Night Fever

Last night saw Favourite Man and I out and about in Olivia after sunset. We had a shopping run and an airport-distance run to accomplish, so a good deal of pottering in the dark.

At which time I discovered a problem. A very serious problem.

You see, Olivia has LIGHTS. And not just lights or Lights, but LIGHTS. 16 of the blerry things on her front alone, and then there's the ones in her rocksliders and the Christmas tree out back. All functional (well, OK - there are one or two for mere bling), and all nicely aligned.

So when it comes to night driving, I have this big old problem in wanting to flash all my pretty lights at people.

The worst was when we were parked outside the Spur restaurant, with lovely crowds of people just the other side of big plate-glass windows mere metres away. Perfect flash-fodder!

But Favourite Man wouldn't let me... Not even after I'd reversed 10m back. Damn! :-)

I'll just have to stick to flashing people when I'm on my own.

Olivia goes to work

I had a bit of a close call this morning, driving to work in the dark.

Being a slowpoke, Olivia tends to stick to the "yellow line lane" uphill and let the speedier commuters past. This morning she was doing just that in the early morning blackness, when I suddenly noticed a HUGE pothole that had opened up overnight - right in the middle of the lane I was traveling!

I was very very lucky that traffic was thin - I managed to swerve out and avoid it. But if I hadn't.... I shudder to think of the damage. Overturned vehicle. Broken axles. Probably broken me too. Oh my - it would have been horrible.

Luckily we avoided it and by the time I next came by the traffic department were helping others give it a wide berth.

I know Olivia loves going off-road, but that was a little bit too extreme... even for her.

Wet Run

You get dry runs - and then you get wet runs. Being Olivia, and being winter, today Favourite Man is on a Wet Run.

It's a typical Cape winter day - howling northwest wind, rain on and off (when it's on, it's ON), not a hint of sunshine to be seen anywhere. Driving a solid, square block of metal with some wind-catching aerials and a roofrack is not easy - add in a topside load and it's going to be quite the trip home.

Olivia is doing e-waste fetching and carrying today. She's already taken a load of sorted goodies to the processors this morning, is on her way to another to drop off a different type of stuff, then will be picking up ready-to-work-through new waste, along with a rather large pole-type structure. Which in this wind is going to be "fun" to get home via the coastal road...!

Nevertheless, she appears to be going pretty well today (touch wood - or aluminium, seeing it's a Landy). She sounds fantastic, and even though she's merely pottering along at Olivia speed, she's getting where she needs to be - in style.

Used to be a wet run like this was a VERY wet run - water streaming down behind the pedals, dripping through the windscreen onto the steering wheel and dash, and running down your neck through the door tops. Favourite Man fixed that - and now it's merely a damp run.

Holding thumbs the rest of it goes as smoothly as it has thus far.

Going everywhere - slowly...

Right children, pay attention. Now - what is the title of this blog? Good! "Going Everywhere - Slowly"!

Which is a general trend in a 30-year-old Landy with her original engine. But hey, it's faster than walking.

Still... Rising fuel costs and this Treehugger post have me pondering today.

Remember I briefly said something about the "death of adventure" in my last post? That cost of travel is making it a luxury? Well - I'm wondering. What if, along with the drive to find new, cheaper and eco-friendlier ways to travel, there were a return to the beast-powered adventure?

What if, instead of taking a year off to travel the world, you spent that year travelling just a single continent or country? And doing it non-mechanically?

Heck, our ancestors travelled by horse, by oxcart, by donkey-power. We may have progressed considerably, got all nifty and gadget-heavy, customized and turned our mechanical beasts of burden into homes on wheels, built smooth roads to take us everywhere, but that's SO run-of-the-mill lately! :-) You just go try the same route by animal power. Now THAT'S an adventure!

And you'd get to see the scenery! You could even walk it, you'd be moving so sedately.

Sure, you'd have to plan food and water for the beasts, but you're planning food and water for yourself anyway and it wouldn't be too great an adjustment (sorta). I know it's not really that simple - where you could leave a truck standing for months, then simply fire it up and go, you can't do the same for an animal. But perhaps a new breed of safari-transport-hire company would spring up - stabling full in the off-months, everything gone over the holiday season.

Yup, I know. SERIOUSLY random ramblings in a totally illogical direction.

But hey - it's an option. Even if it's much slower than a Series Landy.

