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Hi. Thanks for watching and greta questions. We will definately cover some of this in the planning series but check out the wikicamps for water fill info. And for sure a low profile camper or pop top van will get you better fuel economy. The variance was considerable from 30l /100km in headwinds on the Nullabor to single figures unhitched. The 17.5l/100km was the entire lap all up. Over 80% was towing on black top, 6000km or so on gravel including some pretty tough roads. So no question a lot gets done on varied conditions with a high profile / 3.2-3.3t van. 17.5 lm/ 100km is very good given the conditions and towing - but if your van is lighter and lower profile that will unquestionably help twice it further. Stay tuned and we will try to give a not cohesive deducted series on the planning and key equipment choices as we faced it and covering a range of the questions and suggestions others and you have put out there as well. Thanks again and hope we can help further. Cheers

@@gillianainscough3879 Thank you for the lovely wishes. This is an older post and my birthday was earlier in the year but I really appreciate it ❤️🙏. The sea sickness was a downer, but I still made the most of it. It was an amazing trip and yes I had a terrific time 🙏. Thank you sooo much for following along. We love it. ❤️

@@brucesieverts1236 Hi,thanks for watching. No idea, but ATM it’s going well. I’ve just been watching several vlogs and posts covering LC300 engines that have blown up between 16,000 and 50,000km. So i’m not sure which modern car is going to go to 300,000km any more? Our engine hasn’t blown up. The life of type for a range of parts and modules - that’s going to be interesting isn’t it? I was taking to a guy with a lovely, restored LR 90, his had well over 200,000 km. and it was going like a rippa, and bit long completed the Simpson. Is anybody making any car like that anymore? The Ineos has a BMW engine - reliable but is it going to do 300,000km who knows and how the rest of the car stands up to that - again who knows.

@@sa2591-p5d Thanks for watching. People have to go with the car that best suits their needs and people will have their perceptions won ‘t they? I can’t really comment on the Disco and hope your mate resolves the leaks. The Defender is a great car out of the box and Ive seen a few reports about issues with a range of other cars in the class. In our case, we’ve been pretty open about a couple of the issues we had with ours, but since they’ve been fixed it’s been great. There’s a few examples in social media world relations to the 300, RAMs, Chev Silverado’s. Issues with the Ranger were legendary. We’ve got friends with all of those and some have had a great experience and one or two not so much. Wouldn’t it be good if there was a reliable measure of reliability and backup for all new cars in the market? A lot of people do say they like the Defender, how it looks, how it performed in head to head comparisons but you have to make a choice at the end of the day. We get it.

@@nextleveloz yes Sou;don’t be great of there was consistent measure of reliability like few economy. So instead of just crazy chase for fancy features they would be tempered by practical requiresments.

Hi. Thanks for watching and we’re glad you enjoy it 🙏. In the upcoming mini series we probably won’t cover that. Check out the vids across the Plenty - in one of those we cover our vid and camera gear, but in short we use GoPro 11 with Volta handle, media mod and later in the series we had a small Rode mic to improve sound on the run. We have a second go pro we use where we need it waterproof as the volta and media mod isn’t waterproof. But you don’t need two gopros - you just change the fittings as needed. We do use iPhone and many people could get away with that noting the sound recording isn’t great but for video they are excellent. Big camera for stills is a Canon EOS R7 and the go to lens is a 24-240 work horse. It’s pretty good for video also but we find it way too cumbersome for our run and gun, unrehearsed style of shooting. But as the arctic series shows, with a couple of our lenses it’s wonderful for stills - even though I’m an average photographer at best. We do have DJI mics. They are great but a bit fiddly to set up and you have to make sure they are switched on and charged etc so we only use them for set piece talking head type stuff - with the canon mostly. We have a dji mini 3 plus drone. It’s been great but watch the longer vid for our view on the value of drones. I edit on a macbook pro using Apple Final Cut Pro - which takes a little but if investment in time and learning and we really only use a fraction of its power. I’ve seen some great content from people just using iMovie or some more back stuff so it depends on how much you want to do. In general the longer and more consistently you want to post where more edits are required, the more value from FCP or Premiere Pro or DaVinci Resolve or similar. Hope that helps and check out the vid - as I say I think it’s a segment included in one of the Plenty Highway related episodes. All the best and thanks again. cheers

