Tim’s Farewell
16 JunAs of this morning Tim has taken off from Australia for Austria. His loving mother, Jenny, kindly provided these pictures of his family farewell in Narrabri. The cake is fantastic, and we can’t wait to get one by post ready for our Hyde Park departure in one month and 3 days!
Tim was awake until 3:30am trying to cram one last Iron Maiden t-shirt into his bag!
On the car front I spent the day mocking up how our various bits and pieces can possibly fit in the back of the car. I don’t have everything yet, but I have some plastic boxes and some fuel jerry cans courtesy of the army disposals.
I’ve mounted another spare wheel inside the car, which means we will carry two spares. This involved making a wooden cradle for the tyre to sit in. A while ago I purchased six load restraining hooks out of a Renault commercial van. These fold flat when you’re not using them. I’ve put them in strategic places in the floor and sides of the loading area, so we can properly tie down our equipment. Some of the pieces are heavy, and there is not much point having a first class roll bar if you get hit on the head by a 20L fuel jerry in the event of an accident.
Mounting of the hooks required removal of the interior trim panels in the loading bay, and I was amused to see dirt up the inside of the panels, a legacy of the rust in the rear wheel arches! You can see it in the picture below. A couple of the newly installed load hooks are also visible.
It has been suggested that the body will float away from the chassis during the first river crossing! I think it’s all okay. However, Tim is in charge of structural repairs, so I await his inspection.