It's (still) alive!

Nope, Olivia hasn't gone to the Great Landy Gathering In The Sky. She's still around, she's still going strong - better than ever.

There's a post languishing in drafts about her new shocks/dampers and steering damper. She's gained a few new stickers. She has new tyres and she's working hard up the mountainside!

But our lives have rushed on with work every day - and it's been a while since she went out to merely play. It's been a long time since the last roadtrip. She's been doing local here-and-there's only, a daily drive when we have time and cash to throw in her thirsty tank.

In the meantime fuel prices have shot up, and continue to do so every month - crippling thoughts of adventure. I often wonder if the worldwide fuel costs are going to put a damper on adventure in general, no matter which country you're in...

But Olivia lives yet. And one of these days her blog will again be filled with tales of wonder and travel. Just not yet.

Digital Confusion

I threw fuel into the Disco 2's tank for the first time this morning since the above R10 a litre hike in price, and it was both amusing and confusing.

The price is given in hundreds of cents, but it should be in just over a thousand. So when you put in R20, you end up seeing a charge for R2 on the pump!

If only....

This could, of course, work for both good and evil. If you go cash in hand and say "give me 20 bucks of diesel", they'll fill it to R20,0* worth, approximately R20 but with the last few single figure cents unknown so you could just score an extra drop. If you go garage charge card in hand, the computer at the back calculates it to the last cent and charges you accordingly!

So on the former the garage could lose out, on the latter you could.

Apparently the petrol stations have been given until the end of the year to upgrade to exorbitant-compliant numerals. Which of course means only one thing. The fuel price can only go up.

Rest Up

Olivia is taking a break.

She was the daily drive commutemobile for an entire month, completely fulfilling my quest to turn her into such that started the whole Work In Progress thing at the beginning of last year. She's been tootling along, generally happily - a very big difference from me being too scared to get into her!

But now she's taking a break. I'm back in the more fuel-efficient Discovery II that belongs to Favourite Man for the daily dash. And why? Well.. the petrol/diesel prices are up again. So much so that some older pumps can't handle the new 4-digit diesel price. A bit like Y2K for petrol stations!

So the Disco is getting a run for its money once more, and Olivia has become the leisure/mountain work truck. Olivia gets to do the short trips around town when needed. She gets to go offroad and uphill when site clearing is required. She does shop runs and fun runs. But she's taking a break from commuter battles.

I'm not sure how much fuel savings we'll see. Diesel has become way more expensive than petrol, so I'm still paying about the same every day... well, nearly. I can sneak through the day slowly on less diesel than the petrol Olivia sucks up. It's still pricey - I'm not sure how financially feasible a daily commute is going to be down the line - but it's probably the best option for now.

So Olivia is resting a little. She'd better rest well - I have plans for her....

Working Girl

Olivia has been earning her keep the past few days. On Tuesday she drove Cape Town flat - including picking up e-waste for Virgin Earth and seeing a few blokes for Cape Connect.

Today she did what she was made for - trundling slowly up a mountain in low range to take us to a Cape Connect mast site which requires clearing. She toted water, 3 humans, food, supplies, equipment and a faulty chainsaw which gave up after an hour's work. And then she came down the mountain again.

Landies are meant to be used. They're not just pretty, they're not simply road cars. They were designed to tackle tough terrain and keep you safe. Especially if it means facing slopes like this regularly.

Up and Down

Olivia is pretty impressive for a 31 year old truck.

This morning early we had to do a quick dash up a mountain (all in a day's work) in heavy mist before work. Last time I handed over the steering wheel to Favourite Man as soon as we hit the dirt. This time I went up the easier bit until the first very steep slope before exiting the driver's seat. And Olivia just kept going and going and going.

OK, maybe I approached some of the ruts at the wrong angle. We "got air" once as the back tyres spun briefly. But she does make it look easy sometimes. She may be slow and ponderous, but the engine does pull nicely.

Perhaps soon I'll even get up the confidence in her capabilities to try the Scary Hill all on my own. I may ask Favourite Man to step outside and well away though, just in case I don't get it right and we roll.... Wouldn't want him tossed around!

(We did have a bit of a scare at the top of the worst hill when she popped out of 4-wheel drive briefly. Eish. That plus temperamental brakes is not a good thing.)