@@seandolkens4021 Hey, thanks Sean. Thats a great list of points. I’m not hoping for experts, the comments of the range of experiences is brilliant because it helps drill down some key takeouts. And it’s not really about a Lap as such - it’s just easier for me to use that as a model. Its about how each couple or family is actually going to travel and live and their usage - get that and a good idea of what your adventure looks like and it becomes much clearer what you need or dont need to have ball and get better value from your spend. I’m amazed at the influencers who have thousands invested in drawer systems or even more in canopies but then can’t afford to go to some of the experiences in locations they stay at. Each to their own - always, but as you say you dont really need it all. BTW 11,000 km towing isnt too shabby and I dare say more van owners are doing a series of shorter adventures than Laps and half laps or living full time. Sense of humour - made me smile. Paula and i reflected we hadn’t had as many good laughs in years as we did on the Lap. Physical well being yep. Cognitive ? I think I know what that means. Great points thank you. My challenge now is how to present this in short series of punchy informative, useful and hopefully interesting vids. Thank you once again. Cheers

@@nextleveloz Thanks David. Just thinking about structure, perhaps a series of videos broken down into key topics that cover the suggestions you get along with your own would work. Off the top of my head (for example) would be: 1. Why do you want to go and what are you hoping to see and do? (some do it for adventure, others just to get away, some to live life on the road etc). This one might therefore cover the type of van (and therefore layouts), tow rig, how to plan your trip (fast, slow, some forward bookings etc) budget implications, personal capabilities to perform the driving, set up/pack up and so on. 2. What do you really need? - for van and car (don't buy everything advertised), personal belongings, weight, roadworthiness, UHF radio. 3. Planning for when things go wrong (car, van, health, family at home) 4. USEFUL tech (EPIRB depending on where you go, Starlink, Smart TV, Batteries/Solar etc) 5. Couples Therapy 🙂 - backing up the van, provisions, communicating about what you both want out of the adventure as things may change, agreed timeframes to return home etc Just a quick scratching of my initial thoughts, I'm sure you'll come up with something superb.

@@seandolkens4021Thanks mate. You might be up for the producer job. I’m putting some thought to the structure. It will follow a process that guided how we thought about it but the good thing is in retrospect we get to include the things we didn’t know or preferences we developed as we went. As Paula said to me, at some stages we’ve covered a lot, but it’s a process of pulling it from disparate bits of the Big Lap series into a tighter little collection but hopefully in away where people new and thinking about it from scratch and hitting all that confusing white noise that spins the head and maybe makes you make some decisions you wish you hadn’t- help them navigate that. For us, getting on top of the most likely things you want to do to have your adventures is key, where many people start out equipment led and that’s often why people buy so thing they might not need. You can never escape the reality that somebody just wants that piece of kit in that layout (front door or rear door, club lounge, etc) but hopefully they might have a narrower sense of needs before they get talked into expensive mod cons or something that fails the weight tests. So some draws on how we put together a big purchase decision and some key considerations. Your suggestion isn’t too far off. And the beauty is all it ever is, is a guide and people can adapt it and not be space to it. But not far off. Thanks mate. Great stuff.

@@deankarenandrews1155 Hi. Great comment. Thats the pivotal consideration. The ideal rig at the most sensible balance of costs that’s going to do what you mostly are likely to do or spend the dough for the fully spec, heavy off road everything with 800AH battery and needs a chevy silverado to tow it, to still mostly do what you were only ever likely to do with a good quality tourer and maybe not the roughest stuff and for no more than 2-3 days at a time off grid and blow the bank. Thats the big question. Most people won’t be too far from sealed road or well graded road and even a Lap with a fair bit of off road / off grid will still be 85% sealed road. Yes we will be covering this because it important to understand what you are most likely to do and how you will mostly do it and then invest to that decision. Learning to tow - easy. Take a short course for the confidence. Bit of practice leaving to reverse and you can even do that while getting it weighed for peace of mind and you can do many other things well before even thinking about the Gibb. No problems. heaps to see and a greater range of van and car options can do it if you aren’t too far from sealed road. You can always unhook a tourer and day trip or borrow a swag for an overnighter to get to the next level of off road adventure without the van. Yes, you might well get confident and feel you might want to do the Gibb sometime down the track but why invest in an outside chance at great cost. Yes we will cover this because having a sense of the way you are most likely to travel and live has a huge bearing on what you do and don’t need. Most people don’t go too far from sealed or well graded roads. Many go from hip camp to national park camp to van park and many even want to go to van parks every week or two just so they can wash the clothes and have some comforts and plug in. Very few live off road and off grid for substantial chunks of time. In our case we figured I would be bored stupid sitting in one place for more than 3-5 days so we planned for off grid not more than 5 days. We wanted to do the Gibb and Cape and Flinders Ranges as part of a Lap (we think a sensible Lap doesn’t include the Cape or Tassie as we did ). Take out the Gibb if that’s not a priority, don’t go Borroloola to Hells Hare and you can see good stars without going to Lamberts Centre and you still have a brilliant Lap. Great question. You are one of the key the sorts of person we are doing these next series of Planning Vids for.

