Jabs

Really proud of Rachel today as she womanfully faced her longstanding needle phobia at the Travel Health Consultancy in Exeter. Of course she has little choice in undertaking this trip as the list of jabs is quite onerous (though necessary). To be fair she was already in the van en route before she asked “So are we actually having injections today?”. I think I managed to conceal my smirk OK!

So why The Travel Health Consultancy? You might remember that we first met James Moore at a local Royal Geographical Society event held at Blundles School last year. James gave a fascinating talk about his career in expedition medicine and afterwards we gleaned details of his company in Exeter. It was quite clear from listening to him at the time that he knew what he was talking about, plus he was obviously enthusiastic about the field.

We can vouch from today’s visit that his advice was current, tailored and comprehensive. I’m not entirely convinced that you will always get the same ‘level of detailed consideration’ at a GP surgery, and the cost is equivocal. (NB James did highlight which jabs we should obtain on the NHS  [free at the point of delivery] via the GP and we will of course be following up on this). For your interest I’ll post the full schedule when we have it confirmed – we have three more dates with James and one (at least) with the GP. Today was the first Rabies and Hepatitis B.

I did ask James whether travellers generally budgeted for vaccinations – and it seemed to be that most people get there in the end; although it might not be a cost that people factor in initially. He made the point that if boosters are kept up to date, then given that the jabs remain protective for many years, they are good value. Personally anything that mitigates risk and reduces the likelihood of [distracting] problems on the road is good value in my book. We can wholeheartedly recommend James and his colleagues at the Travel Health Consultancy.

Breakdown on the M5

So we were driving the Defender up today for our much looked forwards to Driver Training with Land Rover at Eastnor, but didn’t even get quite as far as Somerset before it lost power and we had to pull over onto the hard shoulder. Initially I thought it was a problem with the fuel line feed. The first guy to arrive [following a call to Landrover Assist recovery service] looked pretty nonplussed and determined that the wagon needed recovery. By this time a few cold and wet hours had passed and we got the recovery driver to take us to OEC in the hope that there was a quick fix and we’d still be able to get up to Eastnor. However when taking the fuel lines off and cranking the engine revealed fuel was flowing we were all pretty much perplexed. A few phone calls to various ‘Land Rover people’ (thanks due to Ashcroft Transmissions and the mechanics at Roger Young Ltd)  identified the symptoms though…..

viz Following loss of power whilst driving + Vehicle cranking but not firing + Temp gauge of the scale even though the engine is cold = a recognised problem [with Puma engined Defenders] due to, “An engine management fault. The vehicle will need a main dealer’s diagnostic tool to remedy it.”

Luckily it is a warranty repair (at less than 900 miles on the clock too)

Tomorrow, the Defender will be taken on a trailer down to Roger Young LR Ltd in Saltash tomorrow from OEC. We did think about car hire etc but pragmatically we need to oversee the Defender being transported and fixed (even if you could find a hire car in Torquay out of hours).

We are both really gutted as we were obviously looking forward to what was clearly going to be a crucial couple of days of top class training. Equally we are very disappointed in having to let people down with no notice. It really has been ‘one of those things’ that has bitten us (I’m trying to look at it this fatalistically otherwise I think I would be just too annoyed).

With introverted regard to our project it’s a real shame as we were then going on to Oxford Sat, Sun for Wilderness Medicine Training (hoping to sort something out for that – repair, car hire or train….. fingers crossed) and it would have been a good four-days ‘shake-down’. On the plus side at least we’ve shaken out this fault!

On the plus side the locking pins have been resolved by Paul on the tail-lift and it is just about ready to fit. That really is good news.

There’s always snags

As the avid follower will know we didn’t have the best of days yesterday. The Defender broke down on the way to Driver Training with LR at Eastnor and needs some main dealer TLC to sort out what appears to be an Engine Management System gremlin (the irony made us laugh though) and then when we did get back home after the myriad of trailers and lifts (Thank you Anton @ OEC – really appreciated) – our (albeit old and long-serving) laptop had decided to fry itself and is now very much dead!

The Defender repair will be warranty, but the laptop is outside the planned budget – however it is nonetheless [in our opinion] too essential not to replace for en route blogging, video, pictures and peripheral before and after presentations and talks etc….   Very much two steps forward on backwards at the moment! It looks like the reserves will need an unwelcome, premature tapping if we are going to be able to keep you all up to date from Deepest Darkest…..

On the plus side a good old rugby friend and supporter of the Indlovu Drive, Rob Cooksley, has offered to assist with a lift from Reading to Oxford, should we need it to get to the WMT training this weekend. Thanks Rob – legend stuff and we may well be in touch.

