with off-road caravans or off-road trailers has is their geyser system and their fridges.

Geysers may become explosive if you fail to service your geyser properly.

We do not believe placing a geyser right in the nose cone is a bright idea,  we believe it is dangerous. Just think of the following scenario: your wife and/or kids are laying on of the bed of the fold out bed-tent of a caravan (newer models) and you decide to take a shower - the next moment the build up of combustion and gas in the geyser causes a major explosion blowing away the nose cone of the caravan as well as a portion of the bed above it.

All the dust and debris that are kicked up by the tow vehicle accumulates directly into the vent of the geyser and builds up in the gas supply chamber of the geyser. Even the geyser that is installed on the side of the caravan will pick up debris and substances that can cause an explosion. Installing “filters” at the vent will not solve the problem as it will let through smaller substances with more powerful combustion ability. Sometimes you will find insects and spiders making nests inside the geyser with can result in the same calamity.

When you bring your caravan to Ngonyama for a service we take care to clean out the substances from the geysers similar to the geyser above”.

Meanwhile, our main priority is to try and get the caravan at the very least serviced which, is proving to be easier said than done. 

More information to follows as we get more familiar and experienced.

We decided that before under-taking the huge task of driving from the UK to Australia during 2010, that a ’shakedown’ trip to test vehicles, equipment, our children’s robustness & well-being plus ourselves would be in order.

We decided on a 7.5 week trip through France, Spain and Morocco and back again to the UK during summer 2009. 

Land Rover Preparation

For a summary of Land Rover preparation and observations regarding modifications following trip, please click here.

Trip Report

To see our day to day trip diary with photos, please click on the following:

Days 1-5 UK to Disneyland, Paris 1-days-1-5-uk-to-disneyland-paris

Days 6-12 Compiegne to Dieppe 2-days-6-to-12-compiegne-to-dieppe

Days 13-17 Dieppe to Dordogne 3-days-13-17-dieppe-to-dordogne

Days 18-23 Dordogne to Clermont Ferrand 4-days-18-23-dordogne-to-clermont-ferrand

Days 24-39 Clermont Ferrand to Morocco 5-days-24-39-clermont-ferrand-to-morocco

Days 40-52 Morocco and Back Home Again to UK 6-days-40-to-52-morocco-and-home-again-to-uk

Where we Stayed (Summary Overnight Stop Points)

Please click on the following to see a list of overnight stop points:

Where we Stayed - Overnight Stop Points

Vehicle Issues, Observations and Conclusions

To see a summary of all vehicle issues and obseravtions (including caravan) please click on the the following:

vehicle-and-caravan-issues-observations

For a summary of Vehicle (and Caravan) Conclusions please click on the following:

vehicle-and-caravan-conclusions

Reflections and Lessons Learned

Reflections from our Summer Trip 2009 and about what we learned please click on the following reflections-lessons-learned-since-summer-trip-2009

Budget

A brief outline regarding budget and what we spent please click budget3

Jessica’s Diary

Click on the following to see full version of Jessica’s Diary - Aged 8 (13 pages) jessicas-diary-summer-2009

Also divided into two sections as follows:

Jessica’s Diary Part One jessicas-diary-part-one

Jessica’s Diary Part Two jessicas-diary-part-two

On Bank Holiday Monday 4th May we attended our local May Day fete in St Neots, Cambridgeshire where we held a stall along with a balloon release competition.

Despite cold, wet, windy weather along with trees surrounding the area, we managed to successfully release a total of 437 balloons on the day. Combined with additional sales from our stall, we managed to raise a total of £635.21 toward our cause assisting Educational Aid Project/s for children based in a small village in Burlacu, Moldova. A HUGE heartfelt thank you to everyone who participated in helping us raise this amount. The Balloon Race Label returns deadline occurred 30th June 2009 and details of all the those received are as follows:

Balloon Race - Found Labels

In total, we have received notification regarding the find of 23 balloon labels (numbers 24401, 24418, 24450, 24463, 24466, 24487, 24498, 24523, 24547, 24596, 24603, 24608, 24623, 24647, 24654, 24657, 24659, 24670, 24673, 24674, 24713, 24716 and 24845).  Thank you to the finders for taking the trouble to notify us. We are very grateful to you all!

FRANCE - A Total of 6 Labels Found. Click balloon-race-label-finds to see MAP and further details.

1st place label to date is 24659 - found the farthest away. Located in the Pontaumur, Auvergne region of France, well below and to the West of Clermont-Ferrand, almost bordering Limousin, deep in CENTRAL FRANCE. The owner of this label is Simon Carter, Havebury Housing Association, Suffolk.

2nd place label is 24713 - again, located in deep CENTRAL FRANCE, in the Auvergne region, this time above Clermont Ferrand - in a place called Borots, Combronde. The owner of this label is Darren Pettitt of DHL-Exel, Inside Track, St Neots.

3rd place label is 24845 and belongs to Neil Carrington of St Neots. This balloon was found in Cruzille, in the deep south edge of Saone et Loire, Bourgogne (Burgundy) region.

4th place is 24654 found again in Bourgogne, this time on the West side in a place called Guerigny, Nievre just under Nevers. Owner is Paul Garland of Havebury Housing Association.

5th place is label 24547 - found in EASTERN FRANCE - in a garden in Haute Saône, Franche Comté region which borders Switzerland. The label Tanya Clark, Class 4, Crosshall Infant School, St Neots.

6th place 24498 found in Bayon, Meurthe-et-Moselle , North East France, just underneath Nancy belongs to Neel from Siblings Childcare in St Neots. The balloon label was found in a park in Mohring Guillaume, A route de luneville.

Dover, UK

24716 located in Dover City with postcode CT17 0AR belongs to Emma McIlwrath, DHL-Exel, Inside Track, St Neots

24647 found in Whitfield, Dover belongs to Dave Tims, Havebury Housing Association

24596 with only 0.44 miles difference to where above label landed also in Dover city belongs to Tia Thorne, Class 10, Crosshall Infant School.

24608 was located in the West Langden area of Dover in Kent and belongs to Steve Arbon of Havebury Housing Association based in Suffolk.

24623 was located also in Dover, Kent but in the Eythorne area and belongs to Simon Bryon of DHL-Exel, Inside Track, St Neots.

