The End of a Nightmare – But it Feels Like a Dream!

It´s been a whole three weeks since our last post – partly due to lack of internet coverage but also because I feel there is only so much that can be said about rebuilding a Landrover before it starts to get a bit samey!

Not that the last few weeks have been boring for us, quite the opposite in fact. Seeing Henry go from strength to strength has in many ways rebuilt us too. Every little bit and piece that has been straightened, replaced or reattached has restored a little more of our souls.

I remembered the photo I had taken just before we returned to the UK when Henry was part-way through being dismantled and decided to take a before-and-after shot. You have to admit, he was looking decidedly less wonky now! In fact, he was looking beautiful!

With the frame, roof and doors now on it was really just the finishing touches to go. His back door was looking a little bare without the spare tyre and we had bought a rugged new swing arm to hold it in place that would be a big improvement from the old one.

James set about fitting it – a two day job that included delicately sawing corners off the hinges to make everything fit.

So now the back door is light as a feather with all the weight held on the chassis. And the wheel even swings away from the door altogether if you want it to. Big improvement number three after the galvanising and removal of the catalytic converter….

The back door was finished off with the table, mesh and storage bags inside…

And then the dashboard was finished off with stereo and control panels.

But the electrics were a different matter! It took two days to wire everything back up, diligently working from photographs and labels, a few futile hours trying to pinpoint various problems and another day, the removal of the roof lining and painstakingly tracing every wire through the whole system to finally get everything flashing, shining, buzzing and whirring just as it should – the challenge that everyone had been dreading was behind us!

The workshop was a buzz with activity, everyone single-mindedly focussed on the end game.

Felix and Alex set about reassembling Henry´s front – radiator, aircon condensator, grills and finally the winch and A-frame.

Improvement number four! The sand ladders were no longer going to be stored on the roof, they were now fixed to the side window – firstly to reduce weight on the roof but also now fixed on hinged brackets to drop down and create much-needed additional table space. Brilliant design, I get very excited about table space!

We stood back and admired the vision that was Henry…

It was clear that the time had come to put his insides back in – the day we had been waiting for for so long!

First was the bamboo floor, sanded down and re-oiled so it looked as good as new.

My heart lurched, Henry was starting to look like home again.

Next was the large unit on the driver´s side. The heaviest, most awkward unit – but also the one that had saved James´ life. This step also meant plumbing the water back in and attaching the electrics so was a big job.

James and Andrew got stuck in.

It wasn´t easy, one wrong move and it could have been disastrous. But the two of them are safe pairs of hands, as determined as each other to get everything just right.

Once in, it took some time to ease it into place and connect everything up.

We were rocking and rolling! So much so that confidence was high enough to put the bed back in to the roof…it all seemed to be happening really quickly now, every day seemed to bring with it a new milestone.

We were working our way round the inside and now all that was left was the smaller unit on the passenger side – freshly beaten back into shape and painted.

We had only been back in Pretoria for three weeks but what a difference such a short time had made….our home was almost ready to move back into!

There just seemed to be one thing that didn´t look quite right…

He looked stunning but he looked a little….short!

The very last thing that needed replacing was his hat!

Felix and James spent a couple of hours rebuilding the recently straightened and re-sprayed roof rack with front spot lights, spade and the new roof box made by Big Country.

It was big!

It took four men to lift it on to his roof, another potential disaster in the making, but as usual, finished without hiccup.

Meanwhile, back at the guest house, we were busy washing the seat covers and blinds, all caked in mud and dirt from the accident!

And you could tell James was feeling good as he started getting creative with breakfast – I felt like I was at a 5 star hotel some mornings!

And eventually, after all the blood, sweat and tears, after Andrew, James, Felix and Alex had pulled out all the stops and worked tirelessly to perform miracles, it was finally time for Henry to leave the workshop he had called home for the last 3 months. It was a tense but thrilling moment as he slowly backed out into the outdoors for the first time….

