I'm a Land Rover Dormobile Série IIA from 1970 and I live in France from 1986 .Coming from England where I was registred under the number WKF233J , my first French owner was a grandson of Ferdinand De Lesseps who liked to go with me for fishing in Ireland .Then , in 1988 , I went in Val de Loire and its clever climat to carry a flying balloon , but the new owner was not carefull with me and when my actual driver , Michel , found me , my frame was so rusty , the 6 cylinders engine very tired and lot of Dormobile furniture had disappeared
After restoration and short trips in France to test the car , we have been in Austria and Slovenia in 2005 , in Croatia seaside in 2006 .This year , we went to Turkey by road , Istanbul isn't so faraway , if we ask the GPS , it is only 2900kms from Poitiers with all along new highways , 35 hours driving but it is not our project , we spent 1 week and try to use smaller roads to reach this mythic town.
We didn't visit Italy and Slovenia that we ever know , going from Triestre to Zagreb is very short and it is realy in the Croatian capital that the trip begun :
It is a town so pleasant , with a lot of cultural an historical sites , very busy and young , spectacle is in the street , we walk 3 days in the down and upper town , surprised by some bronze statues at the corner of the road ,inexpected meating :
From Zagreb to Belgrade , we enjoyed the roads in agricutural country ,so quiete and we reached a camp site on the side of Danub river where we saw a lot of barges passing for commercial traffic :
in the distance , we could see the town of Belgrad . An interesting visit but the Town Museum is closed for few months , what a pity :
We stayed more time in south east of Serbia , in natural area and thermal cities before entering Bulgaria and Sophia .It is some time a good opportunity to drive 4WD , the roads are often in very bad condition .
Sophia is also a very interesting town , always with large and austere communist buldings , the tramway is present in all the town of this part of Europ .But we could visit a lot of monuments like the theatre and this small Russian church :
We spent the night in a camping near the Rila Monastery , a fantastic natural area , ideal for fishing high in the mountains :
A monastery in the mountains , a position that protected it during the last century :
It would not be good to have a brakedown in this place , also , I often check the mecanic :
And we entered Turkey :
In Istanbul , we left the car in a park for the week near the hotel and visit the large and beautiful town by foot , tram and boat .The blue mosque , Topcapi museum , St Sophie , le Grand Bazar ,the old and the new town , the Bosphore , 1 week is to short to see everything :
At the left : Europe , at right : Asia :
We left Istanbul to visit the west of Anatolie , around the Marmara sea to Egee sea, we have not enough time to go to the east of Turkey . But we want to see historic site like Pergam and the pleasure to stay in nice camping with swimming pool :
before the visit of this fantastic citadel :
The place of Ephèse is also stirring , so much things happened in this site :
Now , you can say that Mary (the mother of JC) went here to die and the French Land Rover Dormobile came in the camp site :
We didn't went farther than Ephèse and spent few days along the seaside around Izmir ,easy to stop the Dormobile for lunch every where :
To come back , we went trough the Strait of Dardanelles , a sad souvenir for French , so Grece is not faraway
Coast of Grece is also very nice and hot , it is a short way to reach the Adriatic Sea .
We found a boat at Igounenitza to Ancone in Italy , then the way home is easy and it is the end of on month travelling , that gave us a change of senery and the pleasure to drive such an original car .
I hope this experience can give ideas to other Dormobile owners , I was surprised to find no trip on this forum , excuse me if my english is not very good
Michel , Patricia & the Land Rover Dormobile
