Perth to Paris

[GTVeloce]

Well, another chapter completed today. Loaded the car into a sea container destined for Dubai. It is too dangerous to drive through Pakistan and thanks to US sanctions it is too difficult to go direct to Iran, so we go to Dubai first and then take the ferry to Iran. Should be fun maxing out the 75 on the dessert roads of the UAE!

[alfagtv58]

Good to see you found a headlight.  Website looks great BTW.

[Nate Dog]

If you look closely at that picture, it looks like that headlight is suffering from a severe and chronic lack of glass....

[alfagtv58]

If you look closely at that picture, it looks like that headlight is suffering from a severe and chronic lack of glass....

If you look closely at the buy/swap/sell section, GTVeloce said he has sourced a new headlight......

[Nate Dog]

Boom!
Burned,
So he did.

[aggie57]

Boom!
Burned,
So he did.

Ouch it hurts ... the internet can be so unforgiving 

[Nate Dog]

My pride is somewhat bruised.

Its more my ego im worried about..

[Beatle]

Julian,

Great blog site with nice photos.  I have to admit I was following along OK until Melanie arrived on the scene, then it was hard to concentrate!!!!   

[Davidm1600]

Agree terrific blog, but who is Melanie ? The 75 ??

[alfagtv58]

My pride is somewhat bruised.

Its more my ego im worried about..

No offence Nate Dog. My tongue was firmly planted in my cheek....

[Nate Dog]

None taken, was extremely funny

[TFJ100]

Really enjoyed going through this blog last night. I learnt a lot more about these countries than I knew (have only been to Vietnam out of your list).

Sense of irony when I read how wonderful the cuisine in India was...until...the inevitable happened.

I also applaud your sense of bravery in driving through these countries, in an Alfa no less - spare parts may be tricky if anything breaks?

Good luck for the rest of the trip...looking forward to future instalments!

Torben

[GTVeloce]

Thanks for the comments guys. We still have some more blogs to fill in the other places we have been to but not written up yet.

Melanie is Andrew's girlfriend, not the 75...

That said, we have still not come up with a suitable name as yet for the car so happy to take suggestions.

Currently we have just arrived in Dubai and waiting for the car to get here. It should arrive in only a few days but unfortunately the arrival coincides with the end of Ramadan and everything shuts down for festivities so we will be delayed a few more days.

As to the spare parts: I attempted to replace all the parts that are the most common cause of issue before we left. I have also brought some of the more important (I think anyway) spares including a spare coolant reservoir bottle and an ecu.

So far no real problems from the car (excluding the headlight). One of the four motronic relays played up but I just swapped it for the fog lights relay. We cracked the exhaust manifold but it is a very minor crack and hasn't got any worse so we haven't done anything to it yet. Also, we ran out of fuel once but I suspect someone had siphoned the last of our fuel while it was on the docks in Calcutta.

Generally the Alfa has been an excellent choice of car for this trip. We struggled occasionally with ground clearance in India but we got by. You certainly don't need four wheel drive but our larger than standard wheels and the LSD has been very well used!

[Nate Dog]

Please keep the updates coming.
We salivate over your amazing road trip.

Super impressed with your 75. What an absolute trooper! That LSD is a huge help. Single wheel drive might've seen you stuck in a few places.

As to the name for your little beast,
you could always go with the motif on the badge and call it the grey crusader