Darren’s Journey Description

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Darren Herring from Freiburg, Germany will head off from the city of Freiburg in the deepest Black Forest and head up to the UK via Luxembourg. Belgium and France in time for Kent VW Festival (Kent V-dub Fest) ((RED. Say hello to DEE PARKINSON)) in the UK, pausing for the weekend i will head off to the south coast of England, then make my way south over the contingent in time to meet my friend Mario for a weekend in the Swiss Alps, before parting ways where i will continue into northern Italy then the boat to Corsica, rounding off my trip there at the Corsica Flat 4 beach party and the drive via boat back to Freiburg

end of season one… to be continued!!!

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so this is it. summer is fading out and autumn has started to paint the trees. somehow summertime went by like the german ICE train and with all ups’n downs the first season of my restored bus was a blast. sunday I met up with friends from my region to ride our vans through the valleys and hills of  the “Bergisch Land” north east of Cologne. ten vans, one beetle and lot’s of fun. now we all hope for some more of this golden october sun before we put our aircooled friends to sleep…

by the way and just to have mentioned it: all picts shot without Iphone or some funky app… just a bouncing lowered front beam, the driver’s hand and a cheap digital camera were used… don’t try this on public roads… ;-)

cheers

mario

Kombipalooza, Nuevos avances. / Kombipalooza , new progress :)

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La Rita ya está en condiciones de andar y fui a lucirla a un evento de kleinbus.cl llamado Kombipalooza, ahí todos los socios exponen a sus joyitas y se realiza intercambio de piezas, fue ubicado en el Parque O’higgins en el centro de la ciudad.

The Rita is now able to walk and went to wear it to an event called Kombipalooza of  kleinbus.cl, here all the partners offer their vehicles and exchange of parts takes place, the exposition are located in O’Higgins Park in the center of the city.

En este evento se encuentran Combis en todos sus estados, hasta esta que esta casi muriendo pero su dueño le dedicara tiempo para repararla.

In this event Combis are in differents status of restauration. this were almost dying but his owner will devote time to repair.

Karman Ghia

Los hijos de los socios desde pequeños son aficionados a estos vehículos, aquí algunos de sus dibujos con tempera. y las siguientes son algunas fotos del evento.

The children of the partners are from babys fans of these vehicles, here some of his drawings with water color. And others pictures of the event.

Las siguientes imágenes son de los avances que ha tenido la camioneta en este tiempo, le cambié los neumaticos que ya estaban lisos.

The following images are of the advances made by the truck at this time, I changed the whells.

También se le arregló el tren delantero que tenía algunos problemas en el pasador de muñon y rótulas de dirección, al irnos del mecánico nos dimos cuenta que también existían problemas en el alternador por lo que se cambió la caja reguladora.

I also managed the front I had some problems in the trunnion pin And tie rod ends, checking out garage we noticed that there were also problems with the alternator so it changed the regulatory box.

Y por último ahora que la rita está más sanita buscamos una radio, aquí una foto con sus amigos vochos.

And finally now that Rita is more sanitary seek a radio, here a photo with friends bugs.

Juego de luces y velocidad lenta del obturador.

Play of light And slow shutter speed.

The Goodwill Expedition – Day 9 -10 Homeward bound!

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We returned to our base in Rama and stayed up till late, sitting around the bonfire, listening to the melodious voice of Ansari and Maqsood. The younger lot lit a Sheesha  and enjoyed it their own way. My son Abdullah was feverish as a result of over exertion from our trek to Rama lake so he crawled into the tent before too long and snored away till the next morning. This was going to be our last night in Rama so we decided to pack up as much as we could leaving that much less to do in the morning. The kitchen crew did their bit so we could have an early start.

Breakfast before we set for home. ‘Grey Matter’ all packed and ready to roll

the Forest department hut – by the time we left we had permission from the caretaker to use the wash rooms. Talk about good P.R.

Early the next morning the tech team busied themselves with checking all vehicles for any tweaking of timing, adjustment of fuel mixture, brakes etc etc.  The kitchen crew prepared a breakfast of Parathas (fried bread) and eggs which was going to be good during the long day ahead. Everyone then grabbed garbage bags and collected every scrap of paper, bottle cap and cigarette butt that could be found and cleaned up the site.

