Jumbo, from Stockholm to Prague

[HiPERnx]

Stockholm to Prague via Poland

Intro
Hello fellow adventurers!
This is my first real adventure with a 4x4, i will try to keep this thread updated. But most updates will be on my own site.
To introduce myself, my name is Gustaf and currently a student at university. I just turned 21 years old. If you want to know more, either ask in this thread or read the "about" on my site.
Back story
I'm moving to Prague to attend a term as a exchange student at CVUT. The initial plan was to leave my Jumbo(Jeep WJ) at home. But as any other Jeep freak I thought of the idea to drive from Stockholm to Prague. I researched it a bit and decided that I will do it.
The Plan
The first big decision I had to make while planing my trip was if I should go via Denmark and Germany or go via boat from Stockholm to Gdansk, Poland. Since my mothers side of the family is from Poland the decision was easy, I had to go via Poland.
Initially I was going to do the trip alone, but my younger brother Peter wanted to join in.
MAP (May take some time to load)
Day 1
Boat from Nynäshamn, Sweden to Gdansk, Poland leaving at 18:00 day one and arriving in Gdansk mid-day day two.
Day 2
We will arrive in Gdansk at 13:00 and will immediately keep driving down to Łódź
Day 3
On day three me and Peter will drive from Łódź down to Krakow, hopefully get some time for some off road on our way to Krakow.
Day 4
We will leave Krakow around lunch and head for a visit at Auschwitz and later keep driving to Wrocław where we will stay the night.
Day 5
We start the day by exploring Wrocław to later in the afternoon start driving towards Jelena Gora.
Day 6
After waking up in Jelena Gora, the home town of my mother. We will spend the day exploring the small town and meeting up with relatives.
Day 7
Arrival in Prague! On day seven we leave Jelena Gora early to head towards Prague, Czech Republic.

Departure date: 10 August 2015

 

[silvElise]

Can't wait to see the pics... Sending safe travel energy your way!!

 

[Stankelbein]

Looks like a great trip, have fun! Hälsningar från Sundsvall!

 

[HiPERnx]

Two days to Stockholm-Prague adventure

Two days to Stockholm-Prague adventure

Just came back from a swim in the ocean and watching the sunset to realise that there is only two days to Stockholm-Prague adventure. I’m currently at my family summerhouse near Varberg, a small city on the west coast of Sweden. It’s a place that means a lot to me, and a place I enjoy to spend time. There is no cellular reception on our property but for the fist time we actually have a internet connection in our summerhouse.
Most of the preparation for the adventure is done, and most is packed. I will be back in Stockholm on Sunday and will do the last preparations, witch is to do a engine service and change the wipers on Jumbo.

Looks like a great trip, have fun! Hälsningar från Sundsvall!

Roligt att se fler svenskar på detta forum!

 

[HiPERnx]

Quik update: I'm on a boat

A quick update

Me and my brother just boarded the ship to Gdansk, Poland. Jumbo feels sluggish packed with all the gear but I think we'll manage. The fist thing that happened when I drove Jumbo on to the ship was that I broke the handbrake. The handbrake wire came loose from the handbrake lever. Still drivable but I have no emergency brake.

 

[HiPERnx]

First day of Stockholm-Prague adventure complete + a small change in plans

First day of Stockholm-Prague adventure is coming to and end.

The fist of Stockholm-Prague adventure is coming to and end.
After a long boat trip we arrived i Gdansk. It was a fast unloading from the boat, i believe we was the tenth vehicle of the boat. The small incident the day before when I broke my handbrake didn't have any affect while driving witch was a huge relief. Except for the handbrake, Jumbo (Jeep WJ) has held up just fine!
Today the temperature has been as high as 41C, I'm really glad I changed the viscus coupling to the fan before I left Sweden. The temperature has been well within range.
After driving 450km on Polish roads I can conclude that the road quality is okay on the high ways but on the smaller roads it's terrible. glad I have i Jeep that can take the harsh roads without any problem.
Poland has been above all expectations, I had pictured Poland as worn down and very east-Europe. In the city it was a bit worn, but on the country side! WOW! It's just amazing how fresh everything is! Everyone is very friendly and the houses is very nice.
While driving me and my brother noticed some small "churches" alongside the country road. we got very curious of how the looked on the inside. So we said that we will stop at one and take a look inside.
We stopped at one, just 12km from our destination. It was maybe 2x2m in size, and white on the outside and a large door on the side facing the road. It looked small and inocent, but when we opened the door we saw something straight out a horror movie. (Image bellow, <strong>not safe for work!</strong>)

(notice the rope)
We quickly jumped back in the Jeep and speed away.

After a few minutes we arrived in the small town of Kroczyce. We had initialy planed to stay in Lodz, but we changed that and shortened the trip by one day. So we will stay hare in Kroczyce and we will look at Krakow and Auschwitz tomorrow. The town of Kroczuce is wonderful, it has a adorable town center. We are staying at Hotel Jura, it's just beside the town center (20meter) and has a fair price of 160PLN/night. I can personally recommend this hotel!