Also we are hopeful that Land Rover will be able to rearrange the Driver Training – it is definitely something else that should not be compromised upon – especially given the quality and reputation it has and the fact that it’s readily available to us here in Blighty.

Remember – there’ll ALWAYS be snags

Breakdown update

Roger Young Ltd have established that the Azalai’s problem is not the Engine Management System (which is reassuring) – rather it is an electrical short somewhere which is blowing a fuse every time the engine tries to run. The symptoms to [the rare] EMS problem were the same as it presented, but it’s more likely “a loose wire somewhere”. It also looks like the small oil leak can be attributed to the gearbox. OEC have aranged for Paula to be trailered back to them so they can tidy up these snags. It will also give them a chance to fit the tail-lift too.

In the meantime we have booked a train to reading and accommodation in Oxford to make sure we can attend the Wilderness Medicine weekend course. Rob Cooksley (who has already made a great donation to www.motivation.org.uk) is kindly going to ferry us from Reading to Oxford.

We will need to work out how to get up to James at the Travel Health Consultancy next Tuesday for the next lot of jabs.

The real bummer is losing the LR Driver Training and four nights proving time in the van. At least the snags seem readily resolvable though! Poor old Paula, she has probably, since leaving the factory, done more miles on a trailer than on the road!

As an aside I’m very much looking forward to giving a presentation about the project to the 10th Torbay Sea Scouts next week. The Scouts are a great organisation and I hope that the venture will be of some incerest to them.

The other positive news is that the laptop looks like it can be revived with a new battery at £100 rather than a whole new computer. One of our aims is to share as much of the trip over the Interweb as possible – so it is essential kit. I just hope that he battery arrives in time for the Scouts!

Breakdown – the cause and remedy

Picked the Azalai up from OEC today. The breakdown was apparently caused by a wiring loom contacting with the [transplanted] auto box’s oil feeds and consequently being melted. Paul [at OEC] was surprised that the transmission oil ran that hot; but he has now secured the loom away from the pipes so all appears to be fine. OEC have subsequently recommended to Ashcroft Transmissions that it might be worth adding this step to the fitting guidance. It is worth noting that it’s still early days of making this adaptation to the Puma TDCi Defender. The oil leaks were the same pipes’ attachments too – obviously a few cycles of running has bedded things down as they’ve expanded and contracted. They all took a bit of crimping up and again that is now cured.

Paul is making a few finishing touches to the tail-lift and the Landie goes back next week for fitting. Job done.

Second course of vaccinations today at The Travel Health Consultancy – Rabies and Yellow Fever. We discussed the WMT Course ‘Wilderness Medicine for Explorers’ that we undertook last weekend. James Moore of THC is also a lecturer for WMT. The course was certainly as comprehensive as promised and clearly will be invaluable to anyone who is planning to stray away from the beaten track – especially if responsible for the wellbeing of a group.  The delegates were all pretty cool too – once again many of them doing some pretty incredible things with modest understatement. For our purpose, it has given us a good sense about what is and is not to be expected in both preventing and rectifying detrimental health! Further the course equips you with the power to obtain some antibiotics and medications to use on the road. Thoroughly recommended.

The only downside was the inconvenient truth that fatness and alcohol are predisposing factors in most of the bad things that were under discussion.

The 10th Torbay

Just had a great evening talking to the guys and girls of the 10th Torbay Sea Scouts. They were a super audience and sat through at least 45 minutes of presentation before asking lots of really good questions. We covered planning for the trip, expedition health and vaccinations, the budget, how young people can make use of grants and opportunities to go on expeditions of their own; as well as focusing on Motivation.org,uk and the importance of their work in the developing world. Rachel then showed them around the Azalai, patrol by patrol. The 10th are hoping to use our trip to help them work towards their International Badge. Certainly we’re keen to help them as much as we can.

Thanks to Skip’ and Richie Hale for the invite and to all of the Scouts for their hospitality and attentiveness.

Best realisation, “What no telly, X Box or PS3 for eight months?!” Don’t worry guys we’ll live!

Tail-lift fitting

Took the Azalai up to OEC today so that Paul can fit the tail-lift. He was painting it today, but will be spending the rest of the week fitting. He seemed pretty confident regarding the main hardware and attachment to the chassis, but thought that if anything was going to make him run past the weekend it would be routing the hydraulics. I honestly can’t wait to see this finished and in place. It is genuinely the gateway to using the vehicle fully, as intended (for me). I really do appreciate the thoroughness and diligence applied by OEC for this aspect of the project and I’ll be reporting on the final results as soon as they are tested for the first time.