24603 belongs to Steve Arbon and ws found in Elms Vale, Dover, Kent.

Canterbury, UK

24418 was found in a cows field in Upstreet near Canterbury, Kent and belongs to Mr White’s neighbour who lives in Southoe, St Neots.

24523 and a very exciting find just 0.24 miles from above by a little girl called Izzy Simmonds in Class 2 of Hoath Primary School in Hoath, Canterbury CT3 4LA found this label in the playground. That Pesky Rat was very pleased with this so he has decided to send Izzy a very special gift in return for being so clever! Thank you very much Izzy! The balloon label belongs to the family Wilkinson who live in the Eaton Ford area of St Neots, Cambs.

24401 was a very close call to the above (by a matter of less than a mile (0.89 approx.) found at The Manor House, Ford, Hoath, Canterbury CT3 4LS and belongs to Crosshall Infant School’s recent MacMillan Cancer Support Day raffle winner. 

24674 found in Bunnington, Goodnestone, Canterbury 24674 belonging to Derek Brett at Havebury Housing in Suffolk.

Braintree, Essex

24450 was found in the work’s yard of C.F.E. Hill at Pattiswick Hall and belongs to Andrew Saint.

Herne Bay, UK

24673 was found on the finder’s driveway in Herne Bay, Kent and belongs to Steve Hurrell, Havebury Housing Association, Suffolk.

Luton, UK

24657 found in Luton, Bedfordshire is owned by Paul Garland, Havebury Housing Association, Suffolk.

Burnham on Crouch, UK

24487 belongs to Pikul Magee, London and was located in Burnham on Crouch, Essex

St Neots, UK

24463 found at St Neots Caravan Park by Neil Hodgkinson who was holidaying there from Burntwood in Staffordshire and belongs to Will Abacar.

24670 belongs to Steve Hurrell, Havebury, Suffolk which didn’t get very far from the fete and was located by Constable Photography shop in Eaton Socon, St Neots.

Diss, Norfolk, UK

24466. Not quite sure how this one managed it’s way North wards when the rest of the finds headed south. Label was found in a place called Gassthorpe in Diss and is owned by Heidi & Yan.

Close date for th balloon race competition is 30th June for any more label returns and we’ll advise you as more finds are made.  If you’d like more information about the balloon release, please click on the following link balloon-race-competition-details

THANK YOU!

We’d like to extend our special thanks to our friends and family who made this event possible for us to do - to Alan, Margaret and Nannette for helping with a whopping 110 balloon pre-sales, to Dympna, Sue, Peter, Lynne, Sharon, Laura, Daniel, Kirsty, James, Kate, Stevie and Dan Dan for all preparation, help and packing up afterwards on the day. Special love and thanks to our own two children Jessica and AJ who put up with parental neglect, tiredness and utter madness in the hectic run-up - fundraising although great fun is hard work between work, school, children and other responsibilities! Jess and AJ did have a ball on the day though and had a great time. Finally, a huge big thank you to those who contributed by buying something from us - whether balloon or stall purchases. We love you all - Muchos Gracias everyone!

Thank you for looking! 

Welcome to our Fundraising & Volunteering page where we have been keeping a summarised record of our efforts.

To date we have raised approximately £1,900 with the focus of our efforts being ‘Educational Aid’ for deprived children.  We have been keen to include and involve our own children as part of this and quickly learned fundraising is extremely hard work of which we could not have done - without the enormous help of some very good friends!! - we are eternally grateful - thank you!

The Project
Our children’s school is closely aligned with Street Childrens Project/s toward Educational Aid (supported by the charitable organisation CEEM www.ceem.co.uk) within a small village in Burlacu, Moldova where many children are left to their own devices with no parents or family to support them. We decided we wanted to help and to get involved in a constructive way. Firstly via small fundraising efforts (i.e. money) but also by providing more practical support (i.e. we managed to visit the school/s in Moldova as part of trip route. Please see here to find out more). We are hoping that what we do adds value and strengthens the existing links and bonds already there!  Ultimately, we hope that we make a little difference and that our children will one day look back, remember their experiences positively, have fun memories and develop good strenghts and values.

To get an idea of what we got up to as part of our fund raising efforts, please click on the following:

May Day Fete & Balloon Race 2009 may-day-fete-and-balloon-race-competition-20092

Melbourn Fete June 2009  melbourn-fete-june-2009

Homemade Stick & Lollipop Puppets homemade-stick-and-lollipop-puppets-july-2009

Homemade Pesky Rat Christmas Cards pesky-rat-christmas-cards-october-2009

That Pesky Rat Puppet Shows Nov/Dec 2009 that-pesky-rat-puppet-shows-novdec-2009

What Next?

Apart from the above - no more fundraising though we are open to providing volunteering assistance as part of our trip route.

Things we Did

Things we did to raise the money included a balloon race, two fetes and 5 puppet show performances.

How the Money is Being Spent

Already, money raised has been put toward purchasing the following items for both main Kindergarten, the main school and the 2 other schools in Burlacu:
• Counting Cookies (main Kindergarten)
• Geometry Tray (Main school)
• Percussion Packs (Main school)
• Assorted Paper and Board (All schools)
• Sugar Paper (All schools)
• Dessert Spoons (Kindergarten)
• Cotton for Embroidery (Main school)
• Parachute Canopies (just for fun! for all the schools)
• Human Torso (for Biology Main school)

Maybe quite ordinary items to us but for the children of the Moldovan schools they are amazing gifts. The remaining funds are as yet to be decided but will involve one of the teachers from Moldova directly in deciding how to spend it.

Please click on the following newsletters to get an idea of the work of www.ceem.co.uk and our children’s school has been involved

Newsletters
moldova-news-1 Christmas Shoe Box Appeal and Percy the Lorry
moldova-news-2-2 Adventures in Moldova
moldova-news-3 Moses the Lorry
moldova-news-4-08 Furniture and Equipment
update-moldova CEEM Update
moldova-news-5-march-09 Head Teacher’s Visit
moldova-news-6-june-09 More Adventures and Samuel the Lorry

moldova-news-7 Samuel the Lorry arrives in Moldova

There’s plenty more info (contact us if you’d like to hear more) and it’s each to their own but if you’d like to get involved in something similar with your own school, group or organisation, a good starting point would be to have a look at www.mylifeisatory.org campaign.

