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Richard and LinaPoskitt, Tuvalie (4),Oliver (2),Milan and Pia HarellPoznic, Luka (4),Tanja (2),

48 November 2008 LAND ROVER monthly LAND ROVER monthly November 2008 49

ON A map it looked quite simple writes RICHARD POSKITT a longway, but many others have donesimilar routes how hard can it beto just get in the car and go?

We set about researching otherpeoples travels and quite quicklydiscovered things such as theCarnet de Passage, the nightmare

of shipping, the equipmentneeded, and also the cost. The listof equipment other people hadtaken was daunting: extreme waterpurifiers, extra fuel tanks and sandladders.

We looked, at the cost of someof this plus the insurance we wouldneed and of the Carnet itself.Shocked and disheartened wereconsidered the trip as a whole.

We toyed with the idea that wecould backpack but that is not soeasy with small children. We all feltthat to make life for our children asnormal as possible we needed totravel with our own vehicles and inour own time with a few comfortsthat would make travel lighter onthe kids after all, it would be ayear away from home.

We felt that it was something that

we could do and should do, not onlyto have a vacation of a lifetime, but toalso inspire other families to do thesame. Adventurefamily was born.

We had discovered in our researchthat planning and preparation washalf of the trip and, allegedly, half thefun too. We had two vehicles already,a 1971 Dormobile and a 1991Discovery. We thought we were set a little modification to the luggagesection and a roofrack with tent andwe are there.

organising, reorganising...Building up the vehicles started inmy works workshop with lots ofheated discussions on what wouldbe the best solutions. Lina and Piabecame pregnant again and Milan

and Pia decided that the Dormobilewas not going to be quite thevehicle to travel in with twochildren, so they replaced it with a1998 300Tdi Defender 130.

Next problem was exactly when

to go. We wanted to get the bestweather while we travelled and thismeant we should leave Sweden inthe late summer. Milan and Pia hadto finish their PhDs and Lina and Ihad to get a year off from our jobs.

This would put the leaving date atthe beginning of 2008 and not thesummer of 2007 as originally hoped.Knowing this would be the off-season in most of Europe and coldsleeping in the roof tents, we had tothink a little further.

It would not be the best weatherwhile we travelled but Milan haddiscovered the great idea ofconnecting up a Webasto heater intothe roof tent and, with the extendedthermostat option, we could havewarmth in the coldest climates.

On one of our many eveningplanning meetings we started to planour route in more detail. We lookedat back-up plans as certain areaswere a bit volatile, such as Pakistan,Iran, Tibet and Nepal.

With time getting shorter we splitthe jobs up in a sort of military styleand this has worked well. Pia incharge of navigation and main route

planning, Lina in control of medicalissues, Milan the mechanic and

I the communications, visasand documents.

After a number of brieftrial camping trips

and organisingand reorganisingour packinglists, we werethinking all was

finally getting

under control. It was at this point theDiscoverys engine finally died.

Irritated and in no position to findthe time to fix it, we decided weshould look for a new home! So, inNovember 2007, off to the UK I wentwith Milan. After two days drivingaround the UK, an ex-military police1998 300Tdi Defender 110 StationWagon was found and brought backto Sweden.

ready to go?The last few months proved to bevery busy with the last of the vehiclefixings, getting the finance ready forthe Carnet and all the documentswe needed to copy and fill out. TheDefenders were prepared for thetrip with all of the equipment added,

fridges, convertors, extra lights andbatteries, water tanks with pump andpurifier, heavy duty suspension, BFGoodrich tyres, compressors and soon. Finally a bit of armour was addedalong with a complete service andtiming belt change. We stuck the rooftents back on after the winter and thevehicles were ready.

We organised the Carnet dePassage through the RAC inthe UK since the Swedishequivalent did notoffer the insuranceindemnity policy,thus saving us ahuge deposit, aswell as the factthat the 110still hadBritish

number

plates and therefore was impossibleto get issued a Swedish Carnet.

Next came the selling of ourapartment and the hunt for someoneto rent Pia and Milans. With this allorganised we finalised our packinglists; the medical box and the toy boxwere to be the most complicated.

What toys and what medical stuffshould we take? Toys are alwaysfun to buy en route but some basiceducational play things would be agood idea to bring for older ones.

We had completed our vastvaccination list. Lina and Pia hadundergone a course in first aid andhow to deal with emergencies.

February came, Lina and I hadfinished our jobs and Milan finishedhis PhD. We were as ready as we

were going to be.On the morning of February 10,

2008 in the middle of Stockholm,we gathered in the central park witha little brass band playing a tunethey had written for Pia and Milanswedding. Our sponsors came andchecked the equipment. There were

tears from family members who wereonly just realising that we were reallygoing to leave.

Lots of photos and ourdocumentary film crew pushingcameras in peoples faces. It wasemotional but the time had cometo go. We drove out of Stockholmfor a while in silence, leaving ourfriends and family behind, as wellas a Primus mug that had fallen offPia and Milans bonnet finally thetrip had begun.

