Ready to Roll!

Since November 2005 - when Wa Bashasha was basically ready to roll - we busied ourselves with numerous finishing touches. Among others, additional head and rear lights were installed and a new aluminium baggage box, together with twin 30 litres water tanks, were mounted on rails on the roof rack. The chassis was given an anti-corrosion treatment and Wa Bashasha’s front end was disfigured by two additional jerry cans and the high jack. Paul spent too many days again in the cold of our carport and was promptly rewarded with a nasty bronchitis which I refused to treat. I busied myself with designing and sewing canvas seat covers and managed to make the small kitchen in the rear of the car - just behind our backs - operational. Since we already installed two benches and a small freezer, it now looks quite homely behind our backs.

By the end of February 2006 all that needed to be done was to take Wa Bashasha fully loaded on a long trial run. On Saturday 11th March we loaded her up: bedding and sleeping bags in the roof tent, clothes, shoes, medicines and all kind of other stuff in the roof baggage box, twin roof water tanks with 20 litres each, some 160 litres of petrol, additional engine and gear box oil, lead additive, spare parts, tools, recovery equipment and a well stocked kitchen. It was almost dark when we had finished and the girl looked heavy with a calculated 2800 kg!

We left Sunday 12th March for our cottage in Austria with sub zero temperatures. Temperatures kept falling and in Central Germany we met the first serious snow, turning into blizzards more to the south. Just over the Austrian border the roads were so snowed under that Paul had to put Wa Bashasha in four-wheel-drive and up hill to the cottage in low gear. Arriving there 11 hours after we left Veldhoven the temperature had dropped to -/-18 Centrigrades! When I drove 2800 kg of Wa Bashasha full speed up to the cottage myself yesterday morning, through snow walls and over solid ice (see photograph), I agreed with Paul: we are the proud owners of the best 4x4 ever made: the Land Rover Series III!

In our next addition, you will see Wa Bashasha leaving the docks in Cape Town in the first week of June.

© 2005-2006 Paul and Meta Lapperre - Website by MvS