NiallRussell

Well-Known Member
The old one-ten is at last in the UK, after a huge journey from the other side of the world.

Thanks to everyone's help, tips, recommendations and support. I've managed to insure the car here in the uk for the very reasonable sum of £160, now I've just got to get it through the MOT and do all the paper work.

QUESTION:
I'm living in bristol now (much colder than I'm used too) and was thinking of driving the car to CYNON GARAGE in south wales, on a recommendation from someone as a trustworthy bunch of land rover enthusiasts. Can anyone comment on this? A good place?

I'm looking for someone to take the car for a while and really give it some love.

I've got a good pot of money to spend / waste on the hunk-o-rust and there is a long list of jobs to do. e.g. All bushes, the front axle is in a sorry state, the turbo is on it's way for sure, brakes, and there will be MOT failures galore after all those miles.

Nice to think this car is the same one I was driving in the sands of Oman, the mud of Russia, the grass of Mongolia and now the lanes of England!!!

car22.png car33.png
 
No idea on the garage, but have you put a write up of the trip up on the web anywhere?
 
So you've driven it all the way? Any photos you can share?

Are you intending to do the work yourself and then MOT it, or get the garage to do the lot?
 
Welcome to the west country , if its good service , advice and very comeptetive prices try semley lantrac an independant landrover garage thats not too far from bristol , always happy to help on any job .... small or large . They pride themselves with landrover service at non landrover prices
Have a look here ,,, http://www.lan-trac4x4.com/
 
I agree with boguing and Brown, you can't go all that way, on such an epic trip, and not take loads of pictures and have stories to tell!
I suggest you do it in weekly episodes, like Game of Thrones or 24 :) But, what day of the week would you release each episode?...........
 
Tremendous! Just got back in from a night at my local, so will read all of that when I am more with it tomorrow. :confused:
 
That's a good one. Interesting adventure and some splendid scenery.
 
That was one epic journey. Loved reading that, absolutely amazing, fantastic. What an experience that must have been. Thanks for sharing it.
I'm not soft , but I don't think I would have the bottle to do that. There must be a high element of risk/danger? I don't mean to be sexist, but is it not even more dangerous for women? Were there many times when you were concerned for your safety?
 
Charlie is a hardy sort - but she tells me I'm way to trusting. in Oman we never locked the car (not that the 30 year old locks would have been any good) and the thing I was most concerned with was having things pinched in towns when we where sorting visa's and get supplies. I had locks on most things and the zippers for the rear flap padlocked onto chains so that you couldn't be tempted to just unzip and stick a hand in as you where walking past.

There was one incident that happened which spooked us though...

In mongolia we were settling into camping after a long day of getting stuck in swamps and crossing rivers when two young guys came over a hill on their little 125cc motor bike. They came over, as everyone does when they see new visitors to the valley and it was clear straight away that they where very VERY drunk. After a few minutes of being polite they told us to go back with them to their yurt to join them for the night with more drinking. If it was just me, or me and someone else I might have said yet - however me and charlie simply didn't want to go and tried to politely decline.

Now imagine a situation where two young blind drug men can not understand why a young english couple refuses to undertand their generous offer of hospitality. They started to throw our camp stuff around into the back of the car as they got more frustrated. At no time did them mean to get aggressive (in my opinion) but they where drunk and there was no common language. Difficult for people to understand who have not been to Oman, but no one - and i mean NO ONE, would EVER invade the space of a women you were with. If you wanted to be left alone all you'd have to say is "Please leave for my wife" and they would leave without being insulted. So when this guys starts getting very close to Charlie and grabbing items out of her hand, things feel wrong.

I changed tack and said we would love to go with them and me and charlie, understanding the plan, quickly packed away in the now pitch black evening aiming to make a speedy (landrover speedy, get away).

Once we're all packed up we climb in the car only to have one of the guys try to get in with us and push charlie out, telling her to get on the motorcycle. She's telling me to drive away, which I can't as he has a hand on her and I can't risk him / her falling out. His friend then starts to drive away on the motorcycle so we think we might be stuck with this guy. Flash of the lights and beep the horn and the motor cycle comes back - I tell the guys "quick, your friend wants you, your friend! your friend!" and lots of pointing. He steps off the slider and lets go of charlie and we take off in reverse.

