ByronJ
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jul 7, 2012
- Messages
- 365
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After a lot of frustrating attempts to source an 80 series in South Africa I reached an agreement to buy an 80 of a chap in Durban who turned out to be a member of this club! (@warrenpfo). Warren had bought this grey import 80 when living in the UK and took it back to SA when he returned 3 years ago.
It is a 24v diesel auto – just what I was looking for. The interior is brown, which I though I would not like but it has grown on me. It does blend well with the African dust
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With my luggage consisting of 43kg of car bits and 3Kg of clothes I flew into Durban on the 9th of November and Warren picked me up from the airport. We spend an hour or so chatting and sorting the paperwork. I hardly looked at the car – not much point really as I had already transferred the cash to him! He handed me the keys and I drove off to a B&B for a much needed rest – I had been travelling for over 24 hours.
The next morning my partner, Zelda, flew over from Cape Town, I picked her up from the airport and we drove directly to an Air Con place to get that sorted for our drive to Cape Town. One leaky pipe fixed and a new filter/drier later we were on our way with lovely cold air con.
As we crossed the Drakensberg mountains we were treated to torrential rain followed by hailstones and I did wonder if it would have been better to wait until we got home to get the air con sorted...
The trip to Cape Town was excellent, the car drove well and stopped off at a couple of parks on our way across giving the Howling Moon roof tent a try.
Here it is erected for the first time:
The tent is currently mounted backwards as I suppose as the idea is you climb into it via the extension - which is currently over the bonnet. I hope to sort that out when I get the tent off the roof over the Christmas break. Great tent though. It is the "Stargazer" version. When the rain fly is off there are panels that can be zipped open so there is only Mozzie netting between you and the sky. I thought it a marketing ploy but it realy does help to keep the tent cool at night and you can see the stars! It is possible to unzip the Mozzie netting but cannot imagine doing that!
It is a 24v diesel auto – just what I was looking for. The interior is brown, which I though I would not like but it has grown on me. It does blend well with the African dust
.With my luggage consisting of 43kg of car bits and 3Kg of clothes I flew into Durban on the 9th of November and Warren picked me up from the airport. We spend an hour or so chatting and sorting the paperwork. I hardly looked at the car – not much point really as I had already transferred the cash to him! He handed me the keys and I drove off to a B&B for a much needed rest – I had been travelling for over 24 hours.
The next morning my partner, Zelda, flew over from Cape Town, I picked her up from the airport and we drove directly to an Air Con place to get that sorted for our drive to Cape Town. One leaky pipe fixed and a new filter/drier later we were on our way with lovely cold air con.
As we crossed the Drakensberg mountains we were treated to torrential rain followed by hailstones and I did wonder if it would have been better to wait until we got home to get the air con sorted...
The trip to Cape Town was excellent, the car drove well and stopped off at a couple of parks on our way across giving the Howling Moon roof tent a try.
Here it is erected for the first time:
The tent is currently mounted backwards as I suppose as the idea is you climb into it via the extension - which is currently over the bonnet. I hope to sort that out when I get the tent off the roof over the Christmas break. Great tent though. It is the "Stargazer" version. When the rain fly is off there are panels that can be zipped open so there is only Mozzie netting between you and the sky. I thought it a marketing ploy but it realy does help to keep the tent cool at night and you can see the stars! It is possible to unzip the Mozzie netting but cannot imagine doing that!
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