42 Year Old Tows One Ton - 4000 Miles
42 YEAR OLD TOWS ONE TON - 4000 MILES!!!
42 years old and still going strong, our 2.5 Land Rover successfully towed a 1 ton Merlin Trailer (Manufactured by Wolston Engineering Ltd) 4000 miles from the Midlands to Morocco and back!Following months of preparation, I would never admit to forgetting anything, but a fridge to keep food (Beer) cold would have come in handy! Departure date came on the 8th of May when we took a ferry from Portsmouth to Santander, headed due South across Spain and took another ferry from Tarifa (Spain) to Tangiers (Morocco).
We continued South for Mekness, then Marakesh by road. From Marakesh we headed up into the Atlas Mountains, the best roads up there were little more than donkey tracks. For two agonising days we crawled across the Atlas Mountains, and then headed South East into the Sahara Desert for five days where temperatures reached 50 oC.
This is where I wished I’d purchased a GPS (Ground Positioning Satellite) which would have avoided a worrying moment when we were separated from our convoy and got a little lost! It must have been fate though as we bumped into two French ladies who were stuck in sand dunes, having done the gentlemanly thing and pulled them out, we managed to find our group again within the hour!
As always when travelling in countries where the food is often nice but unique, western stomachs often have a few problems, the worst we had was the ‘Moroccan-Moonwalk’ – our shovel then became our most treasured tool!
The Land Rover coped extremely well given its ripe old age – thankfully one extra measure we did take was to fit a Broquet fuel catalyst. Having used it before we fitted it to help the engine cope with the extreme temperatures, high altitude and poor quality fuel – it certainly did a magnificent job because we didn’t have any problems with the engine throughout the entire trip and returned an amazing 32 mpg!
For more information contact: Marcus Douglas,
Wolston Garage, Brook Street, Wolston, Rugby, CV8 3HB.
Carma Magazine