It's now 11 o'clock and we drive re-tracing our route uin darkness sing the gps track, as charlie insisted we turn off the light. The guys don't follow us, after all they just wanted to keep drinking and never meant us hard in anyway, it was just one of those moments where no common language and alcohol make a problem. We then had to make it through the swamp that had got us stuck for two hours that afternoon.

Approaching it there was a car that was flashing it's lights way off in the distance and charlie was fearful that this was the guys somehow. Knowing that it was someone stuck in the swamp and we needed to help I drove close by and got out to take a look. It was a family van of 5 women and 1 man and charlie relaxed a little. We winched them out and then continued to drive for another two hours reaching the ferry bridge we crossed earlier in the day light. however this time the ferry bridge was on the other side of the deep fast river, which meant we where stuck.

It had now bee 4 hours, it was 3 in the morning and we where in no danger (we had been in little at the start truth be told) but charlie was still very uneasy. Then the family van turned up and the male driver jumped into the river swamp across the pulled the ferry back. Once we where over the river charlie started to calm down, knowing the if the boys tried to swim across the river in their drunkenness they would drown. On that soothing thought we camped for the night.



They didn't mean us any harm at all, and I think it was just the shock of find ourselves in a situation that we couldn't control which didn't feel good. But charlie was nervous wild camping for a couple of weeks after that, and made me check every small sound outside the tent each night. We reminded ourselves that we faced more drunken idiots on one night out in london that we did on the whole trip, but the difference is we could understand what they where saying.
 
Important to note. that was the ONE time things felt slightly unsafe.

I stayed in yurts with families, got invited for dinner, towed by strangers, constant offers of help, etc.

I think on the road you meant other people who are doing similar things and everyone knows to share the love around.
 
Important to note. that was the ONE time things felt slightly unsafe.

I stayed in yurts with families, got invited for dinner, towed by strangers, constant offers of help, etc.

I think on the road you meant other people who are doing similar things and everyone knows to share the love around.
Charlie is a hardy sort - but she tells me I'm way to trusting. in Oman we never locked the car (not that the 30 year old locks would have been any good) and the thing I was most concerned with was having things pinched in towns when we where sorting visa's and get supplies. I had locks on most things and the zippers for the rear flap padlocked onto chains so that you couldn't be tempted to just unzip and stick a hand in as you where walking past.

There was one incident that happened which spooked us though...

In mongolia we were settling into camping after a long day of getting stuck in swamps and crossing rivers when two young guys came over a hill on their little 125cc motor bike. They came over, as everyone does when they see new visitors to the valley and it was clear straight away that they where very VERY drunk. After a few minutes of being polite they told us to go back with them to their yurt to join them for the night with more drinking. If it was just me, or me and someone else I might have said yet - however me and charlie simply didn't want to go and tried to politely decline.

Now imagine a situation where two young blind drug men can not understand why a young english couple refuses to undertand their generous offer of hospitality. They started to throw our camp stuff around into the back of the car as they got more frustrated. At no time did them mean to get aggressive (in my opinion) but they where drunk and there was no common language. Difficult for people to understand who have not been to Oman, but no one - and i mean NO ONE, would EVER invade the space of a women you were with. If you wanted to be left alone all you'd have to say is "Please leave for my wife" and they would leave without being insulted. So when this guys starts getting very close to Charlie and grabbing items out of her hand, things feel wrong.

I changed tack and said we would love to go with them and me and charlie, understanding the plan, quickly packed away in the now pitch black evening aiming to make a speedy (landrover speedy, get away).

Once we're all packed up we climb in the car only to have one of the guys try to get in with us and push charlie out, telling her to get on the motorcycle. She's telling me to drive away, which I can't as he has a hand on her and I can't risk him / her falling out. His friend then starts to drive away on the motorcycle so we think we might be stuck with this guy. Flash of the lights and beep the horn and the motor cycle comes back - I tell the guys "quick, your friend wants you, your friend! your friend!" and lots of pointing. He steps off the slider and lets go of charlie and we take off in reverse.

