Date:         Sat, 08 Feb 1997 14:29:20 -0800
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Ron Lussier <coyote@zuni.chaco.com>
Subject:      Re: group trip, year 2000?

At 03:39 PM 2/8/97 -0600, Martha wrote:
>
>How about doing some phenomenal trip with both groups in the year 2000
>to mark the turn of the month, year, decade, century, and millenium?  Well,
>technically I guess this happen in 2001, but it seems the rest of
>the world is fairly focused on 2000, so I thought we should be, too.
>
>How about a marathon trip to somewhere REALLY obscure for most of
>us - like Tierra del Fuego?
>
>I know this is off in the future, but with something of this
>magnitude, I figure we'd need lots of time for people to plan
>for vacations, time-offs, sabbaticals, etc., not to mention
>getting their vehicles ready and/or upgraded.

Excellent idea, Martha.  I'll even offer to organize the trip and do P.R.
I think that the idea of Tierra del Fuego is a good one.  I'm especially
interested since it would be a nice counterpoint to Inuvik.

Note however that we can't drive there without shipping due to the Darien
Gap.  The Gap is a large area of rainforest (populated by Choco indians!)
that has yet to be successfully crossed by road.  Part of the reason is
that the Gap is seen as a natural barrier to the dissemination of
infectious diseases such as aftosa or "hoof and mouth disease."

There's a great web page on the Gap at:
    http://www.sofcom.com.au/4WD/Places/CentralAmerica/Darien.html

There's a recent film about the Gap:
    http://sundancefilm.com/sundance/festival/films/highlights/darienga/

It's certainly possible to do this trip, however.  Tim Cahill did it in 23
1/3 days in 1987, from Tierra del Fuego to Prudhoe bay.  He left from the
end of the earth on 9/29/87 and hit the Canadian border 21 days later.  The
truck they were driving was put on a container ship to cross the Gap.

Tim's biggest complaint was that they didn't have enough time.  He also
worried about dying a lot.  This isn't a trip for the faint of heart.

My guess for a trip using busses (and the associated break-downs) is 2.5
months.  Anyone up for this sort of sabbatical?

Ron

--                                       
Ron 'Coyote' Lussier         /\_/\      ____             Chaco Communications
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(1990 VW Westfalia Camper)    \_/          \/    http://www.chaco.com/~coyote