finding it difficult to muster up anything other than huge jealousy on this one! great find and great efforts to get it.

Your some boy thats for sure
Good on you, alot of time money and effort sounds like its already went in to it
Look forward to reading the feature in Volksworld when its sorted

Superb, patina please:-)

come on...you must of got home n had ya dinner by now ....we need to hear more of this awsome story

WELL DONE

So the collection...
I tried to arrange to do the collection with a friend who had a T4 or with Dai while being possibly overly cautious in how much I gave away
Unfortunately, everyone seemed tied up with work and the location was also a little less familiar then the usual Scandinavia.
But time was ticking and I just couldn't wait any longer (especially with the Ben Pon meet looming) So I went on Ebay and brought a cheap towbar for my recently purchased £400 '97 1.9 Audi A4 estate. I fitted it quick, even using the not so recommended blue wire pinches. I must say I was very uneasy when I saw the towbar mounted through the thin metal spare wheel well, and only used washers to spread the load. But it held up a treat.
I didn't have a trailer. The local hire guys were booked out, especially as I wanted it for a whole week. Mr Matt Smith came to my rescue (legend ) with a small single axle trailer. Although verging on being a little light for the job, it really was perfect, as I didn't want to pull any more weight then I needed as my Audi only weighted 1300lbs. It had just finished carrying the worlds oldest RHD split so its really seeing some rare vans
I grabbed some straps, limited tools and a sleeping bag and booked the Portsmouth-Le Havre as it was a nice 8hour night ferry that dropped me in France at 8am. Unfortunately the 4th of February was Bonkers weather with 92 mph winds recorded in the SW. So that didn't happen
So the 5th! Ferry canceled, this time due to a strike in Le Harve
The 6th? Canceled due to bad weather, again!
7th was a go, but as you can imagine Stormy to say the least.

Trailer pulled lovely. Didn't get much sleep on the ferry but adrenaline must have kicked in because I drove straight through France and Italy to Venice in 13 hours non-stop. I Passed through Mount Blanc at night in a blizzard (more of this later ). The Venice-Greece port sucks. It's so badly advertised its ridiculous. There were people lost looking for it all over. Eventually found it just in time and risked buying a return ticket that gave me about 20 hours in Greece. The Ferry was 36hours so was a nice chill. I only got seat tickets on the ferries, but that was fine. The UK weather was all over the Greek news. Oh, did I mention I texted the owner to say I was coming but hadn't actually got a reply untill I was on the Greek ferry. Fortunately it was good news and as I was due to arrive at 10pm they offered to put me up. The famous Greek hospitality.
As we neared kefalonia there was a 5.2 earthquake !!! The 3rd in the last 2 weeks! Fortunately I was on a ferry so didn't even feel it. But I believe it may have even wobbled the Samba!!!

TomTom Europe on the IPhone had done me wonders crossing Europe. I only got lost once when rounding Paris in a series of tunnels where I ended up paying the same tunnel toll 3 times before I got out and regained GPS . But TomTom Europe doesn't include Greece!! It has Iceland and half of Russia but no Greece. What's that about! It's available for a £50 upgrade but I decided to wing it old school . Found the campsite in the dark and stayed the night with the gardener. Who actually turned out to be no gardener, but the true owner of the van and father of the guy I had been communicating with. It also turned out that part of the lack of good communication was down to the guy simply thinking I would never actually turn up. It seemed so far to go for an old car! they had had others ask about the van in the past but nothing ever came of it. 2 French guys apparently tried to get it some years ago.
After a short night (they seem to go to sleep at about 3am in Greece and get up at 5.30am ) it was time to put the van on the trailer.



First though I had to remove several thousand drink cans. Oh and also a dirty nappy and a pair of crap filled pants! Plus some general rubbish and a lot of ammunition rocks and broken glass










Unfortunately this little guy lost his home in the process (even had hatched shell fragments where he had raised a family.)


Found some Gems in the process though. All the dash components, vintage radio with speaker box, rear luggage rail. Original cab mat and a cool vintage head rest amongst others.
The 84 year old owner was helping me, and we went and got a land rover and some planks, which involved driving up a 20 degree mud hill in the land rover.

We tried to pull the samba out with the land rover but no luck. I then dug out the tyres and cut back the thorn tree (ouch!) then tried again. And dragged her into the open.



I couldn't get the wheels to turn (though she did steer nice) due to the flat hardened tyres even when 2 of them successfully pumped up
I found that one of the front drums was seized, and the hub nut was welded on the rear wheels wouldn't turn as they were locked in gear and I couldn't get it out of gear. So with limited tools (I was jacking it on my Audi emergency jack) I took the wheels off to drag onto the trailer on the drums (something I'd done before with my 65 split) due to smooth steel and reduced friction. It was working OK but really slow with no winch and just alternating pump straps.






Then disaster!
The wood base to the trailer was a little rotted in places and with the reduced surface area a third the way on the rear drum broke through the wood and got wedged. The bus was going nowhere.

