{"id":14726,"date":"2019-11-24T20:08:04","date_gmt":"2019-11-24T09:08:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ourpangaea.net\/?p=14726"},"modified":"2019-11-24T20:08:04","modified_gmt":"2019-11-24T09:08:04","slug":"tramp-reunion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ourpangaea.net\/?p=14726","title":{"rendered":"Tramp Reunion"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Did you miss me? Tramp and I reunite in Essex after five months apart<\/p><\/div>\n

I loved waking up that first morning back in good ole\u2019 Tramp. It felt very comfortable and familiar and cosy but despite the good vibes some things just weren\u2019t right.\u00a0 The temperature outside was below freezing and there was a thick layer of frost on the windows.\u00a0 The heater wasn\u2019t working, I was seriously cold and jet-lagged and it was still dark outside.\u00a0 And worst of all, Julie was almost 17,000 kilometres away.\u00a0 This can\u2019t be part of our Follow the Sun journey because all three of us aren\u2019t together.\u00a0 Instead, I\u2019ve come to England for a couple of weeks to do some much needed work on Tramp and get him ready for our adventures in 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The truth is that even though our big Ford F250 and\nsuper-duper camper are durable, reliable and exceptionally comfortable they\nhave also been worked pretty hard during our trip around southern Africa\nearlier this year and the repair list was getting a bit long.  We had shipped Tramp from Durban South Africa\nback up to Southampton in the UK where our good mate Gavin picked him up and\nbrought him back to Essex for a well-deserved rest.  <\/p>\n\n\n

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Gavin also owns a V2 camper, that’s how we met, but his is on a smaller Isuzu AT 35. The two trucks and campers cut a handsome pose in front of a docked lighthouse ship near Rowhedge, Essex<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n

But to get Tramp ready for our journey from London to Vladivostok Russia next year he needed some important work done on him.\u00a0 His tyres had worn down so bad in South Africa police tried (unsuccessfully) to extract a bribe from us to allow our trip to continue.\u00a0 The large 18 inch rim tyre for Tramp is common in the US but completely unavailable in Africa.\u00a0 Only one supplier had these specialist tyres in stock in the UK \u2013 Cooper Discoverer STT Pro, in case you care \u2013 and even though it was an aggressive mud-terrain tread rather than an all-terrain version we would have preferred we greedily grabbed six of them.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n

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Out with the old and in with the new – Tramp’s original tyres had covered four continents but were overdue for replacements – they are 275\/70R18 if you’re into tyres<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n

Tramp also needed four new shock absorbers and four new sets of brake pads, none of which are available in the UK.\u00a0 I had to order all these parts in the US and get them shipped to Gavin\u2019s house where I had a local Ford dealer in the regional town of Chelmsford (The Birthplace of Radio!) to install them.\u00a0 Chelmsford has a few things to offer the one day visitor, including a busy walking street lined with shops, their handsome stone cathedral dating back originally to the 13th<\/sup> century, and a decent museum on the history of the radio (really!).\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n

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The two large rear shocks were still in good condition but the front shocks were completely blown – in fact, we’re on our third set of front shocks<\/p><\/div>\n

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The English are very good at building old things, including this stately 13th century cathedral in Chelmsford<\/p><\/div>\n

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The walking streets of downtown Chelmsford provided plenty of colour and movement<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n

But there were many other issues that needed attention.  The fans in our ceiling leaked when it\nrained, the diesel cooker and heater weren\u2019t working (because we inadvertently\ntried to use high-sulphur diesel in South Africa), the fridge door wasn\u2019t\nsealing properly, there were problems with some of our cabinetry and most\nfamously (for us, anyway), the aluminium tray that is bolted to the chassis and\nholds the camper in place was still being held together by a large rachet\nstrap, courtesy of the brutal Sani Pass in South Africa.  <\/p>\n\n\n

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At first pass I would agree that drilling holes in fridge doors is not a good idea but I managed to safely install a clever little closing lock<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n

On top of all that I wanted time to catch up with Gavin and Emma and enjoy some of the local attractions in rural Essex.\u00a0 It was a busy two weeks!\u00a0 One night we joined more than a thousand people in the local village for the annual bonfire and impressive firework display on Guy Fawkes Night.\u00a0 A very English tradition, Guy Fawkes Night \u2018celebrates\u2019 his attempt to blow up Parliament way back in the 1605.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n

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Gavin and Emma live in a small little village in rural Essex but the local pub puts on a fabulous bonfire and fireworks display to celebrate Guy Fawkes Night<\/p><\/div>\n

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And speaking of the pub, the historic Bell Inn is headquarters for the social scene in the village<\/p><\/div>\n

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A sight for sore eyes – Gavin and I met with some of his mates at the pub and enjoyed a pint…or two…of Oscar Wilde Amber Ale<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n

At this time of year England is not at its best.  Winter is setting in, the temperature hovers\nonly a couple of degrees above freezing, people are rugged up in their blues\nand blacks, the sky is usually grey with light breezes and occasional rain or\ndrizzle.  The rich fertile fields are\nbrown, having been ploughed under for their winter hibernation.  The only bright side of November in England\nis that most of the trees are still changing their colours.  Many of the narrow rural roads lined with\nhigh thick hedges and overhanging trees give the feeling of driving through a\ngreen, yellow and orange rainbow.  That\u2019s\nnice.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The narrow rural roads of Essex were lined with trees and hedges changing colours with the seasons<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n

Each day I had scheduled a major fix-it job which required booking Tramp in for some external work followed by numerous smaller jobs that Gavin and I could accomplish in the comfort of his enclosed courtyard.\u00a0 Along with the new shocks and pads, I had the Webasto diesel cooker fixed (again) and Lester the Welder welded back together our heavy duty tray that the camper sits on.\u00a0 We engineered a latch to keep the swinging door of our fridge closed, fixed some of the spinning screws in our cabinetry and Gavin cut a ring out of one of my old tyres to be used as a protective layer between the spare and the brackets that hold it in place under the truck.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n

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Lester the Welder doing his magic on our tray, fixing a problem from shoddy workmanship back at its original construction<\/p><\/div>\n

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Gavin using an angle grinder to cut a ring out of an old tyre which I use to protect the new tyre bolted up under the truck<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n

One day I went to the large regional town of Colchester,\nwhich is said to be the oldest town in Britain. \nAfter I ran my errands I visited Colchester Castle which dates back to\nthe 12th<\/sup> century but was actually built on the grounds of a Roman\ncomplex that originates in the first century BC.  So Colchester has history and longevity cred.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Colchester’s impressive castle, now positioned right in the middle of this historic town<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n

And in between all this I was treated like royalty by Gavin\nand Emma.  Emma, who is a professional\nchef, cooked some beautiful meals and Gavin and I completed many tasks in his\nworkshop with his tools, plus I got to talk endless hours about trucks,\noverlanding and travelling the world.  As\nif that wasn\u2019t fun!<\/p>\n\n\n

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A fabulous English tradition – Sunday lunch at the local pub with a couple of pints<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n