The Great Continental Van Push // Final Episode - S05E16

We are currently on the west coast of Italy with Europe's second wave of the pandemic rapidly closing in around us. Unfortunately overland travel at this time is no longer a viable option and so we must find a safe place to hunker down and wait out this winter storm. We only have a few days to get out of Europe which normally would be plenty of time but right now we're having a few issues so this is how we're going to cross the continents. We are driving around the world, you guys are invited too so subscribe and buckle up. It's one heck of a ride. Go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go. We spent the past couple of days hanging out with Kombi crew member Riccardo exploring the beautiful area around La Spezia and climbing Muzzaroni on Italy's Mediterranean coast which is where we woke up this morning. We have a long, long way to go. We have about 1,750 kilometers or about 1,000 miles to drive to get out of Europe and our trusty vintage steed Boomerang needs some routine maintenance before we can get going. All of this work is just a normal part of overlanding and something we do regularly to keep our Kombi in good shape but Boomerang has another major issue. He is no longer starting. This issue has happened a couple of times this year whilst we've been filming this European travel series but now it's happening all the time. Unfortunately we can't find the parts that we need to fix this issue so it looks like we're going to have to cross Europe push starting the car. Push starting or bump starting will bypass our faulty starter motor so we turn the ignition on, push the car up to speed and dump the clutch with the Kombi in gear. This momentum will force the engine to start in theory. Get rid of the clutch. Whoops she forgot to take it out of gear. It's totally fine there's only 999 miles remaining. This isn't a sightseeing journey we are only stopping when absolutely necessary but to avoid driving a night we pulled over with 1,200 kilometers around 750 miles still remaining. So many pigeons. I feel like we've driven all day and we've got like 200 miles and we're stopping in a in a city called Turin in Italy. I don't know much about the city but this is a designated camping park and there's some police patrolling it on motorbikes. Looks like there's a few people here that have made it their long-term dwelling for the pandemic and I don't know possibly longer. There's lots of traveling gypsies. Definitely lots of traveling gypsies. So not the nicest campsite but thank you for the free park for the night. Italy we appreciate you. What's this? You want this? Okay we'll be pushing on tomorrow but first some tasty tasty Italian food. Right Leo? Thanks to Riccardo for for giving us the real pesto. Not the pesto that we had that he was disgusted by. What did he say? Something that I wouldn't even touch with the stick. You don't approve of our pesto? No no that's fake. Remember he gave us some real pesto and some lovely pasta fresh pasta so that's what we're having tonight thanks to Riccardo. Cheers mate. You know it's a dodgy place in the campsite when the police are patrolling the campground. So there is another way to start the convey if we can't push start like yesterday when we stalled in traffic on a hill in the middle of the city. So if we can't push start we can use something metal like a screwdriver or hammer with a nice insulated handle to short the solenoid and force the starter motor to turn over but with that approach we're having mixed success. Getting under the car all the time means that I'm wearing my Mexican pajamas more often than I'd like so my preferred option is to push start the combi. Yep every time. Yep at every fuel stop. How's it? Good job. Getting easier isn't it? It hits you out of the bundle. No English? Español? Bonjour. Estas bien? Parlez-vous français? Un poco. Estas bien? Cuanto va? 90. Should we get a mastic? Loose. 50. He wants to know how fast he's going on his bike. Things in Italy continue to heat up and it looks like we got out of Turin just in time as the next day there were violent protests in the city about Italy's new Covid restrictions. Have you worked out where we're headed yet? Well we can't because we keep getting lost. Just went past it. 8.50? 