The Brexit Grand Tour in an Ariel Nomad
Discussion
DJFish said:
Why not invest in a couple of these?
https://www.wetsuitoutlet.co.uk/2016-typhoon-hyper...
No more soaking wet clothes or cold feet, if you're planning on keeping the Nomad for a while they'd be a good investment.
Because I'd rather be completely wet then drive in a drysuit https://www.wetsuitoutlet.co.uk/2016-typhoon-hyper...
No more soaking wet clothes or cold feet, if you're planning on keeping the Nomad for a while they'd be a good investment.
DELETED: Comment made by a member who's account has been deleted.
It's not bad at all. And it's got its many charms. Accent - I don't know, studying at Durham university maybe? Living abroad since a very young age?
They're Aussies... We think. That dude had a very strange accent
Nope, now it's completely dead at least, not blinding me at night.
Right, update time!
We've spent eight days in Poland, at this stage we're still pretty flexible with time. The idea is still to be back to London at the end of September. We think we're on schedule but of course many things can still change.
Car update no 1 - since it started being hot, I had do something about the heat coming into the tunnel between the seats. Those of you who watched the first episode of the Vlog will remember that it looked like this:
Well not anymore! Thanks to my amazing craftmanship, three zip ties and a 7 Euro plaque from German B&Q it now looks like this:
Proper ghetto engineering, but it does the job. Our feet are no longer burning when we drive in 30C+ weather.
The best thing is the slogan - "If this is the solution, I want the problem back!"
I didn't think about it when buying it, just translated it later. Funny coincidence.
Car update no 2 - We have a roof!
It's really cool, it's light, very quick to remove and put on, no issues at 90mph. It can stay rolled up on the car or can be removed completely in seconds.
The rain still gets in when driving but it protects well from the sun and gives a little bit of privacy. When I got the Nomad it was a nightmare to drive it on motorway without full on gear, goggles, face mask etc. Now, with all the mods I drive it often at 70mph + with no hat, no glasses, in just a t-shirt. The wind, dust etc are much less of an issue.
I got the roof done together with custom seat inserts for both of us. The seats on the Nomad are pretty wide and since my hips and ass are pretty narrow I get lots of cold wind on my right kidney, getting in between the seat and my body. Now that's also solved.
I always carefully consider any modifications, to make sure that everything is easily removable and car can be easily transformed back to factory spec if that's what the next owner wants.
Check out the cool Opel that the guys that did the roof retrimmed the interior of:
After getting the roof it was time for the wash. I accidentally found the local dealers of Ceramic Pro so I knew I'm leaving the car in good hands.
Since I did some more offroading, the car was absolutely filthy inside and out.
That's the problem with it, we love how it looks covered in mud, we believe it IMPROVES on its coolness, but we look like absolute hobos walking around with all dirty clothing after getting in and out of mudnomad. So it was time for a good clean. It's so funny how gently we are with it, every time it gets PROPERLY clean, not just my quick wash clean. I drive around puddles, Ruta doesn't eat in it... Until I see first dirt road
After that we did two things that we're both very passionate about : first one being helping dogs.
We recorded a video inviting people to walk dogs from the local shelter. We will promote it heavily amongst the locals to encourage as many as possible to visit the shelter and take a dog for a walk. We strongly believe that this is the best way to enhance their chances of being adopted, while at the same time providing a great change to their day, very often the only opportunity to see the world outside of the kennel...
Second being our great hobby : streetskating/rollerblading. We are very active within London streetskating scene and we often participate in events around the world.
We visited friends in Warsaw who run Nightskating Warsaw, the biggest in the world, last summer over 7000 people took part in one event. They invite the Nomad to be the "pace vehicle" for the skate, we got a police escort and lots of publicity.
I promised them a separate video so Ruta was driving, I was filming. There will be a separate video about it plus some content in the Poland one.
Next day we had to make a move and head south, we went to Cracow (first time for me) which neither of us rated too highly. The old town is restored purely for tourists, it's too commercial. Nothing gets any funds outside of old town so everything else looks very ran down.
