Sirocco Overland 2013 Expedition: UK - Vladivostok (Siberia) Adventure

[Scott Brady]

Congrats! That is a good feeling, isn't it

Were you able to take the old summer road that goes west of the M56 and ends in Palatka? That was a beautiful drive.

 

[Sirocco]

Hi Scott.

I just wrote a massive body of text and it didn't post!

We didn't attempt it from the east as the road is now chronically bad. The west is still maintained but there was a fuel shortage when we arrived so we got a bit stuck and had to leave it. Winter was also fast approaching and it was snowing.

Very disappointed but as a solo vehicle with only your girlfriend to help its hard. We are also tired after 23 countries in 8 months! I Will teturn by bike one day

Sent from my GT-N5100 using Tapatalk

 

[Scott Brady]

That road was very dynamic. Some deep water crossings and it seemed everything could go sideways with one bad storm.

You made it to Magadan. That is no small feat! My sincere congrats.


I am particularly enjoying your posts this week, as I am finishing the Europe and Asia segments for the gear issue of Overland Journal. Going through 5,000 images brought back a lot of wonderful memories.

 

[MojaveKJ]

Whew... I actually thought for a second you were taking a trip in a Volskwagen Sirocco.

 

[Sirocco]

Finally got some photos for you all:



Waiting for the freight barge at Ust Kut



Our accomodation for 3 nights and 1000km up river



Making a Defender window out of plastic on my birthday



The Russian Police who were very generous letting us stay in their tiny apartment while the Land Rover was kept safe in customs. We ended up staying 5 nights!



Off the barge!





More to follow

 

[mervifwdc]

Great stuff buddy! We had to make a window too, guess it's the season for it!

Merv.

 

[Sirocco]

Short clip of the GAZ 71 we met in Russia on the road of bones

[video=facebook;10152778403838306]https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10152778403838306&saved[/video]

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10152778403838306&saved

 

[Sirocco]

So as I said earlier in the thread we packed and shipped the Rover which landed in Melbourne yesterday which is where we are now. It was 10 months yesterday that we left the UK and headed east having sold all our possessions and quit our jobs.

Although not overlanding, I thought you may like to see some photos from Indonesia. We had a nice break from the truck and traveled light with a 22L pack and a 44L pack. We flew from Vladivostok to Hong Kong to see friends for 10 days then left for Indonesia, Landing in Jakarta on Java working our way south through Bali, Lombok and across Flores to Komodo National Park where the 'dragon' is an endemic species to the area.

 

[Sirocco]

That was Komodo National Park, This is Java...

 

[Sirocco]

And a few underwater from Komodo NP

 

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

Love the Java pictures !!

 

[Sirocco]

Love the Java pictures !!

Thanks Jerry. I edited my RAWs in camera! My laptop is still in the truck in a container, somewhere.

Which brings me onto other news. The container should have been offloaded earlier this week and we are waiting on an Xray scan followed by customs and clearance. Fingers crossed we should have the truck on or around Wednesday this week.

I still have a ton of photos AND over 100GB of GoPro timelapse footage to go through which I will post on here once done. I know it seems like our trip is over but I do have some valuable info to put up for those interested which I have not seen others do in the past.

For example, our truck is reasonably broken which is going to cost a fair bit to rectify. How many people budget in funds for this stuff when planning a trip? very few I would imagine. I'm going to keep this thread alive with info as we go and in the next 5 or 6 months we will continue on for 20,000km around Australia, so that will be worth sticking around for

G

 

[Steve UK]

Thanks Jerry. I edited my RAWs in camera! My laptop is still in the truck in a container, somewhere.

Which brings me onto other news. The container should have been offloaded earlier this week and we are waiting on an Xray scan followed by customs and clearance. Fingers crossed we should have the truck on or around Wednesday this week.

I still have a ton of photos AND over 100GB of GoPro timelapse footage to go through which I will post on here once done. I know it seems like our trip is over but I do have some valuable info to put up for those interested which I have not seen others do in the past.

For example, our truck is reasonably broken which is going to cost a fair bit to rectify. How many people budget in funds for this stuff when planning a trip? very few I would imagine. I'm going to keep this thread alive with info as we go and in the next 5 or 6 months we will continue on for 20,000km around Australia, so that will be worth sticking around for

G

Hi,

Yes please do update, looking forward to the time lapse videos. I did about 500km of time lapse this year from Kasane to Maun in Botswana. I posted them in the completed trips forum under Namibia Botswana 2013 if you are interested.

It will be good to see how they should be done as your camera skills are certainly better than mine!!

Bet your looking forward to Australia, good luck with the repairs. I am sure you can sneak a few upgrades in too

Steve

 

[Sirocco]

Great news,

The truck passed the initial AQIS inspection even after passing through some hideously contaminated countries, unbelievable. I was sure a courtesy spray would have been inevitable. So it looks like the 90 hours we spent on it (180 man hours) was worth the effort while we were in Vladivostok. Even after that we think the underside wasn't clean enough.

So anyway, that saved us a packet of $$$



The Maggiolina didn't fair too well. When we put them in the container the shipping agent wanted the truck/trailer as close as possible to make room for the 7 bikes we were sharing with. Looks like the rear wheel carrier clipped the front of the mag in transit.



Its an old mag but still, its a bit disappointing. Will repair it in due course.

Hi,

Yes please do update, looking forward to the time lapse videos. I did about 500km of time lapse this year from Kasane to Maun in Botswana. I posted them in the completed trips forum under Namibia Botswana 2013 if you are interested.

It will be good to see how they should be done as your camera skills are certainly better than mine!!

Bet your looking forward to Australia, good luck with the repairs. I am sure you can sneak a few upgrades in too

Steve

Going to buy a Macbook Pro Retina shortly to replace our aging (9 years?) Sony Vaio. Will get the ball rolling with this when it arrives.

Cheers,

G

 

[piratexpress1369a]

great pictures ..what a trip keep the updates when you can..thanks for sharing