@@nextleveloz thanks so much for the feedback! I look forward to seeing more videos down the track. All the best...

Thank you for such a kind comment. We loved Cygnet Bay. A lot different to free camps or even van parks, and much easier to get there these days. Wasn’t one of our more popular vids, but that just proves our point that everybody is different and you have to do your adventures the way you enjoy them. As you say there are so many other terrific places. North Queensland had some gems as you’ve pointed out. Must confess we haven’t been to Bunya Mountains - which is crazy given its relatively close to Brissie for us. Which reminds me I keep thinking about how to share some SEQ stuff for those not from here. We always forget about near home! Thank you again, those vids are a bit of work noting it’s for charity and we just love a good share as well, so we approached people coming along the journeys and watching and the lovely feedback thank you. Safe travels.

Thanks John. We agree that ultimately it is all about the adventure each person wants. The more we are looking at the varied suggestions and questions the more it reinforces our view that preferences on things like equipment can be varied, but ultimately you have to start with what you want to do / how you want to live your adventure and then many of the other choices fall out. People who follow us know what our van is and what our car is. But it was ultimate in our case about where we wanted to go and what level of comfort etc and equipment choices had to match that. Our main series cover our adventures but this coming series on planning, what you need and how you want to do it we think is more about helping sift through so much confusing stuff and help people decide how they want to do it. It’s a good point because as you say a lot of content is about a particular car or a particular van or sponsored etc. No problem and a lot of that is very popular - but on our case we are being led by what most people ask is about and this is yet another good suggestion. thanks for that and all the best.

@@Sansui313Great suggestions thank you. They align well with what we were thinking, but that along with the other suggestions gives some extra clarity. I agree - we won’t be able to say which vans or cars are good or not good, but the tips for the considerations, trying to avoid the furphies and suggestions on how to check and research independent of the sales process is worthy as tips. And yes, as you’d expect from us. comms and other preps. for peace of mind helps you stretch to slightly more remote and slightly more difficult places. Good suggestions thank you and hope you have lots of fun in your new Defender. cheers

Another really good comment and suggestion thank you. You guys are examples of a few things - first time towers, not necessarily wanting the massive off road rig etc and doing it a different way, but still the importance of understanding how the weights of a rig work before you buy. and as you say the sales staff either don't really know or in some cases obscure the reality. Do you need to commit to the WDH before you weigh though? Getting weighed professionally, fully loaded up is a really important exercise in our view and quite often you can have some options. Yes, loving the lifestyle is what its all about and we can do it in so many different ways and yes, budget, weights, options its a whole study in compromises. Great comment thank you.

@@vincentdeknock4186 Good point, yes we will touch on that. Plan well, book loosely or plan well, book sparingly is our general theme. As you say there are some exceptions if you want to go to say Ningaloo Coast and Broome at high season. Good suggestion and we will include that. for sure .

Thank you. Nothing wrong with a Jayco or a number of brands. We love our Zone Base and it’s nowhere as tricked up as the new generation Zones either. We’ve said it time and again just know what you can can and can’t do and then try to stick within its capabilities. We do have a bit of an issue with what semi off road means because you are either off road or you aren’t - but let’s face it there is a whole spectrum of conditions isn’t there. But the way you do it, parking up unhitching and going the next bit in one car is a good way of dealing with the balance. Comes back to our key question to people who ask what they should get in a a van. Our answer starts with what do you want to do with it and how do you like to camp. Then drive to conditions. And budget iand how you deploy your hard earned is a factor for all of us. Good point and a few others have made that same point.

