Roll ON, Roll OFF

The Port of Halifax is the terminus for a lot of Roll On-Roll Off cargo. Not just new cars (and there are thousands of those) but also the annual flood of European travel vehicles (outbound) at this time of year, and a regular trade in construction cranes (inbound). Some recent examples: 

Roll On

This German version of the Ford Transit with Hobby Caravan body was in Halifax on the weekend in time for this week's departure on an Atlantic Container Line ship:

Roll Off (and On)

 This sizable Liebherr crane rolled off the autocarrier Aida on October 17 and almost immediately rolled on to a rail car for transit westward:

 Due to the forward overhang of the boom, an idler car is also required.

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Pair of French campers

The exodus of RVs from Europe continues apace with a pair of French owned vehicles showing up this week. On Monday it was a Ford Transit (European version) with BluCamp body.

Since 2009 Nat and Jean, the couple that run this rig have crossed Europe, southeast Asia, Australia, South, Central and North America, and maintain a web site documenting their travels. It has some wonderful photography and is well worth a look:
http://www.natetjean.com/topic1/index.html


They did experience some mechanical problems this year which held them up for seven weeks and prevented them from reaching their original goal of Alaska. European version Ford Transit parts are not available in the US or Canada, but can be found in Central and South America.

Their friends Eliane and Jean Michel arrived yesterday in an older model Citroën Jumper with Challenger body. This morning they were preparing to drop it off at the Fairview Cove container terminal for the trip home to France.

This rig was stolen in Chile and when eventually found had been stripped of all usable parts. The doughty owners refitted it  and bought all new equipment and carried on for another three years touring through South Central and North America!

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More arrivals by ship

Two more ship arrivals yesterday, a pair of campers:

1. Dalanuma is Swiss couple headed for Alaska as far as I can tell, after a test trip to Morocco. There are some technical issues with their blog, but it is here:
http://dalanuma.blogspot.com/
Their camper is built on a European Ford Transit - quite nice looking unit.

2.The impressive crew cab M.A.N. "Tembo" is presumably from Germany, but I can find no references on the web. This guy could go anywhere, and has enough spare tires to last for quite a while. His infinitely adjustable levelling system must have been a treat to set up. Hope he doesn't have to do that every night. [No it is from France -see comments below]

3. The rear overhang probably exceeds the usual four foot requirement for red flags, but would allow for some pretty steep hill climbs!

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