Pay It Forward1

This is the second time i’ve posted using this film title. I may do it again. For those that do not know the film is about doing good deeds if one is done for you. Pretty much the same as one of the rules of overlanding which says “always give credit where its due”. We’ve recently heard about a guy in Chile that cannot get his car out of the container, let alone the port, due to Chile’s RHD ban. Something we did our best to get changed but at the risk of getting it such a high profile that it would cause more issues. So we gave up not wating to stir it up to such an extent that the notices all go back up at the borders and they all get riminded not to let us in. We wish Julian at Sports Trek all the best and good luck. I’ve passed him all the info we gathered and some others off the facebook groups are helping. He’s said he owes me a beer so thats enough for me ! Payment in beer is the universal currancy. Not wanting to break another overland rule thats “alway accept a free drink”….more accurately its “Never turn down a free drink” but they are all “Never” do this and “Never” do that so we are wanting to re-word them….1) Never drive at night…..stays as is.All credit to Julian he’s said thanks during his stressful time.  This is unlike some other people we have met, who are thankfully few and far between. You just meet these people (i can feel my mother posting based on that comment, please don’t!). We remember the two tractors in the middle of Sudan in the desert who were really stuck. Upon lending my tools and tow strops and upon their return they polished the tools on their shirts before handing them back and wound up my strop. Maybe the only words they knew in English was Thankyou and Goodbye…..again enough for me. We will always remember these people a bit like some of the folks we have met who we’ve helped out. We’ve rendered first aid to a (“rabid”) monkey bitten Ben from Pennsylvania who got too close for comfort. However payback was the Cock Fighting he convinced us to go to…..even Julie eventually came along. We only remebered about that yesterday as it must have been beer washed from memory….Thanks Ben….although i’m sure we payed him in some Rum or something as if i recall we drank quite a bit…..normal some would say.Only the other day we received a message from the blog from some other travellers who’d seen the locks on the Land Rover and they wanted to get some for their car as they’d been broken into a few times, or at least some attempts had been made. Anyhow, they’d lost the info but managed to get back in touch and i’ve re-sent the info. Not the first time someones asked for that info and something we got from a guy at the RGS overlanding show near York in 2010. We think he worked for Scotland Yard or something. Maybe he reads the blog. He’d already done some travelling so knew his stuff. His advice was get them all keyed the same as he had 5 different keys for his doors. Good advice and good locks that have resisted 1 attempt as far as we know. He’s credited each time we talk about them and its a LOT ! I wish we knew his name but it was a long time ago.Pure conincidence that someone has just posted about our map. Its all thanks to Bart and his wonderous web skills. He’s a genius when it comes to that stuff. Something i’ve never been good at. Possibly the only technical thing i’m not good at…..maybe. (cue Noel for comments) Only when you have an IQ in the 170 range you can pass comment. This is a long blog….i’m not checking for typos….I should thank Open Street Map…..i should send them some money. I will send them some money when we get working again. More importantly theres a site in the Netherlands that lets you build custom maps from their data. I will certainly send that guy something but you can find the website yourself as its already busy enough to make downloading a custom map a 2 day exercise.Off to the rec centre for a shower. Been nearly a week….We’ve just met our first Canadian Land Rover in McDonalds car park. Fine example of a working car and an ex Saudi V8 conversion to a 300Tdi. Good to meet you guys, Cook family and dog….send us a message.