- Overview
- (+ earlier Reports)
- Route Map
- Countries
- New Reports
- (+ new Pictures)
- Reports
- Picture Galleries:
- North America
- (Caribbean)
South America - Europe
Africa - (Indian Ocean)
Asia - Southeast Asia
- (Far East)
Australia - (Pacific)
- Statistics
- Media
- Support
- Archives
- News – December 2014/January 2015 (Cape Town/South Africa, 2/2/2015)
- Website statistics: 'Webalizer' has been shut down definitively in February 2013. 'Logaholic' is the current counter.
- 'Logaholic' shows now the following figures in January 2015: 24'067 visits / 88'844 pages
- 'Google-Analytics' showed 29'523 pageviews during January. The visitors come from ~230 countries!
- ('Logaholic' December = 22'518 visits / 78'724 pages; November = 23'030 visits / 80'602 pages)
- ('Google-Analytics': December = 30'361 pageviews / November = 27'290 pageviews)
- Record day since 12/17/1998 = the birthday of our website: on 11/5/2007 = 13'407 visitors and 787'456 hits ('Webalizer')
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- On January 12th, South Africa welcomed us once more: We entered "our" 53th country for the eight time, namely from
- Namibia along the Orange River near Vioolsdrif. The last seven visits happened between November 3rd, 1991, and
- November 2nd, 1992. With more than 104°F it was pretty hot in this low lying valley. During southern spring there are
- sometimes the most beautiful flower fields visible in this arid area of Namaqualand. When we finally left this barren land in the
- northwest and arrived in the cultivated agricultural region around Clanwilliam – about 300 miles south of Namibia on the way
- to Cape Town – we decided to do a detour to the "Cederberg" wilderness. We hardly started the climb on the tarred
- mountain road, when it crashed: The right rear wheel broke off after only 2'310 miles resp. 93.2 driving hours after the last
- axle fracture of our odd 30th anniversary of being on the road in Angola; we nearly refused to believe it. Fortunately we drove
- slowly uphill so that the danger of somersaulting the car was less. Nevertheless there was a lot of work ahead and there were
- doubts popping up that something else "went" wrong in our LandCruiser. The only soothing fact was that two more shafts
- were waiting now to be collected in Cape Town, which were ordered in Johannesburg. The replaced axle was our last one.
- Well, we accomplished the trip to Cape Town, hence we got our new spare parts. And it was there were we experienced
- a huge surprise: The "Land Cruiser Club of Southern Africa", with which we had already contact since January and
- which carried our two shafts from Johannesburg to Cape Town, presented us with a used axle housing including both shafts,
- brake backing plate and labour. The suspicion of a slightly bent casing concreted lately as there was a bit oil leaking on the
- short, right-hand side. Thus the shaft inside could have become increasingly strained until it finally broke. May be that we
- "flew" unaware over a hump or "bumped" into a hole, which could have caused the bending together with the 33-years'
- material fatigue.
- Thus we shall get on Friday, February 13th, – quasi as a "pre-birthday present" for Emil – a used, nearly complete rear axle
- built in. Thank you very much "Land Cruiser Club of Southern Africa"! We are now on the lookout for a panel beater to
- have flattened the damaged body part.
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- Once this repair is done, we hope that we are able to continue without the big psychological stress of loosing a wheel anytime.
- The continuation is thought to lead along the famous "Garden Route" to Port Elizabeth, East London and later to the Kingdom
- of Lesotho. In the meantime, resp. along the way, we shall meet some "old" friends – but more about that later.
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Tongatapu Island |  |
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Rarotonga Island |  |
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Temples, Pagodas, Shrines | |
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| The visit of 6 countries with and 1 island without our LandCruiser | Middle East | |
| The visit of 10 countries with and 1 without our LandCruiser | Southeast Asia | |
| The visit of 4 countries with and 1 islandl without our LandCruiser | Indian Ocean | |
| The visit of 4 countries with and 1 without our LandCruiser | Far East | |
| The visit of 14 Pacific Islands with and 1 without our LandCruiser | Pacific (Febr. 2008-Jan. 2010 + Aug.-Sept. 2010) |
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| The visit of 13 Caribbean Islands with our LandCruiser | Caribbean (June 2003-Dec. 2004) |
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| + added from the United Arab Emirates: | Fairytale Wedding in Dubai (March 1999) |
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| + added from a earlier visit to the USA: | Las Vegas (Millennium change) |
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| + added from our Arabian Peninsula round trip: | Pictures from Yemen (May-June 1996) |
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| + Flashbacks of our Worldrecordtour: | Pictures from "all the continents" (Oct. 1984 - April 1997) |
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