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
(408) 865-0657 ( ) \ _/__ 10164 Parkwood Drive #8
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