Pia takes up the story:GERMANY autobahn, grey, humid.

Anyone up for a camp? Well, maybenot. But since it was the first night,we felt we should.

Both vehicles have a diesel heater

that reaches up to the roof tents, soit should still be pretty comfortable.Lina and Richard have a hose simplyleading from the heater through thefloor of the back and up into oneof the tent doors. We have made ahole for the hose in the side of thecar underneath the back left door aswell as in the floor of the tent. It getswarm and cosy in the tent.

We only stayed one more nightin Germany, south of Berlin,before heading towards the CzechRepublic. Despite the up and downsof the Alps and the weight of theDefenders, both only consumed onelitre per ten kilometres.

Strangely enough, they seem toconsume almost exactly the sameat all times. Since diesel inmany of the countries we will

stay in is expensive, it is a relief.

by Richard Poskitt & Pia Harell Poznic

PLANNING A dream overlandvacation is one thing when you

are a couple or friends, planning a year-long trip across half theworld by Land Rover with four children is another. This is the

story of the beginning of twofamilies dream adventure tocross the world from Sweden to

Australia in a pair of Defenders.

TWO FAMILIESONE AMBITIONIn this new travel series we meet two amazing Swedishfamilies who see overlanding with children as inspiringas well as being the adventure of a lifetime

Above: Test camp Sweden. Trying outthe Webasto heaters in-15C.

Below left: On-board gadgets.

Main: Beach camp inNin, Croatia. Note theheating duct going intothe roof tent.

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Above left: Exhibitionin central Stockholm.

Above right: Lukawaiting for breakfast innorthern Greece.Below right: Oliver looking out from theroof tent.

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Handling is not that bad either. Iwould expect it to be much lessstable fully loaded, but it runs

surprisingly well through the bends.In the morning we fixed the

puncture on our Defender we hadpicked-up since we balanced thetyres in Gothenburg. The guy inthe workshop did it for free sincehe liked our way of travelling withkids (at least that is what he said,maybe he just thought we werestrange and felt sorry for the kidshaving to live in a tent).

After fixing the puncture weheaded for the Croatian coastpassing through Slovenia in a day.We aimed for Krk, a beautiful islandwe had been to before. We hadforgotten that there was a two-hourdrive to the nice part of the island.

The twisting roads might be reallynice to drive fast on if you have anykind of sports car or, in fact, anythingbut a Land Rover. So, no stress

Very late, we arrived at a nice spotby the sea. The thermometer waswell below zero as we stood onthe shore drinking soup under thestars. In the morning we woke to anastonishing place and Tanja was thefirst one to take a swim.

We spent one more night on the

Croatian coast, on a beach near avillage called Nin. The feeling wehad, sitting in a warm winter jacketwith a glass of wine chatting aboutthe adventures to come, was hard tobeat. We would have liked it to be alittle bit warmer though.

As we entered into Montenegrothe shore changed from man-madebeaches with either concrete,sharp stones or sand which hadbeen transported there, intopicturesque small beaches withstones as smooth as silk frombeing worn by the waves of the

Adriatic Sea for centuries.The black, massive mountains

meet the shore at an almost verticalangle and the road makes its wayalong the sides. It is really beautifuland might have been taken out of a

tourist brochure.The impression, just looking outof the Land Rover window, is thatpeople are more relaxed here;everything is less organised. Croatiafeels a bit like Germany comparedto Montenegro. The sea is the samebut the environment makes it morewelcoming. It is less like home, but Ifeel more at home.

Richard and Lina wanted tofix an annoying clonk from therear suspension while we werein Montenegro. Even though hespeaks the language, Milan did notmanage to convince the guys in theworkshop to do the job. Too much

like hard work it seemed.We did get the brake pads

changed on both cars however,and that took most of the morningincluding a few pauses for smoking.

And then they only changed therear brakes. Its not that they areunfriendly they simply dont likework. The clonk remained to befixed later, hopefully at a time wedecide and not on a dusty road in themiddle of nowhere.

family in MontenegroSetting off to visit some of Milansrelatives, we took the road toKolain, by far the most spectacularroad Ive driven. Enormous

mountains rise on both sides. Itfollows the river, disappearing intotunnels built ages ago, and climbsup the sides of the black mountain.This part of the road is called theroad of death and many lives havebeen lost on every bend and thereare many bends.

Far up in the mountains, at the topof a road inaccessible to an ordinarycar, the landscape opens up. A dogwas barking welcoming us and twocows were eating grass in a smallbarn. This is where the family lives,high in the mountains and, for thefirst time, we engaged low gear.

All their food comes from the

farm house. The wife milks thecows, makes her own yoghurt andcheese, they have their own barnto smoke meat and, of course,a place to produce the Slivovica(Yugoslavian brandy).

Making your own Slivovica isimportant. Plum trees, from whichthey use the plums to make thispopular spirit, are the only growingtrees on the grounds.