Thank you for looking!

We haven’t even done the trip yet but here is a list of some of the things we are already learning/doing/observing and/or have been gaining experience about  (we’ll update more as we progress so please check out this page from time to time).

Report from our Summer Trip 2009 about what we learned please click on the following reflections-lessons-learned-since-summer-trip-2009 otherwise, please keep reading this post:

Sleeping, Studying, Relaxing and Eating

Along with the vehicle itself, a very important area of concern for the children and ourselves has been the sleeping and study arrangements but sleeping in particular. This should be considered in combination with or as part of your vehicle choice. We spent a great deal of time and effort thinking about this and went from almost purchasing a  2.4m x 2.4m Howling Moon Roof tent (see pictures below) which the www.2c2k.net family used for their trip from Scotland to South Africa. Comments as follows:

Tent Pro’s

“It only takes a few minutes to unzip the tents protective cover and erect the tent. It’s very well made and mozi proof. The mattress is comfortable to sleep on. There’s plenty of room (we had 3 adults and 2 children and it was fine). It performed well in the wet. You can leave sleeping bags in the tent and it still folds away (if you lie them flat). The zips are good quality (and they need to be).  You can also order new covers if you damage one”.

Tents Con’s

“The awning is very bulky and not worth the effort for an overnight stop. The window poles are more time consuming (another few minutes - we didn’t always use all the poles). Although the tent is mozi proof it is not ’sand fly’ or ‘midge’ proof (mesh has bigger holes than the likes of Terra Nova or North Face tents). We also checked for mozi’s as they are pretty determined to get in and as you have to open the door to crawl in, they inevitably join you! Folding away can be done with one person but two is best (one lifting and the other tucking in the loose stuff). The family 2.4 x 2.4m tourer takes up the entire roof (we strapped a roof storage bag on top which took 3 wolf boxes). Quite noisy in high winds (flapping).”

Andrew and Anne say - no room for bikes plus you’d have to pack up all and sundry each time you wanted to go sight-seeing or touring the area - i.e. cannot leave tent and cooking facilities behind. We’d still love to have one though!

We also thought about a smaller roof tent combined with a ground tent before finally settling on the Jurgens Xplorer.  Other travel combinations include a roof tent with trailer. 

Set-up ease and speed has to be a major factor when travelling. Also, the ability to pack up and/or possibly leave your set-up behind for e.g. sightseeing.  Fellow travellers the Neave’s family (photos of their trailer solution with roof-tent also pictured from top) have kindly provided the following summary of their experiences:

“We have completed the following mini expeditions

2005 - Disco 300tdi with eaziawn roof tent - Alps
2006 - New TD5 Dbl cab with ground tent - Atlantic coast France and spain
2007 - TD5 90 and trailer - Wales
2008 - TD5 90 and trailer - Med coast France

2009 TD5 90 and modified trailer - Spain/Catalan coast
2010 - TD5 90 and ??? - Morroco

One night stops:

We found one night stops our most challenging as our set up lacked speed. The roof tent and awning were very speedy (60 seconds for 2 people is the record) but this only accomodates the wife and I, the kids use a ground tent and double blow up bed. They do sleep great on it but it is a pain to set up. A folding camper would be way easier. We are going to get an Oztent for next year and see how we get on with that along side the roof tent. I wont get rid of my roof tent tho as i really love a room with a view

Food for travel:

We use a box with small gas cooker, kettle, brew kit, water, lighter, spoons, pen knife, buicuits, cups, plates etc. This is great for short stops especially on the european continent as the rest places are normaly very pretty with nice picnic benches. It is amazing how fresh a driver feels after a good 20 min stop and a nice cup of tea. We then don’t need to get out full kitchen out unless we are over nighting. I would still use this box even with a caravan”.

Andrew and Anne say - our solution is the Jurgens Xplorer caravan and a summary report will follow sometime soon (newly acquired and we are still getting familiar with). Immediate benefits, thoughts etc. are included in diary (blog) but another important consideration is the ‘toilet’ if caught short on the highway for the loo - our children now have the luxury of privacy -  a ‘portaloo’ on board for those little emergencies!

Vehicle

1. Overland versus Air Tickets/Other Tranport Method

Think about the cost of the vehicle, the shipping fees, the fuel, taxes, carnet, MOT, mechanical failures and expenses and the fit-out. It dawned on us that we could have probably travelled the world already and stayed in nice 4* accommodation given the amount already spent on the vehicle. We are hoping to gain much more freedom and flexibility by overlanding with a vehicle however, costs should not be under-estimated, nor the long-haul for children in the vehicle itself.

But as Tacr2man has said to us “In a 4 star hotel you can’t wake up in the morning on the side of a misty lake , with birds flying low across the water , you pays your money etc.”.

2. Comfort

A major factor for the children. Unhappy, uncomfortable children equals a bad trip and experience for all. They will be living/travelling in the vehicle a great deal of the time. Consider countries and temperatures and ages of the children (e.g. whether air conditioning required). We have factored this along with health and safety and security at the top of our list i.e. including reclining high back seats plus reclining car seats in vehicle (added height and participation) with additional neck support for sleeping and even cup holders!

Neave’s tip: Bring pillows for the children and keep in the car - include one for one adult also as an additional comfort aid on the road.

Tac2Man’s tip: If space a premium and you are bringing a fridge and e.g. no trailer, consider fitting in the centre (between the children) in the 2nd row seats of the vehicle - keep children separate from any in-car fights! and keep drinks accessible without having to stop the car while on the road

3. Vehicle Purchase

Choose your vehicle carefully. Don’t rush decision/considerations or buy the first you see. Don’t leave big deposits on vehicles you haven’t seen in the flesh. If unfamiliar with vehicle make-up, condition or unsure about the seller, arrange an independant inspection and don’t be afraid to!

4. Housekeeping

Get in the habit of regularly housekeeping your vehicle - ensure water, oil and tyres are all OK at every re-fuel. Make a list of regular checks and service dates for your vehicle. Bring along with you on your route.

