Trans-Europe Express

[Apache]

Got back this evening having been in North-Eastern Spain two days ago. Pretty wiped out now, but overall an amazing experience, even I suppose including the mechanical woes, and the 'adventure' of sorting it out in a part of Spain where basically no english is spoken.

Anyway, here's a few pics, more to follow, and more of the story probably tomorrow.


Waiting for the rest of the group in a small French village towards the atlantic end of the Pyrenees. Clockwise from right is 'spanner Dave', Callum, Neil (Disco owner and all round excellent chap), the better half of the Atlas Overland team, Debs, Boyo, 4Runner Pete, and Pete (Boyo's bro)


The Apache above the clouds. 5000ft or so up, above the clouds on a generally dull day down below.


The Lovely Boyo Gin Palace at 5000ft


Pyrenean mountains poking through the clouds.


One of the many big drops. A mistake on this track would see you with time to write a goodbye letter before you hit the bottom.


Pretty river. The mountain in the background was a home to many eagles of 6' - 8' wingspan.


A chinwag in the middle of a wide river crossing.


4Runner Pete during the crossing. Lovely wide river, about 2ft deep at most but filled with big boulders which would cause big problems if you took the wrong line


The Gin Palace launches. If you look carefully, you might catch a glimpse of pipe smoke and stringback driving gloves.


Spanners brings the Apache across. I was thigh deep in the water taking pics at the time.


Apache cooling its wheels - probably didn't help the bearing seal!


Narrow pass between two mountains on the way down from an abandoned village at about 3500ft.


Callum and the Apache at the Millau Bridge. I'll post a vid of this when I get round to it. Stunning structure!

More tomorrow.

[The Lovely Boyo]

3057 miles in 15 days - yay - 1000ish to Bayonne - 1000ish across - 1000ish home from Barcalona

Barcelona to Porthcawl - 1050 ish miles in 25 hours sort of non stop - long way

Apache getting his feet wet - priceless



More mountains



More to follow - off to bed now

[KERRSURF]

Welcome back lads, glad you are all home safe and sound.

great pics, looks fantastic, looking forward to more of the story.

[MattF]

I'll second what Alan said.

[POPEYE]

Fantastic trip!! i'd love to do that, beautiful scenery

[Apache]

Stunning indeed whether you're on or off road. One thing I will say though is it's absolutely shattering to the crews and the vehicles. I changed my oil before going, but the high temperatures, huge climbs (try 5000-6000ft climbs with no let up!) and generally high mileage mean my oil is now completely fried! I'm sure some of the other fluids are similarly useless now too, so when I've chilled out a bit, I'll be giving the old girl a good service - same goes for the truck

Having had a fairly serious breakdown in a part of a country where virtually no english was spoken, I have a few things I've learned to pass on which may be useful to others contemplating a similar trip.

When it became clear that it was likely the wheel bearing was going to fail catastrophically very soon, we had to accept we would be stuck without the support of the rest of the group as they needed to move on to stay on schedule to reach the Med. Things that helped.

1) A laptop with wireless access. Some of the bigger campsites have this facility. We were able to find part numbers, 'how to fix' type things (thanks Boyo, Popeye) and even get offers of parts (thanks Lucan and Tony N) and importantly, translate information into the local lingo using google translate.

2) DECENT overseas breakdown cover. Tesco's cover (via Green Flag) was totally worthless, and I mean TOTALLY useless! I'll explain more later, but research this very carefully. OK, I made the mistake of going for the cheapest company I could find, and with hindsight I should have researched this much more carefully. If I had done, the issues would have been resolved much more quickly. Anyway, due to the hopelessness of the cover I had, we ended up having to organise getting the vehicle to the garage, sourcing the parts, and instigating the repairs ourselves. The hire car we were promised didn't materialise, and it wasn't clear what, if anything, we would be reimbursed for so we ended up transportless for 5 days in 37 degree heat in an area with no public transport. Dont make my mistake - READ THE SMALL PRINT!

3) Make sure your truck is properly prepared. This might sound obvious, and I thought we'd done all we needed to do. However, experience proved us kind of wrong. You can go crazy with spare parts, and I wouldn't recommend taking too much as it adds weight and takes vital space. I took the view that we would take parts that were feasible to replace with hand tools, which sounds reasonable sitting here at home. However, consider taking parts which may be difficult / expensive to source where you're going, where a failure will immobilise you (whether or not you can do the work yourself - its easier to hand the part to a local mechanic than try to get them to source one).