It lasted about 30 seconds!

But a quick top-up of various fluids and a double-check of the brakes later and finally, finally, all our dreams and wishes had come true and we were driving in our wonderful, beautiful Landrover for the first time since that awful day at Mlilwane….

We were only driving city roads around Pretoria but we both had huge grins on our faces and our hearts were in our mouths.

So, what do you do when you have just spent your entire savings on rebuilding your home?? Spend a bit more blinging him up of course, what else?! We took him to a graphics place and had a few new additions made….

He is Henry and he is proud!

We´ve also had the details of this blog splashed across his sides as well. I wasn´t sure about it at first but now it makes me smile!

And that was it! As with everything much-longed-for, one minute you can´t see an end to it and then suddenly it´s done. Henry was back, our home was restored. Our lives could resume. And we couldn´t quite get our heads around it. We had been engrossed in such frantic activity for so long we had forgotten there was an afterwards!

We knew it would be sensible to stay around Pretoria for a few days to test everything out whilst we were still close enough to Andrew to pop back to fix any gremlins. But there was no need to stay in a guest house anymore, we needed to find a campsite and start getting used to being nomads again.

We had been staying at Rest-A-Whilst guesthouse hosted by the lovely Ingrid and Chris. They had been so kind and caring to us, regularly asking about how Henry was getting on, offering any help or local advice they could and even inviting us for a lovely Braii one week-end. And when the awful news of our Queen broke they came over to give their condolences and kindly set the TV up with BBC World News so we could watch the funeral.

It was sad to leave, we had become quite attached to them but our future beckoned. So with heavy hearts we hugged them goodbye, ensured contact details were secured and drove off into the sunset, hearts pounding.

The campsite we had booked was on the outskirts of Pretoria, only half an hour from Andrew´s workshop but in a different world! As we pulled on to our pitch and set up camp we had a strange mixture of feelings.

The first was one of being able to breath again after so long. Space, green nature, the sounds of birds, monkeys in trees and bull frogs singing their chorus on the lake. The security and familiarity of Henry standing immovable next to us in all his glory.

The second was harder to pin down. It felt like coming home but somehow home didn´t feel real any more. I couldn´t quite understand how I was feeling or why and it took a few days to sink in. 3 months ago we had grieved for Henry believing that he was lost and gone forever. We had then watched from afar as he was systematically dismantled until there was nothing left but his chassis and a few bent body parts. I don´t think I ever really allowed myself to believe that we would get him back and even though I had seen him being rebuilt more recently maybe in my mind it had never seemed real, I had never allowed myself to believe it would all work out. Our nomadic lives with Henry had started to feel like a dim and distant dream and yet suddenly that dream had become a reality again. Almost like a ghost returning from the grave.

But the happiness by far outweighed the strangeness of it all. We decided to celebrate by opening the very expensive bottle of wine we had bought in Franschhoek all that time ago. Rickety Bridge limited edition, old vine semillon. It didn´t disappoint!

That first evening with Henry was blissful, food for the soul without a doubt.

Even the moon made a special effort to look stunning!

The next day we didn´t move from the campsite. We soaked up every minute of being back in the life we loved.

We had a visitor…

He politely greeted first James then me….

Tried to eat the laptop….

Then just hung around chewing the fat for a while!

In the afternoon we headed out for a relaxed drive around the reserve.

Those of you with a sensitive disposition might draw the same parallels from this decision as I unfortunately did. The last time we decided to go for a relaxed drive around a reserve it didn´t end well! This was our first time off-road in Henry since then and in very similar circumstances. I´m not sure when I got so superstitious but this easy and gentle drive was the scariest thing we´ve done in a long time.

But, of course, all went well and Henry is still the same shape as he was.

We were beginning to settle back into life with Henry. Peace was beginning to reign again and hope and adventure were creeping back into us at last. New adventures were beckoning, but for now we just curled up inside our home and slept….