It so surreal to be sitting in an Istanbul airport writing this, having been in London for the past 2 days, Sydney, 4 days ago, New Zealand 8 days ago and sailing around Vanuatu for the month prior to that – but we wouldn’t have it any other way!

Our goodbye party at the Opera bar couldn’t have been better. Winter disappeared for a day as Sydney put on a show with 29 degrees and sunny blue skies all around. Thanks to all of our friends (and sorry about the Monday morning hangovers guys!!!) who made it down, the perfect way way to sign out of Australia.

The drinks were flowing freely and it all got a bit confusing towards the end, with some people thinking they should start talking “pork n cheese’ or at least that’s what Todd thought when Luciana suggested that he should learn “Portuguese”… funny times!!

We somehow managed to pack the last bits and pieces on Monday, and jumped on QF1 to London via Bangkok. Great flight, we slept, ate, slept, drank, watched movies, drank, ate, slept, ate, drank and arrived in London at 7:00 am feeling a strange energy to keep going – akin to our old party days when one would get home at 5 or 6 am and decide to carry on to a recovery party…. so in the spirit of yesteryear, we had a quick catch up with Monica and Gianni (my uncle and Auntie whom we are staying with), donned the darkest of sunnies and hit the tube on our way to the West end… with about 3 hangovers back to back, no more than three hours sleep in the last 48 hours and a time zone change of around 12 hours we felt like we were part of a Hunter s Thompson’s script – “Fear and loathing in London” .

Piccadilly Circus, Wow we’re finally in London, SOHO,  look Luciana this is where we used to party when I was 22… Luciana, oh shit wake up baby, Leicester square… come on let’s go for a beer… oh ok a coffee probably is a better idea, Covent garden… whoah there are soooo many people here, it’s so loud…. ok let’s go for a beer… actually make that a double shot bloody Mary…. Gavin… Gavin… wake up, I can’t feel my legs, don’t know what’s happening… oh yeah this is where I had a beer with Scotty in 1997… so many Brazilians everywhere… are we back in Manly??? Gavin I’m serious, i forgot to tell you I had a sleeping pill on the plane and I think it’s finally starting to work… blank look… Luciana… Luciana, we have to go now. Oh look Gavin, a ferry floss stand, I love ferry floss… Take a picture, take a picture…. take a F&^%ing picture now!!! ok, ok, ok … it’s just a WILD mood swing darling…. maybe we should go home now… good idea… where’ the tube station… I don’t know, how should I know… oh yeah we’re standing in front of it… have you got your oyster card… my what??? the ticket – it’s called an oyster card here… remember…. yeah yeah…. let’s go sleep… Day 1 over… hmm not yet, afternoon Rum & Coke with Uncle Gianni, than Dinner with Monica, Steffi & Gianni, a couple of quiet red wines and then the most blissful sleeeeeep known to mankind!!!

And that was Day 1! Day 2 was all about answering emails, re-packing bags for Turkey, 29 degrees and sunny in London…amazing!

We then headed into the City, to meet up with Nina & Richard, for a great dinner at a Japanese Restaurant near Holborn. Great catch up, fantastic food and lots of laughs and reminiscing about being kids!

A quick 3 hour sleep ensued, before we got up at 3:45 am to get a cab to Gatwick (Note to self: NEVER BUY CHEAP AIRFARES you idiot!!!) to fly to Istanbul, where we have a 4 HOUR (see not self above IDIOT!!) layover in a sweaty airport… on a positive note our $18 flight (EZY5461) from London to Istanbul on the 20th of August was the smoothest landing I have ever experienced (apart from that one in 1995 on the way back form NZ when we were so drunk that we didn’t even realise we had landed – CC BRENT & TODD) – back to Easy jet flight – not often you get the whole plane clapping… pretty funny, nice work captain!!

So we’re about to go and check in our bags and spend some Turkish Lira on a falafel – can’t wait to see Luciana explain her order in Turkish, yes I would like no cheese, a little bit of onion, do you have skim….

London to Istanbul:
Easyjet www.easyjet.com

Istanbul to Dalaman:
Pegasus: www.flypgs.com

Luciana affectionately named the Prado “Little Monster”. During our 7000 Km trip around South Easter Australia, The Prado was our bedroom, kitchen, storage, workshop, power station, water supply and ultimately our best friend.

out of the 7000 Kms covered, approx 2500 kms was off-road, ranging from hard packed, grated roads through to driving on soft sand dunes, with tires down to 16 PSI and praying that we won’t get stuck.

Our Little Monster Toyota Prado was up to everything we asked of it and we could not have been happier.

I did a lot of research and upgraded the gear as per the description below. The only thing I wished I had done and will prob do before the next big trip is put an Old Man Emu 2″ lift kit on it, as at times, when fully loaded it would have been nice to have a bit of extra ground clearance.

Roof top tent
Having researched most options, we decided on an Autohome Columbus Variant which we managed to pick up on eBay for less than half retail price in as new condition. It’s been great and although we had a few small leaks in torrential conditions, it otherwise stood up to our expectations. It’s extra roof racks on top were particularly handy for my surfing & windsurfing gear, as we could leave it on at night.

Tires
I’ve been extremely happy with my BF Goodrich All terrain T/A tires, however to be fair I have nothing to compare them to as I got them factory fitted when I bought the car. I was also considering the cooper equivalents.

Roller Drawers
These roller drawers were invaluable. Great for storage, day to day access and organisation as well as the fridge slide. 100% happy. We went for the Outback brand simply because they could deliver them on time. The black widow roller drawers were our other choice.

Water tank
Home made jobbie – one of my other hobbies is sailing and on many old yachts, people are using plastic bladders to replace rotting water tanks. I bought a 100L Plastimo Flexible Fresh Water Tank and fitted a hose & tap to it. It gave us 100 litres of frsh drinking water and it fitted neatly behind the driver seat on the floor. They also come in 50, 150 & 200 litre sizes.

Fridge
Ebay was our friend here again – picking up a second hand 40 litre Engel with travel bag and a bunch of accessories for 50% of the cost of a new one. I cannot praise these fridges enough – they make no noise, produce no moisture, draw hardly any power (I’m told about 2 amps) and can be used as a fridge or freezer. I love my beer extra cold so had on a fairly high setting for a fridge the whole time and found that I could keep ice cubes in a plastic bag as long as they were touching the side for up to 48 hours – thus giving me access to my second love Rum & coke with lots of ice!!

Dual battery system
This Prado dual battery system proved to be a great investment. It was fitted by ARB in Artarmon and allowed us to run our fridge for up to 2.5 days without starting the car, as well as lights, 240V inverter for chargers & laptop

Other bits and pieces

Recovery Kit

Radio – GME TXE 3440