What do you do as full-time overlanders (travelers) when Covid-19 spreads across the world? Despite everything we saw happening in China last winter, how many of us realized this might actually become a world-wide and long-term issue – a pandemic?
Coen and I for sure weren’t among the enlightened ones.
As explained in our previous Where are We, our itinerary was thrown upside down when Israel changed from an already pro-active approach of quarantining people to a full lockdown. From the Israel Trail in the middle of the Negev
Read More: Hiking the Israel Trail, 1000 km
What is happening in our ‘Covid-19 World’
Just like during our other yearly visits to our families, we are staying with Karin-Marijke’s parents. It’s easy to visit Coen’s family as they live 10 km down the road. As always, our stay here is relaxed and a lot of fun. We are aware of the many privileges we have: a big house and a garden, and because the house is situated on the edge of town, the roads behind it lead straight into the countryside with forests and grassy fields giving us all the space we want to go for a run or a walk.
Contrary to other years, we have now both set up an office space upstairs and do spend quite a lot of time behind our laptops, catching up on to-do lists that are way overdue.
Notes on Slow Travel
My second website Notes on Slow Travel finally got revamped after it had been having technical issues for way too long.
While this website (Landcruising Adventure) has been – and will remain – our main place to share our overland experiences, Notes on Slow Travel is home to stories that better fit the slow-travel narrative.
The Landcruising Adventure shop
As it is impossible to carry large numbers of T-shirts, other clothing
Coen continues experimenting with designs and products and we finally have time to reorganize and expand the shop. This is happening in stages, and here are the first results: Stickers & Pinback Buttons.
Usurprisingly, Redbubble recently came up with a new product: masks.
In the Netherlands, wearing masks will become mandatory when using public transport. In other countries you need to do so in public spaces. So, then why not do it in style 🙂
Stay tuned because more designs and products are in the making…
Through your purchase in our
Overland Reunion – Update
Due to Covid-19, we had to cancel our annual Overland Reunion in May. We are discussing a new date for this summer with ‘our’ campsite in De Lutte, which most likely will be late August.
In the Netherlands, campsites with shared bathroom facilities are scheduled to reopen on July 1, and after July 1 gatherings of 100 persons are allowed again (any of these plans may be abolished if Covid-19 stats are rising again).
Anyway, all this may increase the possibility of still having an Overland Reunion this summer. Do you want to stay up to date and haven’t you subscribed to our Overland Reunion Newsletter yet?
Update: We did have our Overland Reunion, late August – here’s the blog post.
Stuff, Stuff, and Stuff
Our annual return to the Netherlands has become an important time to get the practical side of our nomadic life organized. This basically comes down to ordering new parts and clothes that needs to be replaced.
A Big Thank You to:
Euro4x4Parts, who help us out with much-needed spare parts, particularly the ones that are not readily available in Central Asia. They ship worldwide and have an enormous stock of 4×4 and SUV parts and related gear. Make sure to visit their webshop to see if they can help you out with a part.
We are Armadillo Merino champions and Pinewood ambassadors. Every year, we can count on comfy gear, whether we are traversing mountains and deserts on foot or we are chugging along in 4WD. These are the clothes we can depend on.
When we choose base layers for our cold-environment outings, Armadillo Merino is our go-to undergarment brand, while we wear the Pinewood pants and shirts almost daily.
How and Where is the Land Cruiser?
One of the frequently asked questions we get is about the Land Cruiser. It is safe and sound in a guarded parking lot in Almaty, Kazakhstan, with a friend keeping an eye on it. Thank you,
As to paperwork, we have nothing to worry about as the Temporary Import Document is valid until January.
More worrying is the Land Cruiser not running for such a long time and that we didn’t take out the batteries – this may become a problem in time, but we’ll tackle it when (and if) needed.
What’s Next
With the Covid-19 curve going downhill, our worlds are slowly opening up again. While we are sticking to our immediate surroundings, for the time being, we have started seeing some of our (
Fellow (overlanding) friends in Twente – ready to catch up? Let us know.
Like everybody else, we hope the curve continues going down. What the new ‘normal’ will be, who knows? When we will be able to return to our nomadic lifestyle, who knows? Meanwhile we make the best of our time here, treasuring time spent with families and friends.
We are wondering about what is happening in your (
Let us know – we’d love to hear from you!
best,
Karin-Marijke & Coen
Updates about our Covid time:
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We’re still in our rented house in Koroni in Greece, with our truck ‘Bertita’ parked on the street in front. The lockdown in Greece was eased much earlier than we had expected, so we’re still tied into the rental agreement we made. Others have again started to travel in Greece. A Dutch overlanding family, we had met in Albania, dropped in for a visit on Monday (the first day people were allowed out).
We had tried to get work done on our blog, but not being able to travel somewhat blocked our energy. We’re just too much discouraged because we don’t know what to do next, where to go, what to do with our plans for the end of the year (when we have to go to Australia). It’s strange, because usually we don’t get much done because we are too busy, moving too much.
Anyhow, at least today we finished the new front page of our blog! Quite an achievement because all was created without any page builder or other fancy tools. [If Coen likes, he could give some feedback. ;)]
All the best to you!
Good to hear from you and I hear you – despite the time we have, the good place to work, efficiency and planning is at an all-time low. I have decided to accept that and simply cherish the time I have here now. Good to hear Greece is returning to some kind of normal again and that you have had no trouble with paperwork. We will take a look at your new website right now!
Hi! We are in the Netherlands on a campsite. We had planned to go travelling at the end of May. For that, we sold our house and we handed it over to the new owners in the first week of April. Of course, we did not anticipate You-know-what, so here we are, waiting to start. Luckily we could extend our work contracts, so now we live temporarily on a camp ground while still working -at home- most of the time, which is in our case the camper. When we leave, (end of august perhaps?) our plan is to go to South Europe, Turkey and perhaps Iran and see how things will go before setting of to South America. We made a website too, but, no travel = not much content. I hope you will be able to travel too, but perhaps first we will meet again at the reunion, if all works out. Greetings!
Reunion is now planned end of August. Info will follow in the newsletter. Will be great to meet. Until we can return to Kazakhstan, we will do some (long-distance) hikes in the Netherlands. Starting in a week or two.