German Bay camper in KZN

[Pine]

My folks are currently camping in Richards Bay, and met Wolfgang and Annette from Munchen in Germany, who are touring through SA in this custom Bay camper. It gets stored in a container in Windhoek, and is used every year by them for a few weeks to tour SA/Namibia

[jolas]

How cool is that bus and the pics

Any idea if/when they are travelling to the Cape ?

[Pine]

No idea, I'll hear if my dad got their contact details

[syncromad]

Hi Pine

i saw that camper in Windhoek in Dec 2008, they were camping in the same campsite as we were. very nicely rigged bus,

Stuart

[sean]

Love it! That's one heavily kitted camper.

[WolfgangT2b]

Hello everybody,

Oooops, that camper is well known to me …

18 years ago we brought him to Namibia, so more than half of his life he spent in Africa. And two third of his mileage.

Maybe it’s bit too late to answer your questions, but nevertheless …

Yes, we are in Africa every year for three to four month (we’re old enough not to work anymore and usually we escape from the German winter ) and no, we are not on the way to the Cape (where we were coming from at that time).

Meanwhile we’re back in Germany, enjoing our summer, and the bus is stored in our container in Windhoek. During the last years we stayed in East Africa but went back last year in a one week race from Daressalaam to Pretoria for the Soccer Championship.

Since 1993 we made some 180.000 km roving around between South Africa and Uganda. Up to now we haven’t had any severe technical problems . At least no problems we couldn’t solve by ourselves. So obviously the type 2 isn’t that bad. We are lucky our bus hasn’t got vital electronics or too much plastic.

The availability of spare parts was never a problem, not in Southern nor in Eastern Africa, but to be on the safe side we carry a lot of stuff with us. That results in some overload and with our mighty 50 hp in the back we are fast as a shifting dune. But despite all this we travelled through the Kaokoveld, the Moremi Nationalpark and the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (ok, got stuck a few times). We often thought about making the bus a bit lighter, but our need for comfort stands against .

We did not meet many T2s in Africa (exept a few in East Africa, still on duty), so I was a bit surprised to find plenty of them here in this forum. Where do you hide them?

In Germany there are about 2000 T2s still on the road. Most of them as part of an oldtimer hobby, but a few are still used “species-specific”, meaning exploring the world as they did 30 years ago.

Next October or November we again will pick up our bus in Namibia and will stay over the year end in Mocambique.

Probably see you there.

Wolfgang

[jolas]

Welcome Wolfgang

Thanks for your cool introduction - you have a wonderful life - what more could one ask for

There are many of us who would love to know more about your bus, your past road trips - you are welcome to post as many photos as you can. We look forward to meeting you one day

[CooP]

Welcome! Wonderful bus and wonderful tale. Look forward to more about your travels

[sean]

That’s awesome. Thanks for the story.

Travelling in ACVW bus doesn’t get any better.

[Dam]

And on top of this, just imagine living in the city where the Oktober Fest is held, which is happening right now What a life!
BTW, 10 years ago we were camping at "Camping platz Thalkirchen"(Same place Contiki Tours used) when visiting Munich for the Oktober Fest. We had small South African flag stickers on the doors of our camper. We arrived at the camping and parked right in front of reception. Me & a mate walked up to the window to book in, and in our best German said "Guten Tag", and the reply from the girl inside came "Goeie More!" We were dumb struck, didn't know what to say!
Apparently the owner of the camp site owns a farm in Namibia, and like you, Wolfgang, spents the European winter in sunny Southern Africa. He recruits his staff for the campsite in Namibia, because alot of Namibians can speak German, and of course English, (and Afrikaans).
The four of us were the only South Africans in a sea of Aussies, Kiwi's & Pommies, and were treated like kings, got the best camping spot, best service, everything!

[WolfgangT2b]

Hello bus-lovers,

thanks for your warm welcome.

you have a wonderful life - what more could one ask for
There are many of us who would love to know more about your bus, your past road trips - you are welcome to post as many photos as you can.

To be honest, we won’t complain about our life …

More photos? A few years ago we started our own website. The reason was the urgent request of friends and family to be informed where were we got stuck and how we survived in Africa . Immediately (!), they didn’t want to wait until we return. And especially they wanted to see pictures, pictures, pictures.

That is impossible via mail and easy via own website. So our “wonderful” life from time to time is disturbed by hard work in writing and arranging pictures and text and finding an internet café deep in the bush.

Welcome! Wonderful bus and wonderful tale. Look forward to more about your travels

Unfortunately most of our readers are German and so is our website. It might be difficult for you to understand that strange language. Sorry. But pictures are language independent. It might take a while to load them because the server is located in Germany.

Travelling in ACVW bus doesn’t get any better.

Yeah man! A few years ago we seriously thought about buying a new 4WD camper from VW. Very nice car, comfortable and powerful, BUT (despite the price): depending on electronics, living in plastics, no chance for repairs out in the bush, probably no spare parts outside South Africa. And above all no way for me to understand all these new technical and electronical stuff. In our old bus I meanwhile have a very personal relationship to nearly every bolt .

To make a long story short: we still travel in our old bus. We still enjoy it, when customs officers prefer to chat about our bus instead of checking it. We still love the open-mouthed policemen at checkpoints when they hear our bus is much older than they are. And we accept to get stuck in the sand from time to time, to bring the howling 50 hp to the limit on steep ascends and to turn, when the road gets too rough or the water gets to deep (as early this year in Namibia).

And on top of this, just imagine living in the city where the Oktober Fest is held, which is happening right now What a life!
BTW, 10 years ago we were camping at "Camping platz Thalkirchen"(Same place Contiki Tours used) when visiting Munich for the Oktober Fest. We had small South African flag stickers on the doors of our camper. We arrived at the camping and parked right in front of reception. Me & a mate walked up to the window to book in, and in our best German said "Guten Tag", and the reply from the girl inside came "Goeie More!" We were dumb struck, didn't know what to say!
Apparently the owner of the camp site owns a farm in Namibia, and like you, Wolfgang, spents the European winter in sunny Southern Africa. He recruits his staff for the campsite in Namibia, because alot of Namibians can speak German, and of course English, (and Afrikaans).
The four of us were the only South Africans in a sea of Aussies, Kiwi's & Pommies, and were treated like kings, got the best camping spot, best service, everything!

We too love the Oktoberfest and we love to have all those different nationalities and languages here. During that time Munich is truly an international hotspot. But every medal has got its two sides. Imagine, in Kempton Park, where you live, you will have a million visitors from all over the world within two weeks. In Munich that means, 1.2 million inhabitants and about 7 to 8 million visitors. Some tend to call that an emergency situation.

By the way, I just read that Kempton Park is named after the Bavarian town of Kempten. During my professional life I stayed a few times in Hotels in Kempton Park (my company’s headquarters is in Midrand).

Greetings from the Oktoberfest

Wolfgang

[Drusky]

Hi Wolfgang. Great to hear how much fun you have with your Kombi. How about a link to your website?

[WolfgangT2b]

Hi Drusky,

How about a link to your website?

Sorry, here it is: http://www.wirsindweg.de (and right below my avatar )

Wolfgang