Now, driving around Poland is fun but let me introduce you to one peculiarity. Motorways are mostly new and in great shape but majority of them are only two lanes each way. Speed limit is according to Waze 87mph which most of the drivers interpret as 90+. Which makes it a PITA to drive in a car like Nomad. Something that I don't want to drive with lorries at 56mph but I also don't enjoy at 95. So it means constantly overtaking lorries and having cars within inches from my engine (No bumpers;) ) at 80mph. And something that is EXTREMELY ANNOYING is that Poles in fast lane, loving fast cars, get parallel to me being in L1, slow down to have a good look, get the phone out, tell the wife to film us from passenger seat etc while during that time I have to brake like a maniac because there's another lorry ahead of me and the "fans" block me from overtaking. It happened countless times. Price of popularity I guess
From Cracow we went to Wieliczka which I always wanted to visit. It's an old salt mine, absolutely fascinating, we went down to 135m below the ground. Crazy to see what has been built so deep centuries ago. This is the chapel, it's at I believe 110m below ground, all carved in salt!
We're in Slovakia now, but I'll leave that for the next post Make sure to see the videos from Poland when they're out. Ruta is editing them at the moment.
She also says HI to all PistonHeads!
We've spent eight days in Poland, at this stage we're still pretty flexible with time. The idea is still to be back to London at the end of September. We think we're on schedule but of course many things can still change.
Car update no 1 - since it started being hot, I had do something about the heat coming into the tunnel between the seats. Those of you who watched the first episode of the Vlog will remember that it looked like this:
Well not anymore! Thanks to my amazing craftmanship, three zip ties and a 7 Euro plaque from German B&Q it now looks like this:
Proper ghetto engineering, but it does the job. Our feet are no longer burning when we drive in 30C+ weather.
The best thing is the slogan - "If this is the solution, I want the problem back!"
I didn't think about it when buying it, just translated it later. Funny coincidence. Car update no 2 - We have a roof!
It's really cool, it's light, very quick to remove and put on, no issues at 90mph. It can stay rolled up on the car or can be removed completely in seconds.
The rain still gets in when driving but it protects well from the sun and gives a little bit of privacy. When I got the Nomad it was a nightmare to drive it on motorway without full on gear, goggles, face mask etc. Now, with all the mods I drive it often at 70mph + with no hat, no glasses, in just a t-shirt. The wind, dust etc are much less of an issue.
I got the roof done together with custom seat inserts for both of us. The seats on the Nomad are pretty wide and since my hips and ass are pretty narrow I get lots of cold wind on my right kidney, getting in between the seat and my body. Now that's also solved.
I always carefully consider any modifications, to make sure that everything is easily removable and car can be easily transformed back to factory spec if that's what the next owner wants.
Check out the cool Opel that the guys that did the roof retrimmed the interior of:
After getting the roof it was time for the wash. I accidentally found the local dealers of Ceramic Pro so I knew I'm leaving the car in good hands.
Since I did some more offroading, the car was absolutely filthy inside and out.
That's the problem with it, we love how it looks covered in mud, we believe it IMPROVES on its coolness, but we look like absolute hobos walking around with all dirty clothing after getting in and out of mudnomad. So it was time for a good clean. It's so funny how gently we are with it, every time it gets PROPERLY clean, not just my quick wash clean. I drive around puddles, Ruta doesn't eat in it... Until I see first dirt road
After that we did two things that we're both very passionate about : first one being helping dogs.
We recorded a video inviting people to walk dogs from the local shelter. We will promote it heavily amongst the locals to encourage as many as possible to visit the shelter and take a dog for a walk. We strongly believe that this is the best way to enhance their chances of being adopted, while at the same time providing a great change to their day, very often the only opportunity to see the world outside of the kennel...
Second being our great hobby : streetskating/rollerblading. We are very active within London streetskating scene and we often participate in events around the world.