@@richardevans5147 Interesting suggestion and variation on the the theme. It gives some considerations for thought for sure. But in general terms yes we want to try to help with considerations and people of course will tailor things like their appetite for driving to suit their needs. Thanks for the feedback - it really helps especially when it’s a hobby and not for profit. Stay safe and thanks for the comment, very useful.

Hi, thank you and great question. We will certainly touch on that. We plan well but book sparingly. The longer the trip, the more likely you are to change or need flexibility. yes , it’s a good suggestion for the episodes in a more structured and presentable way. If you want a rough version of it check out the Plenty Highway ep as we break from the travel coverage in that one and did a rough segment on how we planned. Some places and times require forward bookings, school holidays and then main attractions and camp sites in say NW WA. But good suggestion 🙏.

P.S, I still laugh about that planning segment. I set up and just went at it as I do and realised as I was videoing that our washing was on the line behind me. Fortunately just shorts and shorts but Paula rolled her eyes and i decided to just go with it. So much for being an amateur vlogger!😂

We have a 1900 kg rear axle - 7 seater has a higher rating and even then we had to remove the rear seats so we could carry the fridge. Took the heavier platform rack off and put lighter bars on. We haven’t weighed more recently, but when we first weighed on picking up and fully packing the van first up we were 50kg over on the rear axle (We show the numbers in the early van pickup episode ) hence the changes and taking stuff out of the car to work it. We will touch on this as a lesion learned for sure but as every ring differs we are weighing up how best to make the general considerations clear and practical - like “get it professionally weighed” etc. Overall we run about 6400kg GCM - which was weighed on a weigh bridge when the car broke down in WA so we knew we were well under GCM and around 20-40kg under GVM. But yep, we had t make changes in the setup to make the rear axle weight work. Great point and yes, no planning, rig setup lessons learned can be complete without the issue of weights.

Thanks, David. We have the 5 seats, so limited to 1800kg. That said we dud get the car and van weighed by weighstation and passed with 42kg spare on the rear axle. The van was fully loaded and the car had about 150kg in the rear, a full tank of diesel plus ourselves. Only just made it. I not you upgraded your tyres and rims. What tyres did you go for and what was the road noise like?

Michael, we;ve really enjoyed your comments, questions and observations. The educated skepticism and precision of thought engineers bring is really useful. Sorry about Paris, and had Paula been well we’d have included Normandy. We like France also. But it was clear in this case wed have been doing a vid for its own sake and thats not why we did the channel, so I thought its was best to make the call. Lots to unpack in your comment and we will try to include the layman’s essentials of that topic. Regrettably there are also various bureaucratic overlays such as passenger vehicle standards and sales dumbing down that adds to the confusion. Some vehicles lie the defender can tow more and are rated to do so elsewhere within the same GCM envelope. The 350kg TBW v axle capacity etc is a widespread issue and confusion in most vehicles of that class. The 350kg is partly rating of the tow bar and hitch itself and partly the extrapolation of the 10% rule for stable van towing. As you say though it’s misleading if in practical terms the rear axle capacity of most similar vehicles doesn’t readily allow you actually tow with a TBW of 350kg. You might recall I pointed out in several vids that I regard the real practical TBW limit to be closer to 300kg, and thats similar for most vehicles unless they can up rate the axles in a GVM upgrade. But it’s a critical issue and yes no prep and planning series can avoid it - although I hope to raise it in simple terms and then people scan dig deeper as need be in a more technical resource. The only thing I would say is it’s important sometimes not to remove flexibility and more have people understand that various contributors to payload will have a cumulative impact on axle capacity and GVM. It’s a great point and I think often misunderstood including by sales teams. We had a great deal of trouble when we first assessed the Defender as noobs, because I read in detail about this and couldn’t reconcile it with the sales responses (that were both wrong and at times illegal). We worked it out though. The Badge on the hat is from the Officer Cadet School, Portsea from which I graduated in 1985. OCS is now regrettably closed (I was in the last graduating class) but it was a marvellous institution. The caps post date our time, one of our class arranged for them to be made, but I find it it a useful fave to wear and have three of them in various states of repair. Thanks again, we always appreciate your comments and questions and look forward to more when we pull together the inputs and our experiences into some hopefully cogent, interesting and useful vids.

