It’s not what most people hope for when they go wandering off travelling, yet it is an essential part of any experience.

Yes – as a Englishman I honestly could tell you whether rain is wet or dry – heavy or light (not as in how much rain, but as in whether each drop is heavy or light) and countless other measurements, for that is pretty much the weather forecast in England.

We may as well have our forecasters stand there and just say – at some point this week it will most probably rain, then – should a week pass without rain we are suddenly alerted to the fact that global warming is about to happen, all hell breaks loose as hose-pipe bans are introduced, water butts arrive in streets and there is not a water bottle left on the shelves of Tesco’s.

I have little idea of where this entry is going really, except to say that it is raining here in Prien am Cheimsee, and it has coated the alps that haunt the view out of our door in a strange forboding darkness.

Which is just bloody awesome.

It’s only a matter of a few miles, in fact the country shares a border with it. But, whereas Estonia seems to have broken free and become rather westernized – in its own way – Latvia still seems to have Russia firmly attached to it.

Point number one is the roads.  Now Estonian roads are nothing to be proud of, but atleast they only provide a few (albeit continuous) vibrations they do not require you to swerve halfway across the road to miss a pothole through which you could probably see the internal goings-on of the world. It’s like a joke that has gone too far.

Another thing you may have noticed is the lack of Internet hotspots.  We have gone from a land that is completely full of places to connect to; petrol stations, parks, campsites even town squares and all of them handily sign-posted – to a land where we have so far passed one sign indicating that there was a hotspot available, only the cards we needed to buy to get access to the Internet were not in stock, nor had been for months.

Latvia seems to have come on little since the days of the USSR.  One noticeable difference is the currency.  For the first time on our trip, and I believe also for last, the currency is more valuable than that of the British Pound.  It isstrange not having to devide everything by 10 (Sweden) or 18 (Estonia) and instead having to times everything by 1.12.

This had caused us slight worry – wondering whether prices were going to reflect the strong currency.  Yet our arrival heralded a different story. Passing a petrol station (where many drivers will get an idea of how much things are) we saw a sign advertising fuel for just 0.60Lats for Diesel. After a quick fill up, which led to the only smile from me on the whole of the Latvian roads experience, we headed down to our stellplatz.

We passed small farmsteads and villages that could barely pass as such for mile after mile.  Not only does very little look as if it had changed since the USSR it looks as if nothing has changed for many centuries before this.

Unlike many Western European towns – where this lack of change would be seen as quaint – in Latvia it seems like a disease to which no answer has been found, windowless and roofless dwellings seem as much a part of the landscape as forests and lakes did in Scandinavia.

Upon reaching the outskirts of Riga we headed towards our supposed destination and rest place for the night.  Which didn’t exist.  At all, we drove for a few kilometres before stopping to check at another cheap fuel station, then drove back the 20 kilometres to where the woman had suggested it would be, only to find another fuel station where the woman had no idea, instead asking a man who, had he smoked, could have probably lit his breath on fire with the amount of alcohol he already had in his system – he, unsurprisingly had no idea where our place was, nor where he was as he clambered back into his clapped out Audi, with another bottle of strong cider clutched in his hand.

We also haven’t gotten rid of the rain yet, it has been following us since we decided to move off from Estonia.

We eventually abandon plan A and go for plan B, another stellplatz, back the way we had just gone whilst getting lost – atleast we had seen this place already.

Now I don’t know about you, but when you order food and it comes out of the invisible kitchen and looks better than you thought it also seems to taste better. And when my steak with field mushroom sauce and french fries appeared on the table I honestly thought it could be the meal of the gods.

One thing going for Latvia is that even late at night, when you are absolutely shattered and have been unable to find anywhere, the place you do find is pleasant and the chef can cook an awesome meal, I mean it is 11pm and there seems to be no end to the food service, nor the German folk music coming out of the speakers on the small stage in the corner.  Luke and I are worried that another Karaoke night may be happening shortly, linger around just long enough for a glorious ice cream and head back to the van.

