And then there was the tyre....

High speed blow outs are not something you'd relish at the best of times but after the last few days of Taffy problems it came as no surprise that in single lane road, in the middle of Düsseldorf, at rush hour, travelling at nearly our top speed we should have one!

The fact that we'd just spent 4 hours in the Museum of Modern Art, much to Jons dismay, rounded the morning off nicely. Jon did toy with the idea of taking the remnants of the tyre to the museum and trying to sell it to them for a few bob to go with the TWO piles of bricks that they had on show but considered it too high brow to interest them.

Of course we caused more of a sensation when we bumped up on the curb right outside the Bundersbank and parked about 6 feet from the main entrance. Perhaps we should mention at this stage that we were on Tilly the tandem and not in Taffy and our top speed is 22kms! We actually found a bike shop nearby and they put a new tyre on and all was well!

The museum was a wonderful old courtyarded building with a modern roof covering the whole thing making it resemble the Reichstag a bit. Linda really enjoyed the exhibits and Jon decided he had just didn't get it at all. His favourite pieces being the completely black canvas which disappointingly was not entitled Black cat in Coal Shed, the two piles of bricks and the rumbling room with the stools in. There were some Picassos and Dali paintings too which set Jon off ranting on about those two having a lot to answer for....

We are still parked up on the quay and are next to a wonderful Action Mobil van shown above. The caption for the photo is "Both these vans have been to Egypt, but which one went on a fully escorted tour..."
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Hey Ho Its the Revenge of the Tanks!

After resolving the electrical issue in England we spent a lovely day in Calais and headed to Belgium to fill up with diesel. No sooner had we filled up as it began to pour out or the underside of the van! We examined the tank to find that fuel was leaking out of a 10 x 15cm plate on the rear top of the tank. This plate houses the 3 fuel pickups for our cooker and two heaters. These pickups go through the plate and In to the tank through 3 holes under the plate.

The plate had been siliconed and screwed to the tank and the silicone had reacted with the diesel effectively melting. This meant the plate was simply being held on to the tank just by screws, so once we had filled with fuel it just poured out between the gap. It also would do that every time we accelerated forcing the fuel to the rear of the tank. So, time to find another garage!

We were very fortunate to find DG Motorhomes who specialise in monster Sporthomes making Taffy look tiny! They spent a long while examining the tanks and then locating a plastic welding company for us. We visited Akaterm, the plastic welding company and they had a look - getting the MD to come down and give his opinion before agreeing they could help us. They arranged for DG to remove our tank on Tuesday and send an engineer to the garage to do the welding. That was Friday and so over the weekend we had to drive 800kms to lower the fuel ready for the work. The work was carried out Today. Just to add a bit of fun we found that the fixing nuts originally used were loose and couldn't make a fuel tight seal so an engineer was sent out to the nearest town to track down suitable replacements.

The tank seems to be fixed though we cannot fill it completely till Friday. To give you an idea of how much fuel we lost on each fill up our MPG suggests we lost around 30 - 40 litres for every 200 we put in.

Anyway in between driving from Belgium to Germany to Holland to Belgium to use our fuel up we had a lovely day in Geldern cycling and are now heading to make an Ebay delivery tomorrow night in Düsseldorf....
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Once more into the garage dear friends...

We've not even left England and we're already in the garage having work done! Our step,screen and 12 volt accessory socket stopped working. Jon took the dash to bits and we tested all the fuses and they were all fine. So we pulled in at a MAN garage in Maidstone and they tested the 24/12 volt transformer and they said it had blown. We saw them test it and agreed reluctantly to have a new one fitted at the bargain basement price of £400 (excluding labour),

We weren't really convinced by the transformer overloading and burning out as the fuse protecting everything hadn't gone, but we're not mechanics. Jon wouldn't let it lie though and made them retest the old unit once it had been removed, and guess what ...it worked fine.

So the new one was removed and the old one replaced- we're not sure what's going on but we're thinking a loose connection - though MAN say this is unlikely.

Of course this isn't the only MAN error we've had on the way down. Our dashboard computer which had a few errors in Jordan last year has already had two errors telling us the engine is breaking / blowing up / missing. This only happens when we are going up hill and stop accelorating as we get to the top. We've decided to ignore these for the Time being and see how they develop.

Anyway, we're now at Dover waiting to board the ferry, which on todays form is likely to sink so this may he our last blog entry - phew I hear you cry!


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And we're just about ready.....

With a week to go Taffy is still in the Garage getting tanks mended and a leak in the shower tray sorted out, our passports are still at the Emabssy getting the Visa for Azerbaijan and we're still waiting for our currency to arrive!  We haven't even got the 2kilos of cheddar yet!  Though I am relieved I saw the Heinz Baked Beans and Tea Bags being packed the other day.   We've only had about 6 months to plan all this and as usual we're cutting it all fine!  Still that's half the fun :-).

We've now begun our 'farewell tour' saying goodbyes to all our freinds and family, we've update the web site and now the blog and registered with LOCATE on the FCO website and we plan to be on the ferry week commencing 11th April.  No turning back now......