To Istanbul / july 2008
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Hello ,
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 DormobileWelcome!
A very nice trip indeed!
I have now definitely decided to put Tuckey on my where-to-go list with the Romany! 😉Sublime Michel!
Sorry chaps, I am not sure how ‘sublime’ translates if at all…
Now tell us Michel, did you experience any mechanical problem and how many kilometers -or may be miles- did you and Patricia drive during this superb trip?
I am always gobsmacked to see how nicely these ’70’s landies can take us around, amazing!
Thanks a lot for this “road movie”, I wish Teri Ann does copy paste someof your pictures on her fantastic gallery,
Cheers
MarcSalut Marc
It’s funny to see 3 french fellows speaking in English on this forum
I can’t say how many kms we did for this trip because ameter cable broke in Zagreb but probably around 8000 kms. No problem with mecanic but a gearbox more and more noisy all along , I am changing it a the moment .
MichelWow that is amazing, well done for carrying out such a trip in the Dormobile, and spending the time the put the story and photos up on the forum.
Brilliant!!!
John
Excellent raconter,
Tres courageux en Juillet. Quand nous visite Ephèse la temperature sont 42C
Kind regards
Paul
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