So we were driving along, heading towards Roosta, away from the mind boggling retro-futurism of Tallinn towards the more laid bac and peaceful Roosta, on the West Coast of Estonia, looking out over the Baltic.

The roads are less than perfect and within just a few moments of leaving Tallinn we find ourselves being bounced from one side to the other, though we would expect nothing less, and would have probably been dissapointed had the roads been perfect, for there is no adventure in that – admittedly there are no bruises or repetitive strain injury, but it was worth it.

The speed limit suddenly dropped from national to 50kph and, hiding around a corner was a large and imposing monastry.

It was amazing to be able to just wonder around, no having to buy tickets, no “do not walk here” signs (with the exception of a few underneath some scaffolding).  But we were really able to explore, away fro the busy tourist signs informing you of the history and the damn ear phone things that include delight background music to enhance your experience.

No, we were able to just walk around and explore – see each room, take in the massive arched hall, venture down spiral staircases – some went into rooms deep underneath and others went nowhere, the stairs having long since crumbled or the roof having collapsed in.

To see a historic monument in this way is incredible and should be done more often, I will go off now and read the history of the monastry, for it has sparked interest – yet whilst I was there I was able to take in the incredible fact that this building was still standing, and constructed so beautifully without having any distractions.

A national monument, hidden on a road to the coast – an explorers’ paradise.

Yes, travellers always want food.  Any kind of food.  Doesn’t matter what it is  as long as someone else has prepared it and is doing the washing up then we are fine.

So when we were told about a ferry crossing between Sweden and Finland that included an all you can eat breakfast buffet, followed by an all you can eat evening buffet, it did not take us long to decide that this was the crossing for us!

So off we headed for the little “village” of Kappelskar.

When I say village, I mean literally Kappelskar is just the port.  That’s it.  Nothing else really.

But still, we managed to find a campsite, plug in the electric heater and get warm.  And get out of Sweden.

We have nothing against Sweden in general, the country is beautiful, the people welcoming and friendly and we have had a lot of… experiences… it is just that since we have arrived in Sweden we have had nothing but rain, the van has broken down and we had a nightmare trying to find somewhere to stop in the van.  Atleast somewhere that has electric and the waste facilities we needed.

It had felt like we were in Sweden for ages, despite it just being over a week.

Perhaps it was just our timing or perhaps it was just bad karma, what ever it was we were looking forward to our brunch buffet!

Our 8 hour ferry would take us from Sweden, to Nantalli in Finland, just north of Turku – once the capital of Finland.

We had booked a cabin, which had cost us only 20 swedish krona extra and it was well worth the money, within half an hour of boarding Luke and I had showered, eating our own body weight at the buffet and were now fast asleep in our cosy cabin…

Ferry Costs

We travelled with Finnlines from Kappelskar to Nantalli

They have three sailings per day; 09:15, 17:30 and 23:00

The morning ferry is the cheapest, you do not have to book, but turn up early to make sure you can get a place.

Our ticket cost us 1800 SEK, including a 2 person cabin on the inside

Somebody asked me this earlier today.

“So what the hell will you actually be doing?”

Well, after stumbling about for a bit, the best thing I could come up with was: “Well…. er… a lot!” and laughed it off.

But that got me tihnking – of course, I knew what I thought was expected of Overland Crew, this came from reading blog posts, experiences from ex-crew and a few other collections of stories.

What I had not fully loooked at was what was expected of the Overland Crew from the employees. The little snippet below comes from Overlanding Africa:

“Overland crew are not personal servants. They are there to show you the ropes of overlanding, travelling off-the-beaten track and camping out in the wilderness. Crew will ensure that your overland tour turns into an experience never to be forgotten, whilst working very long days, seven days a week.

The crew have the added responsibility of looking after the vehicle. In-between repairing that flat tyre, getting your lunch organized, navigating through a treacherous bog hole and identifying that bird making that particular noise, they are also your companions on your overland tour.”

That kind of makes my inital answer correct – Crew and Drivers are expected to do a lot!