The fitted tail-lift and decals

OEC will also be fitting some rather funky decals that they have had made. Hopefully these will feature in posted pictures soon.

I am still trying to get a few competitive quotes for shipping, and ideally from an agent that can help with things both here and in RSA. So far only one is making any real sense! I’ll write a bit more on the experience of this when we have booked (so as not to upset the very wobbly apple-cart). It’s not the plain sailing that I thought it would be (see what I did there?)

The Carnet application has been lodged with Paul Gowen at the RAC too.

I am doing a talk tomorrow to the Wellswood ‘Thursday Club” in the local church hall. It really is proving to be one of the big positives of our experiences so far – getting to meet lots of different people and audiences. I just hope that what we have to say is of interest to everyone.

Thursday Club

A new audience for the latest talk, the ladies and gents of the ‘Thursday Club’ at St Matthias Church, Wellswood. Attentive and kind though they were, I am sure that they would have been at least equally interested if I’d filled the slot with (more) pictures from previous wildlife shoots – compared to the normal, valid, ramble into plans for the expedition. Thinking ahead, I also wondered whether they’d get more from a post-trip talk (following our return to the UK). People are interested in the venture thus far – but I’m increasingly feeling that we are peddling snake-oil when pressed to extrapolate ahead! Perhaps I’m just getting keen to go – like I say most people are interested; I’ve heard the talk before several times though! There was a lot of interest in Motivation and importantly, the need for their work. Hopefully somewhere down the line it might result in donations for the charity. Thanks to Joan and all at the Thursday Club for their hospitality.

Our shipping quote is being prepared. Hopefully it will cover assistance at the Durban end too. The advice is to allow four to five weeks for transit.

We’re also due to collect the Azalai from OEC tomorrow. Paul is going well in fitting the lift and hydraulics, but has found the process “fiddly” in as much as it needed to be completed to a symmetry and ensure equal stresses on both rams. We will definitely need to get out and bed this down in the time remaining before shipping. The extended prep time meant Rachel had to postpone her first mechanic sesh with Dave Webb….       ….I continue to stress the diminishing time.

Tail-lift on

Spoken to Paul at OEC – The lift is on, but he’s ordered a reducing valve (“should be here today”). The lift is going up well, and Paul reported that he’s, “Really pleased with it”, but the problem is “That it currently comes down faster than if it was just gravity!”

Should now be tomorrow, Friday latest depending on the courier. Also worth noting that the vehicle and Erberspacher exhausts needed rerouting to accommodate the lift arms.

Departure booked

Sorry to have been neglecting the updates, but it’s been a bit hectic tying up a few loose-ends and coordinating everything to achieve our May departure date. Just today though (and forced by the rapidly diminishing accommodation options in Durban due to the Bank Holiday one suspects) things have become real.

Shipping: The helpful David Squibb at Kinetsu World Express (Plymouth Office) has coordinated a shipping plan – including loading the container with the vehicle, loading the container onto the vessel, shipping (25days), unloading the container, unloading the vehicle, clearing customs and collection from a warehouse in Durban. Estimated arrival first week in May.

Rachel has sent in her career break application.

My course of jabs has finished (Rachel has a couple of more dates with the needle).

Flights booked to arrive first week in May.

Hotel booked for 1/52 in Durban. Cheap and cheerful on the beachfront – a good introduction to keeping your wits about you if memory serves well – but generally OK in the daytime.

The tail lift went on to the Azalai last week and we had a weekend up in Exeter with Geraldine & Andy Bayliss as well as (on Friday) the delightful Emma Taylor – all Lions RSA Tour Vets from back in the day (the Guscott drop-goal and sambucca tour).

We went to watch the Exeter Chiefs stuff Leicester Tigers 35-10 (albeit a weakened Leicester as they stripped the squad for this Amlin Cup tie – still it was a stuffing and worth typing just for that). We parked the van in their driveway and tested the tail-lift thoroughly (no lost limbs even though wine was taken). Temperatures got down to below freezing outside and about zero degrees inside – but OK in bed. The Erberspacher (diesel heater for the pod) helped a little, but for all its jet like noise it was a little disappointing. The Wallas (heater blower from the cooker hob) seemed more effective. Might be a setting we need to check out in the instructions – otherwise I can’t see it getting too much use. Will update if we find anything.

Possibly we’ll get the tail-lift ascent turned a notch or two slower – but I can’t put into words how well OEC have done on this challenging engineering project. I did say that there was probably a story and publicity in that alone. Paul said, “Best not, I’m never doing that again!” I’m sure they can’t have made a profit – but they certainly, to their credit, they have proved a point.