@@nextleveloz Thanks David. You are right about the sales people. When I last had my car at a dealership and was waiting for a wheel alignment I asked the sales guy what the max rearr axle weight was for a certain vehicle on the floor (same as yours). He had no idea. he eventually found it about half an hour later. Then I asked him what the weight on the rear axle was as it stood on the show room floor. Again no idea. My process was to take my car over the local weigh bridge with various loads in it to work out the distribution between from the rear axles then did the maths from there. A good rule of thumb is the TBW x 1.5 is what is added to the rear axle. Interstingly I also discovered that with an unloaded vehicle my front axle was overwieght becausde of the bull bar. The manufacturer of the bull bar never mentioned that to me when I purchased it either! Its not a problem because I always have something in the rear to balance that out.

Thanks for the comment and for watching - it’s really welcome. Yes we will, but we also learned so much from others and there is some considerable experience among our subscribers as well that we hope might be drawn on, as well as giving noobs the chance to ask the questions and put their minds at rest. It wasn’t long ago we knew zip about carvaning and weights etc, and it was confusing and so much poor as well as good info outs there. We will try to share those lessons for sure. All the best.

Thanks for watching and the feedback. Can’t say we enjoyed the early Defender troubles 😳😉. But glad we shared and very glad they’ve been fixed of course. But it did draw out some really important lessons on the various recovery packages. People forget that most of the lap is on black top even with the many thousands of km of gravel and off roads mixed in if you do those harder remote roads. But in your truck you’d have seen good and bad behaviour so let us know what helped keep people safe and courtesous etc in your experience. Thanks again and lets hope we can do this in a good structured way hitting the key common things while letting people do it there own way. Paula is much better and she’s a trooper. Sea sickness is debilitating and while she didn’t get to enjoy all the marvelous food and wine offering, she made sure whe got out and about in zodiacs, on the ice and kayaks. But yes, we might stuck to land for the next one 🙏👍. All the best.

@@nextleveloz Driving a truck OZ is safer than the UK, in as much that you have better road signage if you pay attention to what you see. Time is a killer just give yourself plenty of it. One thing I remember when towing and driving my truck was the wind shear from other trucks or coaches. I did drive on unmade departmental roads and across dry river beds. Part of my job was driving around loaded mining areas (explosives) and not blowing myself and others up😅

@@alexandermay1196 Wow. Mind you the wind sheer of a passing truck or coach is one of the things likely to set off sway in a caravan. So good point! But you’ve clearly done some other stuff. Maybe one day you will get back to do a lap.

How exciting. The time will fly and you’ve got a great opportunity to get to the essentials in place. Good suggestions thanks. Is there anything that seems uncertain to you or worries you that we might be able to address? Fact is, while some challenge is part of the appeal, it’s not actually hard either, so we hope to give confidence that with due consideration most people can do it well and have a wonderful time.

@@nextleveloz I think mainly about what we need to consider to prepare, ensure we have insurances, how to manage mail, best communications back to family and friends etc what are options in this space.

@@cathbp4089 Great practical suggestions. We will put those in the list for sure because they can make life a bit more comfortable and if they are in place before you start, they offer some peace of mind on the most likely worst case things. You have a simple plan in place, you can then set that aside, have a great time and hopefully never have to draw on it, but not have to 'reinvent the wheel' if its actually gone wrong.

Hi- taught myself. Read the instructions and watched a few youtube vids and then practised a bit. And learned the hard way crashing one at Teewah Beach🙄. My overarching cautions about drones is that while they are great for adding some perspective, I find they can be overused - and there is a real question of value for the limited impactful footage most channels can really use. The second is that more and more places are restricting their use. We’ve always been very careful to try not to adversely impact others and to adhere to the CASS rules etc, but many places are just prohibiting or requiring permission in which case they often just say no anyway. we experienced this at Kalbarri for example where the rules were unclear but required a phone calm request and they said their default position is no. Yet a number of channels at that time and since use their drones their without permission. So not sure if we’d cover that question in the series or not but hope that helps. Thanks again for watching and the contribution through questions and comments. 🙏

Great points. And we’ve all seen so many people doing it well and comfortably their way in different rigs. No issue from us at all that people want more than that or feel that suits their full time on the road lifestyle etc. That’s the whole point isn’t it. The right amount depends and it’s those depends considerations among others were hoping to offer some balanced considerations for new owners/ planners. Great points as always. Thank you and safe travels. Hope we see you out and about some time. cheers

@@stevehardiman8134 Thanks mate. Appreciate it. We agree, people have to do it their way. Yes there are wrong ways to do it, but there are any number of variations of right way that suits each person for sure. Yes - we will of course run the gauntlet on how much power people need 😳. But good point - comfortable set up for the intended use is the approach we’d hope new people might consider. All the best and grateful for the suggestion.

