The Home of my Saharagelber W123 300TD
My Saharagelber adventures are published on this site!
Follow me on 300TDorg@Twitter to keep up to date with this blog, images, articles, video, history/maintenance etc.
Not all the routes are added yet (still missing: Great Britain, Danmark, Wales, Czech Republic, Alpes (France) )
27 december 2009
I am now busy updating my blog. In the mean time, you can browse around to see what’s already written.
From now on, every couple of days I’ll add some more stuff about these trips. I’ll add text, images and video in the coming weeks.
The last posts are from West-Africa, which is 2006. I will finish Africa soon and then continue to add the trips from 2007,2008 and 2009.
Update (29/01/2010): Finished West-Africa!
In 2010 we start the world trip, which we will do in different phases. We will travel Asia in 2010 and then we will see… Probably entering the USA by boat from Vladivostok.
Also, you can checkout the images on my Flickr account: The Best W123 shots.
Some image sets:
The Saharagelber in various countries
At the moment I am converting the 300td even further, to prepare for the world trip which is coming pretty soon already.
This sumer we built a camper conversion which can be found here:
Camper Conversion
Camping in the open, Western Karpats, Ukraine (old USSR)
On the way to the Dogon, Mali
Hi! I love your car. In fact I love it so much I have bought my own! I Live in Cairns, in Australia. I found a great 1981 300TD in yellow, in Melbourne. I promptly bought it and flew down to get it. Unfortunately, the car had not been driven or maintained for the last 15 years. It had 93,500km on the odometer. I drove it back to Cairns over the next 4 days. It stopped once on be because of a leaky fuel hose which was sucking air. $80 fix. I have refreshed it to near its former glory. I love it. My next step it getting the roof rack and camping tent fitted. I also want to get a 2nd battery set up to a solar panel mounted in front of the tent on the roof. This can run a fridge and any other electrical needs I have.
I have spent hours looking through your photos. I love looking at the car and the terrain you take it through, the people you meet and the stuff you tip into your fuel tank!
Enough for now, I would love to show you a pic of my car some time.
Are coming to Australia?
Yours sincerely,
Sam
Hi Sam,
Wow, you just bought the same car because of the blog?
Well, you won’t regret what Mercedes produced in these years, I am sure you will drive very comfortably and are assured of the capabilities of the car and the reliability. I’d like to see some images of the car, quite a story then, that it wasn’t used for the last 15 years! I hope you renewed the engine oil!
So you want your cold beers, hey? That’s cool, in both ways I guess, oh well.
I am very curious about where you want to set up the 2nd battery, I thought about it too, but didn’t bother yet.
If you plan to put a solar panel on the roofrack, you aren’t able to carry cans or a 2nd spare wheel anymore.
Another thing you must take into account is weight, it’s best to travel light. A fridge, 2nd battery and solar panel adds quite a lot to your gross weight. You need to think about everything you stuff in on or your car ‘How necessary is this item?’.
Nice to hear you enjoy the images. More content is now added everyday, that’s a new years resolution.
After Mongolia it’s not for sure where we want to go to yet. What are your plans?
Kind regards,
Jurgen
Hello Jurgen and greetings from Freezing Finland! (-27 celcius)
It´s very nice to watch Your warm and funny pictures. Even after selling my own “yellow bastard” W123 300TD -78&-80&-81&-84 some 5 years ago. It was my first Mercedes and I will not change the label anymore. In fact I have been planning to purchase a one 300TD again soon, but this time I´d like to have a vehicle which has not been put together from 4 different cars!
Best regards and good luck for adventures to come. If You are going to traven north in winter, don´t hesitate to ask tips how to survive
Petteri Kivimäki, Finland
Hello Jurgen.
I have sent you a private message on the Mercedes Forum from Romania. Maybe you will read that first…
I just want to tell you again that we are very pleased to watch you pictures. Everybody says that it was an extraordinary thing that you do with your car!
Maybe when you are going in you next trip you will stop in our country! We will be glad to quest you!
Best regards
Dan,
Senior Member of ClubMercedes Romania
glory. you great . cheers. i too want traveling in africa.
……….if you want write me. my e-maill
mmedala@abv.bg
mercedes is perfect. im in bulgaria.
hi
you great . if you want cam here in bbulgaria. weill be traveling together. in africa……….
please write will be great.
mmedala@abv.bg
greetings from bulgaria.
Hi Jurgen,
We are very impressed of your car and trips.
) Now we have a plan to go to Jordan to the Red Sea. We just have made our web site ( http://www.naszeexpedycje.com pl – it means “our expeditions”)
).
