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Stranraer, On our way to Ireland.

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Wednesday, December 01 2004

4 month, 9 days

Stranraer, Scotland

About Travel Photography,
Colors of the World.

Manfred is creator of ThisFabTrek.com, travel photography, a travel blog and a photography blog (a journey from 2004 to 2013). 'I set out to see the colors of the world, always I try to capture the colors'.

Seeing, is understanding, so I report and photograph, but formost enjoy and live those different conceptions of life (all that TV [and the web] cannot give). I reject jealousy, animosity, bigotry. Be free!

Manfred in the desert of the Western Sahara

The mind, when pondering at night and always asked those questions. What am I doing in corporate wonderland of bank, university, office or church? Who is the other animal asleep deep inside, the thinker, punk, creative, or Indian, vagabond and healer, maybe artist, writer, photographer, traveler, globetrotter? Oh God, dare you to think. When I saw the lies, gambles and manipulations I follow the old dream and set out for the journey of life lived, the journey to see the colors of the world.

During years on the road I have taken the turns as they came along, and realized one thing: Only such a small part of the planet can be explored and such a vast land and sea mass will always remain unknown, to me; many swamps, jungles, deserts and oceans will never be traveled. But then I am father of twin boys, Daniel and David, my most important, and I show them some of the wonders and colors out there.

ThisFabTrek, Photography and Journey, the Stories from the Road and Life around the World, stopped in August 2013 after more than 9 years, Love and Peace.

Last vehicle.

G20, Chevy Gladiator.

Chevrolet Gladiator G20, The boys in Cordillera Blanca, Peru.
The boys and Chevy van, Peru.

The G20, the vehicle that came to me for the Americas adventures.

6 wheeled Land Rover.

Land Rover Defender 6x6
Link to Foley

The vehicle of the Africa adventures, a Foley 6-Wheeled Land Rover Defender.

Before, the MB307.

Manfred and MB307
Journey, Middle East.

The vehicle of the Middle-East and North-Cape Journeys. See all vehicles.

Daniel and David with nanny Aisha, the best we ever had, black African Woman carrying white twin babies, in Bamako, Mali.

Land Rover 10,397km

Audi 2,629km

Trekking 237km

Ferry 352km

Train 150km

Other cars, taxis 132km

Travel Blog

contains Festival/Fiesta/Art photography.

"There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come." - Victor Hugo.

"What matters in life is not what happens to you but what you remember and how you remember it, to tell the tale." Living to Tell the Tale - Gabriel García Márquez.

"They never taught wandering in any school I attended. ... they never taught the art of writing a book, either. It's all so mysterious."
"Wandering is an art in itself. Wandering and writing don't mix"
"Writing demands commitment and if one thing your wanderer is allergic to is that very quality of commitment, for once one is committed he runs that very risk of failure ..." Wanderer - Sterling Hayden.

"Photography enables you to grasp a place first time round. ... Photography is a means of exploration, it's a vital part of travel, almost as essential as a car or a plane. " - Wim Wenders.

"The worst prejudice we acquire during our youth is the idea that life is serious. Children have the right instincts: they know that life is not serious, and treat it as a game..." , Egon Friedell.

"How far you gonna go. Before you lose your way back home" - Tryin' To Throw Your Arms Around The World, Achtung Baby, U2.

"If you want to be a hero well just follow me." - Working Class Hero, John Lennon.

"When I think of all the things I have done, I know that it's only just begun." - I love you, Lou Reed.

"One does not escape the Sahara - the Sahara let's you go or not" - Touareg.

"Planet earth is blue and there`s nothing I can do" - This is Ground Control to Major Tom, David Bowie.

"Glory for the crazy people/in this stupid world" - Ahmed Fouad Negm.

www.thisfabtrek.com > journey > europe > scotland > 20041201-stranraer

A mission to accomplish.

Map: Bludenz to Stranraer. In a Audi 80.

Download GPS (KML) track/waypoints.

It is Monday, November the 15th. We are leaving Bludenz. Finally. Wednesday became Friday. Saturday has become Monday. When we finally hit the road we cannot believe it and it should take us a while before we would realise what has changed in our lives. For me this is the second time as I have become used to sleeping in a bed again and having regular excellent meals and to shower when I feel like showering. Recently temperatures have dropped to near zero. Winter has been approaching fast. High time to leave.