@@JulieFry-v5r Good questions. Now in the mix. Great you’ve sorted car and van, we certainly won’t be telling people what rig combo they should have as opinions vary (tribally) but we will be trying to get new people to understand they don’t necessarily need the max of everything at max cost and max weight - it all depends on what they want to use their rig for. The time limited adventurers clearly don’t need the same rig as the forever home for several years travellers. Thanks for watching and the feedback - love it. And if you think of anything else add it in somewhere on a vid comment or the FB page. Safe travels.

@@peterbullen3347 And if you have any thoughts on what you think the essentials or the basics needed (or not needed) for that sort of set up, let us know . Thanks as always.

@@peterbullen3347 An opportunity to enjoy more of life! Life is a winding road indeed.

Thanks Peter. As a longer term subscriber who has also thought about some of this, your thoughts about what struck you are really valuable. cheers

I’m about to grab another coffee myself!

Hi, that’s great also. The intention is more on the focus on what lessons we’ve all learned that would help those starting over or those considering a big adventure . So it’s a worthy consideration to say ask - is this a time limited trip or living full time on the road. Because clearly that changes your needs and choices. So no issue and not meant to limit the sorts of contributions people want to make it was more about seeing the discussion so the input is more than what Paula and I alone thought about (wharts and all) but canvassing the ranges of experience. Does that help? But clearly to your point if you are living full time for a longer duration you might be more inclined to want to max out on battery or there will be a few other essential learnings those people will share. Where Paula and I have a view that for a time limited adventure - if that’s your likely van use - then you might be able to save money on that and go for our 400AH with gas. I saw another owner recently questioned on why they needed a generator if they had so much barrier and solar - and that’s an interesting question. They didn’t have a weight problem in the rig, lived long term and had massive solar and battery capacity but wanted to be off grid all the time and rarely if ever go to a CP. So good comment and question thanks - your input is really, really welcome without intending to limit the inputs too much. Then I’ve just got to figure out how best to balance it all up succinctly in some interesting vids.

They do waterfalls well in Iceland that’s for sure. If I had my time over I’d have done a different tour. When we booked we hadn’t realised how much we’d seen ice and coast etc and some waterfalls on the North Pole and Greenland adventure. So Id do the inland Golden Circle type tours with more volcanic activity. Still good. Some of the photos turned out really well. I just have to sort out the gems now. Thanks again and stay well.

Hi, we've posted a few vids re the Defender. Check this one out. th-cam.com/video/Dmowp3lAt0Y/w-d-xo.htmlsi=z8zTOA_i7F9JIV_M We were first timers when we researched and decided on the Zone and the Defender so we can't really comment on other combinations except those we looked at and test drove - we make some comment on that in the Defender wrap up. Hope that's of interest. All the best

@@ASTRIDALLISON Hi. Yes. We cover some of this as part of the Plenty Highway ep (I think) but yes GoPro 11 (with media mod and an extra mic though - not essential), yes iPhone does a pretty good job tbh, you just have to make sure you copy across the videos to a hard drive / computer to avoid using your memory up on the phone. Our good camera is a Canon R7. and we have a couple of lenses now but for the lap I had one 24-240mm work horse. But you really don’t need a good camera unless you really want i get into stills or get very very serious about Vlogging. Drone is fun but also optional and keep in mind many places restrict their use. I edit using Final Cut Pro on a macbook but again Ove seen plenty of good content from people using more basic editing software. I barely touch the edges of the capabilities of FCP. Tassie is wonderful - we’ve been a few times including as part of the Lap but didn’t get to spend long enough there on the Lap. If you are thinking of doing some video content, my suggestion is try a few short trips even just with your phone and get used to the editing and your style and then decide how much you want to invest. My view is most people can do an excellent job with iPhone and GoPro. Good luck with your van choice. We’ve been very happy with our Zone Base. Safe travels to you also - thanks so much for watching and taking the time to comment. All the best.