Towing Considerations

If your considering towing something as large as we are with the caravan - even smaller like a trailer  - it adds to ferry costs and fuel, will probably slow you down, get you stuck, strain your vehicle, reduce your braking distance, increase maintenance, reduce parking choices, restrict maneouvering, restrict route choice, make you think about recovery (e.g. winch in our case - more cost and weight) and possibly encourage you to bring tons of crap you don’t need (which we’re trying very hard to avoid). Think very carefully about your choices before making any knee jerk reactions - we hope our choice proves not be one of those but we’re sure to experience some trials and tribulations!

Training and Preparation

1. Vehicle Familiarisation

Get to know your vehicle capabilities and what it requires to make it expedition-worthy. Understand its weaknesses and address these particularly where the safety and comfort of children is concerned. Understand your own weaknesses e.g off-roading, mechanics, first aid and undertake a plan of action to address these.

2. Shake-down trips

Pack your vehicle and do some short excursion trips to begin with. If you plan on camping but have never done it before - do it now! and don’t assume your children will love it/like it or want to get used to it.

Practice packing and un-packing and using varying sizes of boxes/containers/shelving and/or packing systems. Make sure you have available what you need to hand (including any emergency equipment e.g. jump leads in event of emergency - don’t have them buried and impossible to get to without having to unpack the entire vehicle)

3. Mental preparation and de-structuring

This is not an annual 2-week trip. Your children won’t see their friends or Grandma for a long period. Everyone’s routine will be out of kilter. Important that everyone appreciates and understands. Being together 24-7 when school or work normally intervenes should be a consideration. Children need to be mega-involved early on and, if networking can be performed leading up-to and during the trip to provide the children a social circle/contacts (and yourselves) all the better!

Neave’s tip: If considering a long trip, take children out of school maybe a bit earlier as may be able to benefit from better deals out of season

4. Family and Friends

Tell them as soon as possible to help get them in the frame of mind (be warned - they may remain in denial or not be as interested or passionate about the trip as you are!) also and more importantly so they can hopefully plan to join you at key points along the way.

5. Final Checks

Check, re-check and check again and then get independant specialists/friends to check you again. Have a final ‘Are we Ready’ shake down.

On the Road

1. Eating and Rest Periods while travelling

Eat before you leave - don’t plan a long drive without some form of nourishment, especially for the children. This helps the children and yourselves from getting agitated and moody or argumentative. Make a habit of eating together at breakfast time - spend some quality time together before hitting the road. Make sure of toilet breaks before leaving and at each stop point.

Don’t eat in the car - stay away from bad eating habits. Instead, plan to stop and eat a proper lunch and have a proper break.

Travel during daylight, making deadline 16:00 hours to allow enough time to set-up camp.

Do not travel at night.

Stop every two hours and plan not to travel more than 6 hours or approx 400km per day.

Plan to stay at least 2 nights at a campsite before moving on, especially with children - do not want them to spend hours travelling without a break. Particularly pertinent where complex or lengthy unpacking/packing/setting up arrangements concerned.

Stay at family friendly campsites where the children have a chance to meet other children regularly and practice their social skills - kids need kids!

Try to pick/use a campsite location as a base for a few days to 2 weeks - provide the children enjoyment and grounding before next leg of the journey - let their feet touch the ground

2. Special Toys and Journal Keeping

Let them have one special toy from home e.g. favourite teddy or doll to share the journey

Encourage daily diary/journal keeping

3. Equipment

Neave’s tip: Bring tail gaters for the bikes if the children get tired cycling

4. Health

Much to think about but aside from the obligatory jabs (speak to your GP well in advance of your trip to ensure enough time for course of injections usually required).

Make sure children old enough/robust enough to travel and withstand journey.

Looking after our teeth!!!! also sprang to mind while we are away - what if one of us gets a terrible toothache??? Hell on earth …

Neave’s tips:

Tiger Balm - great for bites, stings, chesty coughs, hangovers, headaches, muscle pain. It really is great. Just rub a little on any bite and it stops itching, but can also be applied the forehead for headaches.

Speak to your GP about acquiring some general antibiotics. These can be really useful in clearing up a virus before it takes hold.

Vaseline - like Tiger Balm - it has 101 uses

Life Systems dry wash - an antibac hand wash that requires no water.  Should be used all the time especially before eating. If anyone in the family gets any stomach bugs, probably inevitable then all surfaces touched should be cleaned with the antibac lotion.

Plot on your route major medical facilities so if there is a big drama, you know whether to carry on forward or go back to the last facility

Security

Prepare your children where possible - have regular drills (and without scaring them) of any emergency courses of action given differing scenarios that may arise. This could be knowing a telephone number off by heart, their name and address, routine if approached by strangers etc.

Keep an inventory check-list of everything on your vehicle and ensure if used, always replenish/renew. Perform regular inventory checks.

Try to join other travellers or convoys in areas where you do not feel secure or comfortable. Try to avoid completely isolated places if you are unsure and tell someone where you are (even if it is just in case of vehicle breakdown)

Always have a contigency plan in place and emergency funds and contacts

Keep some or other of your security and safety tips secret (not published to a site like this) that only you and your family are aware of while travelling.

Neave’s Tips:

There is a very slim chance that you may be targeted by malicious persons. It is worth planning for the worse case scenario:

1. Face to face robbery

Always carry an old wallet with expired credit cards and $50 (US). If you are mugged, don’t resist and just hand-over the fake wallet. This will normally avert any further danger and will be far less traumatic for you as you will fee that you have had a small victory

2. Vehicle Hi-Jack

If unavoidable, don’t resist. Have a small emergency stash bag. If you have to leave the vehicle, take the emergency stash bag  with passposts, funds, medication etc.

Consider having a rape alarm (they type women can use in their handbag). Have it above the visor or under the seat. If confronted then pull the pin. This should send any aggressor running - will need to be a judgement call.

3. Break and Entry to Xplorer

Again the alarm is good for this situation. Also should have a can of anti-bear spray. This will be acceptable if searched at borders but can also be used to subdue any persistant attack from animals or humans

Toys and Games

Tacr2man and Neave’s tip: Children need their own Nintendo’s/Gameboys (one each!) - to keep them occupied (can be educational and/or brain training etc.) plus portable in-car DVD player to watch selection of movies - we are not fans of such luxury provisioning but this is not the time to quibble - this is a long haul trip and comfort and something to occupy minds for escapism outside of books, games, puzzle a major plus - and can still be parentally controlled! (Imagine being stuck on an aeroplane for 6-10 hours - same comforts and considerations apply).

