I'm Eva, and I've spent
the last three years of my life traveling solo to some of the world's
most remote and off-beat places. From horse trekking alone in Mongolia, to living in Pakistan for a year and spending the first
three months of the pandemic stuck on a remote island
off the coast of Yemen before making my way
back home on a cargo ship, it's been one hell of an adventure, but recently I decided
it's time for a change. I've been dreaming of
being completely free and independent with
a little nest of my own, so I bought my dream
truck, a Land Rover Defender, and started converting it into an
off-road overlander slash mini camper, as you could see in the previous episode things weren't going quite
as smoothly as I had hoped. From wonky plywood fittings to a crisis of
morale I started to doubt the whole idea. Today though, is the big test. Today is going to be a
really good day because today is my very first day of Defender life,
truck life, van life, overlander life. So today, I'm sitting off on my
very first adventure in the Defender, which means that I will
be quickly finding out about everything that
we did wrong in the build as well as maybe some of
the things that we did right, and I'm also going
to see if I'm actually cut out for this kind
of life and lifestyle. I know it's a little
bit late because I've already kind of committed by
buying the car and converting it, but it's always good to check, right. So first things first, I'm going to
have to arrange the interior a little bit so I can actually
sleep in it and sit in it, then I'm gonna have to pack, and then
I'm gonna set off for a couple of days. So exciting! But first things first, coffee. Tonic espresso it's like my
favorite thing this summer, honestly. It's so good, you gotta try
it before bashing it, though. All right, let's make this
bed look like an actual bed. This here is the backrest thingy,
so I can actually lean on the window. Here we go, here we go. Oh my god, from bed to
couch in literally ten seconds, kick up my shoes,
and relax in this sauna. Oh my god, I think I need a fan. This, by the way,
is going to double up as an extension of the
bed if I've got friends visiting. It's time to accessorize. Here we've got a blanket from Afghanistan, a blanket from Iran, a
rug also from Afghanistan, a curtain from the local hardware store. All right, here we go, halfsies...
kind of, Afghan rug, voila. It fits, it fits, it fits, and
tomorrow I can go on my trip. I have to be pretty
minimalist whenever I travel because I usually don't
have much luggage space, but this time, for the first time
ever, I could bring four pairs of shoes, all of my electronics,
and all of my clothes. Honestly, I don't think I've ever
brought this many clothes on any trip, probably ever, but now I have space,
so you know, why not. And then, all of a sudden,
my biggest fear came true. Well, we've got a little crisis. I just went to run a small errand
before setting off on my trip, and I'm trying to start the
car, and it's doing the following. What does it mean?
It's not starting. I don't know what this
icon means there's... It looks like a fuel
pump thing with a lightning bolt across it
which to me is a bad sign. Also, the car is not starting,
which is in itself a very bad sign. I'm not very far from home, so
that's good news, but I can't start it. Why, why are you doing
this to me right now? I just got you, I've been taking
really good care of you, why? No! All right, well, I'm gonna walk
back home and get some help because I conveniently
left my phone at home. You know, when I got a
Defender, everybody told me that I should expect some mechanical
problems pretty frequently. Fair enough, I guess I just didn't expect
to have mechanical problems on day zero, like an hour before
setting off on my trip. This is a great start. So I walked back to my grandparent's
place where I've been staying and enlisted the help of my grandad. I watched a little YouTube video
which said that one of the possible errors or the reasons why this error could be
happening is because of the key being faulty, so here I've got my spare key. Let's see if this works. We're looking for the fuel cut-off switch. That still didn't work. And then I remembered
something that gave me some hope. A couple of days before I had
jumped on a call with Graeme Bell, one of the best-known
overlanders in the world. Graeme gave me some advice
for my upcoming expeditions and said something
that really stuck with me. In this instance, a Defender community
on Facebook came to my rescue with a quick solution. Oh my god, guys, you're
not gonna believe this. Here we go, one, two, three. It's on, it's working thanks to a Facebook
group which unites Defender fans and owners worldwide where you
can get all sorts of tips and tricks. Turns out that I had to
press the fob a couple of times and then start the engine again. That's it, no mechanical
issues, no electrical issues, just the car probably thought that someone
had broken into it or something like that. I don't know why clearly I still
have a lot to learn about this car. But it works! Yay, I
can go on my road trip. That's amazing.
I feel so stupid. What a morning it's been, you guys.