Its been an amazing holiday overall. We’d like to go back to Iceland. regrettably Paula didn’t get to enjoy the stopover as much. All the best.

@@dianafraser6915 So true! It is an interesting country. Settled by Vikings, Danish territory, independence didn’t come until WW2. Was a stopover base by the Americans along with some remote parts of Greenland as part of moving aircraft and men from eastern USA to the UK. The language is closer to old Norse’s than any of the Nordic countries. Volcanos beside glaciers. Effectively was broke when its major financial institutions defaulted during the GFC. Uses its geothermal volacanic activity to power the place - relatively cheaply. Stunningly beautiful, puffins, whales. A complete curiosity. We’d like to go back sometime and do their version of the Lap. It will habe to wait for a while now though . Thanks for watching.

@@nextleveloz thank you for all that background detail. Iceland and Greenland certainly are fascinating countries.

They are! Long lens and lightroom. The ones from the fast boat took a bit of work but were close enough and they almost look like they’ve been pasted in. The ones at Black Sand Beach were a bit too far away for my lens especially vid. The one from the alternative location were really close and those photos were really pleasing. But yeaswhen you can get them sharp enough those colours pop out. They really are quite interesting birds. They spend the entire winter at sea and they come back to the same nesting spot every year - and regrettably their food is running out in those locations. We were surprised how many there were though. Thanks for watching as always. 🙏.

❤Thank you. Put on a brave face for the Puffin and food tour and didn’t eat much on either the North Pole tour or in Iceland , the medication helped but of course it fatigues you as well. I hit a real wall on the second day at Reykjavik and sat out the rest of the trip. Sorry you get it also, at least my Whale Shark experience was fine from a sea sickness perspective - I just lack confidence in the deep water (go figure I still did that, snorkeled with turtles and of course don’t mention the polar plunge 🙄🤣. But I always try to make the most of it. Thanks for sharing and the kind comment. ❤ Paula

Thank you for the feedback. Much appreciated and good luck with your tow rig purchase. Glad our share might have assisted. That’s the aim. We aren’t trying to tell anybody what to buy but if us sharing our honest thoughts and experiences help people’s considerations in conjunction with their own preferences, that’s great. For us, we were a relatively early purchaser so there so much more known about the car now and a wider range of mods. Thanks again for watching and really glad you got something out of it 🙏👍. All the best and safe travels. We might see you out there some time! cheers

Thanks Vincent for watching and great comment. Yes, the cost of these polar trips has gone up. Like you our Antarctica trip was pre Covid - but in our case only just. But smaller ships to us are essential and yes that increases the risk of sea sickness, noting both Le Soleal (Antarctica) and Le Commandant Charcot are bot well stabilised - but if you have a rough Drake passage or predisposed to sea sickness, it doesn't take much. We still think you've at least experienced the better of the two options if that's the only polar trip you choose to do. The cost of the Lap - if you have to start from scratch adds up massively. If somebody already has a good tow car (even if they have to modify it) and a good van / camper trailer etc, then its not so bad but the actual travel costs are around that $90-100k. So while we loved our Lap and wouldn't change doing that, if cost is a consideration you could easily do several other Australia trips and see some of the main icons for much lower cost. You wouldn't get the experience of a year on the road - but depends which experience people want. We might touch on that at some stage having done a Kimberley Expedition Cruise, the Ghan, you could easily do a fly, train, bus, cruise, drive itinerary to a number of these locations for man overall lower cost and less time away - but it would feel more like a series of shorter holidays than a Gap Year. thanks again, great points. I didn't see Harry's costs - but his Prado already had some mods before he got the van, so as you say, that would be a minimum. All the best.