8.50 for a wrong turn. You can tell by this point that we're not headed east towards Australia, our end destination. Normally this time of year we would head to warmer climates, like last year when we went to Morocco or previously when we've driven to Mexico. But with the current situation in Europe it's difficult for us to get anywhere like that for us to stay over winter. But there's more to this and a crucial part to this story so I'll tell you about that when we get there. The amount of visibility is really... We're in the Alps now. Yeah we are definitely in the Alps. No snow chains, no winter tyres and hoping that we don't hit the snow line because there's a lot of weather as you can see. Hey! France! Francia! Do we have to wait? It looks like we've got border control here. At least they didn't stop us. I guess they didn't want to come outside. Literally zero visibility downhill in the wet into a hairpin turn. This is our sign. Look at that, I can't see nothing. Our brakes are like burning out. Do you know the rally commands? You taught me that ages ago. What are you going to say? Easy left, easy right, medium. They're like heaven. Easy left? Easy left. It looks so nice, it's like a yellow tree. Come on, you're supposed to be giving me the... Hairpin. Hairpin, which way is it, which way? Right. Hairpin right, got to get the handbrake. Oh that's a tight one, holy cow. Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Easy left. I'd say this is definitely a medium left. It's a medium. If I'd have been following you at 100 miles an hour at a crash now, this is easy left. Easy left into medium right. No, that's a hairpin. What, you didn't even tell me. It rained all night. We arrived here late, about 10.30 last night. Don't like to drive in the dark and the rain but we needed to get some miles under our belt because today we are here in Lyon, the French city, and we have a very special appointment which is necessary for our onward travels. So let's go take care of that. Slightly downhill this morning. Let's do this. Alaska's already freaking out. Oh no, my foot was on the gas too. We got this. Ready? We got it. Oh bloody door's closing on me. Okay. Okay, it's not safe yet. I was such a good road tripping partner earlier. Have a seat. Go on. Move on. Alaska's really freaking out with the bump starts. Like really shaking and freaking out. She does not like it when the combi's rolling and there's no engine going. Broke two iPod cables, iPhone cables yesterday. We don't have any to charge our phone to get us out of France. No navigation either. No navigation. So we need to get on that too. But we do have a compass and we know it is northwest and we can follow the coast. Are you ready, Alaska? I've got your mask. You've got your mask? I've got my mask. Alaska's paperwork. Let's get this border crossing done. Good luck, Alaska. 50 euros later, one tablet and one hour for that process. Alaska has a clean bill of health. So she is good to go. She has had her worming tablet. We are ready for the road. Keep going. Keep going straight. Keep going. Did you use this in there? Little bit. It's inserted in there. You're supposed to be buying a charging cable. You are. What if I can't find one? We would have a big problem, my love. 600km, two days left. Easy. No, 10 hour drive. Long drives are hard on a dog that usually prefers to spend her time exploring with her own paws. It's also not our favourite part of overlanding, but sometimes driving all day is necessary and this time it is. When you're overlanding across France, there's always somewhere nearby to stay for free. The local mayors provide locations for visiting camper vans to help boost local tourism, which is another reason why France is one of the best places for van life in the world. Stopping for the night at this fishing pond. It doesn't look like there's going to be many people here. There is one other camper, a French camper. It is such a magical and beautiful time of year, isn't it? So beautiful. Let's see what else we can find. Lots of chestnuts. Did you know that you can turn an acorn cup into an extremely loud whistle? If you ever get caught and you need to attract help, you just take the cup like that. You make a V with your thumbs like that and you blow. It's really, really, really loud and really easy. Alaska coming to the rescue. Come on lassie. Archery. You're cooking good looking. A healthy meal. Healthy meal, that'd be nice. You ready? On our last night crossing France, we stayed at a side of the road rest stop and got our first assisted push from a friendly French traveling mechanic. Lassie. That was nice of him. The guy's like, I've got cables. He's in French. I couldn't really understand him, but he's like, cables, cables. And I'm like, no, it's not cables. He's like, comes back with a hammer. He's like, I got it. The hammer. He's like, open the front. I'm like, no, the engine's in the back. He's like, open the back. I'm like, no, but the starter motor is right underneath. He's like, hmm, c'est pas