Chudleigh, United Kingdom
February 1991 was when Nick’s love affair of his life began. Yes, that was when the Troopy first entered his life!
All packed and ready to hit the road, for a trip to Lawn Hill Gorge in Far Northern Queensland. The purpose was to check that everything was in order, mechanically, prior to setting off on our big adventure in 2013!
Since March 2013, Troopy has safely taken us across Russia from east to west, Mongolia, through the Baltic states to Western Europe, through France, Spain & Portugal to Morocco. And then this year, we have travelled from Netherlands, through the Arctic Region to Nordkapp and then on to Ireland, via Belgium, Manchester, Yorkshire, Devon, Cornwall & Wales.
And in all those years of travelling, we have never been left stranded by the side of the road! Even when the suspension broke when driving through Kaliningrad, we were still able to keep on driving to Sopot in Poland.
From a two-door, six-seater Landcruiser, it has become a three-door, five-seater, turbo-charged Landcruiser, with many other modifications being added over the years as needs dictated. I don’t think that it was ever designed to carry small children, but it did so in safety. In 1992, when Samantha & Penny were small children and we did a trek through western Queensland, Northern Territory and south to Adelaide before returning home and Sam, Penny and I managed to sleep through the undulating sand dunes in the Strzelecki Desert – much to Nick’s disgust!
Samantha, Penny, Nick, MJ & Tyson.
Yes, I know it was a long time ago and we have all changed! This was a trip we made through Canberra in 1994.
And then in 1993, when Tyson was born, a bar was added so that the baby capsule could be carried in the back seat, and then the third door was added to make it easier to get the kids in and out of the car! The only downside was that there was never a lot of leg-room in the back seat and all of the kids grew to close to six-foot in height, so cramped legroom was never an enjoyable option! But it was always reliable, strong and gave us incredible freedom.
The Troopy has been our only car and drove everywhere. It has been a second car and sat parked by the kerb for months without turning a wheel. It has driven on bitumen, gravel, dirt, sand, mud, through rivers and never missed a beat. It has towed a camper trailer and an ordinary trailer over thousands of kilometres. It has even done a sea voyage from Brisbane to Vladivostok, via South Korea. In its life with us, it has driven 290,400kms and 50,160kms have been covered in the last 18 months.
But now it is time to move on. So that we can continue our travels in Europe in a bit more comfort, we have made the decision to buy a 2nd-hand Motorhome and, sadly, that means that it is time to find a new home for the Troopy.
Success! In our travels we have met another Landcruiser aficionado and someone who is keen to make a project out of the Troopy. So after talking some “turkey” we have sold the Troopy and it has gone to a new home in Devon.
Now we are driving a considerably larger vehicle, at 7metres in length, but for Nick it is a snap! After nearly 30 years of driving fire trucks of various makes, models and sizes, the Motorhome is not hard to drive. And it is more fuel efficient and economical that the Troopy. In honour of the Fire Truck that Nick has enjoyed driving the most, the Motorhome has been christened “Oscar” in memory of 850O, the BA/Hazmat Tender.
We will now have somewhere warm and dry to sit inside instead of crouching in our tent and cursing the weather. No more having to get dressed in the middle of the night to go to the loo because we now have a shower/toilet in the Motorhome. And no more having to take an hour to set up camp and an hour-and-a-half (at the fastest) to break camp in the morning. Ahh, the luxury!
to Lawn Hill Gorge, we went through this river. But because our friend Sabine wanted an action photo, Nick had to drive the car back through the river
-Vladivostok Monument
The suspension was starting to show the effects of the poor condition of the roads in Far Eastern Russia!
Over more bad roads to get here!
We visited the Ural Factory in Irbit (Siberia) and met Sergei who took us to a garage so that we could get an oil change done.
We had been to visit the Wobbly Boot Hotel in Boggabilla and then went down to the river for lunch. We were almost home and, after nearly 5000km, the Troopy had passed the first shake-down test run.
A B&B in the Limoges Region of France – very comfortable digs for us, but poor old Troopy was parked outside and it was cold!
Was this far enough north? The Troopy is crossing the Arctic Circle in Finland.
For those who don’t know – the song
“The Wild Colonial Boy” is a very
popular folksong in Australia.
Tyson says goodbye to Troopy when we visited him in Manchester.
Mid-North Coast of NSW – we stopped for a few days to do some scuba diving. Another great thing about the Troopy was it’s carrying capacity!
Nick & MJ On The Road 
Leave a reply to Graham Andrew Brooke Cancel reply