We visited friends in Warsaw who run Nightskating Warsaw, the biggest in the world, last summer over 7000 people took part in one event. They invite the Nomad to be the "pace vehicle" for the skate, we got a police escort and lots of publicity.
I promised them a separate video so Ruta was driving, I was filming. There will be a separate video about it plus some content in the Poland one.
Next day we had to make a move and head south, we went to Cracow (first time for me) which neither of us rated too highly. The old town is restored purely for tourists, it's too commercial. Nothing gets any funds outside of old town so everything else looks very ran down.
Now, driving around Poland is fun but let me introduce you to one peculiarity. Motorways are mostly new and in great shape but majority of them are only two lanes each way. Speed limit is according to Waze 87mph which most of the drivers interpret as 90+. Which makes it a PITA to drive in a car like Nomad. Something that I don't want to drive with lorries at 56mph but I also don't enjoy at 95. So it means constantly overtaking lorries and having cars within inches from my engine (No bumpers;) ) at 80mph. And something that is EXTREMELY ANNOYING is that Poles in fast lane, loving fast cars, get parallel to me being in L1, slow down to have a good look, get the phone out, tell the wife to film us from passenger seat etc while during that time I have to brake like a maniac because there's another lorry ahead of me and the "fans" block me from overtaking. It happened countless times. Price of popularity I guess
From Cracow we went to Wieliczka which I always wanted to visit. It's an old salt mine, absolutely fascinating, we went down to 135m below the ground. Crazy to see what has been built so deep centuries ago. This is the chapel, it's at I believe 110m below ground, all carved in salt!
We're in Slovakia now, but I'll leave that for the next post
Make sure to see the videos from Poland when they're out. Ruta is editing them at the moment. She also says HI to all PistonHeads!
JamesRF said:
Just spent the morning reading through this thread and watching all the videos, looks like so much fun!
Might have been mentioned and I've just missed it, but what sort of range are you getting on each tank? Must be more tricky now that the fuel gauge isn't working and the fact you are exploring in some fairly remote places. Even going for a half hour tear up on that motocross track must burn through a decent amount?
Thank you!Might have been mentioned and I've just missed it, but what sort of range are you getting on each tank? Must be more tricky now that the fuel gauge isn't working and the fact you are exploring in some fairly remote places. Even going for a half hour tear up on that motocross track must burn through a decent amount?
The range is not too bad actually. Normal motorway driving is 250+ miles so I just fill up every 150 or so and this way I never worry about lack of fuel gauge at the moment. The worst hit is at high speed motorway driving - 100mph+ on autobahns etc. Aerodynamics is not Nomad's forte
giveitfish said:
Hope Ariel are watching and chuck you some freebies, this is exactly the kind of adventurous trip prospective owners must dream about.
Ha! You would think! They didn't even want to share it on their Facebook and I was only asking for them to ask people from European countries to send us cool driving locations for car like Nomad. They don't really care much about publicity and social media, no official Instagram account etc. I guess when you have your order books full for 2 years ahead you don't worry too much about sales.
Ruta and I do find it peculiar though - it's not like I was asking for money, it's free positive publicity, there has been almost no new Nomad content after the initial buzz shortly after the release. I've seen ALL THE VIDEOS many times already.
ash73 said:
After watching the latest installment I had to buy some some ice cream on the way home. The food always looks great in these vids. What's been your favourite meal so far?
Ha! That's a tough one. I think the breakfast cheesecake that Ruta's auntie made for us one morning. It's like a very moist, dense, cheese curd cake. Not very sweet. You eat it with sour cream and lots of fresh berries. It was still warm - delicious!In Eastern Europe it's hard to go wrong with food. Unless you're vegan... then you're screwed
poing said:
I just finished binge watching the lot, 7 so far. Really good stuff with good quality filming and editing which is a big step up from the normal youtube stuff like this.
