Van Life Got Expensive (our most expensive camp in 10 years of overlanding)

G'day Combi Crew and welcome back to Combi Life. Do you remember last time we were hanging out together? Our van life adventures had brought us across Europe and we just arrived in the truly stunning Croatian archipelago, where we jumped onto a ferry to the island of Hvar. That's where we stumbled across this little gem of a wild camp spot with our own private beach and here is where we pick up the story. Just wait until you see how incredible this island is. It's quite warm today, 36 degrees out here, 29 degrees inside the Combi. Today's a bit of a work day for us so we're just extending our stay at this overnight spot. We've put out all of the shade and everything to try to keep the Combi as cool as possible inside and keep the fans going on us so that we can get a bit of work done. Yeah let's go, it's a bit hot isn't it? Why are you sitting in the sun? We're working off our hot spot here which is getting intermittent 4G signal from the mainland I think. Pretty spotty internet connection but hey, you know what, we're making it work. Boo is working three days a week and so she's got a four-day weekend every week for the time that we're away and I'm trying to combine my editing with that so that we can maximise our adventures and explore the island in between. Hot, hot, hot. 29 degrees, perfect. It's a strange working situation we've got here but I've got my assistant. He likes to hang out inside the Combi. He thinks he's a person. Life as a digital nomad isn't always about travelling and adventures, sometimes it's just about getting work done and trying to have a normal-ish day. A plus side of life on the road is that we have a new place to explore after work and there's always something interesting to uncover around camp. For example here we discovered that all around us lay mysterious historic foundations of a giant complex that's pretty cool when viewed from above. What an absolute beautiful place it has been to wake up here. This is probably one of the most rural spots we're going to find in Croatia I think. It's been a real pleasure to be camped here with our own private little beach in the ruins of these historic buildings. I wonder how old they are, there's obviously no signs. Unfortunately we have to leave here, not because we want to, but we're out of water, we have no clean clothes left and we need to find some wi-fi so that we can work. But it just so happens that somewhere in the middle of the island there's a pretty awesome place so we're going to check that out. Let's hit the road. This is so cool. There's been like 30 beetles just now. And everyone was a different colour, did you see them? Yeah so cool. I haven't seen so many air-cooled vehicles in since Mexico. That was so cool. I just love the way it feels. Yeah I know it's bad but I can't resist. Come on George. How was it? Oh it was amazing. I could stay in the sea all day. I was thinking about just not coming back. That was a nice graceful return to land I saw there. You have to slow down before you get to land. I know. When I straight in crash, George jumps, Alaska jumps, I just had to get off in the end. I didn't make it. At almost 50 euros per night this is definitely one of the most expensive campsites I've ever stayed at. But certainly it is a spot and a much-needed break from the wild camping we've been doing, giving us a chance to catch up on the adulting that we needed to do. I just want to get a video of you wearing a puffy inside this van where it's 28 degrees outside and it looks like that and you look like that. Work makes me cold on the inside. I just want to give a huge shout out to Surfshark VPN for supporting Combi Life, sponsoring this video and keeping our data secure whilst we connect to the internet. It's an absolutely essential tool when you are connecting to unknown untrusted networks. A VPN basically just gives you a huge peace of mind. But it's not just about security, Surfshark VPN also has a whole host of other cost-saving benefits from avoiding price discrimination by certain countries having elevated prices for flights, hotels, car hire, ferries, definitely ferries. Whenever I'm booking travel check on the VPN to see just how cheap could it be if I went to a different country and using the VPN I can basically hop to a whole bunch of different servers around the world and often I save a lot of money. It's a really useful tool, I use Surfshark VPN all the time, I've been using it for a couple of years and I can definitely recommend it. So if you don't have a VPN go check out the link below, one subscription covers all of your devices. With the code COMBILIFE you can get 83% off and 3 months free which is an absolutely fantastic deal. Go check it out, I'll link it below, Surfshark VPN, you guys are legends. Thanks for supporting the video, now let's go exploring. How are you finding driving in Croatia? Great, just trying not to... Don't forget the clutch, clutch, clutch. Uh-oh, uh-oh, uh-oh. It's this, it's this falling off the edge I don't want to do. To be fair, it is a sheer drop. Oh, that's