Our journey to Edinburgh takes us initially through Switzerland visiting briefly Zermatt. We cross into France near Chamonix and the Mont Blanc. "Shall we go up and see the glacier?" "No", is Heidi's firm response, "we have mission to accomplish: Go to Edinburgh and see how the Land Rover is". After an evening in Paris we reach London on 17th, stay for 2 days then drive north and again pass by at Foley SV in Roydon for the usual Land Rover talk. After spending half a day in the Yorkshire Dales we reach Edinburgh on Saturday November the 20th at 3 p.m.

The Land Rover which I left here more then 2 month ago is still here but in a slightly bad condition. The list of damages reads like this: the battery is totally discharged. Continued heavy rains has put a lot of water inside moistening the mattresses. Further more a mouse has eaten its way through my food supplies and had left its droppings and smell. It is not a great sight at all. The goal being still to sleep in here tonight, temperatures around zero and darkness approaching fast we have to make plans quickly.

First, drive around for 2 hours or so to get the battery recharged. Second, turn on the heating at max. and get the mattresses dry one after the other. Then find a camp-site where we could do the rest of the cleaning and launder the covers of the mattresses the next morning. Brushing away those first disillusions we are getting on with the hard work and several hours later, just before midnight the truck seems ready for our first night. Thick blankets are supposed to shield us from inside temperatures of C-1°. And surprisingly we spend quite a quiet night.

Audi Switzerland
Frosty Switzerland
Heid and Audi
On the road.

Sunday morning is bitterly cold with icy winds and we realise that we have yet to learn how to live with the cold, manage the cold and life outside.But Sunday afternoon suddenly sees temperatures rise to pleasant and dry 15 and plus degrees. "God is on our side" I say and we spend most of the time rearranging stuff from the Audi into the Land Rover and vice versa. Monday afternoon we leave Edinburgh and drive north into the Highlands. Our new live has just begun.

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Camp in Glen Etive and a revisit of the West Highland Way

Glen Etive
This is Glen Etive.
Land Rover Camp Glen Etive
This is our camp.

Heid and LR Door open
Smile in the morning.

Camp in Glen Etive near the West Highland Way (WHW), We drink water from the streams. Cook, eat outside - it's warm enough. For two days we walk the last 2 sections of the WHW, where I suffered the most then, when I walked them in August. Then I did not think I'd come back so quickly.

Heid WHW
Back on the West Highland Way.
Heid WHW

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Camp life.

Camp
Heid and Teddy
Heid and ms Camp
Heid, ms, Lr and Camp

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Ullapool revisited!

Heid through wind screen
Heid and map in LR
Snow on mountains in the back
Snow on mounts in back and loch and LR in front

After a few days in Fort William where I succeed in getting the web-page back on track by choosing a new provider, this time a Canadian, (after the old - new one, a German, had let me down poorly), we drive further north on 27th of November around Loch Lochy via Invergarry to Kyle of Lochalsh.

Next day after touring beautiful Loch Carran, impressive Ben Eighe and magnificent Loch Marree with Slioch, we reach Ullapool (this is where I had got to know Heidrun). We are staying in the Scotpackers youth hostel, West House (The Coolest Independent Hostel in The West Highlands), we dearly need to clean our stuff. I was here in September, only to upload my web-page then.

Richard, the owner, about 50 (he had been a dispatch rider in the city of London for many years and now has made his way back to his origins in Scotland), likes the 6-wheeled Land Rover. "If that was my Land Rover, I'd sleep in there for the rest of my whole life." My obvious reply is "well that is our plan" not without a big grin.

And we do sleep well inside the Land Rover, with fresh air, breathing through it, you sleep like a stone, dead, until you wake up when the lights go up outside, incredible! much better then in a solide room.

Loch Marree, Slioch
Snow on mountains
Snow in Scotland.

On the 29th we are back in Edinburgh, this time not to clean the Land Rover but to thoroughly check the pub scene around Grassmarket. We like Edinburgh. On 1st of December we leave, drive both cars to Carlisle, England, leave the Audi there and take the ferry at Stanraer, Scotland to Belfast, Northern Ireland.

www.thisfabtrek.com > journey > europe > scotland > 20041201-stranraer

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