16.1-24.1.2016
Today we drove to Minca. A nice little back packer village in the Sierra Nevada.
We arrived late i the afternoon and still took the opportunity to drive a nice but challenging off road up the hills behind Minca. As it became already dark at 18.30 we decided to return and come back the next day to drive all the way up to the top.
during the next day after about an hour driving heavy off road I had to stop my car as my water cans became loose in the back. I fixed it and wanted to start the car again, which didn't success.
Damn, just one week in the country and already an engine failure. So we maneuvered the car from the slope down to an more leveled ground and start looking into the problem. Like battery starter, fuel pump, the most obvious, when an engine doesn't' start, but all were good.
Then I realized that the ignition didn't lock in when turning the key to position 2. So I disassembled the cockpit dash and removed the ignition device and found out that at the back there is a plastic cap connected holding the four wires to start the engine. This became loose so that the key couldn't lock in position 2 anymore. Due to the heavy abuse the steering column received hart hits which then must have damaged the ignition system as it is connected on that column.
Luckily I am driving an Defender which you can fix with an hammer and tape. This time I only needed the tape. After a view wraps around that damn plastic device the problem was fixed. Ihaaa.
Took me only 5 hours argggg. After that we took Thomas car and drove up to the top. The roads became even more rough, but we managed it and came down again. 3hours heavy off road. That is adventure.
As it was already dark then and we were still up the hills we just camped where we were.
Next day we drove further north east along the Caribbean coast to the Los Angeles camp ground. A beautiful place at the water. There we met with a swiss couple who wanted to join us for the trip up to La Guajira, an area with lots of sand dunes, and the furthest north part of SA, Punta Gallinas. Thomas decided the next day to stay here as he had to do quite a bit off maintenance at his car.
After a day of relaxing at the beach I drove with the swiss guys up north to Uribia and Capo de la Vela. We connected wit a local guide and view more swiss guys to drive around in the dunes in that area. We had a lot off fun and did nice offroading. Just one really enoying thing was that almost every 20m a road block came, raised by kids who wanted money or sweets. and they were quite persistend and sometimes agressive. So you better gave them either water, cookies or just smash the road block which in most cases just was a thin robe.
After a while suddenly my engine stopped again. And guess what it was, yes the damn ignition again. This time I was not able to fix it and hence needed to be towed away to a local family from our guide, where I stayed over night, still in the desert, as the team had to continue the tour further to Punta Gallinas, the furthest north point in SA.
Next morning they came back and towed me 4 hours back to Uribia.
There I fixed the ignition switch with a local mechanic.
It was not a big issue that the switch broke, but that I had to be towed by a Toyota. How embarrassing is this :-)
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