The former capital of Champagne, whose famous fairs have brought prosperity for a long time, Troyes is a city of art, with numerous churches, museums, old mansions and houses.

Troyes has been the French hosiery capital since the 16th century, and also of the andouillette (sausage made of chitterlings). Troyes Gare means: Train station. Read the rest »

It’s no secret that Marcel and I enjoy our alone-time. Away from other people, often spending hours without saying a word.

We could take up fishing … Instead, we read, barbeque, drive around, talking when wanting to and enjoying the silence when not.

So what in heaven’s name would draw us to an event like Sail 2010, where half a million people descend on a couple of kilometres of boardwalk and water? Read the rest »

Each key stroke taunts my aching lats on bruised ribs, but grinning hugely, I have to share this tale. We went canyoning yesterday afternoon and it was one of my bestest experiences.

Jos drove us to the drop off zone some 15 kms from Quinta D’ Alijo, where we’d been kitted out with helmets, wetsuits and harnasses. Read the rest »

Remembering how we’d slide down homemade “foofi” slides (ziplines) in South Africa as kids, I reckon this one should be a blast.

Sitting at 1500 metres however, it is a tad longer than our 30 metre concoctions. Nor does it have a knot in the middle that would inevitably result in tears as we’d crash into it with our bit of hose pipe and tumble hopelessly to the ground. Read the rest »

Muddy Boots joined our family two months ago, and even in this short time, we have developed a strong bond with our Landy (LaRo in Dutch).

Countless hours have seen vigorous attacks with steel brushes against ugly rust spots, followed by tender stroking of preventative transformer fluid. Read the rest »

“Why is it that guys want a lawn but never want to mow it?” Tjitska asks me as I show her my latest project.

I’m re-arranging our back garden to accommodate some green tingling for Marcel’s feet while he’s doing the braai (a.k.a. barbequeing).

“Weirdly enough, … ” I reply “Marcel loves mowing the lawn. He evens goes around to other people’s places to do theirs!” Our neighbour looks at me incredulously. I laugh, Read the rest »

Our weekend plans are somewhat disrupted when Marcel discovers metres of carpet waiting to be laid in Zwolle, some 130 km’s from Vierhuizen!

Then Simon lets us know that a potential buyer wants to kick his tyres early on Saturday morning, so they won’t be able to make it both nights.  Read the rest »

Each year hundreds of 4×4′s descend onto an open field in Axel during the “Pinksteren” [Pentecost] holiday weekend. The reason? Simple. To celebrate everything that is Land Rover.

In the Netherlands, there aren’t a lot of places left for 4x4s to roam; largely due to the size of the country in relation to her population and their needs. So most offroaders head east towards Germany, Poland and Croatia or are southbound towards France, Spain and Portugal. Read the rest »

The idea of angry 4×4′s tearing up ancient forests horrified me. I adore nature and being outdoors. So when we got the chance to attend the Croatia Trophy, I was in a quandry.

On the one hand, not wanting to experience, let alone promote, such destruction … and on the other hand, wanting to know what the 4×4 adventure thing is all about. Read the rest »

A couple of extremely crooked valve-rods ends the Pink Panther’s trail in Poland. We can stand-down. And lie-in. Past the 06h30 plan of getting up to watch the others tackle the “Bandi” course below the house.

We’re simply shattered. So, instead we get up at decent-o-clock and have ourselves some bacon and eggs. We amble down the hill to see who is still riding this track. Not many …

Read the rest »

2 am sees us pulling into the driveway of our rental home. Shattered by a 21-hour journey, but without complaint. Dorota and Anno have been on the road for 34 hours and Wojtek is still en-route.

The Discovery pulling one of the competition cars has developed some issues.   Read the rest »

Talk about show-and-tell with an impact! The Dutch Army opened their doors to the Johannes Postkazerne to share their efforts and work methods with us civilian folk wanting to know more.  

Entrance was free, so it was packed!

We were pretty gobsmacked by how professionally it was organised, but then I suppose, what else can/should you expect? Read the rest »

Sunday afternoon…

We’re at the ‘Dutch Armed Forces Open Day‘.

