[members] Australia calling

[Mark Velky]

Giles
 
    Great to here from you!!! On behalf of Club Lotus Northwest, Congratulations on your last trip and we look forward to following your next one on your blog.
    As you can see I have cc'ed CLNW to keep them up to speed on your adventures.
 
Mark
 

________________________________
 From: Giles Cooper <bentall at hotmail.com>
To: Jim McVein <jmcvein at teleport.com>; Mark Velky <dmc.lotus at yahoo.com> 
Sent: Friday, January 25, 2013 10:49 PM
Subject: Australia calling
  

 
Jim and Mark - Greetings for 2013. 

Just wanted to drop you a line to keep in touch, and to let you know that next year I will be setting off again !!  Since I got back to Australia in August, I have been very frustrated, finding it dificult to settle down to a mundane routine in the suburbs !!  I was also missing the wilds of Alaska a lot !!   So last month I decided to do something about it, and have now just sold my Winnebago motorhome which I have had for some 6 years, and I bought a 2008 model Toyota Landcruiser Troopcarrier, with a camper conversion.  This has a big 4.5 litre V8 diesel, turbocharged and intercooled, so lots of torques !!  It is a fairly basic, agricultural model (think old Land Rover style inside !!)  but, like most Toyotas, has a good reputation for longevity, and is extremely capable off road.  Although it has a pop top with canvas sides, it should provide considerably more protection from errant moose and bears etc than the Elise and my little tent did !  And
 being basically weather tight, it will make it much more livable in cold / wet / windy conditions !!  I have a lot of small improvements to make to it, so will be busy over the next few months.

I am planning to ship the camper to Seattle (not LA this time) in February 2014, arriving in Seattle in late April.  Reason for this timing is that I will be attending the Australian Lotus National Meeting (Local LOG equivalent) in Canberra at the end of April 2013, and I cannot get to the US after that before the US winter weather closes in !   Also, I will (surprise surprise) be selling my Elise after the Nationals - Sad, but I honestly do not feel there is a lot more I can do in the Elise !!  After 15 years of ownership, I have raced it, rallied it and hill climbed it.  Driven it over Europe, across Australia, and up the Dalton Hwy, and done Laguna Seca, Pikes Peak, and the Nurburgring on the way !! And it has never failed to put a smile on my face.   Also, I intend to maybe be away for at least 2 - 3 years on my next trip, and there is no point in leaving the car sitting in a garage all that time when someone else could be enjoying it !    Plus of
 course, I need the money to help pay for the trip !!

And the trip ?  I intend to go up through Vancouver Island and the marine Hwy to Alaska, doing the roads like the Dalton and the Dempster that I couldn't really enjoy in the Elise, and then across Canada, down the east coast, back west across Texas (where I have a lot of friends after my 35 years with a company headquartered there), and then down through Mexico and central America, ship round the Darien Gap from Panama to Cartagena in Columbia, then down through Ecuador and Chile etc to Tierra del Fuego !!  After that, I may ship the car to Europe and explore a bit more !!  As you can see, it is going to be a much longer trip than last time !!

Anyway, thats the plan - time will tell whether it all comes together, but I see no reason why it shouldn't !  I realised how much I love being on the road as early as when I was in Zion National Park in Utah in March, and the rest of the trip just reinforced that feeling.  And now is the only time to do it, while the kids are grown up and establishing themselves, and before I get too old and infirm to sleep in a sleeping bag admiring the stars !!  I attach a couple of pics of the Toyota for you, and have started a new temporary blog for this year before I set off again.  I will be detailing the work I am doing to the Toyota, (as well as documenting Lotus 2013 in April of course !), and in August, when it cools down a bit, I hope to go and do a shakedown trip out to Alice Springs and Ayers Rock in the centre of Australia, so will be including that in the blog.  So if you are interested it is here http://watchingandwaitin.blogspot.com.au/

Anyway, all the best, and hope everything is going well over there in Portland !! And please pass on my best regards to club next time you are all together at the brewery !!

Best regards,
Giles Cooper 
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