Side track

Being remote has always interested me. There are two parts to this:
A) The silence of surroundings allows the quiet of your mind to be heard. I often relish time on my own - to just think. Not about anything in particular, just to be alone. I enjoy the absence of 'noise' in the form of people, media, communication etc. I like being unreachable. Selfish I know, but I want to be able to contact the outside world when I want, not the other way around. I would be somewhat upset if my feeling of isolation, watching a beautiful sunset in silence was interrupted by a call or text. I've worked hard to leave all the digital noise behind!

B) Making the decision to break the silence with a remote voice, picture, video or text just blows my mind. It seems only natural that this interest would shine in my work and hobbies. Mobile phones, satellite phones, satellite messengers, radio - it all allows you to connect over distance. It has that same old world romance of receiving a letter from a far away place - just a bit quicker these days. The distance however remains unchanged. The comfort that comes from a familiar voice, a photo from home, or a thoughtful email makes the isolation so much more special.

It stands to reason I would be be interested in this trip!

I can remember a very old McDonald's commercial where a kid (about my age at the time) made a remote control car go and get him breakfast. The car was fitted with video and audio to allow it to drive by remote from the kid's bedroom. The car travelled through various terrain on it's journey - I have a vague recollection of a corrugated pipe it drove through. It goes without saying that I instantly wanted something like this, even though as a young child I wouldn't have the resources or skill to achieve it.

When I was starting high school, I developed software for such a machine, even sourced the motors for the wheels, but didn't have the capability to mount them, or make a frame. Now I can ;-)

I digress... now, I've always been fascinated with the idea of real-time connection to somewhere else - I was probably the first person to own a web camera in my town. I made a remote control robot arm out of Lego Technic which I could control over the Internet. The Wooooohoooo moment where I saw my dog walk past my bedroom door in realtime, 30KM away, sitting in a school classroom seems like small fries, but it was the concept that was proved! I loved the capability.

This brings me to this weekend's project... wait, maybe the last few weekends.
It all started when I bid on some electronic kits which could switch relays, read voltages, temperature, light levels etc. I won the auction and built one of the kits. It's awesome, works as planned, but there's no point controlling relays and reading temperatures of the room you're in, you need to be remote for it to be awesome! As a kind of, 'half way there' build of my awesome roaming machine, I decided to build a self-sufficient, solar powered web cam. Webcams are boring, sometimes I agree, but they are more interesting when they are on the side of a mountain, 50+KM from civilisation.

Yesterday I prepared the laptop, box and batteries (Thanks to Brett for picking me up a 40W solar panel)
Today I installed it all and gave it a test. I've included pictures of the build below:

It's intended destination is the Clyde Mountain. It's not a particularly good view, but it's accessible without people accidentally stumbling across it and stealing it. I'm particularly worried about someone stealing it or vandalising it. It's currently located locally for testing, until I work out any kinks. I suspect no one will ever see it in this position and it should get a good 8 hours of daylight.

As a bit of a false start, it's been running since maybe 5:30PM, and both the batteries had only 11.4V in them (technically flat). They managed to recover .2 of a volt before the sun went down. By nearly 8PM the batteries were below 11.5V. This is the low voltage cut out on the solar controller, so the laptop was only running on it's internal battery.
I logged in and shut the laptop down at about 8:30. The sad thing is, I actually need to manually restart it in  this scenario. I suspect intend to leave the setup running with no load all day to restore the batteries to full charge (a state these batteries have not been in for two years). I suspect they may be slightly damaged as a result of sitting idle, but we'll soon see. I'll take a walk past it tomorrow night, check the voltages, probably start it up and see if it lasts the night.

As for power usage, I've budgeted:
- 1.1 Amp average power usage of the laptop (2.5AH @ 12V)
- 200mA for the serial I/O controller
- 30mA for the solar controller/charger/regulator

This site provides a wealth of tools for working out solar loads, positions etc.
http://www.rpc.com.au/products/services/faq-info/calc/calculator.html
I've just redone the numbers, apparently I will need more capacity to get through winter - oh well, it's an experiment after all. My 1.1Amp reading was with the screen at full brightness, with it off it should be considerably lower.

I also need to cut a hole for the webcam. Laughable I know that a webcam can't actually see anything, but I suspected the lack of power would see be come back in a day or two anyway.

No response - no excitement

I've emailed two Russian shipping ports who are reported to speak English very well - neither have replied in a week.
We've revisited the idea of doing the trip in reverse.

The risk and complication of arriving with a decent car at Magadan and not been able to get it shipped home is still daunting, and if this lack of correspondence is any guide, I can expect immense difficulty at the end of the trip, right when we need it least. I figured if we could use the one shipping company to get it from Australia to Magadan, then the likelihood of it going wrong would be far less. If there were complications, at least we would be fresher to deal with them. I can imagine no complications leaving the UK, if there is, we can discuss it, do paperwork etc. - all with no pressure or language barrier.