too much for me. That is, that is quite a um, hairpin. There's another one, there's another one. It's such, it's such a hairpin that it just looks like it's, it goes back on itself, like a U-turn. I've got to do one more now, so brace yourself and maybe like hold on to the dog, pray, if you do pray, it's time to start. Okay, here we go. Good job, you made it. Yeah, I should not be driving. Luckily we survived and we are here in this place. I'm going to point to it down here. I find the Croatian very difficult as a language. Don't even know how to pronounce things, don't know how to read things. In other news, we're having issues with the Kombi. It's not driving very well, um, that's a little bit of a concern. It's when you stick your foot down on the gas and give it some beans for the hills, it's misfiring at high RPM. So we're definitely coming back to this problem later, but for now, after many days of work, the reason we're here is to have some fun and the way we like to do that is to scare ourselves silly climbing up and down rocks. Oh, nice. Single bolt anchors makes me a little nervous lowering from this. Looks fairly solid, but still one point of failure. That's only not too far to fall down. Should be fine. Keep it grand, I've got you. You don't if this bolt goes. She's inspecting the routes, seeing which ones she wants to climb. Which one, which one do you want to climb? There's a, there's a nice 5c here for you. Is that this one? Yeah. Yeah? You want me to take that first bolt for you Laska? Come on then, come on then, come on. Up, up, up, that's it. Remember, climb with your legs. It's easier if I actually got four legs. She hasn't got a harness on. That's true, safety first. She totally dogged that one. Yeah, it's a perfect place. We're in the shade, we've got this entire wall all to ourselves and it's a great place to just practice a bit of climbing. There are so many unbolted potential routes in this beach here. It's a bit of a climbing mecca, but we happen to be the only climbers here I think. Did you forget your climbing shoes? I did, yeah. I forgot my climbing shoes. I think because I don't know how I'm going to get up here. Mentally you're not committing. I'm not committing. I'm like, do I need climbing shoes for this? Probably not. Only a couple of weeks earlier, Faith had tried sport climbing for the first time in Ulusai, Sardinia. Getting ready for your first lead on your first day of sport climbing. It's pretty good. I know. Today Boo's done, she started on a 5a at top rope, then did a 6a on a top rope and is now doing a lead, her first lead, which was I think a four, right? Which is a nice good start in practice because there's a lot going on with all of the rope skills and everything. Very neat knot. Thank you. I crochet. Are you sure this is your first day? Yes, it's all the crochet. Up this slab here to that high line there, then traverse across that high line. That's where you're going, right? It's exactly where I'm going, yeah. I've got a unicycle for when I get to the top. I'm just going to ride back the whole way across. Congratulations on your first lead climb. Thanks, I did it. I survived against all the odds. I'm here. Smashed it, mate. That was awesome. End of flashback. Are you bleeding as well? We can be friends. I cut myself nearly in the same spot as you did. Friends. Good job. How was it? That was so hard. That was ridiculously hard. I'm not a climber. Once we'd finished obsessing over rocks, we headed down to a nearby tiny beach community in search of a shower. So cute. That is one huge grasshopper. Is it a grasshopper? He's massive, but he's got stripy eyes. He just flew directly into the middle of my forehead and just attacked me. Did you think he was attacking me? Yeah, he was like, don't touch me. I'm going to stuff you in the middle of the forehead. I totally got outsmarted by a grasshopper. Whilst we're on bugs, check out these. These are all over the place. George is about to eat him. Look at the size of those antennas. Say hello to all the subscribers. Don't forget to subscribe I think he's camera shy. Every time I face the camera, he's like, nope, nope. Let's swim. Come on. Right now we're going to wash off and the sun's gone a little bit. It's a bit windy, so it takes some bravery to get into the sea, but definitely going to be enjoyable It's beautiful, isn't it? I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. It's a bit late and mosquitoes are coming, so to camp a little bit more off grid than the campsite we were at this morning. Hopefully this trail here will yield something fun, a beautiful place to stay. See what's at the end of it. Not a bad view for the night. At least €40 a night cheaper than the other place. Here we are enjoying this beautiful view. Should be a great place to wake up. It sure will be a great place to wake up and one of our last stops in Croatia as our time is fast running out and we need to begin our 2000 kilometer return journey home. Of course, it won't be straightforward. So back to Croatia. Apparently I'm not allowed through this border, but that is a story for next time.