I've learnt a lot of stuff too, mostly about the car and food but that's 2 of my biggest interests
Ruta is nuts but in a good way, it's very rare to find a willingvictim parter for this kind of trip. I know a friend who wanted to do a big trip with his VX220 and his other half said no, then it started a 'talk' about the car and she eventually made him pick between her or the car. He has neither of them now but the car wasn't the first one to go. Men and women see the world differently so I think having both on this kind of journey really helps with the story.
Thank you very much! Another episode coming soon! I've learnt a lot of stuff too, mostly about the car and food but that's 2 of my biggest interests
Ruta is nuts but in a good way, it's very rare to find a willing
I showed your post to Ruta and she says that it's important that both parties enjoy SOMETHING out of the trip. She loves where Nomad takes us, the adventures, people we meet, even if she couldn't care less about its driving characteristics. (But she asked me to teach her how to do a handbrake turn in a field in Tatras yesterday and was giggling like crazy when it worked for her
)And you are spot on about this "different outlook" between genders and that it improves the footage, even if sometimes might not be to everyone's liking. It brings variety that is needed in this kind of project.
Edited by rottie102 on Wednesday 9th August 16:52
Speed addicted said:
In a way it's quite a lot like touring on motorbikes, weather really affects you but it connects you to the environment too. Even with full luggage my Triumph has quite restricted space, previous bikes were limited to a bag on the back.
Looks like a great trip in an epic car!
Hah! Is that why we get so many "thumbs up"s, waves and nods from bikers? Looks like a great trip in an epic car!
Finally got to use the laptop together with decent WiFi to upload photos!
Update no1 - over last several days we've been working on first ever Nomad's owner's review, all the ones before were from journalists which had the car for a day or so, just getting it to play around in some fun location. This is about actual experience of ownership. There's also another video about what I think are good choices when ordering Nomad's specs. Both very biased and personal but honest and hopefully helpful. Check them out!
Now, let me know what do you think - I don't know how much to write here, since I know that many of you reading follow us on Youtube, I wouldn't want to ruin the videos for you since most of it will be the same story...
Last time, we've left Poland on the way to Slovakia.
We were in a bit of a hurry since we were booked in to fly next day in the morning and it was the only time available.
In June, I've spent two weeks in Slovakia training and getting certified to fly paramotors. After that we went immediately to Iceland and then for the Nomad trip so I didn't have any chance to fly after the training. I was very eager to not miss the chance this time, also I promised Ruta that my instructor Martin will fly her - her first experience of flying apart from passenger aeroplanes.
We made it to Presov in the evening, nothing eventful happened, in the morning we got to the airfield. The weather was good so we were looking forward to flying and planning shots and filming when Ruta mentioned that there's something strange happening on the back of the Nomad. The evening before she said she noticed a tiny bit of smoke but I couldn't see anything, it was dark and we were tired so I didn't much about it. Now I had a good look and saw immediately an oil leak. I didn't notice immediately where it was coming from, most of the left side of the engine was covered in oil mist/overspray.
I turned the engine on and although not much happened immediately, when the electric fan on the oil cooler kicked in we saw where the oil spray was coming from. There was a leak on top of the oil cooler, which the fan was sucking through and spraying over engine.
It was Sat morning, around 10am, I knew there's not much I can do in terms of getting a new cooler. Ariel is closed on weekends, the chances of me getting an oil cooler in the same size where I was were smaller than none so I had to come up with a solution.
I knew that driving without the oil cooler is a much better choice than driving with an oil leak so decided to come up with a way to bypass it. Luckily it was pretty simple since the oil hoses' ends fit the outlets on the oil extension pan. I didn't have spanners big enough to do it so I asked Martin for help. He called his mechanic who was in a nearby village, although it was Sat and apparently not many people work on Sat in Slovakia, he agreed to help. We still wanted to fly so since we had the solution we cracked on with this.
Ruta was going to fly with Martin in his trike, German Fresh Breeze.
It's a great piece of kit, I have been in it few times and the ease of starting, flying and landing it is crazy. It's really well made and it reminds me of Nomad so much!
