Hello bus-lovers,
thanks for your warm welcome.
jolas wrote: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.
CooP wrote: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.
sean wrote: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).
Dam wrote: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