My 1976 Ambulance and trip report
Posted: Mon Feb 18, 2019 10:59 pm
Here is my latest acquisition.
Its bad news.
I bought a plastic.
Well, its a plastic, so cant say much other than I feel one should be added to the collection to preserve it for many years later. We will propbably look back in 50 years and say I wish I preserved more. I had been looking for one for a while, but it had to have the very rare petrol R32 V6 engine. This one came up that was in very neat condition and added bonus its 4Motion.
Ok, enough of the plastic. But how it actually fits in here is because I had just agreed to buy it last week and it was in PE.
Then on Thursday this ambulance comes up in the Northen Free state in Memel and I try and figure out how I can get both. So I book a ticket to PE that night and I courier my A frame and 4 tyres on rims to PE. On Friday morning I fetch the T5, then load up A frame and rims and leave PE around 11:45am to head to Harrismith.
I sleep in Harrismith and early Saturday morning I head to the ambulance in Memel.
Some pics from Saturday morning on route to fetch the ambulance. Again, I landed up on a horrendous gravel road that had become a mud bath due to all the heavy rains. I arrived late because of this, but man, what a beautiful pass and scenery it was.
Ok, here's the real deal one. Its a 1976 ambulance, with branding from the civil defense. It belonged to the local municipality for as far as I can see on the papers.
Pics of ambulance and town.
Now after all this loading up, I was 300km away from Parys. Not wanting to disappoint old Retrovan who believed I couldn't make it back before next week Thursday, I decided to take a detour and head that way. What a good idea this was.
On route to Parys through the Free State.
Arrived at Parys on Saturday afternoon after a 1440km drive from PE via Memel.
I left Parys at 4:30am on Sunday and drove solid with only 2 fuel stops and arrived home at around 18:30. Not bad time at all considering I was towing and on my own.
The final stretch through the Karoo.
I will take some more interior pics and more details re the ambulance and share tomorrow.
Its bad news.
I bought a plastic.
Well, its a plastic, so cant say much other than I feel one should be added to the collection to preserve it for many years later. We will propbably look back in 50 years and say I wish I preserved more. I had been looking for one for a while, but it had to have the very rare petrol R32 V6 engine. This one came up that was in very neat condition and added bonus its 4Motion.
Ok, enough of the plastic. But how it actually fits in here is because I had just agreed to buy it last week and it was in PE.
Then on Thursday this ambulance comes up in the Northen Free state in Memel and I try and figure out how I can get both. So I book a ticket to PE that night and I courier my A frame and 4 tyres on rims to PE. On Friday morning I fetch the T5, then load up A frame and rims and leave PE around 11:45am to head to Harrismith.
I sleep in Harrismith and early Saturday morning I head to the ambulance in Memel.
Some pics from Saturday morning on route to fetch the ambulance. Again, I landed up on a horrendous gravel road that had become a mud bath due to all the heavy rains. I arrived late because of this, but man, what a beautiful pass and scenery it was.
Ok, here's the real deal one. Its a 1976 ambulance, with branding from the civil defense. It belonged to the local municipality for as far as I can see on the papers.
Pics of ambulance and town.
Now after all this loading up, I was 300km away from Parys. Not wanting to disappoint old Retrovan who believed I couldn't make it back before next week Thursday, I decided to take a detour and head that way. What a good idea this was.
On route to Parys through the Free State.
Arrived at Parys on Saturday afternoon after a 1440km drive from PE via Memel.
I left Parys at 4:30am on Sunday and drove solid with only 2 fuel stops and arrived home at around 18:30. Not bad time at all considering I was towing and on my own.
The final stretch through the Karoo.
I will take some more interior pics and more details re the ambulance and share tomorrow.