I went flying at the same time by myself, I wanted to film them from the air. Everything was going fine until my engine started cutting off mid flight. First time ever... Also the battery was faulty and we hand started the motor on the ground so I knew that if it dies I won't be able to restart it. It was running at probably 30% at full throttle, I had figure out whether to land or try to stay up and wait for them. I couldn't get anywhere without power, it was a very hot, very turbulent day but I didn't want to do emergency landing and not be able to film any of them flying. All went well in the end but it definitely wasn't my day... Ruta loved the turbulences and the Gs Martin pulled while free falling.
Guess who stepped on a bee and got stung? Yupp, not my day...
We had to hurry up after flying, Martin towed me to the mechanic. Cool thing about a car with no assisted brakes and power steering is that it feels exactly the same to drive with engine on and off
Of course the towing rope snapped and I stepped in fresh tar fixing it and brought it all to the car on my grass mat... Still not my day.
We sorted it out at the mechanic, bypassed the cooler and we were able to drive. The mechanic didn't want anything for the help, just the photo with the car so I just had to let him take it for spin around the block. Of course he called his whole family to come out. That was one happy man!
We went for lunch afterwards and decided to just crack on with driving, I knew I just have to not go crazy and we'll be fine without cooler.
We used our usual technique of choosing a sleeping destination - not too far, with a body of water nearby
That was quite the journey - it was 36c when we left Presov, on the way it felt like the heavens opened. Did I mention that it wasn't my day?
We haven't been in a rain like this during this trip yet. We had to stop by a roadside parking, there was some sort of shelter there but the wind was blowing so hard that it was raining sideways and were drenched and freezing in no time. The family from Moldova stopped near us and they invited us into their minibus. We didn't want to at first but really, we didn't have a choice. They were so friendly! Offered us bread, sausage, drinks and blankets. It was so nice to be in dry, even if we all stank a bit
Sun came out after a while and after many photos with the Nomad we were on our way again!
TBC
Update no1 - over last several days we've been working on first ever Nomad's owner's review, all the ones before were from journalists which had the car for a day or so, just getting it to play around in some fun location. This is about actual experience of ownership. There's also another video about what I think are good choices when ordering Nomad's specs. Both very biased and personal but honest and hopefully helpful. Check them out!
Now, let me know what do you think - I don't know how much to write here, since I know that many of you reading follow us on Youtube, I wouldn't want to ruin the videos for you since most of it will be the same story...
Last time, we've left Poland on the way to Slovakia.
We were in a bit of a hurry since we were booked in to fly next day in the morning and it was the only time available.
In June, I've spent two weeks in Slovakia training and getting certified to fly paramotors. After that we went immediately to Iceland and then for the Nomad trip so I didn't have any chance to fly after the training. I was very eager to not miss the chance this time, also I promised Ruta that my instructor Martin will fly her - her first experience of flying apart from passenger aeroplanes.
We made it to Presov in the evening, nothing eventful happened, in the morning we got to the airfield. The weather was good so we were looking forward to flying and planning shots and filming when Ruta mentioned that there's something strange happening on the back of the Nomad. The evening before she said she noticed a tiny bit of smoke but I couldn't see anything, it was dark and we were tired so I didn't much about it. Now I had a good look and saw immediately an oil leak. I didn't notice immediately where it was coming from, most of the left side of the engine was covered in oil mist/overspray.
I turned the engine on and although not much happened immediately, when the electric fan on the oil cooler kicked in we saw where the oil spray was coming from. There was a leak on top of the oil cooler, which the fan was sucking through and spraying over engine.
It was Sat morning, around 10am, I knew there's not much I can do in terms of getting a new cooler. Ariel is closed on weekends, the chances of me getting an oil cooler in the same size where I was were smaller than none so I had to come up with a solution.