Heading back down we passed a Forward Control on its way up. Landies definitely rule that lump of rock.

Diesel-Petrol

A few months ago I gave Olivia an oil change. By mistake I put oil meant for diesel engines in her, instead of the petrol engine oil. Total and utter blonde day! But, as it was a rather large financial investment's worth of oil, we thought we'd go with it and see what happened.

Meantime, a thread on the Land Rover UK Forums mentioned diesel oil and petrol engines, so of course my virtual ears pricked up and I kept an eye on it. All sorts of fascinating info came out.

For one thing, diesel oil has scrubbers and cleaners in. You'd think this would be a very good thing - but perhaps not in an old Series engine. You see, sometimes a build-up of stuff helps protect the engine components (not a HUGE build-up, mind) - and scrubbing it off changes the entire way the engine functions. You start with a low compression engine, add a cleaning oil - and the compression may plummet further! You might also risk exposing problems that had been happily non-problematic under the gunge, or loosen up stuff that could damage the engine when it starts to circulate.

I've noticed the oil has gotten blacker quicker - so there is some cleaning going on in there. Also seems to need topping up regularly, but that's par for the course on a Landy. If it's not dripping oil, you don't have any.

I know these old engines are built to run on just about anything. They're made tough to deal with tough conditions, but they do still need love and attention, a careful eye to make sure they're functioning optimally. Choosing the right oil for the job is part of that.

Olivia has been going OK, as Olivia generally does. I haven't picked up any really big issues with a different oil going through her system. But I won't be diesel-oiling her petrol engine again, just in case. I'd much rather give her optimal ingredients to handle the roads she travels than take a chance.

Note to Commuters

Your need to beat me to the next traffic light with a roar of engines does not encourage an increase in speed on my part. We'll all get there at the same time anyway and I'm not putting foot to conform to your ideas of the speed limit.

Likewise, should you choose to travel in the slow lane, do not attempt to move me to the yellow line by flashing your lights, gesturing or otherwise being rude. There's a fast lane for fast cars - get into it.

If I do happen to move over and drive in the yellow line (for your convenience), it would be nice to have some sort of thanks or acknowledgement for my troubles. Also, if I indicate to get back into normal traffic to avoid a collision with a cyclist, broken down car, pedestrian or tractor transporting grapes - don't speed up and try cut me off. Be nice, be considerate, and don't make me slam on brakes until you have the chance to push past.

You may have petrol to burn in your tanks, and thus be able to ignore speed restrictions and logical gearing behaviour. I do not - I will travel at the most fuel-efficient speed for my truck, which happens to be the general 60km/hr speed limit you should be keeping to anyway. If you want to speed, don't try involve me in it.

My bumper is bigger and stronger than your plastic decorative one. You will come off second best if you cut me off. If you need to know why, you're welcome to join me for a brakes test in Olivia. Ditto for creeping up the exhaust pipe. That rear crossmember will slice your bonnet in half without feeling a jot.

You do not own the road. Driving at speed and swerving between cars is not cool. But then again, there's generally natural selection applicable to your type... Pity it usually has to involve innocent fellow-travellers and crumpled metal.

In conclusion, all I ask is that you be considerate to your fellow commuters, and if you're in a Landy - for goodness' sake wave back.

BoingBoing

Olivia is not your average smooth rider. She's a Leafer, and her reconditioned leaf springs are bouncy.

I've noticed it lately on a particular section or two of road where there are the smallest corrugations or uneven bits in the surface. If you hit them at the right speed - which is generally the reasonably-slow speed Olivia's going - you generate a "wave" effect. As you bounce up and down, you hit the next one which keeps the bounce going! Throw in a high seat box with straight up and down padding, and you look like you're on a trotting horse in the driver's seat.

A while back I was trying to explain the feel of the ride to my boss. "Oh," she said, "I guess that's like when I put my car in Sport Mode and feel the bumps". Um.. no. Not exactly. I may have to give her a lift sometime to illustrate the difference.

There are many that look down their noses at Leafers in favour of the comfortable ride of coil springs. Yes, it's nice not to feel every bump in the road, but hey - this is a Series Landy, and feeling bumps is what it's all about. However, I recently had a passenger with a full bladder on board and I don't think he appreciated the effect! :-)

That's Series Landies for you. They chug along slowly, they bounce, they bump - but they go. Generally speaking. Which is really all you need out of a vehicle anyway.

