At last we are back on the road again

Well, it's been a while since our last Blog. About 20 months to be precise.

So where have we been?

Most of you will know that back in 2023, whilst in Costa Rica and Nicaragua,  Pat had a big health scare and we had to return to the UK to deal with it.

However, whilst back home, between Hospital treatments, we still managed to get away in our UK based camper and explored several new locations within the UK and even managed to take the long road trip down through Europe to spend a few months in Turkey, which was excellent.

Forward fast to November 2024, armed with Pat's new Bill of Health, we flew back to Cancun to be reunited with Cloud 9.

We had the usual drama at the airport, being searched etc, but this has become the norm for us as we usually have a couple of big cases full of truck parts.

We discovered that if your bag arrives late on the Carousel and has gained a new Label, then you are going to get the full Customs treatment.

Whilst we were away, Cloud 9 managed to survive several wet seasons and dodge a couple of hurricanes and floods, but, all in all, she looked Ok when we got back and started on the nail. 

We had decided to spend a few days in Cancun doing some work on her, upgrading some bits and replacing other parts as well as the routine greasing up and oil changes etc.

I have come to the conclusion that these Overland Trucks are like Christmas Fairy Lights, you put them away fully working and when you next get them out something doesn't work. We soon discovered that our list of Jobs was getting longer and included.

Oil and Filters, Alternator belts, new Alternator Regulator, New air Conditioning Compressor, New Cabin Fans, New DC to DC Regulator Cooling Fan, Cabin step Mounting Bolts, Roof Hatch Hinge, several Airline Leaks, Motorcycle battery and endless other small, but time consuming, Jobs.

The most frustrating job was to replace a couple of simple sponge seals on our toilet. It should have taken about 1 hour and ended up taking an entire day as the bolts holding the toilet in place had completely corroded and wouldn't come out. We ended up driving to Home Depot ( DIY store ) and doing the repair in their car park which gave me access to lots of tools and hardware. To compound the issue, Pat had told me that morning that she an unpredictable upset stomach. I had assured her that we would only be without a toilet for about an hour. Ten hours later, she wasn't impressed. 

In addition to this, I managed to slip on the roof of the cabin and completely destroy one of the Roof Fans that keeps the cabin cool. Just what you need in a hot country. 

We had been back living in the truck for about 2 days, completely oblivious to the fact that we were no longer alone and had picked up an unwanted stowaway on one of rear lockers.

 

It's fair to say that this endless list of issues was getting Pat down and it wasn't the return to travelling she had wanted.

Eventually, we were back on the road and it felt great.

Our first stop was not too far, still in the Yukatan at Cenote Choj Ha. 

A Cenote is  flooded Sink Hole or Cave that has been naturally eroded over millions of years in the Limestone areas of Mexico. On the Yukatan peninsular it is estimated that there are over 10,000 of them and many are open to the public for swimming and diving.

Our dear friends, Sandie and Karsten, had let us know about Choj Ha and had told us that it was very  peaceful and  less popular with the tourists.

They weren't wrong, Most of the time we were the only ones there. It was just what we needed after all the drama of our return.

The Yukatan is also home to over 200 Maya Ruins. Some are what remains of large cities and some were  smaller community hubs like local Governments. Many have been restored and become Unesco World heretige Sites, but the most are still ruins and completely overgrown by jungle.

Coba (Koba) has been restored and sits in a dense jungle. It existed between 600 and 900 AD and was home to about 50,000 Mayans.

We camped outside the ruins the night before on the shore of Laguna Coba. Although very picturesque, you wouldn't go swimming here as it is full of Crocodiles.

Inside the ruins, you can hire Bikes, but they all looked like they were falling apart and non had brakes. In the end we were persuaded by a lovely Mayan gentleman called Hyme to allow him to peddle us around the site on the front of his tricycle. I think he soon regretted this offer.

 The Ruins were wonderful.

Hyme, who stood at about 1.2m high, had his work cut out but still managed to tell us about historical Mayan life and modern Mayan community life, whilst gasping for air as he peddled us around. He was rewarded with a well earned big tip.

After a quick stop for a dental checkup in Tulum and a night by the lake in Bacalar, we headed for the Border crossing to Belize at Chetumal.

This was our third time into Belize and its a country that we have really enjoyed in the past.

We had arranged to meet up with some dear friends Glady's, Alfredo and their three sons Carlos, Christopher and Steven. They live on a small holding not far from the town of Corazol. Steven and Christopher are currently studying Agriculture and Business at college just over the border in Mexico. They rode all the way back to spend an evening with us. 

Glady's had identified an area for us to park in that didn't look too muddy. However, she couldn't have been more wrong and I didn't check. 

With the help of their neighbour Carlos, who had a tractorwe  eventually got out. However, we didn't realise that the mud we collected on the inside of the rear wheel had damaged the Valve. A problem that would bite us a few days later.

Glady's and her family were the perfect hosts and we enjoyed an wonderful evening meal with lots of laughing. 

Gladys is probably proudest Mum in the world and has dedicated her entire life to the education needs of her children. It was lovely to see her rewards.

We knew that our friends Sandie and Karsten were parked up on the beach at the coastal town of Hopkins some 230 km away so we set off to join them.

About an hour after we arrived we discovered that the rear tyre on the truck was completely flat. 

Having already had a few beers in the sun I decided that this was a job for tomorrow as the thought of lifting a a 10 ton truck and changing a 150kg wheel on soft sand was a job that needed a bit of preparation and thought.

That night, whilst lying in bed we felt the whole truck heave to one side. After a quick panic, we discovered that the tyre had completely detached from the rim causing the vehicle move.

The next day Karsten and I set to work and it went surprisingly smoothly and much quicker than we had expected.

We later had the tyre inspected and discovered that the the build up of mud from being stuck earlier had damaged the valve and caused the deflation. We were lucky it lasted for the drive to Hopkins. In fairness, this was the first flat tyre we had had in all of our travelling with this vehicle, so we couldn't really complain 

A couple of nights with Sandie and Karsten was just what we needed.

Right at the start of this blog I mentioned that we had encountered several annoying issues with the vehicle upon our return to Mexico.

Our airlines were still leaking and our Air conditioning wasn't very cold. 

We headed for the Mennonite town of Spanish Lookout as this is where all the engineering shops and parts suppliers lived.

We had the Air Conditioning re gassed and a few seals replaced.

After we left the workshop, heading for our nights camp some 2 km away, we discovered that all the electrics in the truck kept cutting out and coming back on again. 

We crawled in the dark to the camp and soon discovered that the ignition key, which also controls the lights, had failed. Yet another annoying fault that was really starting to get Pat down.

The next day we managed to buy a new Key and Ignition switch, so we were back on the road quite soon 

 

Our drive to the border of guatemala was long and dull. The grey skies and heavy tropical  rain never ceased. 

It was during this journey that our suspicions were confirmed that out 11 year old cabin batteries weren't performing as well as they used to and the decision was made to look for replacements.

We felt like we rushed through Belize, but had arranged to meet up for Christmas with some friends in Antigua Guatemala which we were looking forward to.