shanecl wrote:

That looks amazing and very technical

Indeed NOW I could do it all day! I love this and now I love the Defender even more than before.
It's amazing what it can do, even if YOU can't Wrong tyre pressure, forgot to engage diff lock - no problem

defender9 wrote:

I have a friend who lives in Welzow, the town is right next to a vast open cast brown coal mine, I remember seeing the digging machinery it was huge.

Well spotted We had access to one of the last active pits - Welzow.

This is the area with its open and flooded pits. I've added Cardiff roughly to scale, to give you an idea.


Click image to enlarge


These machines weigh around 1200 .. 3000 tons

This is "big wheel", 1700 tons, at a museum where we stayed the night on our way to the tour's camp site.

Click image to enlarge


The biggest model, still in use, must be F60: it's basically a conveyor belt, 500m long, 11000 tons...

What surprised me (amongst many other things) was to learn that these machines ran/run on electricity rather than Diesel. Huge Amperages, cables thick as thighs

jst wrote:

that looks fun, have you any more information on the tour, routes.cost, self contained, rough camping?

Sure. There are AFAIK two guides who are allowed to enter the pit. The weekend costs 250€ per car and driver + 40€ for each passenger. Camping was 20€ in total.

Due to Corona regulations we did not stay at the usual location, which was closed.
Instead this was a very basic camp site with two private toilets for the group (about 15 cars).
Self-catering, also because of hygiene.
Great location, however.



It may be best to contact these guys
https://www.4x4-adventures.com/startseite/...bausafari/

The guide's (Steffen) own website is this http://www.lausitzsafari.de but he is a tad slow to react to emails, and I'm not sure about his English (most eastern Germans where taught Russian at school rather than English, unlike in the west)

macfrank wrote:

jst wrote:

that looks fun, have you any more information on the tour, routes.cost, self contained, rough camping?

Sure. There are AFAIK two guides who are allowed to enter the pit. The weekend costs 250€ per car and driver + 40€ for each passenger. Camping was 20€ in total.

Due to Corona regulations we did not stay at the usual location, which was closed.
Instead this was a very basic camp site with two private toilets for the group (about 15 cars).
Self-catering, also because of hygiene.
Great location, however.



It may be best to contact these guys
https://www.4x4-adventures.com/startseite/...bausafari/

The guide's (Steffen) own website is this http://www.lausitzsafari.de but he is a tad slow to react to emails, and I'm not sure about his English (most eastern Germans where taught Russian at school rather than English, unlike in the west)