Monday 26 June 2017

Hirsthals

First day was about all driving, only two short stops and a lunch stop. I was at Vuosaari port at about 13:30, so it took about 9 hours since I started already at 04:30. When I was checking portals and diffs, I noticed that front right portal is leaking oil. I remembered that I had a bit over filled it, so it had pushed the extra oil out. I guess seals are not ok anymore, so I have check it frequently.

waiting at Vuosaari Port

Vuosaari from Finnlines


A bit mixed thoughts onboard the ship, I was thinking about the oil leak. I decided to park in Travemunde port and overnight there and check oil level in the morning.

Truck drivers have all meals included in the ticket so I spent some time eating. There was also the Baku F1 GP on TV, and it was a bit different kind of F1 race. Valtteri Bottas had crash after start and had to visit pit. He was left  one lap behind others after the pit stop. After many other crashes and debree cleaning on the track Bottas got the lap back begind the security car. After many other incidents Ricciardo won and Bottas was second.

In MotoGP Rossi got first victory after a long brake. It was his Assen win number 10, a 115th victory in total. Also his MotoGP wins span now over 20 years.

The boat was in Travemunde at 21:30 local time and I guess we got out at about 22:00. I tried to find a place to spend night at port parkings, but they are not free of charge and there is not too much room.

So I set Flensburg as a target in the GPS and started driving. It was getting dark and the original lights of the Mog are not very good. I decided to go into some service station parking along some Highway. GPS guided me through smaller roads to A7 and there I finally got myself in a service station, which had room in the parking lot.
first camp

In the morning I checked the oile level of the leaking portal hub and it was at top level. I tried to add oil, but is was draining out from the filling hole. So I guess I just continue the trip and check the hub every now and then. Before start I had a breakfast in the restaureng of the service station, just a big coffee and a small hambourger worth of 4€.

Then I drove to highway and continued non stop into Hirsthals. There I checked portals again and I guess it hak leaked a bit more, but there was so windy weather that I did not fill up, because there might  get sand and dust into the oil.

I tried to go to the camping close to Smyril Line boarding peer, but I guess it was closed. Then I  set Hirsthals camping to the GPS and drove there. The camping is at seaside and it was pretty windy. I took some photos from the shore, but photos don't show the size of the waves.


Here is a video from the dashcam, nothing special there.  Some clipses from the route home-dk. Some clips from the Finnmaid cargo corner :)


Friday 23 June 2017

The start

The start is at 05:00 next morning. Car is now packed up. The box is pretty full, tools, food, clothes, manuals etc. I'd guess it takes one week camping, before all stuff finds their places. Now everything is pretty much just thrown in.

Ready to go

The Sprengisandur road is now open, the lake area is open. Langsjö is still closed and the road from Askja to Sprengisandur, but I guess they'll open soon.
Right now there is some heavy raining in Iceland, but after couple of days it should get better at least in Icelandic standards.

Thursday 22 June 2017

Battle food

I just got the MRE boxes today and it was the last possible day. They costed about 100€ per box with delivery. Both boxes have 12 rations so there is 24 rations total. All rations include chemical heater, so they can be prepared without cooker or fire.

The summer has brought a lot of swallows in my home area. Very fast turns and difficult to have good photos, but here is some of the best ones from this summer.
back light



front light

Sunday 18 June 2017

Packing up

Start will be next saturday. Tho roads are getting open in Iceland, Laki is open, Askja and Kverkfjöll are open as well as Landmannalaugar.




I guess Thorsmörk is open, but the track in north to Katla is still closed, Langsjö is not open and the Lake area Veidivötn is closed. Sprengisandur is also still closed.

I took couple of pictures from the cabin. Here is the laptop with Garmin GPS V and the old Gopro 2 on the dash. Bose headphones with active noise cancellation to listen some music.

Here is the inverter under the dash and the laptop support. A pair of good old Nokia rubber boots in case of wet places...

On the Bed there is a lot of stuff now and there will be some more... I set a white light tarp to make inside a bit less dark.



Tank is filled up with 160l and 2x20l jerrys as spare fuel. Some fuel for the bike too.

One problem, when driving dusty roads the dust gets inside. I guess there is a bit like vacuum insode and the dust gets in through small holes and so on. I had a idea to have a 2" tube in front of the bed to have some air inside so there could be a little overpressure so the dust would not enter. Don't know if it works, but if I'll find some flexible tube I will try it on the road.

Thursday 8 June 2017

Doubts

While changing oil from the differential I found these fellows from the front diff.
These guys had about 10 identical friends in the magnetic drain plug. They look like ball bearing balls with 2mm diameter. I don't know if there is anything inside the diff casing that would have these kind of balls, so I'll just ignore these and carry on the plans. Rear diff had a bit muddy looking oil as well as the right rear hub, but otherwise oil was clear.

Mobicool is installed in it's place, maybe I'll put some vibration damping mat  under it. Also a gas bottle and a cooker are in their place. 6kg fire extinguisher is placed in the outside box and 2kg extinguisher on the bed box

Kjölur road is now opened, but it is a bit like a highway. Roads at north and west  of Vatnajökull are still closed.

While I had a test ride after diff oil change, a moose ran over the road with a spooky timing. If I would have driven at normal speed, it might had been a close call. Luckily there was another moose before this one and I slowed down and was going to reverse to see it more closely.


There was a nice moment in the evening that there was a clear view of the blue moon.

For the travel food I try to get US Military MRE boxes. However it might be too late to get them, because they come from Germany (bundeswher-us-shop). But I'm pretty sure they will be consumed anyway.
mreinfo