Our new jeep died on us!!

The adventure has begun and I hadn't even got the car from UK back to Norway.  I suppose this is a taste of things to come.

I flew to England on the 21st of September to collect the Mitsubishi Shogan that we had bought for the trip. I had a really busy weekend planned and it was going to be tough fitting it all in.  I took the train to my brothers in Eastbourne where the car was. Everything looked great and it was the first time I seen it.

The first challenge started the following morning when i turned the key and... nothing! So out came the jump leads and managed to get it started. Headed off on the 3 hour drive along the coast to Weymouth. Thought this would be enough to charge the battery and so when I pulled over to get some diesal I switched off the engine and, yes you've guessed it, when I tried to start it again, nothing.

So now Im stranded at the petrol station. Bought a new set of jump leads and after several attempts at asking for help managed to get a jump start.

On arriving in Weymouth, I surprised my daughter by turning up at her house on her birthday. I was with her the week before so she wasnt expecting it. Her face was magical.

A quick trip to the shops and £100 !!! later a new battery was fitted and the shogan was great. I spent the rest of the weekend driving around friends houses collecting toys and clothes. They were fantastic and it was nearly full by the time I left.

Sunday afternoon I set off for the 7 -8 drive to Newcastle to take the ferry to Stavanger..... And thats when it all went terribly wrong. :((

All was going great and I was only 1 hour away from Newcastle when all of a sudden I smelt oil, then I lost all power and the oil pressure dropped.

Managed to get to the hard shoulder but couldnt quite roll up the slip road under a light. So there I am stranded, car covered in oil and very poorly. Didnt have a torch, so tried looking under the bonnet with the light from my phone. Quite comical looking back. Sat on side of the motorway for an hour!! waiting for assistance.  When they finally arrived they towed me to their garage which was less than 5 minutes from where I stopped. I cant work out why it took an hour!

I was put on a lorry and they drove me to The ferry terminal, where thankfully there was a new traval Inn motel, otherwise it was a night in the car.

It transpired that the oil flter had come undone and dumped all the oil from the engine. Very rare. The engine sounded awful but managed to drive it onto the ferry at least.

I had to spend 2 days sitting around waiting for the next ferry. There is a shopping outlet mall at the terminal so carried out a little bit of retail therapy.

The car is now back in stavanger and the engine is out. We will give it a full rebuild and hopefully we will have a really good car that we know well. 

I have to stay positive. Im a great believer that everything happens for a reason. Its better to find out now rather than on the way to Budapest or out in the desert.

We  have been invited  by the organisers to show us around Budapest and film us for next years Travel Channel documentary. I hope we can make it in time for this to happen.  A trav buddy on the TC, Kudos.

Today in Stavanger we were interviewed by the local press and they will do a feature on us this sunday. If its any good I will post it on the blog.

Thankyou to those of you that have shown interest in our project.