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[Fuerte diary d4.01] [Fuerte diary d4.03]

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Sunday:

Another bad night ended in a morning with pouring rain. It was still dark, when the clock rang. A coffee had to be enough as breakfast before we started the trek. Me in the California T3 “Bulli”van and Kussi and his son Tim in the green T2 van.

Now, I really like these old VW vans – mostly because of their style and compact size and probably because they were an essential part of my youth – but I´m still not a VW Bus Junkie. I´m from a generation that saw and used these vans as a method of transport and a place to sleep on prolonged trips through Europe and North Africa. And I´m not too old for having totally forgotten, what it meant to deal with the crude technique and mechanics of these vans. Still remember the pain involved with just changing an ignition spark….

Guess it´s the same for Kussi, with the only difference that he still has to fix these things. The frustration of slipping off with the wrench attempting to release a rusty screw or getting soaked with fuel when ripping apart a rotten fuel hose is a weekly experience for him.

So for us, this is more a love – hate affair. Still I was happy to hear the sound of the Boxxer engine again and do this sort of retro trip. Made me feel younger. Good thing was, that both vans were in an excellent technical condition, due to the before mentioned efforts of Kussi. Just the fuel tanks had a few minor defects. At mine the filler pipe had a hole that hindered me to fill the gas tank more than half. The tank of Kussie´s T2 was a bit rusty and on uneven roads rust particles got released that tended to block the fuel filter.

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