48 hours to go

Firstly, I want to say thanks to all our followers and thanks for sharing in the enthusiasm (tim brown springing to mind first). And a special thanks to those guys who have joined and become members of the blog.

Since you have last visited, there have been plenty of development to both the delica and our preparation. Ill just quickly run you through them so the pictures mean something to you.

We finally got the van back on its feet and it was running really well. A little fine tuning and a wheel alignment set everything good. The aluminium roof cage you may have seen earlier was installed by some engineering dude in Stroud (sorry I will set up a credits post to thank all the people that have helped this project advance). After the roof cage was installed, the van is towers over land cruisers and patrols. But its currently consuming about 25 litres of diesel to 100KM at 110km per hour. This mean roughly $150 per day in diesel (ouch). We mounted the second spare wheel on the roof cage. 3 X 20 litre diesel cans. We have also installed a sliding draw mounted to the rear seat rails. The fridge will sit on this and it will also provide us with a food preparation bench. (AWESOME) thanks Bjoern.

Bjoern was also awesome enough to install a power inverter (ladies that mean hair driers and hair irons can be used on board this mothership). We installed it so we can charge out laptops and mobiles etc etc etc. We have also installed a dual battery system thanks to so Paul Shepard and Bjoern again.

Above all this sits a double bed frame and foam mattress.

New additions to our preparations this week were :
4 tonne air jack
Tyre puncher repair kit
Solar shower
Smokey joe (mini weber) Thanks lara my sister (and thank you for the awesome recipe book) I will post photos of.
Spare oils and lubes for the van
Gas burner stove
Gas bottle
Axe, spade, hammer and other tools
Full kitchen set (sorry zoe, you’ll have to explain in detail)
I also bought the most awesome sleeping bag.

I must also mention that zoe and I had massive administration about each not appreciating the work the other had done. Lots of screaming and shouting and childish behaviour (on my behalf mainly). I am however assured that these arguments happen frequently just before holidays. Needless to say we made up and we are both very very excited about this trip.

Anyway, its Thursday now, in 36 hours time, it will be 4am and we will be setting off.

Please keep visiting us here.