Currently I'm sitting in one of the hotels common areas after a few beers, trying to get Internet access to be able to write this.

 

[HiPERnx]

Day two in Poland, visiting Auschwitz.

Day two in Poland, visiting Auschwitz.

Cover Photo.

As mentioned earlier, some changes where made to the plan. We skipped Lodz and slept just an hour away from Krakow.
We left the small town of Kroczyce after a fantastic breakfast at the hotel. We headed towards Krakow, on our way to Krakow i noticed that Jumbo was running a bit hot. Didn't know what the problem was. It was only running hot at highway speeds. I now believe that it's the thermostat thats is stuck half open. My Jeep is still drivable, only runs a bit over "normal". But not close to the red line. Will get it fixed when i arrive in Prague and can find a authorized Jeep mechanic.
Except for the heating problem the trip so Krakow was wonderful. Small countryside roads.

Jumbo posing in front of church
On our way to Krakow we stopped by this beautiful church. Not that old if i understood what it said on the signs inside. Apparently it's built just after World War two.
After a short stop at the church we continued on towards Krakow. The tempruture in the engine got a little bit to hot for my liking, so we took another stop, this time involving a little off road.

[video]https://instagram.com/p/6SDnXePUF-/[/video]
Wow it was some loose dirt! All of Jumbo was covered in dust, it came in to every part of my Jeep.
After that there where only half an hour left until we arrived i Krakow.

Krakow
Krakow is a beautiful city, the old capital of Poland. There was not much we did there except for walking around in the old town and looking around the Krakow palace/castle.
After a few hours of walking around, we felt that we had seen enough and walked back to the Jeep to get to our next destination.

Auschwitz
Our next stop was Auschwitz, i don't know what to tell you about it. It was very powerful sight. We started by visiting Auschwitz 1, we where there for a few hours. Later we took only a quick stroll around the remains of Auschwitz 2. Auschwitz 1 is what today is most of a museum and the one most worth visiting (if you don't have time to visit both). Auschwitz 2 on the other hand is what is featured in more movies, and probably what people picture when you say Auschwitz. It was not as museum like as Auschwitz 1, but worth a visit. Yet again, it was incredibly powerful.

From Auschwitz we continued to the city of Wroclaw. The journey was slow since we had the temperature problem at highway speeds. So i kept to around 85km/h for the entire journey. And still i was over the normal temperature. We arrived late in Wroclaw, we picked up our keys for the room and went to sleep after a long day.

 

[HiPERnx]

Day three in Poland, going from Wroclaw to Jelenia Gora.

Day three in Poland, going from Wroclaw to Jelenia Gora.
After arriving in Wroclaw late in the night before, we slept in a bit. We stayed at LeoApt, it's not really a hotel. We got a entire apartment for our selfs. It was not optimal for a one night stay, i can really recommend them for a longer stay (1+ week).
After we woke up on the third day we went to get breakfast. Since this was not a hotel the breakfast was outsourced to a nearby café. And oh man! it was one of the best cafés i have ever been to. When we had sat there for almost an hour we started exploring Wroclaw.

Wroclaw is a beautiful city. It has a large center square in the old town with a marketplace building in the middle. Sadly Wroclaw is on the beaten path. Lots of tourists, mainly German. The city has these goblins/hobbits put out all over the city. A fun thing to walk around and look for.
After a few hours of walking around Wroclaw, me and my brother Peter felt ready to start our relatively short journey from Wroclaw to Jelenia Gora.

The further south you go in poland the more mountains there are. Due to the temperature problem i had to remove my large NBB 225 Alpha Xenon lights in a attempt to keep the temperatures down. It barely helped, only helped around 5 degrees. That was better than nothing.
I had planed a small off road trail from Wroclaw to Jelenia Gora, a trail past the very small town of Grudno. The trail was total of 8 km one way if i recall correctly. If we had more time and i did not have a overheating problem we would probably explore the area a bit more, there were many smaller trails that we could turn off on.

Well up on a hilltop in Grudno we put some ravioli in the engine bay and enjoyed the view and waited for the heat of the engine to warm up the ravioli. It was the perfect spot to enjoy out lunch.
After lunch was done we drove back the 8 km trail, back on to the main road. From there it was a short drive to Jelenia Gora. When we arrived at the hotel in Jelenia gora we where very tired and ate at the hotel restaurant and went to sleep.

 

[HiPERnx]

Jelenia Gora, my mothers hometown.

Jelenia gora is a small town in the south west of Poland, in 2010 it had 84000 inhabitants (source).
There is not much to the town for someone that does not have a connection to it, there is a cute city centre with beautiful buildings.
After waking up at Hotel Mercure, me and my brother had a nice brekfast. The hotel was okay, but we really expected such a large and well known hotel chain to have AC on the room.

This was the only day on our trip that we would not move to a new place. We where to spend the entire day in Jelenia Gora.

After breakfast we jumped in the Jeep and took a trip to see where my mother grew up, it was interesting to see. After seeing that we went in to town and parked the Jumbo and went in to the tourist information centre. It was not big and they did only speak Polish and German. The few tourists they have in town are mainly from Germany, since Jelenia Gora was previously a part of Germany (before the World War 2).