We are fans of yougtimers and classic cars too. Last spring we have bought an Opel Ascona B from 1980, with little 1.3 engine and took a trip to Crimea in Ukraine.
We have done about 6000 km without any defect (almoust
and want to ask you for permision to put the link to you web site on our web site (but we already did it
By the way, we want to recomend you to visit the Crimea.
Good luck and C U on the road!!!
Dawid and Gosia from Poland
Sorry, I forgot a dot between “com” and “pl”
http://www.naszeexpedycje.com.pl
Sorry again for spaming your web
Love your website and all the great photos! We too are passionate about the W123, and love overland trips. Our first car ‘Priscilla’ was a 200D and was bought for a charity rally from UK to Banjul. We promptly bought another as soon as we got back home. We now have ‘Elvis’ 300D, and ‘Ralph’ 240D. I included a link to my blog of the Banjul rally – thought you may like to take a look at our pics. So much fun. These cars will be with us for a very long time
All the best for your future adventures!
I’m a recent 300TD convert. I have enjoyed a 240D for a while, but the extra room and power the 300TD provides are nice. Mine had a few issues when purchased: Clogged fuel screen was the most fun to find and fix. It has a 4 speed manual transmission and a two tank WVO system. If you come near New York, NY or Newark, NJ do let us know! We’d love to meet you and your Saharagelber!
Amazing, I lived in Germany as a small boy and my father bought this same color wagon but with the gas engine, loved it so much we brought it back to Alabama and drove it for years and years. Best color ever.
Hi Jurgen,
It was a pleasure to discover your site! I own a W123 sedan so would never have thought to use it for your types of travels, but I’m very impressed with what you have been able to do with the 300TD, and wished I owned one! I also own a 96 Camry station wagon but it’s not in the same league. I also own a 92 Land-Cruiser diesel wagon, which is the vehicle I am equipping for overland travels in North-America. Actually, most of the people I read about who head out for overland travels in Africa, Asia, etc., usually will build a rugged 4×4 expedition truck (Land Cruiser, Land-Rover, G-Wagen, etc.), so it’s so nice to see someone use a rear-wheel drive diesel car like the 300TD to do similar “off-the-beaten-path” travels!! Obviously, this is a testament to the dependability of the W123 MB diesel car.
Happy continued travels to you, and look forward to reading more about your journeys.
Best regards,
–Robert (Ottawa, Canada)
hey guys,
this is Fabio and Eleonora this year we going to cross Africa in a Toyota land-cruise troop-carrier 1984,with the same car in 2007 I cross Australia, south east Asia
India and Meddle east until Europe.
At the moment we live in Melbourne were we r saving money for the trip,we will come back to Italy(were we both from and where the car is at the moment) in july….I think I will fly this time! We intend to reach Portugal in meddle august to attend a musical festival, from there drive to Gibraltar and crossing in to Morocco.The goal is to reach Cape Town by land.For sure won’t be possible passing through Algeria and unless we going to take a couple of ferry in the Mediterranean i think the only other way is to crossing the desert down to Mali.For what i understand you will do the west coast pretty much in the same period can u tell us how u going to do it and how u r organized for that part of the journey to be honest I’m not so sure to drive completely alone in that desert, u never know what it may can happen to your vehicle so I’m looking for another car to share that part.
Hope to hear from u
regards
So you must be a real fan! You had it shipped to Alabama from Germany?
That’s funny! Is it easy to get WVO around that place? I’d let you know when I visit New York, we hopefully will ship the car to the USA next year. But plans might be changed.
Thanks for your comment!
Thanks for your message! Cool to read the W123 stole your heart too
Did you happen to do other travels since that Banjul rally already?
Cheers,
Jurgen
Hi David and Gosia. Thanks for your messages and the link!
What is the Crimea?
I see you did the trip to Jordan and Syria! Nice one!
Thank you very much! I’m honoured!
Thanks for your message!
Hi Petteri!
Did you manage to find one?
Absolutely epic.
W123 is a truly excellent car.
Keep up the good work and enjoy the tour bus!
Hi there,
hope your Asia preparations / travels are going well. If you plan to come to Singapore, we would be happy to welcome you to our country.
Do keep my email address and let me know. We’ll introduce you to the pleasures of Chicken Rice and Black Pepper Crabs!
Regards
Paul
Just dropping a line to say great blog, looks like an amazing trip! i am planning on buying a W123 D when i return to the UK in then next couple of weeks. Keep up the good work
Alex.