4) Make sure your cooling system is tip-top! 4Runner found this out after overheating on a few early climbs. We found the bottom 6" of the rad was solid with Salisbury Plain, and Boyo, Spanners and Pete spent an hour with the rad out of the truck rinsing it out in a campsite sink I'd recommend a tranny cooler as well. Anything that keeps the heat down is good. All of the Landys, the Troopie and us saw rising temperatures at times, but it remained in check by locking the box into 2nd. Perhaps auxilliary fans are worth looking at too.

5) Things I would do before I did this again - and I probably will.

a) Some sort of roller awning. Shade is vital. Some places were unbearably hot and shade was hard to come by.

b) A drawer pack / false floor in the back of the truck. You are carrying so much stuff, it becomes a real faff to have to scamble around looking for washbags, sunblock, tools etc when its 37 degrees and 80% humidity. Cargo nets on the inside rear side windows for the often needed niff-naff would have been really really handy, and will be implemented ASAP!

c) Throw away the bling. I dont have much, but it breaks.

d) VHF radio and CB. We used CB as did a few other trucks, but others had VHF. We borrowed a hand held. Very useful.

e) All Terrains. That kind of mileage would be hell on extreme muds, though mild muds like BFG MTs seemed to be OK. Put it this way, 6 out of 9 trucks were on ATs, and the muds were BFGs.

I'm sure I'll remember more in good time!

More pics soon.

[POPEYE]

Some good points made there, it's very difficult to know what "spares" to take on a trip like that as you say, whatever you take it always seem to be summat else that breaks, i think the best advice you gave there is a laptop with as much repair/parts info on it as you can get, at least then whatever machanic you go to can see whats what, guess many small village machanics rarely see surfs etc, so the info is invaluable to them, anyway well done, and all back safely,

[KERRSURF]

I think a stickie thread could be started with advice for folks wanting to do this sort of trip.
It could be added to over time as more and more people attempt these sort of trips.

[24Seven]

I'm buzzing just reading the reports, has anyone of you got the travel bug then? I was planning my next trip on the return ferry

Good advise about bling, drawers / storage and shade.

I changed my Rad before going on my trip and also found the old rad half covered in dry mud although you could not see this when installed.

[Apache]

A few more pics.


Travelling Spanner Discovered when I chanced to look under the truck on the second campsite. It had been there since taking a few turns off (yes off!) the torsion bars when prepping the truck a few weeks before going. Softer suspension is a must, so I figured I'd lose an inch of the 4" lift to improve comfort and suspension travel. That spanner travelled about 1500 miles under there!


The 'travelling spanner' award of 2009 is awarded to...


Le Mans! Woohoo!


Ultimate truck? Stunning vehicle!


The abandoned village of Janovas. The villagers were kicked out during Franco's dictatorship because he wanted to flood the valley for hydroelectricity. Once the villagers had gone, the buildings were destroyed so they couldn't return. Then Franco changed his mind and the valley was never flooded. The houses are now being returned to the relatives of the original villagers, and it will soon be redeveloped for them. Very sad story.


The church at Janovus


Three dubious looking characters cleaning Pete's rad on the campsite after some overheating moments. Was flawless after this.


Big drops


Ainsa Huesca old town


Ainsa Huesca old town


Ainsa Huesca old town


Ainsa Huesca old town


Approaching the Millau Bridge


The Millau from the other side

[POPEYE]

Ahah! traveling spanner!!! i still have a socket stuck on the exhaust pipe to manifold flange, that will prob be there when i scrap it

[goodcat]

Andy you truck looks the nuts out there in its natural habitat!
cant beleive you didnt drive Apache through that river yourself though!?
anyway it looks like a fantastic trip. i'd definately be up for something like this next year!
how many river crossing were there all in all mate?
Jay

EDIT: oh and thanks for the link! lol i typed it into the search box and it came up with nothing!?

[TobyJug]

looking very nice, jealous now....

[Apache]

cant beleive you didnt drive Apache through that river yourself though!?

That was about the 7th time through the river. Only fair I give 'spanners' a go

[Shalershasker]

This trip looks brilliant, never really thought about doing something like this, am now though, only just got my surf though, need to learn a bit more about it first I think.