It's now 11 o'clock and we drive re-tracing our route uin darkness sing the gps track, as charlie insisted we turn off the light. The guys don't follow us, after all they just wanted to keep drinking and never meant us hard in anyway, it was just one of those moments where no common language and alcohol make a problem. We then had to make it through the swamp that had got us stuck for two hours that afternoon.

Approaching it there was a car that was flashing it's lights way off in the distance and charlie was fearful that this was the guys somehow. Knowing that it was someone stuck in the swamp and we needed to help I drove close by and got out to take a look. It was a family van of 5 women and 1 man and charlie relaxed a little. We winched them out and then continued to drive for another two hours reaching the ferry bridge we crossed earlier in the day light. however this time the ferry bridge was on the other side of the deep fast river, which meant we where stuck.

It had now bee 4 hours, it was 3 in the morning and we where in no danger (we had been in little at the start truth be told) but charlie was still very uneasy. Then the family van turned up and the male driver jumped into the river swamp across the pulled the ferry back. Once we where over the river charlie started to calm down, knowing the if the boys tried to swim across the river in their drunkenness they would drown. On that soothing thought we camped for the night.



They didn't mean us any harm at all, and I think it was just the shock of find ourselves in a situation that we couldn't control which didn't feel good. But charlie was nervous wild camping for a couple of weeks after that, and made me check every small sound outside the tent each night. We reminded ourselves that we faced more drunken idiots on one night out in london that we did on the whole trip, but the difference is we could understand what they where saying.
sounds more like you were lucky ,than a language issue
 
I guess we'll never know. If me and charlie had been lovers of the bottle we could have gone with them and we might now have a great story about staying up all night drinking with a Mongolian family singing along to ABBA hits by the yurt fireplace.

at least thats what i tell myself.
 
To be honest, that sounds pretty scary and I share Charlie's anxiety. That's probably enough to put me off. If it was me and a mate I wouldn't mind, but I would feel guilty risking the Mrs. Having said that, I think my Mrs would seriously consider a trip like that. She loved reading your expedition story too. I think you've both got lots of bottle. Well done you two, a superb life experience.
 
Take it either to Tim Fry Land Rovers or MJ fews, the Latter is a genuine repair center the former is imo a decent place to ake an older landy to,
 
I've taken it to a friendly garage - which came recomended. Going to give the car a long month of TLC.

Driving it to the garage it was amazing to realise just how loose the steering had got. There is almost no rubber any bushes anymore.
 
Important to note. that was the ONE time things felt slightly unsafe.

I stayed in yurts with families, got invited for dinner, towed by strangers, constant offers of help, etc.

I think on the road you meant other people who are doing similar things and everyone knows to share the love around.

I think you did well too bug out of that situation.
I once had a similar situation. I crossed the Med into Ceuta, it was very late and once through customs I was approached by a couple of guys who were trying to sell me drugs and looking in the windows of my 109 safari.
So like you I drove off and after an hour I was looking for somewhere to camp when I saw headlight approaching from the opposite direction. When the car got close it stopped across the road so I couldn't get past.
Two guys got out of the car and walked over and tapping on the window one of them asked for a light, the other guy was around the back of the Landy and Sankey I was towing.
The windows on the Merc they had got out of were down an inch or two and smoke was drifting out so I knew they didnt need a light.
Although they were all smiles and giving it " you come and stay with us" and "We have some drinks" and "You meet our friends" I dropped the Landy into low box and drove off road around them.
They turned around and came after me. I was thinking "nobody in the uk knows where I am"
They managed to get past and stop me again. Then It was "Why you drive off, come with us we will look after you" I looked on my map and could see there was a small town ahead so I said ok.
Once in the town I didn't follow them, instead I turned off into the center and found a cafe/bar with some people outside so I turned in and stopped.
The Merc pulled in behind, four guys got out and "You come in we have drinks" I nodded and to my relief they all went in. I set of down the road again flat out for two hours and didn't see them again.
It was Scary because it would be days before I would be missed and by then I could of been anywhere in a few thousand square miles, how long and how hard would the Morocan police have searched.
Same for you guys in your siuation.
 

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