(Jelenia Gora Feast of the Holy Cross Church)

I had previously posted on a Swedish Facebook site for people interested in Overlanding and Jeeps ("Seven bar Adventures"), I said that I was to be in Jelenia Gora and actually got a comment from a nice man called Michal. He said that he also where in Jelenia Gora.

After a day of walking around in the city we met up with Michal who was born in Jelenia Gora but moved to Sweden. It was a interesting evening, enjoying Polish typical dishes. It was wonderful!
Michal also gave us a tip that we should go up in the watch tower. It was worth a visit! It gave a good view of both the town center and the surrounding mountains.
The town is well off the beaten path for tourists and pretty much all activities in the town are free of charge (the watch tower for example).
For anyone passing my the area i can recommend a visit.

 

[HiPERnx]

Prague here i come!

The journey is coming to an end. We left Jelenia Gora around lunch, and headed for Prague with a stopover in Knuta Hora.
The Czech Republic is a small country seen geographically, there were less than 200km from Jelenia Gora to Prague.
There where some anxiety about traversing the Karkonosze mountains with a cooling problem. But we did not have any major problem excpet that there where a bicycle race on the road over the mountans. That made the progress somewhat slow. Thanks to a large 4.7L v8 the passings could be made fast and safely.
To cope with the cooling issue we rolled down the windows and cranked up the temperature on the climate control.

(Czech border from Poland)

Going down was easy, never rolled so far in my life. Probably didn't touch the accelerator for over 15km.
Well in side Czech Republic the first mission was to find a Autobahn-sticker to legally drive on the highways, only found a 10-day one. But that was better that going without.

(Bone Chapel in Knuta Hora)


The bone chapel in Knuta Hora was something quiet different, it was so many remains that it was hard to believe it even was real. I really recommend a visit! The entrance was 90Kć (~3€), worth it!
From Knuta Hora there where a very short drive to Prague.

Finally in Prague it felt grate to arrive at my apartment and to bring all the stuff up.
Afterwards there was time for a well deserved Czech beer!

Thanks for reading, if you notice any language errors please let me know (English is not my fist language).
If there are any questions, don't hesitate to contact me in some way.

 

[HiPERnx]

Extra post, Preparation and packing adventure gear.

This post was from before i left Sweden, but forgot to post it here.

Preparation

Today (before i left Sweden) I changed engine oil, topped off the transfer case and diffs. Not anything more I need to do. Jumbo runs on a 4000km service interval and it was time to change the oil. It's nice to have everything fresh to when I leave.

Adventure gear

What to bring and not to bring is hard to decide. I tend to want to bring to much stuff just in case, this is no exception.
I will walk through what gear I bring on this trip. Keep in mind that above all the gear that I talk about I also bring enough personal things to live in Prague for 7 moths.

From right to left

• Spare tire, full size (265/75R16, 32") on OEM wheels.
• Hand winch, not really meant for off road recovery. A warn winch is in the wish list.
• Recovery bag (4xShackles, 6000kg Tow trap, 5000kg Snatch strap and gloves).
• Warning triangle.
• Protectors for my led lights (2x yellow spot, 2x clear spot).
• Gloves (2x winter gloves, 2x mechanic gloves).
• Jerry can 20L (plastic).
• First aid kit.
• Spare parts (behind jerry can): Water pump (old but still good), new front right brake lines, transmission speed sensor and some random small parts.
• Torque wrench (always torque lug nuts to appropriate torque!).
• Steering wheel lock (better safe than sorry).
• Iron Rock off road control arms, the Swedish retailer for IRO messed up my order a while back so i got two extra lower control arms. Fits both lower front and rear.
• Fire extinguisher (ABC, powder).
• Trash bags.
• Breaker bar (1/2").
• Breaker bar (3/4") and two sockets.
• Grease gun, currently half full. One new cartridge is besides it (Red line CV-2 with red molly).
• Grease gin fittings (red box)

• Universal sprays (WD40, 5-56, break clean).
• Tool box, contains everything i need to work on the Jeep. Every time I used I new tool on Jumbo I put it in the toolbox. Example tools: socket set, large hex set, assortment of 1/2" tools and nuts &amp; bolts.
• Clamp, always good to have, previously used to keep hood open bur recently fixed new gas cylinders.
• Multimeter.
• Mopar transfercase oil.
• SKF bearing grease.
• Brake fluid.
• Jack (2000kg).
• Wire brush.
• Red coolant, 4L concentrated and 4L ready to use.
• Engine oil (Castrol 5w-40 full synthetic).
• Electric goodies, have lots of custom electrics in Jumbo and need to be able to repair it on the go).
• Brush with ice scraper.
• Start help, 1100CCA.
• Shovel.

I hope i didn't forget to mention anything.

 

[155mm]

Very fun trip! I've traveled to those same areas, and drove through the same mountain range when going from Karpacz to Prague. Very beautiful land (except for the air pollution as it was wintertime!!!).