I knew that driving without the oil cooler is a much better choice than driving with an oil leak so decided to come up with a way to bypass it. Luckily it was pretty simple since the oil hoses' ends fit the outlets on the oil extension pan. I didn't have spanners big enough to do it so I asked Martin for help. He called his mechanic who was in a nearby village, although it was Sat and apparently not many people work on Sat in Slovakia, he agreed to help. We still wanted to fly so since we had the solution we cracked on with this.
Ruta was going to fly with Martin in his trike, German Fresh Breeze.
It's a great piece of kit, I have been in it few times and the ease of starting, flying and landing it is crazy. It's really well made and it reminds me of Nomad so much!
I went flying at the same time by myself, I wanted to film them from the air. Everything was going fine until my engine started cutting off mid flight. First time ever... Also the battery was faulty and we hand started the motor on the ground so I knew that if it dies I won't be able to restart it. It was running at probably 30% at full throttle, I had figure out whether to land or try to stay up and wait for them. I couldn't get anywhere without power, it was a very hot, very turbulent day but I didn't want to do emergency landing and not be able to film any of them flying. All went well in the end but it definitely wasn't my day... Ruta loved the turbulences and the Gs Martin pulled while free falling.
Guess who stepped on a bee and got stung? Yupp, not my day...
We had to hurry up after flying, Martin towed me to the mechanic. Cool thing about a car with no assisted brakes and power steering is that it feels exactly the same to drive with engine on and off
Of course the towing rope snapped and I stepped in fresh tar fixing it and brought it all to the car on my grass mat... Still not my day.
We sorted it out at the mechanic, bypassed the cooler and we were able to drive. The mechanic didn't want anything for the help, just the photo with the car so I just had to let him take it for spin around the block. Of course he called his whole family to come out. That was one happy man!
We went for lunch afterwards and decided to just crack on with driving, I knew I just have to not go crazy and we'll be fine without cooler.
We used our usual technique of choosing a sleeping destination - not too far, with a body of water nearby
That was quite the journey - it was 36c when we left Presov, on the way it felt like the heavens opened. Did I mention that it wasn't my day?
We haven't been in a rain like this during this trip yet. We had to stop by a roadside parking, there was some sort of shelter there but the wind was blowing so hard that it was raining sideways and were drenched and freezing in no time. The family from Moldova stopped near us and they invited us into their minibus. We didn't want to at first but really, we didn't have a choice. They were so friendly! Offered us bread, sausage, drinks and blankets. It was so nice to be in dry, even if we all stank a bit
Sun came out after a while and after many photos with the Nomad we were on our way again!
TBC
chopper602 said:
Did you see the impressive speedway stadium there too?
We went to a huge car event (World Meeting of 2CV Friends) on the airfield in 2015 and agree with you, the town is beautiful and Poland in general is very cheap and the people friendly.
Oh yeah, massive speedway history there!We went to a huge car event (World Meeting of 2CV Friends) on the airfield in 2015 and agree with you, the town is beautiful and Poland in general is very cheap and the people friendly.
Part 2 of Slovakia VIDEO IS READY ON YT
Next day it was more rain... Nomad did well as a shopping car on the way:
Driving towards the next hotel we saw TWO frikkin' tanks on the side of the road. With a sign TANK RIDES. We were wet, tired and with a car full of shopping but I had to stop. Owner converted BMP-1 soviet troop carrier into a convertible people carrier!
I have to say, it was one of the best motoring experiences in my life. And I've done things...
The guy was a maniac, health and safety was non existent - it was awesome! I could not believe the places where the tank can go.
I've spent whole afternoon afterwards searching for tanks for sale and went again the following day. Of course Nomad did a good job of breaking the ice and he let me drive the tank for a bit! It's actually got a normal clutch, throttle (VERY sensitive) and brake pedals and a steering wheel of sort (more of a stick).
Somewhere close to the border with Poland and Czech Republic we decided to go for one of our offroading detours and found a great big field in the mountains, it's difficult normally to find fields which don't belong to any farmers, aren't fenced off etc. We BOTH had a lot fun sliding the car around and Ruta learnt handbrake turns. I'll convert her to be a petrolhead one day!
