Club 80-90 Forums

Just got in from a mammoth road trip I did with my beautiful girlfriend Louise and my little lad Isaac. We have seen the lot really, mountains, forest, sea, sand, snow, roads and track.... the hottest it got in the van was 49*c and the coldest was 3*c. The Westy has behaved it self and we only had two mechanical mishaps, the first was a rock that had got stuck between the engine bash plate and sump that made the van rattle really badly and the second was a failed UJ so I had to take the prop off.

We started off at a place some might know of, the wild camping spot on the cliffs at Dover.

Then France-Belgium-Luxembourg-France-Germany-Austria-Italy-Slovenia-Croatia-Slovenia-Austria-Germany-Czech Republic-Germany-France-Belgium-France-UK Its been quite a trip

We bumped in to about 6 other Syncro's and where invited to stay with the owners of one after only meeting them for five minutes (campervan culture innit) and all in all we have had a great time. The fact the engine lasted so well is a testament to the AAZ and it was managing 15% hair pin mountain roads for 10 or more miles at a time in 1st & 2nd on a regular basis. We met a fella in a petrol Syncro on a boarder crossing and his engine was over heating and spilling water out the back quite alot, I wished him good luck and carried off on our way The one thing that was a MASSIVE help was the manual fan over ride switch that helped a hell of a lot keeping the temperatures down when needed. The new compressor fridge and sterling charger kept the beers frosty at all times and holds a hell of alot more than the standard fridge. We were getting Diesel for just over a quid at best but petrol was miles more and lpg was none existent alot of the time.

Here are a few pictures to show you how we use our Syncro,

Dover wild camping ready for the off,




First night camping for free by a river in France,



2 randoms,




Wild camping spot in The Black Forest,



Keeping it real,



My handsome lad,




Black Forest camping,



Austria lunch stop,




Italy mountains wild camping,





Slovenia lunch stop,



Croatia camp site,



Heading further south to Pag Island



9.5



Pag campsite,







The hot Syncro,



Back in Slovenia,











Elvis's mate,



Bavarian Forest, (German side)









Bavarian Forest, (Czech side)






Strasbourg,



USA ww1 monument France,



Random view France,



I have hours of video so will bore you all with that when I get a few days to sort through it all just thought I would share as I am sooooo made up with the van right now

jed

Looks amazing, cant wait for our first euro trip

syncrotastic Looks fabulous

Glad you enjoyed it. Some epic sights there. Well done, I bet the family love the van more than ever after that!

excellent pics and good to see your all back safe and sound.

trip looks amazing - glad to hear you started in dover - i live there - can i ask whereabouts you camped? Also to everyone heading this way (albeit a bit late in the season) I have plenty of room (in countryside - not quite as grand as it sounds!) near port if you want to stop over enroute or on way back - can sort you out with a hot shower etc if needed. or at the very least show you some great wild camping minutes from the ferry!

jes*b wrote:trip looks amazing - glad to hear you started in dover - i live there - can i ask whereabouts you camped? Also to everyone heading this way (albeit a bit late in the season) I have plenty of room (in countryside - not quite as grand as it sounds!) near port if you want to stop over enroute or on way back - can sort you out with a hot shower etc if needed. or at the very least show you some great wild camping minutes from the ferry!

If your from the area you will know where this is and where we wild camp



jed

Nice pics - looking forward to the video.

Ah! A truly lovely spot . And the 'right' side of Dover. If you go a little further to the seaside village of Kingsdown you will be amazed that places like that still exist - especially less than 10 mins from the worlds busiest passenger port. And camping virtually on the beach on a very quiet lane. I've gone over all proud of my home town. Can't say that happened too often.

Here is part one of a series of videos I am going to make of our trip for those that like to watch them.

http://campervanculture.com/2011/09/tra ... an-part-1/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

jed

Totally ace.... that's what its all about

Looks good

Jed, did you get any further down than Pag on your travels? How did you enjoy Croatia (apart from the heat!) were the campsites down there busy?

A good pic that!
Glad the van did you proud (dunno about being made up, thought that was what you did to beds)

Didnt go any further down than Pag because of the heat and their was lots of room on the campsites. Croatia was amazing but our favorite was probably Slovenia. Slovenia will follow soon

Here is part 2, http://campervanculture.com/2011/09/tra ... an-part-2/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

jed