Also – link whore that I am – new post added to the Thorn Tree Forum over here – Link!

Cheers, Overland Wannabe.

overlandwannabe.blogspot.com

Just a Quick Link for any of you thinking of taking an overlanding holiday or for any of those that are crazy like me and wish to staff these tours.

Check out www.overlanding101.com, from Mark Fittal

Written by a former / current driver. There are tales on there of a whole host of experiences and you can buy or download the book for £2.50 (or £4.44 for the actual book). Purchase now here: http://www.lulu.com/content/928170

This is a damn good (and hilarious) read. And I can certainly recommend it to anyone who is thinking about this kind of life.

Anyways… back to the office work. (for now)

To start with I thought I would just explain myself a little…

Why do i want to do such a “crazy” thing.

Well its damn well not actually – think about this for one second…

We live in a world where the amount of money that exists doesn’t really exist,

• Where everyday you go into work to make money yet seem to spend half of it just getting to work,
• Where adventures must be completed by Sunday evening at the latest so you can be back at work on Monday morning bright and early to give your all for the company
• Where most of your efforts at work do wonders for the company, but somehow not for you.
• Where you are so tired in an evening after your long day and long commute that family activities are limited to eating tea together.
• Where your ‘life‘ revolves around making sure this routine is carried out

Now i don’t want to sound like some sort of hippie (which I’m really not, I listen to German Hardcore music for christs sake!)

So I decided that this wasn’t worthwhile, nor something I really wanted to do.

Why have i got to where I am now?

Fair question, why have I not already made this decision already. Why did I not up sticks and leave straight after school?

Well really I believe there are two factors to blame here: Me and the education system.

Let’s start with me shall we?

I take 90% of the blame here for not shifting things on. I have always wanted to do things like this but have never really been able to plan anything in advance, nor have I ever managed to save enough money for a big old overlanding adventure.

So I went down the normal path without really saying anything. Off to Uni (Because the schools in the UK are all basically jusdged on how many people go to university this was the route that was “right for me”, hated that, left…

Off to work, started off Okay.. it was an ‘adventure’ in it’s own right as all of life is of course, but now I have come to the realisation that I could flit around ‘normal’ jobs treating each one as it’s own adventure or I could actually go out there and do what I really want to do and what I have always wanted to do.

Me and Trucks

Ask anyone who knows me. I love driving.

I also love any large vehicle. I grew up with my father in the army. He was in the REME (auto technicians in camoflauge). This meant that there were always lots of big vehicles around, from Landrovers up to Tanks and everything in-between.

Since then I just seem to have some sort of admiration for large vehicles, and a want for driving them! (please feel free to use the comments box to remind me how sad I am and the fact that I am compensating for something hehe!)

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Above: at the annual Campervan mecca (the Camping & Caravan salon @ Dusseldorf, Germany

Me and Travel

Whilst my sister and I were gorwing up our parents had a variety of caravans and campervans. Our holidays consisted mostly of travelling hundreds of miles, stoppping, travelling more miles, stopping and so on.

I have never really grown out of this “windscreen tourism” – traveling through Europe whenever possible in my own van, stopping off here and there whenever an opportunity presents itself and stopping over in campsites in a tent for a few days when somewhere that is ripe to explore presents itself, A bit of a European ‘softcore’ overland experience really.

Me and Overlanding

I have always wanted to travel, but i have always dreamed of actually being able to make a living out of it, passing on stories to others and generally providing a service.

This is where overlanding comes in. It provides all the things I could want. Endless scenery explore, a reasonable dollop of “windscreen tourism”, a group of eager travelers as companions and lashings of driving in a large truck.

Well thats how the ideal situation would go anyway…

The reality is probably more like this – ridiculously long drives, crap weather meaning hours are spent crossing just a few miles of terrain, eager companions turn into whining and rebellious and tired hordes and the scenery keeps on trying to kill you, especially the wildlife.

Wake up tomorrow morning, the rains gone and everyone is exhausted. But you’ve made it… Smile!