Hiya,
temps have been at 30c every day the last month here, up o 34-35 some days, nights have not gone below 24. Which is a pain when your in a country that does not have AC anywhere other than cars and very few public spaces. I love the heat, wife, kid nor dog is a to big fan of it though! Well, we bought a tent and took off for the coast, or rather, the Island of Gotland. Was thinking of northern Jylland in Denmark first, but apparently the dog needs to have had rabies shots 3 weeks prior to arrival(so much for freedom of movement EU...), so to late out for that so had to stay in the country.
So I loaded the car up, estimated load including passengers and driver to 405kg, probably another 20-25kg unaccounted for. Still under the 448kg max load. Roof box weighs 29kg, so can only load 71kg in it instead of the boxes rated 75kg. Plenty though, want the heavy stuff closer to the ground anyway.
Roofbox on and car cleaned for the trip.
Packed tight in the rear seat.
Plenty of room for the dog, a
Finnish Lapphund. He is allowed to be kenneled outdoors in -20c, thick double coat - he is not to fond of heat to say the least (the 10l water jug is filled with ice cold water to keep it cooler in the rear during the trip). Secured everything to the plentiful strap points in the boot.
All this stuff that takes a lot of volume in the roofbox. 235cm long, 80cm wide and 35cm tall makes 600l of useful space up here.
Gotland is littered with both disused and active limestone quarry, this one we camped at the first night, using the wonderful Swedish Allemansrätten (Freedom to roam) in the wilderness. So free camping, but no amenities nearby.
Well, we were not staying there, we wanted the sea breeze to keep us from overheating. Went to Åminne on the east coast and managed to snatch the prime location as the previous campers were leaving as we arrived.
In the evening.
Fårö fyr
Somewhere on Fårö
A lake on Fårö
Old reefs, Gotland used to be located somewhere in the vicinity to where Australia is located nowadays(prehistoric times ofc) so the reefs are long since dead. Sea stacks are common too.
Active limestone quarry.
Old burial mounds
City wall of Visby, which is a very pretty medieval city, but there is so many pictures of every nook and cranny, and I've been there several times before so I did not take a lot of pictures there.
View from gallows hill in Visby, atleast they got a nice last view!
A sea stack on land.
And a dirty car the day before going home. A lot of the roads on the island are gravel ones, especially out to the beaches, quarry's(turned giant swimming ponds) and to a lot of the scenic/historic stuff. I don't doubt I will find limestone dust in the car for years to come!
All in all, we had a great week away from home and the I30 tourer turns out to be a great camping car. Some of the more rutted off road trails I bumped something under the car but never had a problem getting anywhere, scraped quite a few thorn bushes and other crap too, I kept them to the passenger side that already got scrapes from my near miss with a tree that was over the road last winter.
I averaged 4.9l/100km during the whole trip of 1460km, about 1/3 on motorway, 1/3 on 70-90 roads and 1/3 on city roads/gravel tracks. Not bad for being fully loaded(~430kg) and with a roofbox as big as they come! Still had plenty of power at 120kph on the motorway for overtaking and the car was very stable. Put 3.4kg(48psi) in prior to the trip though. I was not even dreaming of making it sub 5l/100km. Very happy!
