(Daniel) After a fitful nights sleep, and having packed away most of my stuff into the Wolf I drove back to the Land Rover dealer from yesterday.  I had noticed while working on the Wolf that it was leaking fuel from the sedimentor on the spare fuel tank.  Unsurprisingly the dealer didn’t even know what a sedimentor was.  They gave me a screw and some pipe sealing tape.  The fix worked, although I won’t be able to use the sedimentors drain function again!

After this I left Belize City, following the same roads which Nick and I had taken to Carocal a few days before.  I stopped at a Burger joint in a shack by the road called McWolf’s for a Hamburger breakfast.  While I sat I noticed a beautiful humming bird, hovering perfectly still as it methodically went from flower to flower on a huge tree drinking the nectar.  The tiny bird was no longer than an inch and a half, making it look more like an insect as it went about its work.  

As I pulled out onto the road again, passing the turning for the tracks towards Carocal, I fumed at the Land Rover dealer for not stocking the simplest of parts for my vehicle.  I had only really come to Belize to find these, and was leaving now as empty handed as I had arrived.  I hadn’t gone more than a few hundred meters past the turning Nick and I had taken a few days ago, when a plane in a small airfield caught my eye.  Just infront of the plane was a modern barnlike building, all around the building were Land Rover Logos, and just infront of the open doors a Camel Trophy Discovery sat demanding attention.

It took a second to absorb the whole scene.  I slammed on the brakes and reversed back to pull into the yard.  As I stopped outside the open doors, a lady inside looked out excitedly.  I jumped out to be greeted in an English accent.  “The boys are out.”  She said  “But they’ll be back in a minute if you have time to hang on.  They’d love to see your vehicle!”

I walked inside to see another well prepared Discovery in the workshop, the whole place was lined with Land Rover and Camel Trophy Memorabilia, Parts and Expedition Equipment.  The Company was called Adventure Trex. In front of the office, a desk had stickers and signatures from dozens of other Expeditions that had passed through.  Just as I started to look around, a military vehicle pulled up, driven by an Englishman, in the passenger seat was a young Hispanic guy.

The two men jumped out and started to look around the Wolf.  The Englishman came over and introduced himself as Graham, he was very pleasant, and sepnt time walking all around the Wolf with me.  I told him about the various parts which I had hoped to get, and my disappointment with the Land Rover dealer.  He told me that he had all of those parts in stock.  Even better than that, he wanted to swap the parts which he had for a small selection of bushes which I had in my spares.  SuperPro have provided our Polyurethane bushings, which have never let us down.  Here in Belize, and earlier in Mexico City, I have been approached by Land Rover Dealers wanting to import the high performance suspension components for use on Land Rover vehicles that work as they were designed to.

It turned out that the plane, fitted out for survey work had infact ditched on the runway about two years ago.  The pilot, a drug runner, had got out and legged it with his cash, leaving the plane behind forever.  Apparently this happens all the time in these countries as planes run out of fuel or are going to be shot down!  Graham had sold it on eBay to an american who came and took the engines then never returned. Anyone looking for a restoration project had better contact him asap!

With my new parts in the vehicle, and having signed the desk, I went to leave.  Just as I did so a beautifully modified Expedition Toyota drove past on Swiss plates.  I climbed in the Wolf to leave hoping that the Toyota would be at the border waiting to cross when I got there.  The younger man that was with Graham asked for a lift home, a small village on the way to the border.  I obliged, opening the passenger door, and clearing a space for my new guest.

As we drove to his village, the young man explained that he was from Guatemala, as were most of the people living around the border town.  He also told me in detail about the roads on the Guatemalan side, which apparently made the Belize tracks look like highways!   As we passed a campsite, I spotted the Expedition Toyota ,parked up to camp. I gave them a friendly beep of the horn, thinking maybe I should go back!  Not long afterwards we arrived at the village where I dropped my passenger off.  I now had a choice, cross to Guatemala, and try to reach Tikal in the dark, or stay for the night in Belize, returning to the campsite where I had spotted the Toyota.  I decided on the latter, turning around in the road and heading back towards the riverside camping grounds.

As I pulled in, the two people in the Toyota were unpacking their vehicle for the night.  They greeted me warmly as I pulled to a stop.  The man introduced himself as Paul,  and his wife as Brigette, they were as the vehicle said from Switzerland, and of course spoke perfect English.  We were soon sitting around their table sharing a beer and telling stories of our recent journeys. 

It was obvious that their vehicle was the result of many years of overlanding experience.  But also that they were extremely well organised people, as the pictures I took show.  Every item had a place, this was ordered by it’s uses and size.  In the time it took me to get my kitchen working, Briggette had already made a wonderful dinner for the two of them, as I threw together a somewhat embarrassing pasta with sausage and tomato sauce!

We sat up until late discussing the sights to and experiences to come.  For me it was wonderful to meet some more Overlanders, as I have hardly met any in my travels, and these are the people who can really relate to my experiences.  After a long hearty chat, we eventually retired, they to their rooftent, and me to mine!     

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