Small bitesized brainteaser puzzles are easier to handle than complex science theories. Consider story CDs or tapes to listen to while driving.

Budget and Money Saving Ideas

1. Save, save, save - we need a huge amount of money for this trip and after alot of investigation opted for a fixed rate bond account and of course ISAs (tax free) - to force us to lock money away. We have not been born to money and have worked hard for what we have. We have been investigating many banking options via the web and in newspaper reviews. We have opened a fixed rate savings account which forces money from our current account monthly. What we have already saved, we have it working even harder but importantly locked into accounts until we need - to stop us spending elsewhere. This way we have some cash ‘earmarked’ for the trip itself and nothing else and are continually saving ( 01.08.08 - a lie as we haven’t achieved the ‘continually’ saving bit but we live in hope!).

In the process, even the children’s savings are now locked away in fixed rate accounts.  Serious money is needed so serious measures required.  As we have chosen fixed rates, and because we need to be strict with ourselves - our savings is based over 2-years else penalty applies and it will be approx 2 months prior to our trip before we can release cash.

It is worth doing alot of research and choosing something that fits circumstances and spending/saving habits.  In our case, we needed to be brutal with ourselves as we have bad track records generally where savings are concerned especially with children. There is always something that needs to be purchased but if we lock it away, we can’t do that.

2. Stop Smoking - After 20 years, we both gave up smoking 2nd January 2008 (for our children, health and the expensiveness - we needed to do it for a long time not just for this trip - but this trip was also instruemental in being a damn good incentive to finally make us stop………… £5+ on a packet of fags or put it towards helping us lengthen and strengthen our adventure - could be another litre of diesal or another day’s food!)

3. Stop spending money - No clothes, books or shoe purchases - especially for work.  No daily newspaper purchases - except for one big paper on a Saturday (make last the following week).  Reduce car fuel and telephone expenses and visiting car washes (expense adds up) - need to do ourselves (has actually been great fun and the kids really enjoy too).

 4. Outgoings - review your statements and outgoings. We are keeping a daily tab of our outgoings using an Excel spreadsheet and are amazed at high food costs for example so are trying to tackle this at present.

5. Budget - consider carefully. Pre-trip, on road and post-trip expenses (including emergency funds) required. Pre-trip for us includes carnet, training, vehicle fit-out, innoculations, goods storage, renting out house, funds while not working etc. On Road includes food, fuel, visas, accommodation, site entry fees, shipping, tolls, mechanical, emergency funds (if children get sick, or need flights home, rental void on home etc.). Post-trip includes money until we get back on our feet with jobs i.e. food, clothes, couple of months mortgage payments etc.

Anticipate that total budget split will be 25% pre-trip, 50% on road and 25% post trip. Not entirely convinced we’ll hit the targets exactly and we’re already slicing bits here and there, but we’ll have a good go and refine as our plan becomes refined and more mature.  Worst case, we could fall back on a credit card for emergencies for example but we’d like to avoid (see below point 6).

6. No Credit Cards or Loans debts - If we have or need to use either then we’re not ready to do the trip. Apart from our mortgage, we don’t want to come back to a huge debt so important we can afford to do trip from savings/other means before we go as much as possible. Already, we have made a pact not to use credit cards in daily lives any longer and apart from a bathroom suite we ordered last year for which we have a 12-month interest free credit agreement, we have no loans. We know what it’s like to be in debt and have spent much of our lives living this way but we are ‘clean’ at present, for the first time in a long time and don’t want to go back there.

7. Keep working and keep focused - such a trip doesn’t pay for itself and will be short-lived if not planned for properly in our view (unless you have a windfall, are already rich and/or money/time/resource not an issue and you can afford to get it wrong).  We are working and saving hard for this but would love to give up work now, jack it all in and just go. We keep dreaming and thinking about nothing but this adventure but then bring ourselves back down to earth when we ask ourselves the ‘then what’ and ‘what about now’ questions - i.e. the real every day life kicks in - suppose we’re trying to minimise risk and protect ourselves as best we can for the future while planning this trip. Are we worrying too much? - probably yes - but this will be healthy in the long-run and we hope diminish over time because we have planned well!

The date of departure is purposeful and (aside from the savings and preparation required) has alot to do with the children’s age, robustness and where they will be already educationally. For example, we wanted AJ to be old enough to appreciate and remember what he experiences (have a memory) and to have already obtained some reading and writing framework within a school environment - i.e. the basics that we do not feel so confident in providing by ourselves. He has now reached this stage but we still have work to do to keep him strong and developing in his on-going progress.

In the same breath, we don’t want Jessica  to be too old so that it starts to impact secondary education in any way or risk her becoming too emotionally un-bonded to friends and classmates when she returns - maybe we should not be overly concerned or are worrying unnecessarily though part of us says we’re not sure we can avoid this from occurring (i.e. - we will try to retain contact as much as we can with her friends while we are travelling but we need to be careful not to isolate them from as much contact with other children while on the road). 

We are far from being experts regarding children’s educational routine but we do plan to do something e.g. provide themed topics per country. Although not at school, we do not plan for Jessica and AJ to escape some form of daily schooling. As parents, we feel that this might be difficult to get into initially but we plan to include daily journal writing, reading, spelling and maths.

We learned alot from our Summer 2009 trip - about us as parents and about our children - and the need to introduce a regular routine to keep the educational element on track.

We know there are many who would tell us not to worry about it and that the trip itself will be an education as well as an adventure but we feel we must provide input and some form of structure also - but possibly in a fun way and without anyone feeling like it is too much of a chore. We think as parents that we will have to learn to be more disciplined than the children to make it work for all of us.

We plan to visit at least two schools along our trip route  - one of these hopefully in Burlacu as part of the Moldovan Project/s supported by our Pesky Rat fund-raising projects. The second school we plan to visit within China.

We are withdrawing our children from school and everything they know, so it is important we try not to isolate them from meeting new friends and some fun times as much as possible.