::update::
Of course Olivia is the exception to the rule - which is why new shocks are on the must-get list. :-)

Would you do this?

I wouldn't...

A Woman's Place

I know the facts, but now and then I'm still gobsmacked that in this day and age women are still shunted to the side of the campfire.

Take the manly world of 4x4 ownership, for instance. OK - I'm not your average Land Rover driving woman. For one thing, I drive a difficult bitch of a beast that is constantly threatening mutiny. For another, I don't particularly mind getting my hands dirty or my head around her issues.

Which is why I had greasy short nails and ingrained muck for a couple of months recently. And why I hardly ever wear fancy clothes when driving my Landy - you never know when you might need to get into the engine or under the chassis to check something out, which is basically impossible when you're in satin and high heels.

I'm not an expert - I'm far from an expert - but experience has taught me a thing or two about Series Landys (with Favourite Man's help, and the advice of some other very wise folk online and offline). And I'm still learning.

But now and then a situation comes along where I do know a thing or two, having been there, done that. Where I'm in a position to give a spot of advice, having found the easiest and most effective way of doing something.

Yet as a woman I'm in the minority. I'm not meant to know things. I'm probably supposed to be "barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen", making the salads - not braaing the proverbial meat.

Time and time again I've found that sharing my knowledge leads to it simply being ignored. I can give long and detailed explanations, spout forth on the whys and wherefores of what someone else needs to know - but it's brushed away as the men get their word in, and their opinions get acknowledged.

Most times I simply shrug it off as "that's the way things are". I'm used to it. I'm accustomed to being ignored. But every so often it simply gets to me. And then I go blog. :-)

Dirty Girl

Olivia is not the cleanest of vehicles at the moment. She's been up a mountain twice in the last two weeks, a very dusty dirty mountain, in a manner which generated a coating of brown everywhere.

Add in early morning dewiness on the windscreen and bodywork, and she does not look at all good!

But there's a dilemma raging over this one.

Landies should look like they're doing Important Things, shouldn't they? Too clean and you're tempted to say "oh look, another bloke who likes to think he's tough, but his vehicle never goes off tar". Too dirty, and it looks like you don't care for your truck.

So Olivia's sitting at a bit of a semi-happy medium right now. Dusty - yes. But not so dirty that you can't see she's blue. Pity the windows can be a bit hard to see out of early in the morning against the rising sun.

I think my dilemma may be solved for me tomorrow. There's a massive cold front with lots of rain apparently on the way. I've sat at work watching the clouds moving in over the mountains, ever lower and thicker. By tomorrow it's going to not only be sleep-in weather, but Olivia may get a natural rinse-off standing around outside.

I only hope the wind decides to blow from all directions equally so she's thoroughly cleaned, and doesn't end up with everything sparkling except her downwind butt...

Celebrity in the House

Favourite Man has been published! One of the awesome things he made for Olivia the Landy is featured in this month's Land Rover Monthly magazine, with the photos he took of the process. Quite co-incidentally, the final page faces an ad for a commercial cubby box that looks completely inefficient next to his strong and sturdy one. :-)

I'm so proud of him I could burst. Go FaveMan!

(cross-posted to ...seekingserenity)

Sigh

There I was, happily chugging through town on the way to work with a grin on my face, when Olivia sighed. I pulled over and revved her, and she was OK. A half-kilometre down the road she sighed again. This time I headed down a side street to check things out, as I don't fancy being stuck in the middle of commute traffic on a road with no shoulder space and taxis speeding by!

Well, in the process of checking things, I tapped the fuel guage. And, instead of the wonderful fuel consumption I had been getting, the just over quarter tank that should last me another two days, the guage plummeted and hit zero.

Oh dear.

Well I trundled back slowly toward town (mostly in neutral, to the irritation of a gold-bedecked woman in a BMW behind me that obviously had a fuller tank than I did), parked up behind the library, drew a few bucks half way through town, and walked to the end of Main Road to get a couple of litres of petrol. The only other fuel stop in town seems to be closed for repairs. From there it was home to phone work and tell them I'm on my way (cellphone is currently not happy) - and then back to the petrol station to feed the hungry beast once more.

On to work, slowly. The less petrol I burn the better... which is a mission with the hills I have to conquer daily.

Olivia's called the "petroldief" (petrol thief) by Favourite Man. Today it's a name she definitely deserves.

