- Overview
- (+ earlier Reports)
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- (+ new Pictures)
- Reports
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- Website statistics: 'Webalizer' has been shut down definitively in February 2013. 'Logaholic' is the current counter.
- 'Logaholic' shows now the following figures in October 2014: 25'802 visits / 94'497 pages
- 'Google-Analytics' showed 29'281 pageviews during October. The visitors come from ~229 countries!
- ('Logaholic' September = 20'410 visits / 76'687 pages; August = 19'319 visits / 73'506 pages)
- ('Google-Analytics': September = 23'158 pageviews / August = 30'894 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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- Angola is history! Angola – seen from a touristic point – is still a very pristine country: No touristic infrastructure, and because
- there are none around of this species, the Angolans are not yet spoiled by them and are not always on the lookout to get out
- some money. We liked the country very much: Friendly people, native village life, in between also interesting landscapes and
- a sense of security. Currently there's a wave of criminality in Namibia – particularly in the capital of Windhoek – that makes a
- visit of the city like 'running a gauntlet': Assaults with knives in broad daylight; smashing car windows; tearing open car doors;
- slashing tires to force the occupants out of the vehicle; chasing of tourist rent-a-cars, etc. – simply violence towards tourists.
- Nevertheless our Angola trip was marred too – albeit in another way, just on the eve of our 30th anniversary of "being on the
- road" on October 15th, 2014. We're driving on a perfect blacktop road and wanted to have a lunch break under a shady tree.
- When we wanted to change into reverse gear, nothing happens: No forward – no backward, neither in normal nor in reduction
- gear. Thoughts of a broken transmission or transfer turn up! After all kinds of tries, engaging the front wheel hub starts moving
- the vehicle, thus we are able to return to the road. Safe? No not at all, since not even a mile further a big bang says good bye
- to the right rear wheel, which speeds towards a thatched hut village, while the LandCruiser busts out to the right and crashes
- down an embankment. For the moment it seemed that we would somersault – what would have meant the end of our "epic"
- journey, but somehow the car flipped to the left and came finally to a stop on the red soil. Unimaginable if Angola – like
- in all other South African countries – would have driven on the left side too! A head-on collision would have been inevitable.
- Sitting now in the soft soil we puzzled over the cause, specifically that both – the malfunction of the transmission as well
- as the axle fracture – happened on top of one another. In a nutshell: The axle fracture occurred very shortly before changing
- into reverse gear, thus the back differential couldn't move anymore the wheel. Only engaging the free wheel hub caused that
- the front drive functioned again, while the broken off rear wheel "worked its way out" of the axle housing during the following
- mile.
- Until we were able – thanks to having a spare shaft with us – to continue our trip, it took a while: Jacking up the heavy car on
- this soft ground; opening the differential and removing the remaining stump of the shaft; replacing the spare shaft; dismantling
- for security reasons the rear propeller shaft and afterwards some cautions attempts to climb up to the paved road. That during
- this time – from 1pm to 7pm and during the actual anniversary day, October 16th, from 5am to 11am – nearly the whole village
- was spectating at each of our activities is self-evident. That a white car tourist looses one of its wheels doesn't happen every
- day! We left our "jubilee spot" exhausted and daubed with oil and moved with a speed of 30 miles/h – only to avoid incidents,
- in case there would be still something damaged – direction south, i.e. Namibia. Our LandCruiser FJ60, model 1982, wasn't
- popular in Angola due to its long civil war. Hence spare parts are not available and would have to be flown in or rather to be
- fetched abroad. It doesn't bear contemplating what consequences this would have caused, e.g. concerning the one month visa
- and the temporary vehicle permit.
- In short – we were able to do the following 1'000 miles until Windhoek in Namibia without further problems. We are now
- searching for another spare shaft, as another loss of it will be for sure. Botswana, the neighbor country of Namibia, is said to
- have more resources, hence we shall move shortly there.
-
- However, "luck" was again on our side when we received for the second time a three-months permit for Namibia. Normally
- it's common that nowadays tourists get only once an allowance of three months in a calendar year, what causes big
- headaches to many of the numerous European visitors with its European vehicles.
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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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