The Azalai has seen much of Sherwell Valley Garage of late as Dave Webb and Chris kindly agreed to let us use their expertise and ramps to go through basic maintenance techniques on the Land Rover.
A quick inspection identified that the transmission pipes could take another tightening as they had bedded down a bit more – but other than that all was looking good. Rachel learned how to change the oil, check levels, change filters, disengage the prop shaft and change the brake pads. Importantly we managed to get a decent tool kit together with Dave’s advice.
Penny Jones manufactured a set of curtains to put up in the cab should ever they be needed as well as one to contain dust from entering the pod from the cab (well that’s the hope anyway). She really is a whizz on the sewing machine.
We also had the rear cab windows tinted by AutoTintNShine and removed the seats in order to utilise the storage space which is ideally situated between the axles and low down, all of a sudden the Azalai looked cavernous. Plus removing the seats reclaims 60kg of payload!
We had to then try and obtain 8 months of self-care equipment for me. That entailed the rather odd task of working out how many times I’m going to pee between now and the New Year and what sort of ‘bowel regime’ (a term generally reserved for spinal community dialogue amongst the initiated) I was going to employ over the whole overland trip. The conclusion is that we can just about carry everything we need – which frees us up from having to be tied to addresses to get stuff couriered over.
Dean at Riviera Signs added the last few decals from supporters.
OEC sourced us another spare wheel and a couple of jerry cans (the former was a good deal and the latter are needed to empty the auxiliary tank before shipping). We have the weight capacity now that the rear seats are out.
That was the last of the planned prep taken care of, before we took the Azalai to Pentalvers, Tilbury Docks, for shipping to Durban.