It's seemed obvious to all of you that the west to east direction previously proposed would have us rushing through Europe just to 'get into the trip' - just because we'd be saving our energy for the difficult parts to come. Going east to west will have us travelling at a relaxed pace from day one. Hopefully using any time gains to  leisurely drive around Europe on our way home.

A small concern  would be that I relied on the concept of testing the sat phone in the UK so that if there were any problems with Telstra's roaming agreement with Iridium we could source a dedicated Iridium SIM in the UK. I'm confident technically, there should be no difference, but it just takes one forum post suggesting that our carrier plan won't work outside of Australia to plant a seed of doubt. A quick Internet search has revealed no Iridium dealers in Vladivostok. It may be worth getting a pre-paid SIM, complete all the paperwork so that a quick email to a dealer will be activated in hours. I guess we could also test it in the airport on the flights over.

Another advantage of this east-west route is my parents will be in the UK/Europe as we arrive - somewhat of a welcome party. That should be nice. Imagine what we would look like, the car turned from a crisp white into dirt/mud grey.

Oh, and you can fly into and out of Magadan now! I've been checking flight trackers and sure enough, inbound and outbound flights. One punch in the guts, is the current temperature is -26C. oh my.
Doing the trip this way round will mean we start in June which is two month later the previously proposed.

Some quick calculations sees us travelling through the wettest, but warmest months. Mongolia in the wettest time with 10 days of rain per month. I'm not sure about you, but I'm now convinced of the need for an integrated camper. Only yesterday was I reconsidering that perhaps a more comfortable 4WD with a tent may be a good solution.

PS. I am now confident that sweetened condensed milk DOES go off if it's out of refrigeration once it's been opened. I don't think it's my imagination that its getting darker and increasingly bitter. It's funny because the tube came with us (unopened) on our two week trip which for half of it would have been above 30'c.

So not a super exciting or positive post, but a post nonetheless.

Test Drive

So we took a 1995 Diesel 70 series land cruiser for a drive this afternoon. It had 226,000KM on it, which is a few, but it would totally make the trip. It was a slight bit vague to drive, but this is what you get for high KM vehicles. 

It had a fiberglass high top roof, which was perfectly usable in Australia, but not applicable to our needs as it won't fit in a container, and will cost twice the money to ship. The design seems to prioritise sleeping up top, with only room for one down the bottom. I'd like to redesign this to fit two down the bottom. The design seemed to waste space in the kitchen - I suspect this was to cater for the huge Engel fridge that is normally there. Our fridge is not this large, so we could get much better use out of the space.

We tested the idea of sitting in the back in a typing/eating position, imagining that it didn't have the high roof, and it was possible- just. In most scenarios, you'll be able to stretch around a bit, but again, the purpose of this exercise was to see what our options were.

So our plan... or more like today's fleeting idea that I'll say is concrete, is to buy low KM troop carrier without the fiberglass roof (should be ~2.1M high), gut it and kit it out to meet our needs then ship it over.
Ideally I want something with 100,000KM or less. 150,000KM been the top of the acceptable range.

250,000KM feels like the limit of most cars with regards to drive-ability - everything seems wears out beyond that point. I figure we're buying however many KM's between purchase and 250,000KM.

Below are two videos of it, neither of them have sound:

It goes without saying that these things are tanks - totally indestructible. Although Cassie was nervous about driving it, she settled quickly into it's rhythm. Although it drove up Mugga Lane in 4th and a smooth 2000RPM - It could get taxing doing large distances with undulating hills and mountains. A turbo would make a big difference, and why not splash for the v8 turbo while we are dreaming. Oh, and coil front suspension would make a difference. It is typical of Toyota's, as they continue to improve on this proven design.

More camper van thinking

I never stop thinking, but who am I kidding, no one does.
Tom brought up an interesting perspective, how do we go about shipping the vehicle, it's 2.8M high.
Very valid point Tom - I've had to ask the shipping agent. I have no doubt it can be done as they often ship buses, Winnebago's etc. It does rule out shipping it in a container (2.27M), but this has a hidden advantage of nearly halving the shipping costs. The only downside is we cannot ship any personal effects in the car. That's not the end of the world, I think they are just concerned about theft. We would ship it with nothing in it. Perhaps we would chance shipping heavy stuff like recover gear that would be uneconomical to post. If it gets stolen, who cares.

I must say, I have fell in love with the 79 series camper idea. I'm not sure if it's more the appeal of the truck underneath, or the camper on top.... or perhaps the epic combination, but I just can't stop thinking about it.