Richard and Milan were given ataste of this home-produced strongdrink as soon as we entered thehouse. We wives and kids got givena glass of juice each. After givingthem a hint, tasting some fromour husbands glasses, we too got

some Slivovica. After the welcoming we wereshown the place to camp. Theirgrounds and the surroundings arereally beautiful. From our roof tentwe had an amazing view over themountains.

We spent two nights in themountains enjoying the hospitalityand the home-cooked foodbefore we decided to move on toMacedonia through Albania, whichwe were told was possible to crossin a day. We wanted to pass through

Albania in one day and avoid stayingthe night, since we had heard that itis not safe for Serbs (which Milan is).

Due to the building of a tunnel wehad to start early in the morning inorder to drive the whole distance.But the 110 would not start becauseof an electrical problem drainingthe batteries, so when we finally goton the road again it was too late for

Albania. We stayed one more nighton a nice beach in Montenegro.

The fact that Albania is Europespoorest country soon becomesclear. There is rubbish everywhere.Montenegro is dirty, but nowherenear as dirty as Albania. You getthe impression that the peoplehave simply settled down on apiece of ground, but no one hasresponsibility for anything.

Richard and Lina said the villagesreminded them of the villages theyhad lived in Africa. Outside thetowns the houses were built in noorder at all and often painted inbright yellow and green colours,mostly in combination.

Villages with room for manypeople stood newly built but empty.

Almost all cars are Mercedes theonly ones that can manage theroads with any comfort. We spottedno Land Rovers at all, whichprobably explains the attention wegot driving through the villages.

When we left the country forMacedonia we all agreed that,

despite the fast drive through,it had been the biggest culturaldifference so far. It is as if we hadleft Europe for a short time.

Close to the border there is a lakecalled Ohridska Jezero which ispart of UNESCO World Heritage.We stayed in Ohrid and spent aday strolling around the city andthe next day we went to look at anold monastery half-an-hour drivefrom the city. We asked where to eatcheap and traditional food and gotdirections to a village not far away.

further East As we entered the small picturesquevillage in our Land Rovers a few

locals gathered around the cars. After speaking with them for a whilewe ended up with an old couplein front of their brewery where thehusband made Slivovica. He wasserving us straight from the tapwhile his wife was serving us pickledpeppers of different strengths (hereeven me and Lina got to taste).

The fish restaurant we wereshown, lay just by the water andwithout our knowledge the localshad reserved the nicest table forus. What a view!

It was a beautiful place. We stayedfor three nights but Turkey wasenticing us ever closer. We just had

to pass through Greece first.We wanted to enjoy the warm

and sunny Greek weather and, afterbeing in the city, it was so nice tomake camp we had all missed thecamping life. We also took the timeto check the oil level in the axlesand gearboxes.

We asked at a petrol station whereto go next and were told to go toChalkidiki, the coast. Thinking of itnow, it was pretty stupid. We wantedto get to Turkey as soon as possibleand it took us at least four hours todrive 50 kilometres on foggy, curvyand steep roads. The weight of thevehicles, especially the load on theroof, sometimes made it bit tricky.

But, everything is an experience.The Landies have been great so farand we have had very little problem.One night in Alexandroupolis, thenwe are off t o Turkey. We had alreadybooked three nights in a youth hostelin Istanbul where we need get visasfor Iran something which we neverhad time to fix in Sweden.

Next month, AdventureFamily discover Turkey thecountry where west meets east and the real adventure starts.

Check out their websiteat www.adventurefamily.se

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50 November 2008 LAND ROVER monthly

Main: Ready to set upa camp by a beautiful lake in Greece.

Above left: Milansuncles garden inKolasin, Montenegro.

Above right:Hard working

Montenegroans.Below: On the way toKolasin.

Above left: Albanianbalconies.

Above right: Pickled peppers and Slivovicain Macedonia.Inset: Tuvalie restingafter a long days drive.

LRM

Howling Moon Tourer roof tent Primus BiFrost H6 Ground tent Primus kitchen equipment Awnings and camping lighting by Primus Pentax K10D digital system camera IBM Lenovo z61m Laptop with external drive. Webasto 3500 diesel heater with roof tentextension pipes

Optima yellow top batteries (four in each car) Compact Honda generator Converter: 12v to 220v Peli cases for almost everything Suunto watches Zodiac hand held and fixed radio communications Thuraya satellite phone Waeco fridge and air-condioning Lightforce extra lights Vehicle traking by FYM and Info24 with onlinemapping in almost real time

VDO Dayton DVD/MP3 Stereo Radio Old Man Emu suspension kit and steering damper Patriot roofrack BF Goodrich 235/85 tyres Magellan Crossover GPS and hand held GPS Touratech mapping software with USB GPS unitsWolf boxes Nature Pure Water purifier Sand ladders Mobile Storage Systems window bars and safe Nudge bars, steering and diff guards. HiLift jack ViAir compressor

Many head lamps by Primus

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