The phone rings and Rob invites us to the RDW Track in Lelystad… Read the rest »

The Croatia Trophy is a massive challenge, being the toughest 4×4 competition in Europe. Just finishing the race is already a major achievement. Adding to these rigours with extra, unforeseen, problems meant that the days were sometimes rather long…

For ‘Team Tommie’ the predominant feature was, sadly, mechanical failure, but of the kind that you couldn’t predict or plan for, like: a blocked suction tube in the fuel tank? Crown wheel bolts sheared off? Axle halfshaft twisted and snapped? You can’t make this stuff up… Here’s a day-by-day account of our adventure.

Read the rest »

51 km’s … more than most of us expect. The car is running with no front or rear diff lockers, but we decide to start anyway.

Shortly after the start signal, we catch up to Tjarko and Sybolt (team 32) who started 2 minutes before us and decide to drive the stage together. A good thing! Read the rest »

It was the second last day today, but in order to start, we needed to repair the damage from the previous day.

This consisted of a broken halfshaft in the front left and the bolts that had come loose in the crown wheel.

The rear diff housing was so damaged due to these problems that after disassembly the bearings could not be adjusted. Read the rest »

Started really well. Due to our (late) finish in the previous stage, we still managed to get a 24th starting position. Navigation went perfectly and we headed for the first test at checkpoint 1.

This was a creek that we needed to enter and follow about two hundred metres. We got there at about eleven thirty to find a row of cars ahead of us. No alternative but to join the queue and wait for the cars in front to get throught the section. By now the stream had become a serious mudbath.  Read the rest »

What a hectic day! It was 05:30 start for me, driving to the local village to upload pics and updates, then back in time for a quick breakfast and press briefing.

In true Croatia Trophy style, the plans were changed at the last minute and we dashed around trying to find where to go. Exciting once you’re used to it, a little nerve wracking when not. Read the rest »

The front diff has come off and the bolts holding the kroonwiel have all sheared off. The whole thing has to come apart.

With enormous help from our dutch teams we find the knowledge and some spare parts to refit the spacer that holds the kroonwiel.  Read the rest »

Start from eleven pm. Being in last place due to a non-start in the Team Trophy, we are last to start at about 00h30. We head into the darkness and try to follow a track.

Around the next corner we find a traffic jam of vehicles trying to get through a creek that has been turned into soft mud by the cars that had left before. We come across teams that had left an hour before us, heading the other way…  Read the rest »

I’m having a fabulous time with the official press team for the Croatia Trophy, but that’s a whole other story. In the mean time, you can read Rob’s update over today and see the photos of the action.

“Today was double-edged. We couldn’t take part in the Team Trophy because of the technical problems from yesterday, but have managed to sort them all out and can take part in the night stage. The fuel problems were actually caused by a blocked suction pipe in the fuel tank. We also had the tyre fixed from the flat we had yesterday, by the professional tyre company that is present at the Trophy. It cost 50 Kn, which is approximately € 7,00 …………….. . Read the rest »

We had a relatively good start and caught some competitiors early due to some good driving in some of the testing areas. Navigation a bit difficult at times but getting better.

About halfway at the first check point we had to change a flat tyre. We used the top winch around a tree to lift the car which saved us some time, but still took fifteen minutes to get going again. Read the rest »

During the briefing, Marcel luckily pulls a 10 from the hat thus allowing them to start in the 4th group. No time to rest, back to the tents, teams shirts on and head for the start line. They make a quick recon of the course and get themselves ready.

Rinze and I start walking towards the winching spots, but stand with Carl who´s found a shady spot with great vantage point. My heart is pounding waiting for Team 55 to race by.  Read the rest »

A great vibe at camp. Relaxed but you can feel the excitement mounting. The prologue is a timed route including winching from different angles. This will determine the starting positions for day 1.

I handed over my passport to Igor (event manager) this morning so I could register as “press” and got a great package, including brochures for Croatia, which looks exquisite, a t-shirt, cap and bright yellow anorack so the drivers don’t run us over in the marshy swamps. Rob, Rinze and Marcel were busy with the only pink Landrover in the world. A colour that is causing quite a stir! Read the rest »

Final checks on the Land Rover Discovery (kindly sponsored by Land Rover Centre Jacob Schaap) and we hit the road by 09:30. Slow going at 90 km/hr, but all went smoothly. Stopped briefly to refill the landy and stretch our legs. Before we knew it, we hit the major roadworks in Eastern Germany.

About 12 hours later we got to Passau, on the border of Germany and Austria. Some searching later, we found a guest house that could feed us. Boy did that “weissbier” taste good, as did the goulash soup and “knackworst” (with fresh horseradish). Read the rest »