Contact & FAQ
So what is this “overlanding” thingy about? Here are the most frequently asked questions that we encounter. Got any other? Please feel free to contact us. We may or may not have an answer, but we’ll still be chuffed to hear from you.
How can we help you?
We officially finished building Marvin in January 2023 and started our “testing phase” right after this with, first, shorter trips and then longer ones. Our big target right now is to cross Europe “Cape to Cape”, from Tarifa (Spain) to the North Cape (Norway).
What made us do this? Well, the answer would be far too long for such a small text box but, basically, as Henry David Thoreau rightly said it, we wouldn’t want, when we come to die, discover that we have not lived…
This kind of depends on your definition of “tough”… Many travellers spend months, sometimes even years on the road living in roof-tents or in the back of 4×4 cars. For us that would be tough. We’re “overlanding softies” and put a lot of thought into what we would need to be comfortable long-term on the road. Anyone can rough-it out there!
Yes and no. For obvious security reasons, the building of Marvin’s body and sub-frame needed to be done by professionals and validated by an engineer. The company Zocama, in Barcelona, took care of this for us, so we could focus on designing and building the interior of Marvin ourselves and make it our own. Check here for more details.
True story? Marvin could have been a Mercedes Sprinter 4×4 but, luckily for us, Mercedes supply chain was highly inefficient, and this gave us time to rethink and realise that an Iveco Daily 4×4 would actually be a better fit for us (beside being aesthetically much nicer 🙂). An Unimog would have worked as well, but they were far too expensive for us and a bit slow (and fuel-inefficient) on the road. Click here for more details…
It depends. We prefer wild and remote places, away from crowds, with great views: on hillsides, beaches, riverbanks etc. It just needs to be safe and level enough for us to sleep and shower comfortably. But…. sometimes, such spots are not available or already too crowded for us when we get there (we will never thank a certain – P4N – app enough for overcrowding most previously remote site…). As much as we hate it, there is sometimes no alternative to a designated campsite, a motorhome area or a carpark.
For eating, we try to preach by the example and visit local grocery stores or farmers’ markets to make use of the full cooking facilities in Marvin (including a fridge/freezer, gas cooker and oven with grill) to cook our favourite foods ourselves. This way, we also try local produce and sometimes even visit a nice restaurant. Click here to know more about our key principles…
We have a bathroom in Marvin (a separate room from the living area). It has a water-flushing toilet, a sink and a shower with a full hot-water system. Marvin has a 170 L water tank that we use for both cooking/drinking and for the bathroom. With this, we have an autonomy of approximately 4 to 5 days (depending on the length of our showers and the amount of dishes to wash… 🙄).
We can carry up to 170 litres of fresh water, purified through a system of mechanical and UV filters, so we can theoretically get water from anywhere and make it drinkable ourselves. We generally fill the tank from taps at motorhome areas, petrol stations or similar places, but we also carry a submersible pump to take water from rivers/waterfalls if necessary.
Common sense is the key here, but obviously this varies from country to country and even area to area within each country. A bit of back-ground research, chatting to locals and taking common sense precautions are enough in the vast majority of places.
Our chosen continent/country is mostly dictated by our long-term travel aspirations, but also travel rules/restrictions have a significant impact (certain areas are not so welcoming with motorhomes and alike). We then form a very general loose “plan” for an approximate route around the country. This can be as vague as north-to-south, east-to-west etc, normally dictated by climate, season etc (e.g. in the case of our “Cape to Cape” route, we think it’ll be easier if we start from Spain at the end of the winter, get to Norway during the summer and are back in Southern Europe before the next winter). Then we hit the road.
Unless there is only one route to a destination, or a widely recommended specific iconic route across a particular area, we plan a more detailed route according to what we want to see and where we would like to sleep over the next couple of days.
Our ways to find interesting spots to stop and see vary hugely from country to country (and areas within countries), but generally involve:
- Remembering documentaries we particularly liked about an area (and watching some of them again, as well as some new ones) in order to get general ideas well beforehand.
- Checking tourist and overlanding apps and sites to get some more ideas.
- Refine the search with Google Maps (trying to use satellite images to get a preview of what we can expect to find).
- Get 2-3 possible options and get to these places to take the final decision on where we will stay in the end (sometimes, Google Maps’ satellite photos are not that up to date 🤔).
Can’t find the answer?
Ask us!
We’ll try to get back to you ASAP, but depending on where we are, this might take a bit, maybe…
Right now, we are here:
So, here we are… Two people purposefully travelling in an expedition truck.
This blog is about our adventures, our feelings and anything we’d like to share as we wander in wonderland…