I spent ages trying to pull or lift it off. We tried pulling with both cars and broke 2 ratchet straps in the process. But I had to face the truth. I was losing light and was not going to make my return Ferry.
This sucked as it was already the 10th and that ferry would have got me into Venice on the morning of the 12th. I had to be at work at 9am on February 14th at Eden Cornwall. Tight already! That night I had a lovely meal with the owners family and learnt loads about the vans history. We went out late to get some Awesome ice-cream. It was still 18 degrees. I slept in the house at the campsite again. The son had helped get my ticket turned into an open ended ticket (he seemed to know everyone) and came up with a pretty ingenious solution for the van. He ordered some building materials he said he would need later in the summer anyway. They were delivered that morning (though not by the company he had always used as we found they had recently gone out of business. A common trend in modern Greece).
When they dropped the large sacks they used a crane truck and he simply asked if they could take a minute to lift the van onto the trailer.
It was all done in minutes. Sorry I didn't take pics but I was panicking over any panel damage as the straps went round the body. Luckily very little occurred.







I loaded the car, picked a ton of oranges, mandarins, grape fruits and lemons from the guys garden (he insisted ) and headed over to the sons to sign the deeds and get some air for the tyres.

As soon as the van was loaded I had made a plan B. Still try and get to work on time!!
There were some fun roads in Greece



I forgot the Venice ferry (the new one wouldn't leave for another 36hours) and drove to the port and brought a new ticket to Ancona, Italy.
Check out the snow behind the Greek ferry port!

I half expected problems at the ferry port with the van but the son came with me and it was easy. They just wanted to check no one was hiding in it as lots of people are desperate to leave Greece at the moment. The Ancona ferry was only 24 hours, but it's much further into Italy and I would be arriving in the evening Unlike the Venice ferry, which I thought was the same company, the Ancona ferry was pretending to be posh and my deck seat was literally on the open deck! So I had to pay an upgrade just be allowed a seat indoors that I was allowed to sleep in. But nothing could really upset me now



The ferry was delayed both ends and I didn't get off till 7.30pm on the Wednesday 12th!

Adrenalin and my first ever 'Monster' energy drink (man that stuffs unnatural) meant I drove straight through to Le Harve. I had booked the channel ferry on the Ancona ferry for 3pm checkin on the 13th. Unfortunately this meant I crossed the alps at 4am. The snow blizzard was way worse than on the way in. I didn't have snow chains. In fact I didn't have winter tyres and the road was totally White!!! I drove through the tunnels fine but would literally slide and wheel spin between them!! It was nuts with the loaded trailer and I just made it.





The pics at Mount Blanc Tunnel don't do it justice. This bit was successfully cleared and salted! Driving in France was lovely, but the tolls were expensive. I almost lost a strap on the motorway at one point and a few hundred miles south of Paris I hit gale force winds and side ways rain. My wipers just couldn't go quick enough. After being on an open top ferry and driving in salted snow it was probably good for the bus though
Unfortunately my gps decided it doesn't like the rain and stopped working until Cornwall My faithful Audi suddenly lost power around the same time. Literally crawling up hills and seriously threatening my schedule. I daren't stop to see what was up and just ploughed on. Navigating Paris with no sat nav was a pain. I think I went round the circular 3 times but eventually found my way crawling at ever decreasing speeds towards Le Harve. I tried to pick up speed on the down hills which resulted in a few scary speed wobbles from an otherwise ace trailer. I arrived in Le Harve shattered but at 4pm still fine for the ferry, just. I stopped at the port and a text message came through. "Due to bad weather conditions your 17h sailing from Le Harve is cancelled. Please travel to Calais instead". Cool another 350miles and 7hours + added to the journey. Not to mention no long ferry to recoup, more petrol, tolls and the fact my car was broke .
I popped the hood. There was a hole in the engine pipe. Wrapped it in gaffa and continued on. I got to the ferry at 9.30pm but the next ferry was not until 11. I got 30 mins sleep at the port and another 30 on the ferry.

It was nearly 2am when I reached Dover. I needed to be at work at 9am that day in Cornwall. I drove through the night (another Monster) but the hole kept leaking and the power going as the gaffa wouldn't stick where all the oil had covered everything. So it was slow going. Oh, and the weather still sucked. At one point in Devon I was pushing it on a down hill and got such a speed wobble the trailer tyres were actually screeching sideways. That was Scary!! I made it home at 8.30am. Unhooked the trailer on the drive, Kissed my girls, changed my top and drove to work to spend the day training my new team
The next day was valentines day and I was working, So I'm afraid to say she sat on the drive in the rain. Matt came and helped me the next day get it off the trailer. We got some new wheels on her and with a big hammer got the sized front drum turning. The rears were still stuck in gear but the engine was now turning. The journey must have freed it up.



Without too much hassle we pushed it into my TINY single garage. I haven't had a day off work since. But I'm all smiles.
Job done!

this just gets better!

On a side note, if you ever need a driver etc etc I'd drop everything to come on an adventure like this

Amazing story,

FANTASTIC thanks for sharing

I've just read all that, man that's a great story!!
Good on yer for just "going for it".
Happy days!
DD

You are crazy but what an amazing story !!!
Congrats !
Why is there no roof ? Was it a special model ?

Ace, just ace. Trip of a lifetime.

Wow! Looks like quite the adventure!

Marvelwear wrote:Superb, patina please:-)

You are joking.....? It looks like a bag o .... at the moment!!! ( no offence Lowdown!)... Uber cool rescue.... Mucho respect....

bloody brilliant rescue....cant believe you still went to work after all that

Rob u r Da man !!
Fab story- epic