As we pass through each country on our route, we are hoping the children will be able to learn many things naturally, such as, the differences between religions, cultures, languages, diversity, environment, geography, navigation, history, life skills and lots more.  Bringing the world to them so to speak - we believe it will be an unforgettable and fanstastic opportunity for them as well as us!

Our education plan for the children includes the following:

♦ Daily journals/diaries

♦ ‘Who do you think you are?’ challenge regarding meeting young people like themselves around the world and collecting data about them (will update on this with more information later)

♦ Assistance of a professional world-wide education service combined with home schooling. We also hope to be able to involve the children’s school nearer the time or try to follow curriculum to some degree. Update 26.01.10 - too expensive for us to be able to do this we have realised and we think we can self-plan.

♦ Trying to visit sites and places of interest - sometimes an education in itself for which we already have lots of ideas for.

♦ Plenty of toys, books and games (we need to think about in more detail - and see if we can load some resources also to laptop.

♦ Regular reading (daily), maths and spelling

♦Themed / topic per country e.g. Night sky/environment/weather (Norway), history of toys (Denmark) etc. Poland - the war camps.

♦As many opportunities as possible to meet and play with other children - networking and contact skills

♦Geography, climate and map-reading skills

♦Possibly meet other homeschooling parents and children to learn  how they do things and what/how they recommend we should approach things especially given our limited experience

♦Plan set time each day and evening to devote to more structured routine

UPDATE 18.01.2010 - click here for some short thoughts about what we learned/observed following our summer shakedown 2009 trip. Other than what we have mentioned, this area of our trip is very much a work in progress at present so we’ll update when we are more clear about our plans regarding this.

If you can help us with some good tips, please contact us.

I have done my best to ensure that as many people as possible will be able to use this site.If you have any comments or queries regarding the Accessibility of this site please do not hesitate to contact me.

Text Size

You will be able to increase the default text size of this site in any modern Browser as follows:

Firefox:
Click on “View” then choose “Text Size” and “Increase”. Choosing “Normal” will return the site to the default font size.

Opera:
Choose “View” then “Zoom” and you are able to increase or decrease the page size either by increments of 10% or by 150% and 200%. Choose 100% to return the page size to normal.

Safari:
Choose “View” and then “Make Text Bigger”. To return to the default size choose “Make Text Smaller”.

Internet Explorer 7:
Choose the “Page” icon and then choose “Text Size” and either “Larger” or “Largest”. Choosing “Medium” will return the page to the default size. If you prefer you can also choose the “Zoom” function which will attempt to enlarge the whole page including images.

Internet Explorer 6:

Choose “View” and then choose “Text Size” and either “Larger” or “Largest”. Choosing “Medium” will return the page to the default size.

Skip Links

I have included “Skip Links” on each page in the form of a link at the top right hand side of the page. Clicking this link will take you directly to the page’s main contents bypassing the navigation.

Skip Links are particularly useful for those using text readers so that when they arrive on a page they don’t have to sit through the navigation menu being read to them every time.

Keyboard Users

Anyone who prefers to use their keyboard to navigate their way around a website rather than their mouse will find that this site has been built with that in mind.

All items on the page including Form Items have been built in a logical “Tab Order” to prevent confusion. All links are also highlighted when they are “tabbed to” plus those using modern browsers will see highlighted form fields when they tab to the particular field.

Access Keys

I have not used Access Keys on this site due to their tendency to interfere with the normal operation of the keyboard.

Text/Background Contrast

Finally I have also used a deep grey font colour on a white background for the main content of the site to ensure a high enough contrast between them as recommended by the World Wide Web Consortium

Our travel plan and route are determined (with some flexibility built-in!), the vehicle is purchased and it’s preparation underway (a bankrupting experience!), we have the beginnings of a financial support plan (we are saving like pigs!), the commitment to make it happen is high and we have a much more in-keeping mind-set (following 21.5 years experience together!) - we are on the same plane at last!

We intend an 12-month 4×4 vehicle-based overland adventure/expedition with our children from the UK to Australia, using Land Rover Defender 110 300 TDI County Station Wagon. From there our travel period depends on the state of our finances, minds and our children’s well-being.

We appreciate that moving from being armchair travellers to actually ‘doing it’ are two hugely different experiences.  We know that travelling with children particularly long-haul will provide a completely different outlook to standard concerns and needs, particularly overland.

At time of writing (April 2008) - add to this our limited experience of 4×4 vehicle over-landing to date (none!), long-haul with children (none!) and be even more horrified to know that we have no real camping experience - Anne has never slept in a tent  in her life (not even at school) and Andrew has only done it once or twice during school boy scout days! (update May 2008: 1st successful camping experience occurred). As well as being able to experience different countries and cultures together as a family, stimulation, belonging, contact, security, safety, health, education, daily routine and enjoyment are critical to the success of this trip.

Update: January 2010 - We have since prepared our vehicle and undergone a 2 month shakdown trip from Uk to Morocco (Summer 2009).

If we don’t go now, we never will ! ……………… (we’ll get too old and lazy!)….

If you asked us 20 years ago - this trip would have been a great excuse to get out of work and just go laze on a beach somewhere (zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…….dreams of becoming professional beach-bums still linger!)

But now, it’s about what and how much we can get out of such a travel plan (well - with a little BB’ing now and again and the amazing opportunity get out of the daily grind and do something different - imagine - no work, no housekeeping, no school - not in the normal traditional in any case)

We have tons of other reasons too:

Andrew says:  ”26 years x 2 week breaks or 52 weeks in one year - you do the maths!”

Anne says: “Time is going by too quickly!”

More serious reasons:

• Perfect timing! - the ‘finance’ (never right but you have draw a line in the sand sometimes to just make it happen) , the ‘right time’ and being on the ’same plane’ (Anne has finally managed to brainwash Andrew). 
• Children’s ages and education schedule - children can’t be too young so they can’t remember and get little out of the trip or cannot read or write - nor do we feel they can be too much older where secondary school education starts to impact and feature more seriously - think they need to be settled then.  We feel confident in being able to do some formal as well as flexible home schooling at the age we are taking Jessica and AJ  but any younger/older, we think we would struggle.  Also children begin to form more permament friendships, confidences, interests and attitudes etc. in secondary school which we think could make it distressing/worrying to break - may well be unfounded but we don’t want to take the risk. We are not rich and still saving toward the trip (money goes out faster than we can save it!).

