Interesting Statistic

87% of Toyota's sold in the last 20 years are still on the road today...

It may be a throw away statistic, because most people do continue to repair cars... or scrap them so the statistic may be the same for any manufacturer.

OK, that was just a stepping stone to my next simple plagiarised topic.
"Why we are choosing a camper van"... as opposed to tent/swag/caravan/camper trailer.
-Instant setup. Doesn't matter if you arrive late to camp, or if it's teeming with rain - we can prepare a meal/relax/sleep straight away.
-Easier to select a camp site as you can just park, without needing to manoeuvre a van or have nice soft grass to sleep on. Rocks are not rough to sleep on in a car ;-)
-More economical.
-Wet ground and creepy crawlies are not an issue. Try convince your partner to sleep on the ground if you've just seen a scorpion, centipede, snake or spider. In our case, I think a car is better protection against black bears compared to a tent.
-Bail-ability. If something doesn't feel right, just start the engine and drive off.

Woah - is this the moon?

Had to share this video. This has to be what the moon is like:

It's a pity we won't be taking a nice comfy new 200 series land cruiser (as pictured above) however we should be happy we don't have to take the rattly old land rover (pictured second).

Non trip related issue

Well, indirectly it's trip related as it is a setback.

Today one of the work cars was broken into. It was one of a few parked on the road that were all damaged. For the great majority of the day, I was completely unfazed by this event. These things happen I said. That was until I called the insurance company - they want to charge a $~650 excess which I am struggling to remain peaceful about. When challenged, the unhelpful representative informed me that as the person that damaged the car can't be identified, I have to wear the expense. It shouldn't come as a surprise, as I understand their perspective, but when I've had 6 policies (3 I currently maintain) with this insurer and never made a claim... I struggle to see the justice. The policy costs ~$700/Year. Multiply that by all the years and I think they owe me. I will approach them with fresh perspective tomorrow to see if I get anywhere.
Initially I wasn't even angry at the thief who would have got all of $5 in change out of the car. But as I drove home in the freezing cold with a broken window in the car that I saved to purchase, service, clean and generally baby, my concern for the welfare of the individual or individuals is gone. There is glass everywhere. For seats that have never had anything spilt on, carpets that have never been uncovered, to see glass shards through everything - it's heart breaking to say the least. I'm confident I'll be finding glass for years. All for what... $5?! Thanks - *feel free to insert your own expletive*

I can't help but wonder, what you would do, if you saw the perpetrator. I imagine that otherwise placid individuals, would quickly see the situation accelerating into the perpetrator's head getting smashed on the kerb with whatever they used to damage your belongings. How are people raised with such disrespect and lack of regard for other people. I really don't know. Well, I have my suspicions, but here is not the place.

In the whole scheme of things, it's the tiniest event known to man. But, much more than the minor inconveniences of this event, is the lingering concern, that these people are still breathing and no doubt breading this filth into society.

Has anyone seen Gran Turino?

Video Testing

It occurred to me that if we are to have an awesome video camera, that we need to make sure we have enough power to edit it on the road.... unlike the technical disaster that was the 'Car PC'. It didn't have enough power to play 720p videos let alone edit and render them.

I've downloaded some AVCHD clips and intend to manipulate them together to make sure the laptop is fast enough. Most high end Panasonic & Sony camcorders record in AVCHD (After all, the format was developed by both of these players in partnership).

You might wonder why I suspect it'll be an issue, well, its a lot more data...

Click on this diagram to see a graphical representation of how much more data there is in 1080p as compared to even 480p broadcast footage.

From some rough numbers, the difference in data between 480p (Digital TV) and 1080p is roughly 7 times more data. This has flow on effects in the ability to store, process, render and upload 7 times more data.

I've been trying out numerous editing packages on the laptop to make sure they are quick enough. I'm glad I did:
-Adobe premier 8 was unable to work with AVCHD footage fast enough to be useful.
-Adobe Premier 9 was nice and fast until another layer was introduced, rendering it unusable.
-Windows Live Movie maker was flawless, working super fast in every scenario. It's a bit basic, but may suffice for our 'on the road' editing. It covers 90% of what most people would want to do with footage.
-Sony Vegas 10 was also awesome, not having any issues whatsoever. The odd thing is that I get hopeless performance on the desktop at home which should have more than double the power.