bon. We managed to reach the town of Saint-Malo in northwest France just in time for sunset. The air was noticeably colder, but at least the sun had finally come out. First time we've seen the sunshine in days, right? The sun's just over Jersey. It's a good sign. Or so I thought. Next stop, Jersey. I really feel that we've made the absolute most of this travel season. It's a shame to be stopping now, but I think it's the right thing to do. But I really feel we squeezed every single drop of adventure out of this season. Next time I come back to Europe, it's going to be completely different. I'm not going to be able to visit without a visa. And my time in Europe will be limited for the first time in my life. That's going to suck. Brexit. Tomorrow we have to go through an extremely complicated border crossing with COVID tests and dog tests and vehicle checks and passport checks and all sorts of stuff. It's going to be extremely difficult with many stops and not the ideal situation to have to pump start your car. So I'm going to do one last attempt at trying to see if we can figure something out to hack this starter so that we can actually start tomorrow. No power at all coming to that. One more time. And nothing. I've got the CV joints broken as well and that just happened because I checked it in Italy before we left. That can wait till I get home. It's an early start to get back to Jersey from France, which is why we slept at the port of St Marlow. The boats have been sailing now for a few months and gone is the confusion of previous pandemic crossings. This was once again a practiced and well-oiled machine. Proof of ID. That's normal. Scan the dog. That's normal. Check out of Europe with passport control. Bye bye Europe. We'll always have the pre-Brexit days. Thanks, it's been emotional. Oh, this isn't normal. Hopefully when we get on this ferry, we'll have enough room to bump start when we get there on the other side. Otherwise, it's going to be a huge embarrassment. All right, we have 20 meters to bump start this car. Is that going to be a kiss? I don't know, but still it's not very much is it? Bye France. It's always beautiful sailing to Jersey at this time of year. A small seasonal window when you can catch the sunrise from the boat. Looks like we're in for a beautiful crossing. Or so I thought. Alaska looks like she's really scared. You okay, Chica? That was horrible, wasn't it? Hey, that was horrible. I know, baby girl. If anything, we're going to push it back first and then we're going to push it forward. Despite the rough conditions, Condor Ferries provided a first-class service, even going the extra mile to make sure that we got going when we got to Jersey. Thanks, guys. Here we go. Merci, thank you. Yes, thank you very much. Getting through the Jersey side was a little more challenging. Visas are now getting complicated with the whole COVID thing. With people being stranded around the world in 2020 and limited flights, nobody can guarantee that they can leave by the time their visa runs out. Stamps are harder to come by right now, but Leah wasn't planning on staying here long anyway. Coming to my own flipping country. Such a pain in the arse. How long have you been in the Philippines? 2016. Wait, 2014? Well, just around the time, right? 2014. She doesn't count the first two years. We're just friends, aren't we? Friends with benefits count. I don't need to know what they don't currently mean. Right, give me that back and I'll give it back to you. Sure, thank you. She's lovely. And then there's the mandatory COVID test, our second of the pandemic. Nearly didn't... Okay, I don't need it. I think I can see it. Oh, thank you so much. Thank you. This is the second time that I've been back to Jersey when I didn't intend to, but obviously it has its benefits as I get to see my family. Hi, mum. Who's that? Yeah. You can't stay here. Wash your hands. If all we can though, we've got 14 days of mandatory self-isolation, which we are once again lucky enough to be able to spend in our friend Elaine's 70s retro house. And we made it, Leah. 1,750 kilometers from start in the car from Italy to Jersey. Enough for two weeks quarantine. Our COVID test came back quickly and negative the coronavirus. That's the good news. The bad news is that Leah is leaving to go back to Australia. At this time, it is almost impossible to get in or out of Australia. So she is lucky to get any flight, but it's not a return flight. We spent little or no time at all with our family since this whole global pandemic crisis began. So for now, that is what we'll be doing. And we hope that you can do the same too. Until next time, stay safe, amigos.