Where do you want to go?

[badvibes]

A recent post by casey got me thinking again. Most of us probably have wanderlust. On a grand or lesser scale. I'm itching to go to Baja. Maybe next year. Can probably get a doable 2 week, 2000 mile + trek planned and put together. Part of it is to take the Rover and use it like it was intended, back country travel. So getting a 43 year old vehicle into shape to take a trip like this is a significant challenge. Did a few shorter, 300-400 mile trips in the truck this year. Made it home 5 out of 6 times under her own power. So where would you go? What trips do you have planned or dream about?

Jeff

[scott]

baja should just be a warm up. south america is what i want. maybe we can find some rover owning shellbacks out there that would take the old wog across

[PH4]

Start in Switzerland and work my way down to SA.

[greenmeanie]

Two trips:
1. Ship my 101 all the way as far north as I could in Alaska. Fly up and meet it. Point the blunt end south. Keep going until I run out of land in Chile. Do a few detours on the way.

2. Take truck and drive across Europe. Once I'm fat and happy on good food beer and wine cross over into the old Eastern Block countries and keep going across Siberia until I run out of land. It looks like a great place to get lost.

Now if I was only rich and did't have to work for a living.

Cheers
Gregor

[casey]

If your interested in this thread, check out the My dream+ your dream, skies the limit thread.
-Casey

[tmckeon88]

Hey all -

I replied to Casey's query about getting a Rover in South America and driving back to the US. I did the Alaska - Argentina trip in my '69 IIA 88" in the fall of 2000. We started in Wiscasset, Maine and drove across Canada up to Alaska and made it partway up the Dalton Highway that goes to Prudhoe Bay. A rock thrown through our radiator forced us to turn around in Coldfoot, Alaska (great name) and go back to Fairbanks. But that was above the Arctic Circle and it was light all night, so I feel like we made quite it pretty far.

Our route south took us through thew western US and through Baja, which is interesting- very touristy in the extreme north and extreme south, very poor and bleak in between. Gas stations a bit thin on the ground too, so if you travel there take some gas cans with you. We ferried over from La Paz and went through the high lands of Mexico and then through Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. Containered the truck to Ecuador while we flew, then continued down through Peru and Chile. One really notable place I'd like to go back to is the Atacama Desert in northern Chile - the driest place in the world. There are areas that have never had recorded rainfall. Pretty amazing place, plus occasional space-alien drawn lines etched into the ground! Also lots of off-roading opportunites. We were fairly wimpy about busting out into the remote wastes because we had only so much time and money and our little, creaking 88" had to last us all the way to Tierra del Fuego, but even driving along the regular highway was pretty incredible.

Also awesome was southern Argentina/Patagonia. We ended up driving back north as far as Buenos Aires and shipping the truck home on a roll on/roll off sort of ship (during which passage all my tools were stolen, but I consider myself lucky nothing worse happened).

My advice - get out there and go somewhere, even if it's just into the woods around home. If you break down there are usually tons of people willing to help the 40 year old Land Rover get back on the road. We found people in the most out of the way places who welded axles and gear shift levers, cleaned out gas tanks, fixed broken steering gear bolts and generally kept us on the road. The Rover is still my daily driver.

I'd like to get back out on the road again too, if it weren't for gas costs and obligations like earning a marginal living teaching in public school. Still, there are the summers....

cheers,
Tom

[msggunny]

BACK TO AFRICA!

[PH4]

MSGGUNNY, how long were you there and where? Just curious. It has always been a plan of mine to ship my Series back to Switzerland and drive from there to South Africa. Any interesting tales or photos appreciated by me and I am sure others.

[Les Parker]

How about The Hague to Siagon? That would encompass all sorts of cultures and a variety of scenery .......
.

:eek:

[alaskajosh]

To me an exotic destination is your guys' backyards.. Utah, Arizona, California, Colorado.

Alaska is a miserable place for off-road exploration. There just aren't many roads/trails off the main arteries. Too much is locked up as park-this and Federal-that.

I'd like to cut my teeth in the SW states and maybe venture south of the border on subsequent trips.

[scott]

josh

give a hollar when you're heading this way. badvibes will confirm, we've got some outstanding crawling, camping and just plain rov'n fun only minutes from our homes

[alaskajosh]

I'll definately look you up, Scott. I'd like to chat with an 8404 HMC!

Also, I might be looking for somewhere to leave the rig. I'd like to come down for a month or so over several years. The problem with bringing the landie home every time is that I'd spend at least two weeks of every trip just in transit. If I found some place to leave it I could just pick up where I left off the next spring.

Nothing planned until spring 2009 anyway. I'm just going to stick to AK tripping this coming summer... work out any bugs.

[I Leak Oil]

While I'd love to visit other parts of the world, I haven't seen the majority of the lower 48 yet! My trip would start here in MA, head west to try some trails and tourist stuff in the Dakota's, on to Montana, and turn south when I get to the Pacific Northwest. On my way south I'd try the famed Rubicon Trail, visit a long time friend in southern Cal. Head east to try as many of the SW trails in NV, AZ and UT. Head up to Colorado and east to FL to try some of the deepest mud in existance! Up through the Mid-Atlantic to home. I'd try to find trails along the way and meet up with other rover enthusiasts as much as possible. Some day......
Jason T.

[msggunny]

MSGGUNNY, how long were you there and where? Just curious. It has always been a plan of mine to ship my Series back to Switzerland and drive from there to South Africa. Any interesting tales or photos appreciated by me and I am sure others.

I lived in Uganda for 2 years and Zimbabwe for 1. Went all over Uganda, except for the far north where Koni and the LRA were matcheting people.

Did a few trips in Zimbabwe too, but didnt travel as extensively as in Uganda.

Search around here, i did a write up with pictures on it.