I've since found out that these campers are sold on by Britz at around 250,000KM. I wonder if they would be worth looking into, or is that just too long in the tooth?

Enjoy the patronising video from Britz

The car has to go... and an awesome back flip

I drove the red car for the first time since we got back (seriously). Sure, it started first go, but I did turn it over a few weeks ago when I was testing Brett's on-board-diagnostics tool.

The amount of time between drives is perhaps indicative of how little I wanted to drive it. I drove it no more than 1KM and I was already sick of it. It labours around corners, rough as guts and noisy. It wanders all over the road and is really hard work to drive.
Today I fixed one of the mudguards, took out the drawers, installed the rear seat, cleaned out some more cables - it's ready for sale.
In fact, on my way down this morning to go do this work, I got a call, a guy from Yass is coming to have a look at it Sunday afternoon.

We just came from test driving a 2001 Pajero - I think it had the 3.2 petrol motor with 5 speed auto gearbox. It had 256,000 KM which is huge for a vehicle of this kind - and it shows. The gearbox was noisy, brakes were rubbish, 4wd didn't work... the list goes on. But, the whole purpose was to drive one of that model. Oh, and the battery was fail, so we stopped to have a bit of a walk around it (and try get the 4wd to work) and it wouldn't start again. We had to call the salesman to come out with the jump-pack. As a car, it was great. On several occasions both Cassie and I went, woah, we forgot we were driving a 4wd as it just feels like driving a car. The 3.2 petrol motor lacks torque. My current one is a 3.5 Manual, so it's almost like taking a double step backwards in terms of power.  Not everything is about power, but been able to hold highway speeds without your foot flat is a big deal. The auto gearbox was great, makes it great for stop start driving in places where we won't know where we are going!

OK, time for the back flip and the thought process that had us arrive at this idea. As we blogged about in previous posts, there were a few things we would change about our method of travel. We still want the freedom of a car - i.e not towing a trailer/caravan/camper, but we struggle to have enough space in what is essentially a passenger vehicle.

What appealed to our initial design of the bed in the car idea:
Security - We can just take off if we get startled in the night or we are asked to move on without packing up a tent/swag/camper trailer.
Weather - If it's teaming with rain, we can just climb over the seats and go to sleep
Off the ground - again, a weather and bugs consideration
Inconspicuous - doesn't look like we're camping.

Bad points of our design:
Weather/Bugs - If it's raining, although we can sleep, that's all we can do. It's difficult to read/laptop or just sit and talk. The same also applies with bugs - no matter how much repellent you have on, they still annoy the hell out of you. Although the sun has gone down, we usually like to sit up and unwind for a bit. Also can't get anything out of the drawers (food, clothes) if it's raining or if you risk letting bugs in. Cannot prepare a meal in this state.
No Table - seems fairly obvious, but we don't have a table. Makes it difficult to post blog articles sitting in the passenger seat. People would say 'just carry a table'... yeah but where?
Not enough fuel - Can only carry max of 70L + 10L Jerry can
Carrying water is difficult - It's a heavy, manual process every time we want some water we need to tip or syphon it into smaller containers.
No dual batteries - I know it's just a modification, but it's not getting done on this old car.
No privacy - could be fixed with curtains etc, but not a current feature.


We were thinking about how we would re-install our setup into a newer car, but as Cassie noticed, there didn't seem to be anywhere as many bolt holes as our car has.
OK so you might have guessed, the back flip is on our current camper setup. It's OK, but it's not seamless. We saw plenty of 70 series campers setup PERFECTLY on our travels. Most obvious outside features include fly screens and the high roof. The word fly screen just seems so luxurious to us! Fridge, sink, bedding, storage - all integrated perfectly. Water storage, LPG, 240V inverter... the list goes on. As we were having lunch, it dawned on us that we could either buy one setup, or set one up ourselves, but the experience seemed prohibitive. I've been doing some quick research online, and you can get 2007 70 series, all setup as a camper for less than $30K!
OK sure, the budget has blown out a bit, but seen as we'll be bringing it back, lets just consider it 'money tied up'... not a absolute loss.

See this link to see the rest of the photos: Here

As everyone knows, nothing is tougher than a 70 series land cruiser - period. Although my current vehicle has physical 4wd engagement, the newer Pajero's are electronic - there is something comforting about having a lever that does something, not waiting on flashing lights.
These have all of the concerns I've mentioned summed up - including:

50L fresh water, 180L diesel, Split rims, part time 4wd, snorkel, dual batteries, inverter, fly screens, cooker, fridge, beds, storage, v8 turbo diesel.
Even just talking about the topic of the trip, it all seems so much easier now.