Thank you so much and really glad you enjoyed it. We were pinching ourselves because it wasn’t something we thought we’d ever see all that long ago. Mind you it wasn’t that long ago and we never thought we’d do a lap of Australia either! The photo skills are still so so I’m afraid - thank goodness for good cameras and lenses and wonderful vistas and nature to help overcome the average photography skills 🤣🤦‍♂️, but we tried our best to capture some of it and appreciate the lovely comment. The vid stuff came up pretty well and we were grateful for a bit of vid from the ships photographer we were allowed to use that really helped fill in some gaps. The Big Lap was special - and we hope the vids got a bit better as we went. If i get some time we might try and refit and clean some up but it was a wonderful life experience and we loved sharing it and growing a terrific group of subscribers who helped us send a little bit of money off to charity while we did. So thank you for watching and taking the time for such lovely feedback. Stay safe. David and Paula

Wow. Thank you, thank you, thank you too! We love it when people watch and thank you for taking the time to leave such a lovely comment. Yes - I can promise you won’t see me in a bikini (and Paula said she probably wouldn’t either 😉). Good on the younger ones but you’re absolutely right, we had a view about the adventure and the balance we wanted to have. And to be honest we went to some pretty rough and remote places as well as some enjoyable, fun and comfortable places also. So really glad there is a group of people like you guys who feel that our approach has helped. And of course our view is everybody is different so they can vary and do their own trips their way in their rigs and have a dream trip. And if our wins (and occasional fails) helps, that’s terrific. The one thing we’ve felt - is if we can do one thing it’s give people who’ve dreamed it the confidence to consider actually doing it! Thanks again. Safe travels. David and Paula

Thanks Maureen and Peter. Really glad you’ve enjoyed it. It’s different to our Lap for sure but we’ve come to love stunning and nature in its starkly different forms and glad a number of people have enjoyed the different vistas and different type of adventure. We are checking out how many people would like us to give more on the Antarctic front to make sure it’s worth the editing and sharing. Our content on Antarctica isn’t as comprehensive as we weren’t videoing for a VLOG then so we are putting some thought as to the best way to edit it and do it. Stay tuned. cheers David

Hi. Thanks. July- August. So not long back. No we don’t see Northern Lights - it was Polar day 24/7. It was only when we got back to Iceland that we got some evening / dark. Even then it was largely overcast when we got back to iceland. Great trip and September you should get some twilight and might well see northern lights. Make sure you have your (newer) iPhone handy (as well as other cameras) as its low light performance might actually be better to pick up northern lights even if it’s not completely dark. We’re sure you will have a terrific time. cheers

@@nextleveloz thank you so much.

@@cathbp4089 thanks to you 🙏. Yes it is expensive if you like you guys and us, we started from scratch. It will be worth it for the experiences that you can’t put a value on. But we still have to respect the fact it is hard earned and saved and it’s not cheap. Well done and if you ever see us on the road came and say gday gday! Thanks again. David and Paula

They are amazing. Some are huge and some have rolled and showing the smoothed off curves and bubbles and the glowing blue veins of ice through the compacted snow looks like it’s art work. Amazing. Thanks again for watching. and the comment it’s lovely. Stay well. cheers

It is an amazing region and stark and stunning - and brutal in the winter as well. But it’s been a wonderful experience. Thank you for watching and taking the time to comment. We love it. All the best.

@@leannechurches5227 Thank you so much. It’s mind blowing, pinch me, gob smacking stuff. Paula and I were only just reflecting that where we came from, if somebody ever told just that some day, like David Attenborough we’d see some of those things, we wouldn’t have laughed. It was not even something you could contemplate. So, heard earned. Probably not affordable, but we feel so fortunate. It’s stunning. Alaska’s inside passage is wonderful. We did Rockies and Inside Passage and had a ball - great experience isn’t it! It and funny enough a small expedition cruise to the Kimberley put us on the Antarctic and Arctic expedition pathway . I booked Paula and I into a canoe trip (proper canoe with about 10 people handed paddle and put into dry suits etc…across to the Mendenhall Glacier near Juneau. Poor girl, she had to help paddle her heart out across the lake, then when she got handed a helmet and crampons to climb onto the glacier. Wish we had the vlog then! Her face 😂. but she them climbed a bit up onto the glacier. What a trooper! That and Misty Fjord, and kayaking in lighter ice at Tracy Arm across the face of another. Glacier is part off why this trip eventually came about. Did you know the glaciers and the icebergs that’s come off them are compressed snow - so yes that form of ice, but compressed snow and those fascinating blue veins are the water that seeps and freezes into the snow crevices. So huge and fascinating,but hundreds of years old, dense snow and ice compressed in to these monoliths. Amazing. Thanks so much for watching, but rest assured trips like Alaska are stunning in their own right and glad you’ve seen it.