I think when we're actually travelling, our attitude towards compiling video may be very different.
Hardly anyone has the bandwidth to stream full HD video, and of the select few that do, hardly any of those will choose to watch in HD. I suspect we will capture all our video in full HD, but only upload regular SD quality. I imagine the availability of fast broadband in our destinations will severely limit our ability to upload large high quality videos anyway. And as you've read in previous posts, even a single photograph will take minutes to upload on the sat phone, so video is out of the question all together.

The hidden advantage of not publishing HD footage, is that when we show the good footage to family and friends, it will take on a whole new level of realism, resulting in a totally new experience.



I've provided a video which is completely boring, but gives you the opportunity to view it in standard 360p, all the way up to 1080p by clicking on the '360p' at the bottom of the video.

Story with pictures

To clarify the purpose of this post for those just joining us, this is setting up the two tanks, one is a fresh water tank, one is a grey water tank. Grey water is a fancy word for what comes out of the sink.

So, after TWO HOURS in the freezing cold hardware store, trying to select the correct pieces, this is what we ended up with:



Here is the first beautie. This is for the fresh water tank. It's a hose joiner, with one end of it coupled onto the 1/2" pipe. You can see it reaches to the bottom of the tank but short enough to turn freely in the tank without hitting the sides or bottom which would put additional stress on the connector/cap/glue when screwing the cap on and off. Once the glue dries and it can be tested, I'll put a pinhole in the cap to allow air back into the tank to prevent problems sucking up the water. This will also faciltate the tank's need to expel/absorb air to accommodate pressure differences due to temperature or atmospheric pressure changes. It will be small enough that no measurable water can be lost. Seriously - a pin hole.

I never seem to have much success with Araldite, maybe I don't use enough? Maybe I don't mix it properly. But the prevailing thought is that I don't wait long enough for glue to dry - I'm always too excited to test it. I think my hasty glue use will result in me packing inside the cap for the fresh water container with silicone.


Time for some bling! This is a normal hose connector with a twist, literally. The orange bit is a tap, allowing us to close off the water prior to changing tanks. This will greatly reduce the amount of water we will wear as we disconnect the hose from the tank. Without it, all the water from the the filter and pump could probably drain out. I suspect the way the pump works may eliminate this need, but hey, why not.


ok, on to the grey water tank. This is a tap adaptor. It goes without saying that I don't have the correct tool or skill to do this job like a pro, but the method I used worked well enough. I used a 1.5mm drill bit to 'pepper' the area I needed to cut. Then a 'quick join the dots' with the Stanley knife and I ended up with a nice rough hole. It's been glued in as well, but the glue seems to be taking much better to this bond for some reason.


 



Last but not least, a pic of the 1/2 hose, into the provided 1/2 to the 3/4 barb connector on the pump.
I'm surprised there is no flow indicator on the pump. Maybe it's reversible but, only through testing we were able to determine the flow path. I've totally forgotten again - damn, it'll need another test!

Welcome some comments about storing these tanks when they are empty. We asked each other what was the best practice - neither of us knew, so we left the lid on to stop dust getting in. Well, they seem to have developed some brown discolouration I can only assume is mould. I've bleached and washed one of them out, but suspect it's a goner now. Oh well, it can be the grey water tank and I'll buy another fresh water tank.

Everything and the kitchen sink

This is really starting to look like a shopping blog - sure, I guess it will for a while, but once we're on the road, I'm sure we'll actually talk about the trip.

So the pile of cool stuff just keeps growing. I have been researching goodies on this caravan/camper website which has heaps of cool stuff. I wanted their email address to drive a bit of a bargain with how much stuff I was buying (hey, it costs nothing to ask!). They wouldn't budge an inch, but I was prepaid to pay $40 more for the pump to buy it from Australia as opposed to the UK. Well, would you believe this website's warehouse was in Queanbeyan! So, here is our sink:

 Notice the right angle 'waste' thing. The right angle one was 3 times the price, but I may end up needing one as the design comes together in reality.
Pretty cool eh! I even bought the plug. It's some kind of resin, so it's light, cheap and small! I wanted one with a washing up draining board, and this one fits our limited space requirements perfectly! The depth of the unit was the only dimension missing - what do you know... fits TO THE MILIMETER behind the facia - that was pure ass. Also just checked that the bowl will fit in the section I need it to... again perfect fluke.