Czech Republic was very uneventful. Hot, with not much to do. We've been to the west part before so stayed in the east this time. Pretty flat, with only fields and very few lakes to entertain us. We've stayed for the night in Brno which actually is a very nice city. Quite "grand", open and friendly.
Next - AUSTRIA
VIDEO IS READY ON YTNext day it was more rain... Nomad did well as a shopping car on the way:
Driving towards the next hotel we saw TWO frikkin' tanks on the side of the road. With a sign TANK RIDES. We were wet, tired and with a car full of shopping but I had to stop. Owner converted BMP-1 soviet troop carrier into a convertible people carrier!
I have to say, it was one of the best motoring experiences in my life. And I've done things...
The guy was a maniac, health and safety was non existent - it was awesome! I could not believe the places where the tank can go.
I've spent whole afternoon afterwards searching for tanks for sale
and went again the following day. Of course Nomad did a good job of breaking the ice and he let me drive the tank for a bit! It's actually got a normal clutch, throttle (VERY sensitive) and brake pedals and a steering wheel of sort (more of a stick).Somewhere close to the border with Poland and Czech Republic we decided to go for one of our offroading detours and found a great big field in the mountains, it's difficult normally to find fields which don't belong to any farmers, aren't fenced off etc. We BOTH had a lot fun sliding the car around and Ruta learnt handbrake turns. I'll convert her to be a petrolhead one day!
Czech Republic was very uneventful. Hot, with not much to do. We've been to the west part before so stayed in the east this time. Pretty flat, with only fields and very few lakes to entertain us. We've stayed for the night in Brno which actually is a very nice city. Quite "grand", open and friendly.
Next - AUSTRIA
Edited by rottie102 on Friday 18th August 06:44
Guys, Ruta is asking for some feedback re videos:
1) What do you think of the length? We normally have enough good material to make them longer but we try to limit it to between 10 and 15mins
2) music to no music ratio - good, too much music, too much talking?
3) any other comments?
She also says massive thank you for all the comments so far, here and on YT. They motivate her a lot!
1) What do you think of the length? We normally have enough good material to make them longer but we try to limit it to between 10 and 15mins
2) music to no music ratio - good, too much music, too much talking?
3) any other comments?
She also says massive thank you for all the comments so far, here and on YT. They motivate her a lot!
EvoOlli said:
Hey Guys, are you OK ?
Hahahah, yes, thank you very much. The reason I haven't posted in a while is because Ruta is trying to stay on track with editing videos as much as possible and I only get the laptop at 11pm-midnight when I really have no energy for creative writing
The videos are always a priority and thanks to that, they are being published regularly. Also, I think I prefer for everyone to see the story in the video first and then read about it.
Make sure to watch the latest one, from Romania. We just published it this morning. I think it's my favorite so far!
Now, I think we've left Czech Republic last time I posted an update.
Austria was great, surprisingly. I've been there many times and always enjoyed the driving in Alps but this time it was in the eastern part which I haven't explored before.
We stayed in the most amazing B&B in Mönchhof, that made the whole experience truly unforgettable. It might be a bit too "hippy" for many people but we loved it. Karl, the owner is a great guy and we've already arranged to meet up again.
I have to say this is what is sometimes missing in our travels recently... This making friends part. I used to travel without a car a lot. Two backpacking trips around the world etc. It might have been less convenient at times but I was definitely more exposed to "interacting with people". In a car, as amazing as roadtrips are you don't get to experience it as much. Granted, travelling in a Nomad helps, people are much more inclined to start a conversation etc. But I still miss it sometimes. What's your experience? Can you see the difference if you have tried both?
We've spent three days in Austria, we might be back later on the way to Spain but we'll see, no fixed route yet.
From Austria we went to Hungary, Lake Balaton. I've found out that there's a Hungarian Baja rally happening over the weekend and I really wanted to see it. It was a bit confusing to figure out where and what time do we have to be, all the info was in Hungarian and it was my first rally watching experience but we managed to find a pretty good spot.
