I had to pull over,roll down the window, and get out my phone in order to catch this monstrosity from France. So not a great photo, but: this is a vacation vehicle.

And not just because of sweltering days and Santa Claus. This is not the first European conquistador camper van I’ve seen, and no doubt won’t be the most outlandish, but there will be more. Mostly from Germany, but Swiss (this one), even French. All vying with the others to be the best equipped to handle the wild and challenging terrain of Uruguay, which has been described as “Iowa with beaches.”

Local (Uruguay) campers. Looks like they’ve got it all sorted – solar panels, side awning, sun protection for the truck. There was a couple sitting with a little portable table between the two vehicles.

But: covering the tires to protect them from the sun? I guess maybe a good idea, but I’ve never, ever seen that before!

Today’s Saturday, and the weather’s much like in this photo, but this is from a few days ago, a pre-season weekday. Today this parking lot would have been full of cars. Notice the sand ladders and crane for lowering and raising the monstrous spare tire. And massive fuel tank. And bunker-like windows. Just kinda automatically makes you feel light-footed and adventurous, nein?

Compare this with the last German camper van I posted:

OK, the Unimog is an amazing vehicle, but – is it just me? – seems sort of, um, constipated as a travel vehicle. Hey, there will be more this summer: stay tuned!

And, oh yeah, I’m being sarcastic about the minimalist thing, in case you missed that.

Most of my posts like this are from January and February, hot season, but here we are, late October, and a Deutschmobil appears outside Tienda Inglesa (as many do). Yes, actually from Germany; others similar have been from Austria, France, Slovakia…

This actually strikes me as quite a sweet rig; I’d like to have seen inside. Built on a Toyota versus a quasi-military Mini Mog. Here you can see some of the weirdness I’ve observed over the years here.

 

You may recall my fascination with the unwieldy vehicles that arrive here,  most often from Germany. I’m equally (actually,  more) amused when I see a perfectly ordinary car that managed to brave the same territory.

Here’s one that has been traveling in South America for five years, driven by an Austrian who sold his restaurant and took to the road.

He said that if he had a dollar for every time his rig had been photographed, he would never have to work another day in his life. I believe it!

He leaves for Austria in a couple weeks. His final preparation will be to take off the front bumper, which extends forward maybe 30 cm, and strap it to the roof. Turns out the shipping company charges for a set length (I’m guessing 5 m), and with bumper in place this vehicle exceeds that.

Just pay a little extra? No, €1,300 without bumper, but €2,600 with — that’s good pay for an hour of simple mechanical work!

A “big rig” camper from Montevideo.

And a converted bus camper from Argentina.

They seem so quaint when you compare them to the European campers!