The 20mm pipe was super stiff and there was no way it was going to fit over the barbed end. Ran some hot water through it, sure enough a few minutes later it went on, with still that reassuring resistance that tells you it's never accidental coming off.

The fine line on the ground is the water pipe after also being heat treated to get it out of the tightest curl I've ever seen. I'l let it cool straight overnight and hopefully it's more usable.

 It goes without saying this was the first thing to get played with. Stuffing the little 10mm barb connector with some pipe, we headed off to the sink and gave it a whirl. It's super fun, and the pressure cut-off makes me suspect I may not end up using the super cool blue momentary switch I talked about before, but rather just a toggle switch to override this so it doesn't wake us up in the middle of the night if the pressure drops a bit.

Here's the tap and water filter. The tap has three positions. Off, Momentary press down and up which locks it on. Very cool.

To add a bit of meat to this post as I was walking to the car with my arms full of gear, it occurred to me that this stuff only had one purpose. It was for our trip. Sounds ordinary, but I can't think of anything else we have that is purely for this trip! (Don't get me wrong, we will be using this gear for other trips around the place)
That feeling coupled with the though that this is going into a car we don't have that we'll be taking this gear around the world... and relying on it to work was overwhelming. It's like I almost don't believe it'll happen.
It brings to surface so many sinking feelings about the trip:
-Will we actually get there?
-Will I be able to leave work?
-I can't believe we won't have insurance
-Will we be able to do all the paperwork?
-Will we actually make it?!
-Will this exercise be the biggest waste of time money and emotion I've conceived this far?
The thoughts were running like a torrent through my head - and I must say, every one of them still feels as valid now as it did at 3PM today walking between the warehouse and the van.

It's getting far too cold to be on the computer typing (shivvvvveringgg...), so I'm off to bed. Night.

The power point

As mentioned in the last post, I am assembling some old used parts to make the inverter more useful for our needs (without permanently damaging it as previously proposed)

Here is the assembled unit. The idea is that the plug in the background will plug into the inverter in the last post. The black box will be behind the fascia and is in place to prevent a any chance of coming in contact with the back of the power point. Considering it's completely out of the way and seldom ever live, it's unlikely someone would get electrocuted, but for $7 why risk it! 

Because the wire in even a 10AMP thick power cable is so thin, I cut the insulation back 50mm and folded the wire in thirds to make it nice and thick.

 After they were folded, I 'tinned' them with solder to make them relatively solid.

Here it is all assembled. Note the large knot in the black wire to reduce any accidental strain on the cable.
Also notice the connectors above the blue wire, these will actually be used to directly switch the 12V required for the inverter. I'm sure some electricians would frown on this, but hey. It seemed super logical to switch the inverter on/off right next to the power outlets. Considering the 12V input for the inverter is quite high amperage, it made sense to use a provided heavy duty power switch.
It feels nice to reuse stuff we just had around the place. I can't even remember where the power point came from, but it's been in the garage for years unused. And who doesn't have an old appliance which is destine for landfill  Give me the cord!

The above was actually an exercise, so I don't want to hear any comments about how the active/neutral might be the wrong way round. I used the thicker cord, but unfortunately it had a UK plug on it (so it was heading for the bin anyway) I will be redoing this when it comes time to actually install.

I stumbled across Tristan from high school today when sourcing the black box. I asked if he'd seen 'Long Way Round' to which he replied it was his favourite thing ever. It goes without saying that his eyes lit up when we mentioned we were doing the trip in reverse.

Today I made some offers on eBay and all going well I will have another exciting goodies to show you.
OK, so I don't actually expect you to be excited, but hey, it's something to write about and keep me from going insane.
Today's activities are vain attempts to keep my mind off the continuing server downtime we are experiencing at work. The frustrating thing is that we can only sit on our hands as it's certainly out of ours. I write this so that when I look back with some perspective, it may not seem like such a big deal. I can't help but wonder, that watching the sun set over green hills in Mongolia with not a care in the world may make me think the lifestyle we all accept as normal is too far from away from our grass roots. I doubt the family who is kind enough to invite us in for tea cares about downtime.... to the extent its interpretation would be vastly different.