Oh my god, I'm feeling so nervous. I've got these
butterflies in my stomach, like you know that feeling
when you get so anxious that you're feeling
physically sick. Yeah, that's me right now. That's
how I feel about my upcoming trip. It's not the best sign. I'm just scared of the car breaking down,
not being able to do anything about it because I don't
know how to fix cars. Honestly, I think I'm
just terrified of like, failing at my dream project
before it's even begun. I think that's where all this
stress and anxiety is coming from, but I just need to
take a deep breath. You know what I always say
that the world belongs to the brave, damn I just need to do
it, I just need to go for it. What's the worst that can happen?
Car breaks down, I call a mechanic, right? Get up and go, just get up and
go, the world belongs to the brave. Let's do it! Well, I don't even have a holder
for my phone in the car just yet, but I do have snacks which is great, and I have strawberries
which is even better. Alright, to the south. You might be wondering
what it's like to drive a Defender, and I'm shouting right now
because I don't know how well you can hear me over
the noise of the car, which is the first
thing I should mention, driving a Defender is a
really, really loud affair. It's just super loud on the car
that's just how the car is built, it's something you kind
of have to get used to. The next thing, it's so hard to
drive it, as in the car feels so hard. It's like, you know, every
time you put it into a gear, it's a bit of exercise, every
time you do anything actually, it's a bit of a physical exercise, so it takes a bit of
strength to drive it. I kind of knew going into
it because I did a test drive and it's just such a different
driving experience to anything else. In a Defender, you're sitting
really high up, it's a proper truck. It feels like you're the
king or queen of the road, you're on a throne all and you can see
everyone and everything below you, which is really funny, and you
get used to it super, super quickly but when you go back in a
normal car it's super weird all of a sudden you feel like you're
about to like sink into the road. So those are my main
impressions of driving a Defender. Honestly, I love it. I saw a turn into the forest, which looked
quite nice, and I thought, let's try it. I don't know I'm supposed to
be here. I don't know where I am. There's no phone reception. It's nice. It looks so pretty. All right, I think I just
drove past the place. Let's see if it's the
place, but it looks so nice. Oh my god, check this out. It's there, the clearing in
the middle of the forest. This place is an absolute
dream. I can't believe I found it. It's a meadow in the middle of the
forest, and all I can hear is birdsong, and okay, those flies over there could
be a problem later on, hopefully not. I can't believe I found it,
and there is nobody else. It's just me. It's empty. I can't believe this is my first
night overlanding, so cool. All right, I'm gonna go inside
the truck, get ready for the evening and enjoy this beautiful spot. What you see here is a
classic example of total chaos. I kind of just ran
out of the house feeling the pressure of having to go
on this road trip as soon as possible, and I just chucked everything in. Now I gotta clean it up. Okay, now in order to reach
the little cupboards below, which is where I'm
planning to store my clothes, I need to remove the
mattress somehow, which is proving already to be a little
bit of a piece of strength and gymnastics. Come on! Oh yeah! Got it! Oh no, no, my leg is stuck. Oh no! Lift it, here we go. I just need to put some
stuff under the mattress then I'm going to
put the bed back on. Oh, okay, this might need rethinking. At least there's storage space
and the storage space works. It's the access to it that's the
bigger problem, now I know. Okay, the stuff is in
the storage, and now I need to lift this piece back up
together with the mattress and fold it, or maybe I just won't. Maybe I'll be lazy, and I'll just
put this here extend the whole bed. Yeah, that's a great idea, and this, ladies
and gents, is my full queen-size bed. There's one more really important
thing, that's fixing the curtains. Now there's nobody here, so I
don't expect to need too much privacy, but you never know. And to create a bit of a separation
between the front of the cabin and the back of the
car, I'm using carbines. Voila, haha. See, it's perfect. What a day it's been. Honestly, I'm feeling so exhausted
and stressed out that I'm not even hungry and I'm not even gonna
attempt to cook anything. I'm just going to have these
strawberries and some tea and I'm going to sleep
and get some rest, and tomorrow I promise I'm going to
stop somewhere for lunch at dinner, and I'm going to show
you my kitchen setup. That is going to be very, very
important to my life on the road. My setup is simple, and I always think back
to Graeme's advice on keeping it that way. Huh, this is not the right
stuff in my camping bag. Huh. Did I leave my cooking
stuff at home by accident? Could be, could be. No, I'm so hungry! Crisis averted, got everything.
