No post in June!
I've been working hard (well I've convinced Sue that I am anyway) earning money for the trip.
The truck has progressed in that we have been living in it on and off (some weeks up to 5 nights in the week, some none) to test the systems and work out all the niggles - I've finished off some smaller bits in the living area and started on the aircon for the cab.
I'm waiting for some parts to be fabricated - a box to support the new comfy passenger seat and house the aircon evaporator (the bit that the cold air blows out of in the cab) and a bracket to attach the compressor to the engine. There's a local sheet metal company (New Holland) that have been good at these type of jobs (they made the gas box too). When this stuff arrives it'll be all-out to get the kit fitted before taking the truck to Bedford to have special hoses made up. Hopefully this will work - fingers crossed.
The mattress arrived the other day and is sitting in the hall waiting for me to organise someone to help us get it into the box - this is going to be hard work..... Sue got a roll of lino (seems to be called vinyl these days - and I thought that was a "record" - must be getting old!) - so I've got jobs to keep me busy.
We've bitten the bullet and mentally decided to take the ferry and skip Syria etc. A shame. Only thing is that the ferry company won't take bookings as they cancelled the service for the summer months - they keep telling us that they will "probably" be going again in October - but that's now been the case for a good few weeks. Hmmmmm.
It's going to be time soon to start getting the last bits of paper sorted - international drivers licences (they only last a year) - the "Carnet de Voyage" for the truck etc. The Carnet is going to be expensive - basically it's a guarantee that you won't sell the truck without having legally imported it in any country. Egypt tax imported vehicles at 800% of their value. That's a lot of money - the RAC do a Carnet - but it's going to set us back something like £6k to cover Egypt (we get 1/2 that back if we don't claim.....). The rest of the world ask for 150 or 200%, why on earth Egypt are so draconian escapes me, but that's the way it is.
I've been working hard (well I've convinced Sue that I am anyway) earning money for the trip.
The truck has progressed in that we have been living in it on and off (some weeks up to 5 nights in the week, some none) to test the systems and work out all the niggles - I've finished off some smaller bits in the living area and started on the aircon for the cab.
I'm waiting for some parts to be fabricated - a box to support the new comfy passenger seat and house the aircon evaporator (the bit that the cold air blows out of in the cab) and a bracket to attach the compressor to the engine. There's a local sheet metal company (New Holland) that have been good at these type of jobs (they made the gas box too). When this stuff arrives it'll be all-out to get the kit fitted before taking the truck to Bedford to have special hoses made up. Hopefully this will work - fingers crossed.
The mattress arrived the other day and is sitting in the hall waiting for me to organise someone to help us get it into the box - this is going to be hard work..... Sue got a roll of lino (seems to be called vinyl these days - and I thought that was a "record" - must be getting old!) - so I've got jobs to keep me busy.
We've bitten the bullet and mentally decided to take the ferry and skip Syria etc. A shame. Only thing is that the ferry company won't take bookings as they cancelled the service for the summer months - they keep telling us that they will "probably" be going again in October - but that's now been the case for a good few weeks. Hmmmmm.
It's going to be time soon to start getting the last bits of paper sorted - international drivers licences (they only last a year) - the "Carnet de Voyage" for the truck etc. The Carnet is going to be expensive - basically it's a guarantee that you won't sell the truck without having legally imported it in any country. Egypt tax imported vehicles at 800% of their value. That's a lot of money - the RAC do a Carnet - but it's going to set us back something like £6k to cover Egypt (we get 1/2 that back if we don't claim.....). The rest of the world ask for 150 or 200%, why on earth Egypt are so draconian escapes me, but that's the way it is.