We are trying to finish our house so we can rent out - though we may have to face the prospect of selling to raise enough cash and freedom.

Freedoms - some good and several silly childish, non-grown up, things like:

• To have some ‘quality time’ together as a family and while our children still want to know us and spend time with us. Also as parents - while we are young and healthy and can still kick a football, swim, cycle and run etc.
• The excitement of not knowing (why did Hillary climb Everest? ….Because it was there!)
• How many miles is it from UK to Australia? - we feel sure we cover that in one year in East Anglia alone for work purposes - would be nice to travel that distance over a period of a year in a much more meaningful and memorable way
• To get outside our comfort zone - we can earn the right to be complacent when we’re old. If we don’t go, Anne will spend the budget on a house extension, replacement windows and a whole load of other material things we should really be doing at this time of our lives - then we’ll get too comfortable and won’t go anywhere
• So Anne can die happy knowing she achieved her (20+ year!) dream of long-term overland expedition type travel
• So Andrew can have ‘time’ to practise his hobby photography skills and watch the sunrise in differing parts of the world - oh! and ‘not’ have to habitually wake up to an alarm clock at 6am each day (true bliss)
• To have fun, meet new people, network, open up new opportunities, educate ourselves and increase our awareness of the world, experience differing environments, cultures and religions
• To see what we’re like as individuals and a family once everyday  pressures and routines have been stripped away
• To persuade our family and friends to come and join us to spend some time with us
• Never had the opportunity (money!) to ‘do it’ when we were younger (still don’t!!!)
• Over-landing across the world (or at least part of it) has been discussed for at least 15 years - so it has to happen!  - Due largely to timing, commitments (and cash) - cannot fail this time! - as we’ve learned we will always have these responsibilities - part of being grown-up’s - so now have to make it happen - before we can’t ”One life, Live it” as they say
• To have an excuse and reason for this website
• To show our children the world - or bring the world to them - ‘the world is our garden’
• So Anne can annoy Andrew for longer periods of time - think of all those daylight hours together! (Anne is really looking forward to this bit!)
• To obtain a happy and refreshed outlook on life and an immense feeling of ’sense of being’ - a real-life world education!
• To improve on our ‘togetherness’ and ‘connectedness’ as both a couple and as a family (i.e. end up killing each other somewhere in the desert /  bush or similar)
• Half-life break!
• Wanderlust!
• Just to spend time and be together (well, maybe more for Anne - not so sure about Andrew - he’s starting to look a bit worried at the prospect - think of all that ‘quality nagging’ time that Anne will have available!!!)…..giggles.

We are Andrew (aged 46) and Anne (43), together for ages (since the beginning of time it seems).

We lived in London, UK all our lives up until a few years ago when we decided to up sticks 60 miles north to Cambridgeshire.

We have three children - 2 girls and a boy, plus a son-in-law and 2 grandchildren (update 17.01.2011- another on the way!) all gorgeous and beautiful.

Our eldest daughter Kayleigh (aged 24) is married to her childhood sweetheart Rana (26) - with their own two children (our grandchildren) Aathiya (aged 4) and Aaziya (aged 3).

Our two younger children are Jessica (aged 10) and AJ (aged 6).

Andrew works as a C&G qualified Carpenter and Anne works as an IT Systems & Projects Manager

As of 2008  (when we started this website) - Jessica wanted to be the world’s 1st real-life Super Hero when she grows up though her career choice changes weekly.  She loves trying new things and as long as she’s with us she’s not really bothered - everything is an adventure for her - even our back garden. She has just started learning the piano and French (UPDATE 19.01.2010 - French has since floundered! but the piano is coming on well and a new interest in the stars and the planets has developed). May 2010 - It’s now a toss up between Scientist or an Inventor!

AJ just wants to play with his cars and is a real ‘home-boy’ - this trip will be a real challenge for us to get him out of the house! (UPDATE 19.01.2010 - AJ is less bothered about home but very much into all things Lego, still love his cars plus a craze for toy soldiers, little toy figures and fighting - especially with his sister!). May 2010 - anything with guns and swords involved and AJ is in heaven.

Kayleigh is busy with her own life, husband and babies and work where she is now trying hard to get onto an Assistant Manager’s course. Rana was offered a position recently as a Supervisor but turned it down for the moment in favour of work, life balance with the children.

As for us (Andrew and Anne), we are busy planning and dreaming about our big trip in between normal everyday lives!

Australian Visas

It doesn’t seem that long ago since we launched this website and there were well over 700! days to go - seemed like an eternity. Yet, here are down to under 595 days already. The reality is starting to kick-in, in terms of how much preparation we still have to do (even though it looks like we have plenty of time!). Good news is that we finally decided to apply for Australian Independant Skilled Visas so that we can live and work permanently in Australia if we choose. Preliminary Applications have been logged and we buried in paperwork filling currently. ‘There are no short cuts to anywhere worth going’ is the logo of Go Matilda migration specialists. The reason for applying is for flexibility to live and work for a while, as we imagine we will be skint by the time we hit OZ. The dream would be to live and work and for the children to attend school in Australia for at least a year, to gain the experience of doing so in another country but these visas are not cheap so warrants considering hugely longer and forever to justify the ever-increasing dent to our ‘on the road’ budget. Don’t forget, we plan to tour Australia initailly also - we are hoping for about 6 months.  But who knows, we might all be desparately home-sick and just want to get on a plane and go home following having had a year already on the road. Or, miraculously still have a bit of cash and want to continue travelling. Or, maybe we will really love Australia and want to stay!

Gypsy Caravan

Our Jurgens Xplorer duly arrived last week and is holding up well under the British weather. We are really pleased with it though the roof canvas is in a really shabby state of repair (still waterproof though) and could really do with being replaced. It has been raining heavily here these past few days (miserable) and a couple of our friends (guinea pigs) slept in it at the weekend and so far, it’s been fine and hasn’t let a drop of rain in. Looks like it suffers a bit of condensation if no windows or vents opened but in all a good sign really. We are waiting for the weather to clear so we can have a bit of a tinker with it. Meantime, if anyone can advise how we can go about replacing roof or at least roof canvas, please can they let us know!