As you can imagine Ruta wasn't too impressed with sitting around for few hours in the middle of nowhere but I liked it. The biggest wow factor for me were the trucks, there was one Scania and one Tatra. The energy that these monsters travel over rough terrain with is just breathtaking! It's crazy that somebody decided that a 9t truck is a good vehicle to prepare for rallying
Balaton area is a pretty pleasant place to chill for a day or two. Not that much to do and no breathtaking sights but it was a very welcome "rest time" for us.
Hungarian roads outside of main ones are really really bad though. It was very tiring from all this shaking and vibrating. Shame on you Hungary!
We popped in to the actual Baja in Hungary
My dream is to take the Nomad to Baja so I "kind of" achieved it... Slightly different than California though Next stop was Szeged, I got the oil cooler sent there from Ariel and I was very happy to receive the notification that it has been delivered to the hotel.
Luckily it wasn't too difficult to find a mechanic to get it fitted, despite the fact that NOTHING in Hungarian sounds like any well known language. I just drove around the outskirts of town, that's where in my experience most of the car mechanics are
I found one that looked clean and tidy and the guy fitted the cooler. Do you agree that tidiness of the garage is a good foresight or warning into the quality of the service? I always judge every business and trader on what their van/garage etc look like. I always think "If that's how you care about your property, it's exactly the same how you will care about mine"Oil cooler fitted, we moved on to Romania.
We were pretty apprehensive about driving through Romania, hearing all the stories about gypsies there etc. I have to say, it was mostly unfounded and we did feel a bit silly afterwards. Apart from very few encounters with some pushy, dodgy gypsy women it was all fine. Everyone was friendly, we've stayed in nice B&Bs and even got the Nomad fixed in one of the villages. Watch the video, I won't spoil the story
I've always wanted to drive Transfagarasan and Transalpina, two mountain roads in Romania, first one being famous after Top Gear making a video about it. They were good, not OMG the best roads in the world but they were fun, mostly in good condition, with not too much traffic.
As always I disagreed with Top Gear, just like about Stelvio pass. The part of Transfagarasan that they filmed is way too tight, too busy and with too many corners one immediately after another to be the best driving road. IMO it's all about the balance of traffic (main thing that can ruin the best roads), fast sections, danger of going fast, road surface and how varied the corners are. I scared Ruta driving on Transfagarasan a bit too much. She told me that even though I start at a moderate pace I always speed up throughout the route and at the end of it I'm pushing too far. I've never noticed it, too busy driving but I guess it makes sense - I get more and more confident, get to know the grip level etc, adrenaline kicks in and that's the result. Have you ever noticed it in your driving?
From Romania it was a very long driving day to Bulgaria. It involved 90% of the time 30mph speed limit because when one small village ends in Romania, another starts. Very annoying. Good that Waze does warn you about police
It was incredibly hot, we had to cross the river at the border on a ferry, which involved waiting for 1h30min in the strong sun, next to lorries running their engines to keep the AC on. We couldn't move because we had to stay in the queue, the ferry was late. It was a nightmare. Ruta got a proper heat exhaustion/heat stroke that day, when we eventually got to Sofia she had a massive migraine. She stayed in the hotel the whole following day staying in cool.
Most important update - we've decided we want to continue travelling after finishing this trip so we're searching for a 4x4 van to convert it so we can live in it permanently. We want to be able to tow Nomad on a trailer with it, then park the trailer when we get to an interesting place and travel up a mountain etc in the van to set up a camp there. While having fun in the Nomad when living in the most breathtaking locations
We've been considering a "racevan" type but after much thinking that doesn't work, since we wouldn't be able to access remote locations which is the whole point of this plan.
We'll of course film it all and I'll write about it.
We've been considering a "racevan" type but after much thinking that doesn't work, since we wouldn't be able to access remote locations which is the whole point of this plan.
We'll of course film it all and I'll write about it.
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