The idea to drive home from Wimbledon to Kokstad started out as a bit of a joke at first but we soon made it a reality when we realised what an amazing adventure and challenge it would be. And so began the lengthy preparations and research which has consumed all our spare time for the past 15 months. We have always maintained that the success of this trip would be down to our preparations and planning before the adventure even begins.With the help of Foley's and Footloose4x4 we have totally modified our vehicle to suit our needs and get us through some very bumpy and non-existent roads with access to daily essentials such as clean water and electricity. Have a look at our planning pages for more details on what we have done.
We have gone on several 4x4 weekends with One Life Adventure in the Welsh mountains near
Machynlleth, Knighton and Llandringdod Wells. These weekends in Wales have not only been great fun but have also enabled us to do some challenging off road driving on a variety of terrains as well as quite a bit of vehicle recovery using winchs, tow ropes and highlift jacks. It also gave us a chance to test out our gear and refine our packing systems as well as weed out the gear that we can do without. On these trips we have met some great people and also picked up lots of tips and tricks.During the summer of 2007 we spent a day with Protrax doing a 4x4 off-road driver course in our own vehicle at Rockingham Castle in a disused sandstone quarry cutting with water, rock climbs and steep slopes. We certainly learnt a thing or two and it was well worth the expense!
Our EuroTunnel train ticket is now booked! - its a train that you drive your vehicle onto which then goes under the channel between Folkstone to Calais in just 35 minutes. We are set to depart on the 25th of May and will be on French soil by 09.00.
Our first night will be spend in Epernay which is said to be the capital of the Champagne region as its at the heart of the most prestigious vineyards. Our campsite is surrounded by 20,000 hectares of vineyards whilst in the town lie 200 million bottles of champagne ageing in 120km of cellars carved out of the chalk soil over hundreds of years.
On our second day we will drive to Dijon for some lunch (and mustard) and then head for Switzerland where we plan to spend the night near one of the big lakes. From then on we will see where the wind blows us ....