We climbed down and reached the KKH  by about mid day. Along the way we got to enjoy the scenery that we had missed the time we went up to Rama. (we traveled during the night with light rain keeping the drivers focused on the road ahead and the passengers saying a prayer under their breath)

View from Maqsood’s super. He had air-conditioning while the rest of us sweated…

one of the many rest stops along the way..

a beautiful waterfall

Cumin seed plant. They are found in abundance in Astore Valley.

my pot of gold…

The Nanga Parbat view point on the KKH. The kids as excited as in other places when they see a volkswagen

Arriving at the Islamabad exit M2 motorway

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had discussed with the group the possibility of making a dash for Islamabad as we had plenty of drivers  between us and could take turns every few hours. However a few of the group members were keen to stay in Chilas for the night. I have lived in Chilas for about a year and it is not a very nice place to be in the summers. The day time temperatures rise to an uncomfortable 48*C and the nights are just a few degrees cooler. The barren treeless mountains surrounding the town radiate heat till the wee hours and then it starts to get hot once again. I have personally seen centipedes a foot in length and scorpions with their stings raised are plentiful as soon as it gets dark. It is S.O.P. to shake your shoes holding them upside down in the morning as scorpions are known to crawl into during the night and give a very painful surprise to the unsuspecting traveler. (the locals wear sandals)
Some of us did stay in Chilas (and were miserable) while others, taking advantage of the long daylight hours continued to Besham and checked into a hotel with running water and air-conditioning.
We met up the next day and drove together to Islamabad arriving at about 9 pm. We were met at the exit of the high speed motorway by Romano and a group of club members who had brought along big coolers of ice cold drinks. The temperature in Islamabad was 39*C…a sharp contrast to Rama where we used to huddle around a camp fire.
Before we went our own ways, it was decided to meet in a couple of days at my place to share pictures and for a debriefing session.
From start to finish we had clocked more than 2000 km in our humble air cooled VW’s without any serious problems and had made it back to base in good shape. We are already planning for the next year when we plan to go to Chitral and Kalash valley. Stay tuned, visit our Facebook page  (www.facebook.com/vwcop) for our next adventure.
A special word of thanks for Bugbus.net for the brilliant idea of Bugcation..
To everyone who has been following my blog I say..
Keep safe. be well and be blessed…
Peace!

The Goodwill Expedition – Day 8 Deosai The Land of Giants

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Pakistan is blessed with natural beauty and its breathtaking landscapes especially its north. One such location are the Deosai plains. Translated literally it means the Land of Giants.  Located at altitudes of between13,500 ft and 16,000 ft Deosai is the second highest plateau in the world (after Tibet)  The area has been declared a National park as it houses the rare Himalayan brown bear (among other animals) which was previously in danger of extinction. The park covers an area of about 3000 sq. km and is located in the Skardu as well as Astore districts, is mostly treeless and is covered in snow for more than half of the year (November to May)  Our destination was the Sheosar lake located almost smack in the middle of the park near the Chilam valley at an altitude of 13,650ft. It was the second attempt by Mujeeb in his ‘Grey Matter’ but for all others it was a first in our VW’s. The track is mainly unpaved and we were going to put our aircooled VW’s to yet another test.
We decided to empty the Baywindow of all the dead weight and divide the passengers of the Syncro in that and the beetles. As mentioned in my previous post the Syncro had a transmission breakdown and while we had managed to get her going with power to its front wheels only, we didn’t want to risk another breakdown going up some serious heights.
The phenomenon of glacial ice melt streams was a major concern and we had to try avoid the peak flow even though it wouldn’t be possible to avoid it altogether as we would be returning the same day at a later hour. The whole group was excited  as it was the highlight of our expedition.  However the few days of chilling in Rama made it seem like the beginning of an adventure.
I’ll let the pictures  do the talking from here on.
Enjoy!

sign at the park entry point. Another sign said “shoot nothing but pictures, leave nothing but your footprints” hmmm

Like!

millions of flowers appear as soon as the snow retreats

this pictures gives you an idea of the scale

sheer climb right after a turn

Grey Matter making small work of the big climb

the long tailed Golden marmot ((Marmota caudata) found in the Deosai plains

a bird..dunno its name but it looked interesting and ..well its a bird!

Maybe its the rarity of oxygen at the high altitude or another factor but some of us did some weird things that day.

the Deosai plains

Soesar Lake

We made it!

From the paved highways of North America to the torturous tracks in the Himalayas..Billo does not give up!

enjoying a special treat – snow dug up from specially selected spot with some rose flavoured syrup. Important tip. AVOID yellow snow!

Flavoured ice.

Grey Matter ..the fearless