Sigh.

Fright

I've mentioned how night driving Olivia keeps me on my toes and on edge... but what I haven't mentioned is the day-to-day frights she likes to give me.

Take this morning, for instance. I was in to work a bit later than usual after having some business to take care of elsewhere, and as I arrived and parked I noticed something dripping out of the wheel arches and off the rock sliders onto my parking place. Oh no, now what!

Drips usually mean a trip to the parts shop, once you've found what essential item has deigned to break without warning. And the very last thing I need now is another Landy parts trip.

So there I was in my work clothes on hands and knees, peering under the truck and trying to find the source of the leak. I stuck my fingers into it and smelt it - and it wasn't petrol or oil, it was water! But there's no water pipes in that area to spring leaks... what on earth IS IT????

And then I remembered. I'd just driven in through the sprayers watering the lawns outside the office gate. The road had been covered in water and I'd gotten a light misting of the windscreen that had dried by the time I got out of Olivia. But the wheels had thrown up a good deal of water from the road into the wheel arches and onto the bottom of the rock sliders - and that was now dripping off.

Sjoe. What a relief.

Right, Olivia - that's your scare for the day used up, you hear?!

Chill

Just like her human, Olivia is not fond of getting up and going to work in the dark. But the seasons are changing so rapidly lately that she's had to put on her lights when she leaves, and sometimes even gets to use her fog lights!

Of course, with the onset of colder weather, she's not only trying to be difficult by starting with effort - but she decided it's time for the fan/heater switch to break and the heater tap to stick closed.

Yes, my Series III has a heater - and it's not just engine heat through the firewall. It's a proper fan setup that uses water circulated from the radiator via an inline screw thing that's either open or closed, so once the engine starts to warm up you have warmth literally on tap!

Well, first chill in the air and suddenly she goes cold on me. The switch we thought was such a good one gets all loose and simply stops functioning! True to form, it's just before the weekend so little Ms Attention Monger can get her fair share of fiddling in. The switch we had lying around isn't a two-speed one, nor is it a perfect fit - but it's fitted. The sticking heater tap in the pipe from the radiator has been loosened by Favourite Man and is letting warmth through. Just have to remember to keep it closed tomorrow when we have a sudden blast of hot day.

Now all we need to sort out is the darn windscreen wiper on the driver's side. Before it starts raining in earnest...

Adventure with a purpose

A post on one of my email forums recently has lodged itself in the "adventure" braincell in my head and started to use up a significant portion of my imagination's RAM.

There's a few blokes heading off on a 4x4 trip to Botswana, which is nothing new. Guys go places every weekend! But these guys are going to "find the Lost City of the Kalahari" as mentioned in 1883, sought for by Allan Paton, and brought to life in a Wilbur Smith novel.

OK, so they probably won't find it. Scientists and expeditioneers have sought it in vain, and zooming around in Google Earth yields nothing. But still - what a good excuse for a trip to the desert!

And that got me thinking. Too often our road trips and our away-treks involve simply going to somewhere and then coming back again. We may have mini-adventures along the way by accident, or take in some sights, or do the tourist thing in parts unknown, but we've lost that sense of "let's go find new lands!" that started the whole itchy feet characteristic generations ago, and which today makes some of us squirm at our deskjobs.

Look at guys like Livingstone, or more recently David Attenborough. They went on quests to find the different, the unexplored, the unknown - and experience one hell of an adventure in the process.

So perhaps we can't all grab National Geographic Society funding, or get the BBC to back up our travels. But there are places and purposes that we all too often ignore in favour of just "going somewhere".

Me, I think it's time to get a different mindset going for Olivia's travels. Even if it means chasing after a legendary city or lost habitat. ESPECIALLY if it means just that. It's time to recapture the sense of wonder, the search for the mysterious and the interesting. Go off the beaten track and be amazed.

Which reminds me... there's rumours of a plain of fossilized dinosaur eggs, and forgotten trade route civilizations somewhere in the Gobi Desert. There's the Mountains of the Moon with landscapes seldom seen and pockets of vegetation with undiscovered species. There's the deserted mansion in the forests of the DRC - and the strange patches of grass where the forest ends and mountains begin. There's the hidden oases in the Sahara where crocodiles thrive.

I feel a rather lengthy road-trip coming on! :-)