The shower channel can also be an issue

3/11/22 to 3/31/22

In the short time in Brazil, we got to know another little detail about Globi and had to fight for our return flight. To get to know Brazil better, we will travel to this diverse country a few more times.

No more flights to Europe

On our trip to South America, this time we just booked and paid for a return flight. That was about half a year before the return flight date. Now, a good two weeks before the return flight, Swiss is telling us that the feeder flight from Buenos Aires to Sao Paulo has been cancelled. We have the option of cancelling the entire flight to Zurich or making up for the flight at an unspecified time later. Since we booked very early, the price we had paid was very attractive. We would therefore at least like to keep the flight from Sao Paulo to Zurich, but this option did not exist in the e-mail. Reaching Swiss by phone is more or less impossible, the waiting times are longer than our mobile phones have power. Thanks to a friend who is a former Swiss pilot, we got the opportunity to keep the flight from Sao Paulo to Zurich. Without our friend we would have lost the whole flight and would have had to rebook! The flight that we were able to book from Buenos Aires to Sao Paulo is about as expensive as the entire flight to Zurich that we had booked earlier. Thank you dear Swiss.

Happy moment

In the sand is a quad bike, so to speak Ernstli, the best vehicle ever. We are standing on a lagoon with a long sandy beach, various water passages, wet and deep sand passages. We unpack Ernstli, clean him and jet off. We are always happy to ride with Ernstli, but unfortunately, we do it far too little! Today we enjoy it to the fullest, everything is perfect. In the future we will do that more again, our mood was clearly happier in the evening.

Encounters

On the way we met Ulrike and Harald with their Unimog, they have been touring through South America since 2018. We also happened to meet Marion and Walter with their MAN Kat and not coincidentally Angie and Chris with Franki. All meetings on the road with short talks. The encounters show that traveling is possible again and that more and more colleagues are making use of it again. A certain, comfortable normality seems to be returning.

Technology pitfalls

Since we put on the new tires, one tire has clearly lost air. Not much, but we have to pump it up every three days. In a «Gomeria», which is called «Borracharia» here, we did check it. The air escapes through the rim ring, obviously the rim ring did not seal the tire. We disassemble the rim and note that when assembling the rim, the sealing rubber was pinched and, of course, crushed. The clerk laughs and easily brings me a new rubber. They have these by the meter in stock! He cuts it to length, glues it together and puts the rim back together, and the wheel hasn’t lost any air since then.

For a smile

Our gray water tank has a capacity of 240l, which is actually decent, and we empty it in a suitable place every day of the ride. Without washing, this capacity lasts us about ten days. Gabi always wanted to know what would happen if we overfilled the tank. The deepest drain in the vehicle is the shower channel, so the tank should overflow here. We stood at a stand, the weather was nice, and the wind was blowing clothes dry, so that Gabi could easily run and dry six washing machines. That made her really happy. Of course, we always checked carefully whether water was coming out of the shower drain – none came out and so we slept peacefully in our bed that night. The next day we drove on. Immediately behind the overnight location the street went very steeply up the hill and immediately very steeply down again. This fact actually caused the gray water tank to overflow. The grey water poured out of the shower channel into the corridor and immediately tried to spread everywhere. Only thanks to the fact that I discovered this immediately (because I secretly sensed the danger) and Gabi immediately fought the masses of water were we able to avert greater damage. The odour development was very limited, and we now have proof that if the grey water tank is overfilled, it is emptied via the shower channel.