It says it all…

I decided that I need to buy a replacement car for my good little Jimny – offers welcome. I wanted something with a bit more power for offroading, and did not relish fitting a new transfer case or bigger engine.

Anyway, I spotted a potential replacement car on Ebay – a Terrano, and decided to go and make the 120 miles trip south to North Yorkshire to have a look with my brother in his own Terrano, and he knows a Terrano insideout.

I had a look under the car and could see dirty oil leaking out under the engine, a crack on the front bumper, the car inside was ranking, the carpets were multi-coloured of various stains, the fittings loose. I thought, there’s no way the seller is going to get the £2,500 he is asking for.

The smell was from the vomit-style multi-coloured carpet, which on closer look revealed that the car has been in for a serious drinking and possibly swimming session.

Worse was to come when my brother pinpointed the oil leak under the bonnet to the intercooler and the air filter intake has been tampered with, the radiator full of dirt and vegetation. I already made my mind that I’m not going to buy this smelly car.

We took it for a test drive anyway. The engine warning light remained illuminated, the gear linkage broken, the suspension was knackered and felt as if a stabiliser bar was broken. To top it off, the turbo never kicked in, and after about 30 seconds of driving it, we took it back. Surely it’s way too dangerous to drive any further.

Without the turbo, it was like driving a busfull of fat people on their way to a weight watchers club using an engine off a lawn mower.

The only thing it was work having was the starter motor as the seller admitted it was a new one.

Looking back on the advert, I felt the seller wasted both our time with blatant lies like “Totally immaculate inside and outside”, “it has plenty of power and all system working fine”. We made the long journey home with a bitter taste in our mouths.

I figure its time to show where I have been in the world so far…

I’ve visited the counties in yellow. Which counties have you visited?

map reproduced from Ordnance Survey map data by permission of the Ordnance Survey. © Crown copyright 2001.

create your own visited country map

create your own visited states map

The plan was simple: one man to each vehicle.

We have two different camps. One vehicle (no. 1) was at Camp A and two (no. 2 and 3) at Camp B. I was at Camp B, and needed to fetch over a vehicle from Camp A. I took my driver, lets call him Andy, and took vehicle number 2 from Camp B and travel to Camp A.

At Camp A, I told the administrator that I needed two drivers. One to drive the remaining car (no. 3) at the other Camp (that is, camp B) and also to drive car number 1 situated at Camp A.

It’s really is simple.

Two hours later, after doing some work at Camp A, it was time to go to Camp B with three drivers and two vehicles.

Andy tells me he is driving car number 1. I said who is driving number 2. He does not know. The administrator secured another driver and said he will be driving number 2. I said, well who is driving number 3 at the other camp?

The administrator was dumbfounded. He said I have two drivers, he gave me what I asked.

He was right. When I said I needed two drivers, I meant two drivers excluding my own.

That meant there were no drivers for vehicle 3 at Camp B and only returned with drivers for vehicle 2 and 1.

No, both drivers were told to drive number 1.

It seems someone has corrected the mistake and as the second driver, Bill, has been told to drive number two, then told him to drive number 1 after finding out Andy should drive number 2 as Andy was with that vehicle in the first place but neglect to tell Andy he is no longer driving number 1 but number 2 instead.

Time wasted: 3.5 hours.

More pictures are in the gallery.

Oasis in the dunes.

The drilling crew

Four weeks into my new job, I’m now in charge of a routine drilling programme, making sure a drilling contractor and its crew are safe, take them out into the desert and tell them to drill here or there, make sure that they leave the area as they found it. Also I plan and liase with a bunch of departments to co-ordinate the next locations for the drill programme, and go with the archaelogists to clear a route as to not trample over an ancient site (some evidence of human activities are over 1.5 million years old).

Now, this requires a lot of strategic thinking and planning ahead and figuring out logistics over a vast area. It’s great fun as I like tackling problems and keeps me busy from 7am to 10pm, 7 days a week.

Now, with that explained, not once has my plan (A) nor plan (B) has worked out as it should. Something always go wrong, a flat tyre, a broken drill bit, an AWOL driver, getting stuck in deep sand, slopes too steep to drive up/down, sheer cliff face, incorrect co-ordinates, incorrect reference numbers, lunch not provided, cultery AWOL, drivers venturing off the cleared tracks, winds disturbing seismic instruments, sunburn, too cold, etc, etc, etc.

It’s good fun, as long you don’t expect your plans to be executed with military precision.