And so the prep begins

After months and months of looking, and Mike becoming an anorak, we found the van for us. Nice one Ebay!

The van (which is yet to be named!) is a 1.9l TDI T3 Syncro and is in very good nick for the price, but definitely needs some work to get it up to 'round the world expedition' standard. As a doka pick up style, it is also going to need converting into a camper.

Mikes dad, Andy, picked the van up for us from Ross-on-Wye, then got as much use out of it as he could driving around Hereford before we snaffled it back up to Fort William! Before leaving Hereford we pulled the winch out to test that it worked - it didn't. Off it came and into the back, not a good start!

We had a smooth drive from Hereford up to Harrogate, where the van was tested by my dad, Adrian, and brother, Alistair. From Harrogate we were fully loaded for  the drive up to Fort William having picked up Connor, Mark and Mikes brother, Cameron.

After this long and pretty successful journey, the van appeared to have very few problems. We spoke too soon, however!

Work begins on the van

Only a couple of days after we arrived back in the Fort, Mike felt the front left CV joint go. After eventually getting a new CV the work could begin, but on closer inspection it appeared that the CV joint may not be broken but had possibly just popped off - back on with the old one, see if we could figure out the problem! To get it back on Mike started detaching the anti-roll bar. While removing the second one, I heard swearing coming from under the van. One of the bolts had sheared! More new parts required!

New and old CV joints

What a hassle to try and get the van running again. But on the bright side, at least this is happening now and not in the middle of Siberia!

There's a long road ahead.....