Let's make some breakfast. My first impressions of my
first night spent in the truck. So, starting from last night
when I was falling asleep I could hear dogs barking in the distance, and obviously, I'm in a forest, and it's
completely dark, so it was a little bit scary but the fact that I knew that I
was in a truck that was locked and I could drive away any
time made it so much better, so I fell asleep
within like five minutes and then woke up really
feeling super happy, I was comfortable all night,
the temperature was perfect, the mattress was
amazing, I loved it. I felt so grateful when I
looked outside and saw this view out the
window of the car. Now don't get me wrong,
not everything is quite perfect. The edges of the plywood furniture are
really sharp, so we need to smooth them because I've just been banging my
hips and my legs against them all morning. The tailgate door doesn't
really stay open very well, so I had to fix it up with a rope
which is probably a temporary solution, and I found that for things
like breakfast and cooking I could really use
an outside table because I won't always be
able to find a really conveniently placed rock that's super flat
in every campsite that I stay in. And of course I forgot about a couple of
things, my toothbrush and my tripod broke so I'm gonna have to go into the city at
some point today to replace those things, but otherwise, I'm
feeling super happy I feel like this is definitely one of
the best decisions I've ever made, and I just hope that everything
keeps going just as smoothly I know it probably won't,
but you can always hope, right. It's already 10 a.m. I had my coffee, had my breakfast, so
I'm gonna jump in the car and hit the road on to our next destination. Getting out of this spot it's a
little bit tricky, but no risk, no fun. Four by four, thank
you very much. I don't even know what to tell you
because this place is absolutely unreal and I'm going to be staying the
night here, can you believe it? I can't believe it.
I can't believe it. Yes, this place is absolutely
wild, but I promised you that I will show you
how I make my food, and tonight, honestly, you guys,
you're in for a treat because I'm starving, let's get to work. Here we go, these are the
ingredients for my dinner tonight. I'm going to be cooking up an instant
meal with some extras, of course, I'm not gonna be completely lazy. I don't know anything
about cooking, let's try this. I wish you guys could smell this
because it smells absolutely divine, and so spicy, it's making me cry. And here we go, risotto alla
Defender, let's just call it that way. Initially, I was going to put this
all on a plate, but then I thought, who have I got to impress, so I'm
just gonna eat it straight out of the pot. Simple and good. That's the vibe of this place. Well, let's say that I definitely hadn't
expected to be waking up to this. My first couple of days living in
the truck are coming to an end, and finally I feel like I have a much better
understanding of what works, what doesn't, and what I will need for
my upcoming expeditions, and there's a lot of really cool
adventures coming up you guys. All right, so here's a quick wrap-up. First of all, I need to fix up
the corners of the furniture. They're really sharp right now, and I
just keep banging myself up against them which has been giving me bruises. Second of all, I definitely
need a power source. This is something that
I've known since day one, so soon we will be installing
solar panels on the roof of the car which should give me enough power
to charge up all of my electronics, my laptop, my camera, my phone,
everything, which is super exciting. Next up, I definitely need a fan, some
sort of ventilation system in the summer, and some sort of heating
system in the winter because it gets really,
really, really hot in here. Next up, another really important thing is
going to be some sort of shower solution, so I go running a lot,
and when I come back, I want to be able to just like wash off
the sweat, just take a really quick shower. Right now, I've just been using a water
tank, a very simple plastic water tank, but I think I need a
slightly better solution. Another really cool thing, but this is
like nice to have, would be a rooftop tent. I don't know how cool it would be to
sleep on the roof when the weather is nice. I like that thought. And there's a whole bunch
of other smaller things like, I need to rearrange the storage system a
little bit, need to create better curtains and need to find a
better solution for cooking because right now I've just been
sort of setting a blanket on the ground and cooking there, but that might not
always be possible so I would love to have
like a drop-down table, like a fold-out table on
the tailgate of the car, so let's see if we can
make that happen. Anyway, these are just
some of the things that I know I will need to work on
in the coming weeks. Honestly, being in the car still makes
me a little bit uncomfortable and nervous that's because I don't know anything
about cars and mechanics yet, but you know what I always
say, the world belongs to the brave and to me that means, you know,
going outside of your comfort zone, conquering your boundaries
and trying out new things that to me is real
courage and real bravery. In the next episode, I'll be
taking the conversion up a notch and adding some high-level
stuff with the help of actual experts. This is an actual expedition vehicle. If you don't want to miss it, make
sure you subscribe to my channel, keep exploring, and I'll see
you on the next adventure.
