Awesome stuff. Looks like the trip of a lifetime... Funny you mentioned being tired of Florida. I live in Miami, and even though it is very close to me, I despise Orlando (I am assuming that is where you take the family). I saw tons of brits when I went there though.
Hey Pixel, thank you, the trip was incredible.
I never said that we were tired of Florida, we love it there
the ladies just didn't want to go in the Summertime, too hot and too many people. We usually visit Florida in late fall or winter time. Yeah, due to the girls, we tend to do the Orlando thing, but we do venture out to the Gulf coast, Atlantic coast and a little further north to visit Silver Springs. Last time we were there, the girls were all "parked" out, so maybe our next visit we can visit some of the wilder places.
Questions about the WK and the trip:
1 - I checked the FB page of the Russell off road and did not see photos of your rig. I am assuming the armour is custom made. How big is it and how much does it cover? Looks long! I know I am far from England, but wondering if it is one off or they would sell them.
The Jeep can be found here:
http://www.russelloffroad.co.uk/news-article.asp?nid=3
The armour covers the front diff, extends back and just stops short of the muffler and fuel tank, I'll get under the Jeep later today, measure and take a pic for you so you can see from the other end. It is custom made, but if you send Russell offroad an email (simon@russelloffroad.co.uk), I'm sure that they could accommodate you.
2 - Also, about the rear storage: do you know what kind of wood they used for that? Looks like the stuff used on planes. Strong and easily cleanable. I have searched trying to find out about that, but do not know what it is...
The wood used is a type of plyboard, I don't know exactly which one as Oakleaf Conversions recommended a specific plyboard for the build so it would be durable and lightweight. You can contact Chris (oakleafconversions@gmail.com) and ask him exactly what they are.
Both Simon at Russell Offroad and Chris at Oakleaf conversions are genuine, helpful guys and would welcome your enquiries.
The other question relates more to the family. I have 2 girls as well, but much younger and I am wondering what age yours are and what kind of stuff they had to do while on the trip
My girls are 10 and 8 - how old are yours?
We wondered about how our daughters would take to the travelling too.
The Jeep was ready in May except for the suspension so we had a few months to get our family ready for the trip.
We went camping and had some long drives out in the Jeep, we often took day trips anyway, but always around the 2 hour duration, when we got the Jeep back we started extending that to 3-4 hour stints, sometimes a little longer.
On the Iceland trip, we had to be packed and ready to leave at 0830hrs every day to travel to the next site.
Each day would consist of driving, stopping for breaks and sightseeing at places along the way before reaching our next camp.
Sometimes, if the camp was only a few hours away, we would set up camp first then, go elsewhere then return to the camp.
The activities were outdoor play focused, climbing/jumping/running on rocks, rivers/streams and walking as well as collecting different types of volcanic rock.
One thing your ladies may be interested in is the many natural springs to bathe in, my daughters loved them.
There were also many waterfalls, glaciers, and beaches that we visited as well as a geyser and geothermal areas.
They did go horse riding, had the option to go whale watching, but didn't want to go due to having to go on a "small" boat - they were all seasick on the crossing
Seasickness tablets didn't seem to do much, but they were fine when they wore those travel sickness wrist bands.
We did have a "shopping" day when we were staying near one the major cities (read small town
) which went down well of course.
When in the Jeep, the kids were playing on their tablets, or colouring/drawing etc or playing with their toys.
Some of the camp sites had play areas, but those that didn't they just played in the outdoors
We did go to some great restaurants so it was in some places a civilised trip and wasn't all camp cooking.
she said "looks like the driver would have all the fun and the rest would get tired of the scenery pretty soon"
- looks like you may have an uphill battle on your hands pixel
My wife was supposed to share some of the driving, but was a little intimidated by some of the off road stuff, maybe next time.
I wouldn't say that the driver had all of the fun, as some of it was tiring and tough going.
The girls were looking out of the Jeep windows a lot admiring the landscapes, the thing with Iceland is that you never have hours of the same scenery, it changes very quickly from one type to the next, maybe the variety kept it interesting as passengers?
The kids loved the many river crossings, but sometimes did complain about some of the bumpy roads. Some of the "maintained" highland roads are rutted/corrugated and not much fun for anyone riding them, it was great to be offroad, but sometimes it was nice to hit tarmac again.
We were all in awe of Iceland and we all want to go back there as soon as we can - that includes the kids
Thanks for sharing, and can't wait to see the whole lot of pics on Flickr.
You're welcome, all the pics I'm putting up are already on that set
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chickenzilla/sets/72157635336718461/, but I will be posting up some video as soon as I can get my act together