Friends and Fellow Travellers

We have updated the Hints and Tips Section with photos and information provided by friends and fellow traveller. We have been in touch with Ollie at JollyFollies (www.jollyfollies.com) and been comparing notes etc. about visas, roof tents, trailers, laptops etc. It’s great to speak to people on the same plain (makes you feel sane rather than just being mere Land Rover saddo’s with a gypsy caravan in tow. Some of our friends have started to take bets that the caravan won’t make it to Australia but we’re determined it will!

Fund Raising, Donations and Charity

We are still thinking heavily about using the trip as an opportunity to support a charity or organisation of our choice and raise our own and our children’s self-awareness and appreciation generally. We donated to www.jollyfollies.com and www.drive-to-oz.com good fund-raising causes yesterday.  But, we are having trouble narrowing down our own choices in terms who we would like to focus our attention on fund-raising for and are trying to to keep whatever we do in parallel with the goals of our trip. The main threads surfacing seem to be focusing on children, street children and education.  There are so many good and equally deserving causes out there. It is proving very difficult to narrow down. As part of a general interest in UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites across the world for example (we are hoping to visit as many as possible as part of our children’s education piece along our route), this keeps leading us to Unesco’s ‘Programme for Education for Children in Need’ and we really like Unesco’s pledge to support this and the children’s author Lauren Child’s (of Charlie and Lola fame) commitment to this program - see www.mylifeisastory.org and her specially written book The Pesky Rat. But, we don’t think these organisations would allow their names to be affiliated with independant fund-raising concerns like us and probably stand in their own right and more associated to large companies and organisations - e.g. envisage strict rules governing use of their logo and legalities etc.  Our children’s school and it’s work with Moldovan Street Childrens project/s continues to remain of huge interest to us as the children can associate, get involved and are already familiar.  We are also really interested in finding out more about www.soschildren.org and currently we are possibly considering sponsoring a child as part of this. As we have our own children to consider as part of the trip we need to keep our fund-raising efforts simple and aligned to what we are doing and ensure that whatever we do doesn’t over-take us. We plan to contact the school and SOSChildren shortly to see if we can provide assistance.

We had a total of 6 vehicle and caravan issues during our 7.5 week shakedown trip as follows:

1. Day 1 - Land Rover
On arrival to France (not even 350 miles into our journey) and travelling on good, easy, flat, sealed motorway (we had not even made 1st campsite location), the timing belt snapped (we had just had it changed via Foley’s before leaving the UK along with a whole host of other work and servicing performed - not cheap! ). We didn’t know what the issue was only that we had lost power very suddenly and couldn’t get ourselves off the motorway - we could see a service stop area but just couldn’t reach it.

One flat bed lorry later, plus two taxis to take caravan, equipment, bikes and us onto campsite at midnight - the Land Rover was taken the following day onto Jeanne Le Fevre, a Land Rover specialist vehicle centre based in Amiens.

It was 15 days before we saw our vehicle again. During this time, we placed caravan in storage for a short time, hired a van and travelled down to the Loire and back again with two po-up tents and bikes in tow.

Cost for repairs: £900

Where: Garage James Lefebvre, 656 rue d’Amiens, Amiens

2. Day 8 - Hire vehicle
On understanding we weren’t going to see our Land Rover any day soon, we hired a Renualt Traffic (9-seater van) courtesy of insurance company. Only 10 minutes into having, Anne smashed up along the side as well as another stationary vehicle parked innocently on a narrow high street in the Champagne region. Totally self-inflicted and luckily vehicle (and Anne!) still fit to drive complete with dents, marks and minus driver wing mirror which Andrew duly stuck back on with duck tape before driving off again.

Cost for repairs: £900 (paid by credit card on return of vehicle)

3. Day 15 - Caravan
Before leaving the UK, we decided to have the hitch on the caravan changed via Foley’s from an old heavy, rigid one to a more up-to-date version but the jockey wheel broke (lost it’s pinch and broke into two parts) before it hit the ground on winding down to pitch ground on campsite - we had not even unhooked following collection from storage in the Compiegne. The jockey wheel was the only source we had for holding the caravan up when detached from Land Rover. In the jockey wheel’s absence - Andrew became resident pitch master by winching caravan off Land Rover using 2-T trolley jack, 2 x caravan A-Frames and several blocks of wood to support it - a worrying time! In the end we decided safer NOT to unhitch from Land Rover which restricted us a bit.

Cost: NA
Duration: remainder of trip

4. Day 23 - Caravan
En route from Dordogne to Millau, we got a flat tyre on caravan (luckily, just as we were pulling in off motorway into service station). A nice Portugese lorry driver came to our rescue with a more capable bottlejack than our 2-ton trolley jack.  We were then tasked with sourcing a new spare before moving on - took a little while as apparently the tyres (15″ Firestone Steelbelt Tubeless Radial ATX 245/75R15C107S15) not standard or generally available in Europe. A phone call to Foley’s helped us ascertain alternative equivalent so we bought two for the road.

Cost: £242 for 2 new tyres
Where: Clermont Ferrand
Duration wait for Tyres: 2-3 days

5. Day 30 - Fuel pump failure on Land Rover

En-route from Clermont Ferrand to Millau.  We tried a couple of garages ourselves directly but no joy. Result of fuel pump failure meant that speed was a serious issue and combined with weight strain of caravan, ever growing leak under vehicle and smoke from the exhaust - we decided again to put caravan in storage. Conscious of our timetable, we then hobbled on using cable ties and duck tape to Valencia in Spain before getting fixed.

Used British Cars S.L. Valencia

Cost: £327
Duration of fix: Same Day

6. Day 41 - Suspected engine gasket failure Land Rover

Occurred on Land Rover en-route to Malaga. We exited at Castell de Ferro for an unplanned but very welcome break along Sierra Nevada coastline for weekend to organise mechanic.  Anne had been complaining she could hear a continous tick, tick, ticking noise since picking up the car in Amiens -kept saying still not right but thought maybe over-acting.

Used local garage in Castell itself

Cost £246

Total ‘on the road’ repairs, damage and spare tyre costs: £1,714

There is satelitte coverage in Mongolia as we met another group using the same device and it was working OK. We tested and realised it was our batteries at fault.  

Photos of Thai Shadow Puppet Making, Sakhon & Ch-am to complete the last two updates.